> ***Special Phase I Solicitation No. PR-NC-03-10274***
>
> -- Safe Buildings
>
> -- Water Security
>
> **ISSUE DATE: March 27, 2003**
>
> ![](media/image1.jpeg){width="1.025in" height="0.3215277777777778in"}
>
> Your proposal with an **original and nine (9) copies** (including\
> all appendices) shall be received at one of the following addresses\
> by **12:00 p.m. (noon) local time on May 23, 2003.**
>
> **U.S. MAIL:**
>
> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
>
> Attention: Marsha Johnson, Safe Buildings SBIR
>
> RTP Procurement Operations Division (D143-01)
>
> Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
>
> **HAND-CARRIED/COURIER ADDRESS:**
>
> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
>
> Attention: Marsha Johnson, Safe Buildings SBIR
>
> RTP Procurement Operations Division (D143-01)
>
> 4930 Old Page Road
>
> Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

**Table of Contents**

**Page**

**I. Program Description**

**II. Definitions**

**III. Proposal Preparation Instructions and Requirements**

**IV. Method of Selection and Evaluation Criteria**

**V. Considerations**

**VI. Submission of Proposals**

**VII. Scientific and Technical Information Sources**

**VIII. SBIR Phase I Safe Buildings and Water Security Research Topics**

A4. Safe Buildings

B4. Water Security

**IX. Submission Forms and Certifications**

**APPENDICES**

**APPENDIX A - Proposal Cover Sheet**

**APPENDIX B - Project Summary**

**APPENDIX C - SBIR Proposal Summary Budget**

**APPENDIX D - Scientific and Technical Information Sources**

**APPENDIX E - Commercialization Factsheet/Patent Search**

SPECIAL SBIR PHASE I SOLICITATION

SAFE BUILDINGS AND WATER SECURITY

Solicitation No. PR-NC-03-10274

ISSUE DATE: March 27, 2003

CLOSING DATE: May 23, 2003 \*

\* CAUTION - See Section V, Paragraph J.9(c), Instruc­­­tions to Offerors,
Concerning Late Proposals and Modi­fi­cations

I.  PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

A. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in­vites small business
firms to submit research proposals un­der this special Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) Solicitation entitled "Safe Buildings and
Water Security." The SBIR program is a phased process uniform throughout
the Federal Government of soliciting proposals and award­ing funding
agreements for research (R) or research and de­velopment (R&D) to meet
stated Agency needs or missions.

While this special SBIR solicitation only covers safe buildings and
water, EPA is also issuing Special SBIR Soli­citations covering western
USA environmental problems and air pollution monitoring, and the Regular
SBIR Solici­tation covering pollution prevention, drinking water and
water pollution control, and solid and hazardous waste man­age­ment. The
proposed research must directly pertain to EPA's environmental mission
and must be responsive to EPA program interests included in the topic
descriptions in this solicitation.

In order to facilitate proposal reviews by external peer reviewers with
specialized expertise and by EPA technical personnel with focused
program needs and priorities, of­ferors must designate a research topic
for their proposal. The same proposal may not be submitted under more
than one topic and the same proposal cannot be submitted under more than
one EPA SBIR solicitation issued in 2003. An organization may submit
separate proposals on different topics or different proposals on the
same topic as long as the proposals are not duplicates of the same
research prin­ciple modified to fit the topic. If such duplicates are
sub­mit­ted, only one will be reviewed. Refer to Sections IV, V, and VII
for additional requirements. Where similar re­search is discussed under
more than one topic, the offeror should choose the topic most relevant
to the proposed re­search. It is the complete responsibility of offerors
to select and identify the best topic for their proposals.

B. Offerors are responsible for submitting proposals, and any
modifications or revisions, so as to reach the Gov­ernment office
designated in this solicitation by the time specified in this
solicitation. See Section V, Paragraph J.9(c), Instructions to Offerors,
Concerning Late Proposals and Modifications.

