1. INTRODUCTION
The University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (“University” or “LBNL”) is soliciting Letters of Intent for the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program (ETOP) 2015 award.
This is a solicitation for Letters of Intent to participate in the ETOP. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. The University will review the Letters of Intent deemed responsive and responsible, and will determine, solely at its own discretion, a list of potential offerors deemed highest-qualified to participate in the ETOP. Potential offerors deemed highest-qualified will be invited to submit a full proposal for Research and Development subcontract(s).
This solicitation is governed by procurement policies and procedures established under the University’s Prime Contract with the U.S. Government. All contact with the University regarding this solicitation shall be directed through the University Procurement Representative:
Brian Zatkow
510-495-2547
bzatkow@lbl.gov
2. GENERAL CONTEXT: ETOP FOCUS AREAS 2015
The DOE JGI is a next-generation genome science user facility focused on providing scientists access to state-of-the-art large-scale genomic technologies to address important energy and environmental problems. A core philosophy of the DOE JGI is that our suite of technical and analytical capabilities needs to evolve continuously in order to maximally enable our users’ science. This occurs by building new scientific capabilities at the DOE JGI itself, and by enlisting partners to develop and provide specialized and critical capabilities that complement the activities in our Walnut Creek facility.
The ETOP invites the scientific community to partner with the DOE JGI to provide our users with an evolving set of world-class genomic capabilities. The long-term scientific vision of the DOE JGI and some of the capabilities needed to achieve the ambitious goals outlined in this vision are described in the “DOE JGI 10-Year Strategic Vision” document and the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Program “DOE JGI Strategic Planning for the Genomic Sciences Workshop Report.”
New capabilities that we expect to support through the ETOP for the 2015 award include (but are not limited to) projects such as the development of:
- Methods for targeted sequencing of uncultivated microbes, such as:
- High throughput single-cell isolation of specific phylogenetic groups
- Techniques to physically enrich microbial consortia for genomic characterization
- Automated or semi-automated density gradient centrifugations to enable large-scale SIP experiments for metagenomics
- Plant technologies to access single cell types of complex tissues for RNA-seq and related genomic assays
- Efficient computational approaches to genome-resolved metagenomics and/or reference-independent comparative metagenomics
- Infinitely (horizontally) scalable data stores to replace/supplement the existing monolithic relational database systems that support the metagenomic, microbial, fungal, and plant genomic portals and analytic workflows
- Development or adaptation of software for the Intel XeonPhi architecture to implement JGI-defined algorithms, e.g. fast, accurate and sensitive similarity search tools that can run efficiently on NERSC’s Cori supercomputer
The objectives of the ETOP are to identify and fund new and existing DOE JGI partners to develop promising projects focused on new technical capabilities that could be provided to users. Successful pilot-scale projects may be expanded as needed to meet future user demand. This will establish a process for ETOP partners to develop or provide specialized or advanced versions of needed capabilities, obviating the need for them to be developed at the DOE JGI.
3. SUBMITTAL
Potential offerors must electronically submit a Letter of Intent through the DOE JGI’s proposal submission system. Letters of Intent need to be received by August 30, 2015. Finalists will be notified by September 20, 2015, and notification will be followed by invitation to submit a full proposal, which will be due by October 20, 2015. DOE JGI’s target date for projects to begin is January 1, 2016.
The Letter of Intent should consist of a cover sheet and up to two pages of narrative that:
A) Identifies the particular need or opportunity the application addresses
B) Identifies how it is linked to activities or future directions described in the DOE JGI 10-year Strategic Vision document.
C) States the technical objectives of the project
D) Identifies the proposed team members and their expertise and role in the project
The Letter of Intent should identify in the cover sheet the title of the project, institution or organization, name of PI, telephone, email and fax number. No budget information should be included in Letters of Intent.
4. ANTICIPATED FUNDING
The DOE JGI anticipates making available approximately $1.2 million to fund up to four proposals for up to two years each. Actual funding and number of projects selected will be determined based on the final proposals received and is subject to the LBNL annual funding allocation process. At the end of the project period, the projects will be evaluated for longer-term funding. It is hoped that several of these pilot projects will mature sufficiently and be aligned with DOE JGI strategic needs so that justification exists for funding further development or establishing the developed new capability as a service to the DOE JGI’s users.
5. PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
The University will safeguard any commercial or financial information contained in submitted responses from disclosure outside LBNL, the University, or the Government.
The University prefers not to receive proprietary technical data or information. If the response to this request includes any proprietary technical data or information, it must be conspicuously marked “Proprietary” or “Confidential”, or an equivalent term.
The University will endeavor to maintain proprietary data or information in confidence to the same degree as its own proprietary information and not disclose such information to individuals other than those working for LBNL, the University, or the Government. Please note that responses to this request will be posted on an LBNL intranet website with access limited to a select number of DOE JGI employees only.
Except for technical data that is specifically identified in the response as proprietary, LBNL, the University and the Government shall have the right to use, duplicate, disclose and have others do so for any purpose whatsoever, the technical data contained in the proposal upon which a subcontract is based.
If the respondent intends to use a product or process in which there is a proprietary or background patent position, the response should so indicate and list patent applications and/or patents granted (including dates, numbers, and descriptions), and whether the Government has rights related to the patents.
The California Public Records Act limits the University’s ability to withhold qualification data. The University agrees that if a “Public Records Act” request is made for disclosure of data marked “Proprietary” or equivalent, it will notify the submitter of such data so that the submitter will have an opportunity to legally challenge the University’s obligation to disclose such information. The University will not return submittals.
Federal Business Opportunities Solicitation
Previously supported ETOP projects are described here.