NATO - Request for Information - Education, training, exercises and evaluation

Description

Request for Nations, Industry and Academia input to provide elements of NATO’s Education, Training, Exercises and Evaluation (ETEE) Functional Services (FS) Capability.

Academia. The intention is to discover that which is immediately available, the art-of-the-possible and state-of-the-art with respect to systems, products or services in the area of Education, Training, Exercises and Evaluation (ETEE) Functional Services (FS). This will support NATO Governance decision-making on Common Funded Capability Development.

This in an Request for Information (RFI) ONLY. This RFI DOES NOT constitute a current Request for Proposal (RFP) nor a commitment to issue a future RFP. HQ SACT is not seeking proposals at this time. It will not accept unsolicited proposals in respect to this RFI.

This RFI's purpose is to involve nations, industry and academia, through collaboration, in an examination of current and future capabilities related to ETEE FS, with a focus on systems, products or services.

The future capabilities will be either nation-owned or commercially available (procured by a Nation as Host Nation, or by a NATO Agency).

HQ SACT has not made a commitment to procure any of the systems, products or services described herein. Release of this RFI shall not be construed as such a commitment, nor as authorisation to incur cost for which reimbursement will be required or sought.

Respondents are advised that HQ SACT will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in responding to this RFI. The costs for responding to this RFI shall be borne solely by the responding party. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any subsequent RFP, if issued in the future.

As well as the benefits HQ SACT gains from such projects, this collaborative effort will provide nations, industry and academia with an improved understanding of NATO’s capability requirements and the associated issues and development challenges that need to be addressed by HQ SACT.

Potential collaborative projects are on specific topics that are of mutual interest to all parties, but shall be restricted to collaborations in non-procurement areas. Several mechanisms have been developed to support the initiation of collaborative projects between nations, industry, academia and HQ SACT. These range from informal information exchanges, workshops, studies or more extensive collaboration on research and experimentation.

A specific agreement may be needed between parties depending on the level and type of interaction needed for a collaborative project. The FFCI agreement for any specific project will range from “Non-disclosure Agreements” (NDA) for projects involving exchange of specific information to more extensive “Declaration of Mutual Collaboration” (DOMC) to address intellectual property and other issues. This is if it is needed by either party for the project to proceed

More extensive information on the HQ SACT FFCI initiative can be found on the ACT website being developed to support FFCI projects at http://www.act.nato.int/ffci.

Note that respondents of this RFI are not required to initiate an FFCI agreement in order to respond to this RFI.

Technical Points of Contact (POC) are:

Mr Rob Driscoll
Programme Director
Email: Robert.driscoll@act.nato.int
Tel: +1 757 747 4289

Mr Richard ‘Craig’ Ham
Programme Co-ordinator and Requirements Manager
Email: richard.ham@act.nato.int
Tel: +1 757 747 4411

Inquiries of a technical nature about this RFI shall be submitted by e-mail solely to the aforementioned POCs by 11:59pm EST on 4 February 2022.

Accordingly, questions in an e-mail shall not contain proprietary or classified information. Answers will be posted within 2 working days on the HQ SACT P&C website at: www.act.nato.int/contracting-procurements.

Contracting POC are:

Ms Tonya Bonilla
Email: tonya.bonilla@act.nato.int
Tel: +1 757 747 3575

Ms Catherine Giglio
Email: catherine.giglio@act.nato.int
Tel: +1 757 747 3856

REQUESTED INFORMATION

For nations:

a. What system(s), product(s) or service(s) (hereafter referred to as “national capability” in this section only) does your Nation currently employ that you feel would fulfil all or part of the identified Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) in Annexes A through D?

1) Please provide a brief overview of the capabilities, limitations and architectures of your national capability. Is your national capability adaptable to business processes within different organisations?

2) Please provide a brief overview of the operational requirements for your national capability (such as system requirements, licenses and so on).

3) What is the maturity of your national capability? What is the expected lifespan?

4) Please describe how your national capability has been or could be used in NATO and multi-national ETEE environments.

5) Please use the tables provided in the applicable Annex(es) to describe the level of support your national capability could provide (such as Full, Partial or None).