**THIS SOLICITATION IS FOR SPECIAL SBIR PHASE I ONLY.**

To stimulate and foster technological innovation, in­cluding increasing
private-sector applications of Federal research or R&D, EPA's program
follows the SBIR pro­gram's uniform process:

\(1\) **PHASE I.** Phase I involves a solicitation of pro­po­sals to
conduct feasibility related experimental research or R&D related to
described Agency requirements. The ob­ject­ive of this phase is to
determine the technical feasi­bility and preliminary commercialization
potential of the pro­posed ef­fort and the quality of performance of the
small bus­iness con­cern with a relatively small Agency investment before
consideration of further Federal support in Phase II. The Government is
not obligated to fund any specific Phase I proposal. The maximum dollar
amount of this special Phase I Safe Buildings and Water Security
Solicitation is \$70,000 and the term of performance should not exceed 6
months.

\(2\) **PHASE II.** Phase II proposals may only be sub­mitted by Phase I
award winners invited to submit propo­sals. Phase II is the principal
research or R&D effort and Phase II projects should normally be
completed in 15 months. The objective is to continue the research or R&D
initiated under Phase I and work toward commercialization of the
technology. Phase II awards are expected to include full-scale testing
of the technology, but may not necessarily complete the total research
and development that may be required to satisfy commercial or Federal
needs beyond the SBIR program. Completion of the research and
develop­ment may be through Phase III. The Agency is under no obligation
to fund any proposal or any specific number of proposals in a given
topic. It also may elect to fund several or none of the proposed
approaches to the same topic.

It is anticipated that approximately five Phase II awards will be made,
each with a dollar amount of \$225,000 and 15-month term of performance.
For Phase II, the Agen­cy is planning to offer two Phase II Options: (1)
Phase II Commercialization Option under which Phase II offerors may
submit a proposal for \$70,000 additional funding to expand R&D efforts
to accelerate the project from full-scale testing and demonstration to
full commercialization; and (2) Phase II Environmental Technology
Verification (ETV) Option under which Phase II offerors may submit a
proposal for up to \$25,000 additional funding to expand R&D efforts to
in­clude ETV verification testing. EPA Federal funds must be designated
strictly for advancing the research-related el­ements of the project. No
automatic preference shall be giv­en to offers which address the options;
however, in the case where an offeror addresses the option(s) in its
proposal, the entire proposal including the option(s) shall be
evaluated. The Agency would have a unilateral right to exercise the
option after EPA's acceptance of the company's option doc­umentation.
Documentation for the Phase II Commercial­iza­tion Option are receipts
showing that at least \$100,000 was transferred to the contractor from
one or more third-party investors, such as a venture capital firm; an
"angel" in­vestor; local, state or Federal non-SBIR funding source;
an­other company under a partnership, licensing, or joint ven­ture
arrangement; or any combination of third parties. Doc­umentation for the
ETV Option is the signed ETV Tech­nology Verification Testing Commitment
Letter. (For more information on ETV, visit http://www.epa.gov/etv.) The
Government is not obligated to fund any specific Phase II proposal.

For technologies awarded Phase I contracts under this solicitation, the
follow-on Phase II Solicitation will be is­sued on/about July 29, 2004,
and proposals will be due on/about September 16, 2004. It is expected
that each Phase II proposal will be evaluated on the results of Phase I,
the Phase II program plan, and the commercial potential of the Phase II
proposal. The evaluation criteria will be as fol­lows:

### PHASE II CRITERIA

> 1\. Results of Phase I and degree to which research objectives and
> identified customer needs were met. Dem­onstration of performance/cost
> effectiveness and en­vironmental benefits associated with the proposed
> re­search, including risk reduction potential.
>
> 2\. Quality and soundness of the Phase II research plan to establish
> the technical and commercial viability of the proposed concept as
> evidenced through technology prototypes or initial commercial
> demonstrations.
>
> 3\. Qualifications of the principal/key investigator, sup­porting
> staff, and consultants. Time commitment of principal/key investigator,
> adequacy of equipment and facilities, and proposed budget to
> accomplish the pro­po­­sed research. Adequacy of Phase II Quality
> Assur­ance Summary.
>
> 4\. Potential of the proposed concept for significant
> commercialization applications. The quality and ad­equacy of the
> commercialization plan to produce an innovative product, process, or
> device and to put tech­nology prototypes or initial Phase II
> applications into commercial production and sales.
>
> 5\. The offeror's SBIR or other research commerciali­zation record.
> Existence of second phase funding com­mitments from private-sector or
> non-SBIR funding sources. Existence of third phase follow-on
> commit­ments and presence of other indicators of commercial potential
> of the idea.

