| # |
Question |
Answer |
Date Posted |
| 001 |
We are in the process of preparing a proposal for IARPA-BAA-09-01 and were wondering if you might have available a Microsoft Word version of the proposal cover sheets, etc., that we can incorporate within our submission. The distribution page for the SCIL program, at http://www.fbo.gov, currently provides a PDF version of the BAA, but not a Microsoft Word version. |
The Technical and Management Volume Cover Sheet template (in Appendix 2) and the Cost Volume Cover Sheet (in Appendix 3) template are posted in Word (.doc) format here. The remainder of the BAA will remain in the .pdf format. |
12-05-08 |
| 002 |
I have read through solicitation IARPA-BAA-09-01 and I’m wondering if there is a master list of interested vendors that I can get a hold of. [Our company] is not capable of providing primary contractor services on this project, but it does appear that there might be a need for top notch multilingual translation and interpreting services. |
IARPA does not have a master list of interested vendors. It is up to potential proposers to identify their teaming partners. |
12-05-08 |
| 003 |
We are an Israeli company and are interested in submitting a project in response to the SCIL BAA. Can a foreign-owned company submit a project? What rights does a commercial company have to the results of the work? Is our idea for a project a good one? How do we submit a proposal? |
See Section 3 (Eligibility Information) of the BAA for information about participant eligibility and Sections 4.A.1 (Proposal Information) and 6.B (Administrative and National Policy Requirements) of the BAA for details on rights. Please note that the SCIL Program will not respond to requests for feedback regarding a proposal idea; the BAA has sufficient information for interested proposers to understand the range of problems and solutions that are of interest. All information regarding proposal submission is contained in Section 4 (Application and Submission Information) of the BAA. |
12-05-08 |
| 004 |
Would it be possible to discuss with you a project we are working on that might have a direct correlation to this BAA? My goal would be to give you a 5 minute synopsis of the project and then have you tell me if it sounds like a potential match with your BAA. |
The SCIL Program will not respond to requests for feedback regarding a proposal idea; the BAA has sufficient information for interested proposers to understand the range of problems and solutions that are of interest. |
12-09-08 |
| 005 |
What is the expected start date for SCIL projects? |
The SCIL Program is expected to begin early in the third quarter of FY2009. (Note: The BAA currently states that the Program is expected to begin in the second quarter of FY2009. The BAA is being amended to reflect this slightly later start date and should be posted by the end of the week.) |
12-11-08 |
| 006 |
We are in the process of writing a proposal toward solicitation number IARPA-BAA-09-01 and we had a couple questions: 1. What would interest the BAA Program in terms of generalizing the social phenomena? 2. What kind of specific social theories are you alluding to? 3. Are you looking for ways to isolate socio-cultural indicators in the proposal? Can you suggest some specifics? |
As reflected in Section 1. (Funding Opportunity Description) of the BAA, proposers are expected to identify the social goals of members of groups and the social theory that motivates these goals and to specify clearly what technical approaches they will use to correlate these goals with their realization in language. The social goals must be explored across languages and generalized to reveal similarities and differences. |
12-11-08 |
| 007 |
I see that a Government team will be responsible for publishing a set of SOA standards for use in this project, but there seems to be some expectation that participants in the program will contribute to the design of these standards, as well. In preparing a realistic proposal budget, we would like to be clear on the responsibilities of participants in this program with respect to developing the shared platform and integrating with it. Is there currently any dedicated integration leader charged with managing the integration process? If not, is there any contract open for an integrator under this program? How much responsibility for integration will fall to individual participants? We are considering whether to include additional personnel with expertise in SOAs to our proposal. The answers to these questions will help us greatly in determining the amount of integration/compliance effort we should plan for, in order to deliver successfully under this program. |
As stated in Section 1.A.8 Results, a Government team will develop a simple SOA platform for use in Phase 1 of the Program. Performers will be expected to develop their components as services that conform to the SOA platform standards. These standards will be developed early in the Base Period of the Program. As specified in Section 1.A.9 Additional Guidelines, the SCIL Program will not entertain proposals for development of a Program system. |
12-16-08 |
| 008 |
The initial announcement on this topic, for BAAs due in March of 2008, listed a target scope of $300-500K for the base period. No such figure is listed in this version of the BAA while scope appears, in some ways, to have increased. Should we assume a similar target funding level for this solicitation? Any guidance in terms of dollars or level of work effort would be appreciated. |
As stated on the FedBizOpps SCIL page and on the IARPA website, there are important differences between this and an earlier BAA. Interested offerors are expected to define clearly and precisely their research goals, their implementation plan and the cost to carry out that plan. See Section 1. Funding Opportunity Description, Section 4.A Content and Format of Proposal Submission and Section 5.A.5 Cost Realism. |
12-16-08 |
| 009 |
The RFP [sic] makes several references to Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Human Language Technology (HLT). Would IARPA provide definitions of NLP and HLT? |
Although Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Human Language Technology (HLT) are often used interchangeably, NLP can be understood as the field of computer science that focuses on the development of algorithms that allow computers to process and understand the language that humans use. The technologies that result from the creation of these algorithms are often called Human Language Technologies. |
12-19-08 |
| 010 |
1) The tables of milestones in 1.B.2 indicates, at month 3, "performers will supply data to independent evaluator, for use in final Base Period evaluation". Does this mean only the language data itself, with no annotations?
2) Referring to the same point: if a performer would like to use data distributed by the Linguistic Data Consortium, would it be sufficient to submit the name of the LDC corpus and an unambiguous description of the subset to be used for evaluation? This is because I believe that we do not have the right to re-distribute data from the LDC.
3) For the evaluation at the end of the base period, will all the software need to run at a Government site in order to produce results for evaluation? The delivery at month 12 refers to a "demonstration component", and we would like to know if that component would need to be fully packaged and documented and able to run as fully functional standalone software, or if it may be a more limited demonstration.
4) At the end of the base period, must supporting (not core) software tools be provided to the Government, or could access to them be provided as a web service, so that the Government could retrieve their output without having to install the tools locally?
5) Section 1.B.1.b includes the following: "Concrete social concepts are those that are transparent; for example, the identification of member characteristics (e.g. age, gender), status, alignment with the group norms, politeness." as well as "For concrete concepts (i.e., social goals that are more transparent)..." Should this be interpreted to mean that member characteristics, status, politeness, and so on can be taken as examples of social goals?
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1) Yes, performers are to supply test data sets with no annotations at the 3-month point.
2) Performers must submit test data sets to NIST.
3) For the Base Period evaluation that begins at the 12-month point, functionality situated at the performer site will be accessed through the SOA platform over the Web.
4) By 14 months, performers must deliver software developed during the Base Period along with supporting documentation and the status of any dependencies on other software. See Section 6.B.2 Intellectual Property for additional information.
5) Group characteristics are not of independent interest (see Section 1.A.9 Additional Guidelines) but how they may constrain or determine social interactions can be important.
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12-30-08 |
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