6) Please provide any additional or amplifying information you feel is relevant or will contribute to our analysis (such as explanation of any partial fulfilment, additional plug-ins that may be available to fulfil the KPPs, clarification as to whether or not your national capability can fulfil the KPPs now or could be modified to do so, and so on).

b. Would your nation be able and willing to take the responsibility of a host nation on behalf of NATO and provide your national capability as a turnkey solution for NATO, delivered, managed and maintained by yourselves? If yes, please briefly explain your process and organisational framework, as well as any special procedures, licenses, support arrangements and so on that would be required.

c. What would you estimate the timeframe (in terms of months or years) for implementation and sustainment of your national capability for NATO (assuming full implementation)? Please take into account technology refresh cycles for the expected lifespan of this capability. Range estimates are acceptable.

d. If possible, please provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) for the cost associated with the implementation and sustainment, to include licensing costs, of your national capability (assuming full implementation). Please take into account technology refresh cycles for the expected lifespan of this capability. Range estimates are acceptable.

e. Please confirm that you are open to further engagement about your national capability, and please provide a nominated point of contact.

4.2 For industry and academia:

a. What system(s), product(s) or service(s) does your company/institution currently offer that you feel would fulfil all or part of the identified Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) in Annexes A through D?

1) Is your system(s), product(s) or service(s) included in the NATO Information Assurance Product Catalogue (NIAPC)? If so, please provide the specific product name, category and/or security mechanism group.

2) Please provide a brief overview of the capabilities, limitations and architectures of your system(s), product(s) or service(s). Is your system(s), product(s) or service(s) adaptable to differing business processes?

3) Please provide a brief overview of the operational requirements for your system(s), product(s) or service(s) (such as system requirements, licenses and so on).

4) What is the maturity of your system(s), product(s) or service(s)? What is the expected lifespan?

5) Please describe how your system(s), product(s) or service(s) could be used in NATO and/or multi-national ETEE environments.

6) Please use the tables provided in the applicable Annex(es) to describe the HQ Supreme Allied Commander Transformation RFI-ACT-SACT-22-13 level of support your system(s), product(s) or service(s) could provide (such as Full, Partial or None).

7) Please provide any additional or amplifying information you feel is relevant or will contribute to our analysis (such as explanation of any partial fulfilment, additional plug-ins that may be available to fulfil the KPPs, clarification as to whether or not your system(s), product(s) or service(s) can fulfil the KPP now or could be modified to do so and so on).

b. If your company or institution does not currently offer a system(s), product(s) or service(s) that you feel would fulfil all or part of the identified (KPPs in Annexes A through D, could your company or institution develop a system(s), product(s) or service(s) that would fulfil the KPPs?

c. Would your company or institution be able and willing to provide your system(s), product(s) or service(s) (current or developed) as a turnkey solution for NATO, delivered, managed and maintained by yourselves? If yes, please briefly explain your process and organisational framework, and any special procedures, licenses, support arrangements, and more that would be required.

d. What would you estimate the timeframe (in terms of months or years) for:

1) Implementation and sustainment of your system(s), product(s) or service(s) for NATO (assuming full implementation), or

2) Development and sustainment of a system(s), product(s) or service(s) for NATO?
Please take into account technology refresh cycles for the expected lifespan of this capability. Range estimates are acceptable.

e. If possible, please provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) for the cost associated with:

1) Implementation and sustainment, to include licensing costs, of your system(s), product(s) or service(s) (assuming full implementation), or

2) Development and sustainment of a system(s), product(s) or service(s).
Please take into account technology refresh cycles for the expected lifespan of this capability. Range estimates are acceptable.

f. Please confirm that you are open to further engagement about your system(s), product(s) or service(s) (current or developed), and please provide a nominated point of contact.

Responses to the RFI. The response(s) to this RFI may be submitted by e-mail to the Technical Points of Contact listed above.

Response Date. Responses to this RFI must be received by 7am EST on 5 March 2022.

Please contact the above mention personnel for full details. If you are unsure please contact:

Tonya Bonilla
ACT Contracting Officer
Allied Command Transformation (ACT)
NATO/HQ SACT
Tel: (757) 747-3575
E-Mail: tonya.bonilla@act.nato.int

Opportunity closing date

04 March 2022

Value of contract

to be confirmed

The buyer is happy to talk to

manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, agents, consultants