\(3\) **PHASE III.** Where appropriate and needed in or­der to complete
the research and development, there may be a third phase which is funded
by:

> 1\. Non-Federal sources of capital for commercial ap­plications of
> SBIR-funded research or research and de­velopment.
>
> 2\. Federal Government with non-SBIR Federal funds for SBIR-derived
> products and processes that will be used by the Federal Government.
>
> 3\. Non-SBIR Federal funds for the continuation of re­search or
> research and development that has been com­petitively selected using
> peer review or scientific re­view criteria.

C. Each offeror submitting a proposal must qualify as a small business
for research or R&D purposes at the time of award. In addition, the
primary employment of the prin­cipal investigator must be with the small
business firm at the time of award and during the conduct of the
proposed research. Principal investigators who appear to be em­ployed by
a university must submit a letter from the uni­versity stating that the
principal investigator, if awarded an SBIR contract, will become a
less-than-half-time employee of the university. Also, a principal
investigator who ap­pears to be a staff member of both the applicant and
another employer must submit a letter from the second employer stating
that, if awarded an SBIR contract, he/she will be­come a less than
half-time employee of such organization. Letters demonstrating that
these requirements have been fulfilled must be submitted prior to
contract award to the addressee stated in Section VI of this
solicitation. Failure to do so may jeopardize award. Also, for both
Phase I and Phase II, the research or R&D work must be performed in the
United States. (For definition of the United States, see Section II.J.)

D. **[For Phase I the Government anticipates the award of approximately
\$0.35 M in firm-fixed-price con­tracts at approximately \$70,000 each
including profit]{.underline}**, but reserves the right to change either
the number of awards or the amount of the individual awards depending on
the out­come of the selection process. The contractor's period of
performance is expected to be 6 months. Award of any con­tract(s)
resulting from this solicitation shall be to the respon­sible offeror(s)
with the highest rankings after evaluation in accordance with Section
IV. Source selection will not be based on a comparison of cost or price.
However, cost or price will be evaluated to determine whether the price,
in­cluding any proposed profit, is fair and reasonable and wheth­er the
offeror understands the work and is capable of performing the contract.

E. All inquiries concerning this solicitation shall be submitted to the
following E-mail address:

johnson.marsha@epa.gov

If E-mail is not available to you, written or telephone inquiries may be
directed to:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Attention: Marsha Johnson, Safe Buildings SBIR

RTP Procurement Operations Division (D143-01)

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711

\(919\) 541-0952

Potential offerors are encouraged to communicate via E-mail.

#### II. DEFINITIONS

For purposes of this solicitation, the following defi­ni­tions apply:

A. [Research or Research and Development (R/R&D):]{.underline} Any
activity that is:

> \(1\) A systematic, intensive study directed toward great­er knowledge
> or understanding of the subject studied.
>
> \(2\) A systematic study directed specifically toward ap­plying new
> knowledge to meet a recognized need; or
>
> \(3\) A systematic application of knowledge toward the production of
> useful materials, devices, and systems or methods, including design,
> development, and improve­ment of prototypes and new processes to meet
> specific requirements.

B. [Funding Agreement]{.underline}: Any contract, grant, or coop­erative
agreement entered into between any Federal agency and any small business
concern for the performance of ex­perimental, developmental, or research
work, including products and services, funded in whole or in part by the
Federal Government.

C. [Subcontract]{.underline}: Any agreement, other than one in­volving an
employer-employee relationship, entered into by an awardee of a funding
agreement calling for supplies or services for the performance of the
original funding agree­ment.

