B-299000, Quimba Software, January 18, 2007

B-299000 Jan 18, 2007 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Quimba Software protests the Department of the Army's determination not to fund its phase I proposal under Department of Defense (DOD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program solicitation No. 2006.2. Quimba alleges that the Army failed to evaluate proposals and make award in accordance with the solicitation's stated evaluation factors. We deny the protest. View Decision B-299000, Quimba Software, January 18, 2007 Decision Matter of: Quimba Software File: B-299000 Date: January 18, 2007 Robert Dourandish for the protester. Vera Meza, Esq., Department of the Army, for the agency. Jacqueline Maeder, Esq., and John M. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest that agency improperly evaluated proposals under Small Business Innovation Research program on basis of undisclosed evaluation factors is denied where record shows that evaluation was consistent with and encompassed by the solicitation evaluation criteria. DECISION Quimba Software protests the Department of the Army's determination not to fund its phase I proposal under Department of Defense (DOD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program solicitation No. 2006.2. Quimba alleges that the Army failed to evaluate proposals and make award in accordance with the solicitation's stated evaluation factors. We deny the protest. The SBIR program is conducted pursuant to the Small Business Innovation Development Act, 15 U.S.C. sect. 638 (2000), which requires certain federal agencies to reserve a portion of their research and development funds for awards to small businesses. As part of its SBIR program, DOD issues an SBIR solicitation twice a year listing the research topics for which it will consider SBIR program admission. Firms first apply for a 6-month phase I award to test the scientific, technical, and commercial merit and feasibility of a certain concept. If the firm's phase I performance is deemed successful, it may be invited to apply for a 2-year phase II award to further develop the concept. After the completion of phase II, firms are expected to obtain funding from the private sector and/or non-SBIR government sources to develop the concept into a product for sale in private sector and/or military markets. DOD's SBIR Website, http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir/ overview/index.htm>. Solicitation No. 2006.2 included Army topic No. A06-079, –Identification of Cultural Demographics to Predict Community Responses to Military Operations.— The objective of the topic is to predict community responses to military operations in Iraq based on the interactions among cultural demographics obtained through electronic and/or textual population data sets, and to develop display technologies that can help a command staff rapidly develop a holistic understanding of the region. Solicitation at 111. The solicitation contemplated the award of one or more fixed-price phase I contracts to those offerors whose proposals represented the –best value— to the government, and provided that proposals would be evaluated by government scientific or technical personnel knowledgeable in the topic area under three criteria: soundness, technical merit, and innovation of the proposed approach and its incremental progress toward topic or subtopic solution; qualifications of the proposed principal/key investigators, supporting staff, and consultants, including not only the ability to perform the research and development but also the ability to commercialize the results; and potential for commercial (government or private sector) application and the benefits expected to accrue from this commercialization. The Army received 23 proposals, and an evaluation team evaluated each. The evaluators noted weaknesses in Quimba's proposal under all three factors, assigning scores of 42 (of 50 possible) points under the soundness/technical merit factor, 20 (of 30) points under the qualifications of personnel factor, and 12 (of 20) points under the commercialization application factor. For example, under the soundness/ technical merit factor, the evaluators noted that Quimba failed to address using data from recent military operations, provided no prototype decision support tool, and proposed to hand annotate geographic boundaries to produce demographic and socioeconomic variables, which seemed laborious and time consuming. Under the qualifications of personnel factor, the evaluators found that Quimba lacked researchers/staff in human-factors/behavioral sciences and that, while Quimba proposed an intern to support the proposed hand annotation, no intern was currently on staff and the proposed time commitment for this task might have been understated. Under the commercial application factor, the evaluators found that Quimba had no letters of support showing that commercialization was feasible.