InkiTiki Corporation, B-291823.4; B-291823.5, May 16, 2003

InkiTiki Corporation, B-291823.4; B-291823.5, May 16, 2003 TITLE: InkiTiki Corporation, B-291823.4; B-291823.5, May 16, 2003 BNUMBER: B-291823.4; B-291823.5 DATE: May 16, 2003 ********************************************************************** InkiTiki Corporation, B-291823.4; B-291823.5, May 16, 2003 Decision Matter of: InkiTiki Corporation File: B-291823.4; B-291823.5 Date: May 16, 2003 Dr. Susanna Tsai for the protester. Brian Kau, Esq., Department of the Navy, for the agency. Katherine I. Riback, Esq., and James A. Spangenberg, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest of agency's decision not to invite the protester to submit a Phase II proposal under the Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research program is denied where the agency reasonably determined, based on the lack of details in the protester's Phase I written products and post-award conference, that it could not be determined whether the protester's approach was innovative or feasible. DECISION InkiTiki Corporation protests the Department of the Navy's determination not to invite it to submit a Phase II proposal under the Department of Defense's (DOD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We deny the protest. The SBIR program is conducted pursuant to the Small Business Innovation Development Act, 15 U.S.C. S: 638 (2000), which requires certain federal agencies to reserve a portion of their research and development (R&D) funds for awards to small businesses. It is a three-phased process of soliciting proposals and awarding funding for R&D to small businesses for stated agency needs. Phase I is to determine, insofar as possible, the scientific, technical, and commercial merit and feasibility of ideas submitted under the SBIR program. Phase II is the principal R&D effort demonstrating the Phase I technology, including the delivery of a prototype. Phase III contemplates that non-SBIR funds will be used to develop the prototype into a viable product or non-R&D service for sale to the military or in commercial markets. To commence the program, the agency issues an SBIR solicitation that sets forth R&D topics and subtopics that emphasize the need for proposals with advanced concepts to meet specific agency R&D needs, without providing detailed specifications to prescribed solutions of the problems. SBIR Program Policy Directive P: 7.b. Here, DOD issued FY 2002 SBIR Program Solicitation 02.1 on October 1, 2001, which included the Department of the Navy's solicited topic, *Innovative Reverse Engineering Protection for Software.* Under this topic, a contractor was required to *develop usable and novel approaches to protecting software from reverse engineering.* DOD Fiscal Year 2002 SBIR Program Solicitation 02.1, Department of Navy Topic N02-100. According to the solicitation, the awards of Phase I contracts were to be based on the following technical evaluation factors: a. The soundness, technical merit, and innovation of the proposed approach and its incremental progress toward topic or subtopic solution. b. The qualifications of the proposed principal/key investigators, supporting staff, and consultants. Qualifications include not only the ability to perform the research and development but also the ability to commercialize the results. c. The potential for commercial (Government or private sector) application and the benefits expected to accrue for this commercialization. Where technical evaluations were essentially equal in merit, cost was to be considered in determining the successful offerors. Id. P: 4.2. Under this solicitation, the same Phase I evaluation factors were to be used to evaluate Phase II proposals. Id. P: 4.3. The solicitation also provided that the Phase II awardees were to be selected from firms that had received Phase I awards on the *basis of results of their Phase I effort and the scientific, technical, and commercial merit of the Phase II proposal,* and that the *Phase II proposal evaluation may include on-site evaluations of the Phase I effort by Government personnel.* Id. P:P: 1.2, 4.3. The solicitation further stated that *[o]nly those Phase I awardees which have been invited to submit a Phase II proposal by that activity's proper point of contact . . . during or at the end of a successful Phase I effort will be eligible to participate for a Phase II award.* Id., Department of the Navy Proposal Submission Instructions, at 2-3 (emphasis in original). InkiTiki and two other firms received Phase I awards under the Navy topic in question here. InkiTiki proposed software protection measures using innovative artificial intelligence techniques.