D. [Small Business Concern]{.underline}: A concern that, on the date of
award for both Phase I and Phase II funding agree­ments meets the
following criteria:

\(1\) Is organized for profit, with a place of business lo­cated in the
United States, which operates primarily within the United States or
which makes a significant contribution to the United States economy
through pay­ment of taxes or use of American products, materials, or
labor;

> \(2\) Is in the legal form of an individual proprietorship,
> partnership, limited liability company, corporation, joint venture,
> association, trust, or cooperative, except that where the form is a
> joint venture, there can be no more than 49 percent participation by
> foreign business entities in the joint venture;
>
> \(3\) Is at least 51 percent owned and controlled by one or more
> individuals who are citizens of, or permanent resident aliens in the
> United States, except in the case of a joint venture, where each
> entity to the venture must be 51 percent owned and controlled by one
> or more in­dividuals who are citizens of, or permanent resident al­iens
> in the United States; and
>
> \(4\) Has, including its affiliates, not more than 500 em­ployees.

E. [Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Small Business
Concern]{.underline}: A socially and economically disadvan­taged small
business concern is one that is:

\(1\) At least 51 percent owned by (i) an Indian tribe or a Native
Hawaiian organization, or (ii) one or more so­cially and economically
disadvantaged individuals; and

> \(2\) Whose management and daily business operations are controlled by
> one or more socially and economical­ly disadvantaged individuals.

F. [Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Indi­vidual]{.underline}: A
member of any of the following groups:

> \(1\) Black Americans;
>
> \(2\) Hispanic Americans;
>
> \(3\) Native Americans (American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, or Native
> Hawaiians);
>
> \(4\) Asian-Pacific Americans (persons with origins from Burma,
> Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, China
> (including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia (Kampuchea), Vietnam,
> Korea, The Philippines, U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
> (Republic of Palau), Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated
> States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
> Islands, Guam, Samoa, Macao, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, or Nauru);
>
> \(5\) Subcontinent Asian Americans (persons with ori­gins from India,
> Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives Islands, or
> Nepal); and
>
> \(6\) Other groups designated from time to time by SBA pursuant to
> Section 124.103 (d) of 13 CFR Ch.1 (1-1-02 Edition).

G. [Women-Owned Small Business Concern]{.underline}: A small business
concern that is at least 51 percent owned by one or more women, or in
the case of a publicly owned business, at least 51 percent of the stock
is owned by women, and wo­men control the management and daily business
operations.

H. [Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUB­Zone)]{.underline}: A
small business concern meeting the following requirements:

\(1\) Located in a HUBZone area located in one or more of the following:

> a\) A qualified census tract (as defined in Section 429(d)(5)(C)(i)(1)
> of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
>
> b\) A qualified "non-metropolitan county" (as de­fined in Section 143
> (k)(2)(B) of the Internal Rev­enue Code of 1986) with a median
> household in­come of less than 80 percent of the State median household
> income or with an unemployment rate of not less than 140 percent of
> the Statewide average, based on US Department of Labor recent data;
> or,
>
> c\) Lands within the boundaries of Federally recog­nized Indian
> reservations.
>
> \(2\) Owned and controlled by one or more U.S. Citizens; and,
>
> \(3\) At least 35% of its employees must reside in a HUB­Zone.

I. [Primary Employment]{.underline}: More than one-half of the principal
investigator's time is spent in the employ of the small business
concern.

J. [United States]{.underline}: The 50 States, the Territories and
pos­­sessions of the Federal Government, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the District of Columbia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.

K. [Commercialization]{.underline}: The process of developing mar­ket­able
products or services and producing and deliver­ing products or services
for sale (whether by the originating party or by others) to Government
or commercial markets.

L. [SBIR Technical Data]{.underline}: All data generated during the
performance of an SBIR award.

M. [SBIR Technical Data Rights]{.underline}: The rights a small business
concern obtains in data generated during the per­formance of any SBIR
Phase I, Phase II, or Phase III award that an awardee delivers to the
Government during or upon completion of a Federally-funded project, and
to which the Government receives a license.

**III. PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS**

#####  A. PROPOSAL PAGE LIMIT

Proposals submitted in response to this Phase I of the SBIR program
shall not exceed a total of **[25 pages]{.underline},** one side only.
The only exception would be regarding the require­ments set forth in
Section III.D.12, "Prior SBIR Awards." The **[25 pages]{.underline}**
should include the cover page, budget, and all enclosures or
attachments. Pages (including enclosures or attachments such as letters
of support) should be of standard size (8 ½\" x 11\"; 21.6 cm x 27.9 cm)
with 2.5 cm margins and type no smaller than 10 point font size. All
pages must be consecutively numbered. **Proposals in excess of the
25-page limitation shall not be considered for review or award.** Any
additional attachments, appendices, or refer­ences beyond the 25-page
limitation shall result in the pro­po­sal not being considered for review
or award. A letter of transmittal is not necessary. If one is furnished,
it must not be attached to every copy of the proposal. If a letter of
trans­mittal is attached to every copy of the proposal, it will be
counted as page 1 of the proposal. No binders are neces­sary. If binders
are provided, they will be counted as pages even if no printing or
writing is thereon.

**B. PROPOSAL COVER SHEET**

The offeror shall photocopy (or download from the In­ternet) and complete
Appendix A of this solicitation which has the relevant solicitation
number as page 1 of each copy of each proposal. **No other cover shall
be permitted.** When downloading the solicitation from the Internet,
Ap­pendix A may print on 2 pages, but will only count as 1 page per
Appendix. Offerors may reformat the forms to cor­­rect spacing and
pagination errors; however, identical in­formation must be provided.

The original of the cover sheet must contain the pen-and-ink signatures
of the authorized negotiator and the per­son authorized to sign the
proposal.

**C. ABSTRACT OR SUMMARY**

The offeror shall complete Appendix B as page 2 of each proposal.
Appendix B is limited to 1 page. The tech­nical abstract should include a
brief description of the prob­lem or opportunity, the innovation, project
objectives, and description of the effort. In summarizing anticipated
results, the implications of the approach (for both Phases I and II) and
the potential commercial applications of the research shall be stated.
**THE ABSTRACT IS USED EXTEN­SIVELY DURING THE EXTERNAL PEER REVIEW AND
EPA INTERNAL PROGRAMMATIC REVIEW.** The project summary of successful
proposals will be pub­lished by EPA and, therefore, must not contain
proprietary information.

######  D. TECHNICAL CONTENT

Begin the main body of the proposal on page 3. As a minimum, the
following shall be included:

> **1.** **IDENTIFICATION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM OR
> OPPORTUNITY.** A clear statement of the specific technical problem or
> oppor­tunity addressed and the environmental benefits. **IN­FORMATION ON
> THE ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TECH­NOLOGY IS A VERY
> IMPORTANT PART OF THE EXTERNAL PEER REVIEW AND EPA IN­TERNAL
> PROGRAMMATIC REVIEW.** Where appropriate, proposals should describe
> the positive and negative environmental benefits based on an
> assessment of the full life cycle of the new product or technology.
> Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) refers to the analysis of impacts
> throughout all stages of a product or process from production to use
> to disposal. Integration of a life cycle perspective into the
> environmental analysis typ­i­cally considers impacts from raw materials
> extraction, manufacture, packaging, distribution, and disposal.
>
> **2.** **PHASE I OBJECTIVES.** State the specific objec­tives of Phase
> I research and development effort, in­cluding the technical questions
> it will try to answer to determine the feasibility of the proposed
> approach.
>
> **3.** **PHASE I WORK PLAN.** This section provides a detailed
> description of the work plan. The work plan should describe what will
> be done, where it will be done, and how the R/R&D will be carried out.
> The work planned to achieve each task should be discussed in detail,
> to enable a complete scientific and technical evaluation of the work
> plan. A work schedule should also be provided.
>
> **4.** **RELATED RESEARCH OR R&D.** Describe sig­nificant research or
> R&D that is directly related to the proposal including any conducted
> by the project man­ager/principal investigator or by the proposing
> firm. Describe how it relates to the proposed effort, and any planned
> coordination with outside sources. Offerors must demonstrate their
> awareness of key recent re­search or R&D conducted by others in the
> specific top­ic area by providing appropriate references from the
> literature and other published documents.
>
> **5.** **KEY PERSONNEL AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DIRECTLY RELATED WORK.**
> Identify key per­sonnel involved in Phase I including their directly
> re­lated education, experience and bibliographic infor­ma­tion. Where
> vitae are extensive, summaries that focus on the most relevant
> experience or publications are de­sired and may be necessary to meet
> proposal size limi­tations.
>
> **6.** **RELATIONSHIP WITH FUTURE RESEARCH OR RESEARCH AND
> DEVELOPMENT.** State the anticipated results of the proposed approach
> if the pro­ject is successful (Phase I and II). A discussion of
> cost-effectiveness is paramount, especially comparing the
> state-of-the-art approaches with the proposed approach. Discuss the
> significance of the Phase I effort in pro­viding a foundation for Phase
> II R/R&D effort.
>
> **7.** **FACILITIES.** A detailed description of the avail­ability and
> location of instrumentation and physical facilities proposed for Phase
> I should be provided.
>
> **8.** **CONSULTANTS.** Involvement of consultants in the planning and
> research stages of the project is per­mitted. If such involvement is
> intended, it should be de­scribed in detail and vitae should be
> provided.
>
> **9.** **COMMERCIALIZATION PLAN.** Provide an ab­breviated 2-3 page
> plan related directly to producing an innovative product, process, or
> device and getting it into commercial production and sales.
> Comprehensive bus­iness plans (that are company rather than project
> ori­ented) are not desired. The Phase I plan is a roadmap toward
> producing a detailed Phase II Commercializa­tion Plan which will be
> required as part of the Phase II Application.

NOTE: The Small Business Research and Develop­ment Enhancement Act of
1992 allows discretionary tech­nical assistance to SBIR awardees. The
Agency may pro­vide up to \$4,000 of SBIR funds for technical assistance
per award. EPA intends to provide Phase I awardees with tech­nical
assistance through a separate EPA arrangement. For Phase I, this
assistance will be in addition to the award amount. For Phase II, the
law allows each awardee to ex­pend up to \$4,000 per year of the award
amount for tech­nical assistance services.

The Phase I plan should provide limited information on the subjects
described below. Explain what will be done during Phase I to decide on
applications, markets, produc­tion, and financing. The Commercialization
Plan should address:

> a\. SBIR Project: Brief description of the company, its principal
> field(s) of interest, size, and current products and sales. A concise
> description of the SBIR project and its key technical objectives.
>
> b\. Commercial Applications: Potential commercial ap­plications of the
> research results specifying customers and specific needs that will be
> satisfied. Have you or do you intend to file for one or more patents
> as a result of the SBIR project?
>
> c\. Competitive Advantages: What is particularly in­novative about the
> anticipated technology or products? (Innovation may be expressed in
> terms of applications, performance, efficiencies, or reduced cost. To
> deter­mine if your innovation is likely to result in intellectual
> property that may be legally protected, it helps to con­duct a patent
> search and look for related work being funded by EPA or another
> Federal agency. A factsheet on how to search for patents and related
> Federally fund­ed work is provided in Appendix E.) What significant
> advantages in application, performance, technique, ef­ficiency, or
> costs do you anticipate your new technol­ogy will have over existing
> technology? (In order to assess such advantages, it is useful to
> compare the anti­ci­pated performance of your technology against
> substitutable products currently being sold or emerging out of R&D. If
> regulations, industry standards, or certi­fying requirements apply to
> your technology or product, these provide useful criteria for
> comparing your anticipated performance with potentially compet­ing
> technology and products. However, other expres­sions of end-user needs
> may also contain important criteria.)
>
> d\. Markets: What are the anticipated specific markets for the
> resulting technology, their estimated size, clas­ses of customers, and
> your estimated market share 5 years after the project is completed
> and/or first sales? Who are the major competitors in the markets,
> present and/or anticipated?
>
> e\. Commercialization: Briefly describe how you plan to produce your
> product. Do you intend to manufac­ture it yourself, subcontract the
> manufacturing, enter into a joint venture or manufacturing agreement,
> li­cense the product, etc.? Briefly describe the approach and steps you
> plan to take to commercialize the re­search results to significant
> sales. Do you plan to mar­ket the product yourself, through dealers,
> contract sales, marketing agreements, joint venture, sales
> representatives, foreign companies, etc.? How do you plan to raise
> money to support your commercialization plan?
>
> **10. SIMILAR OR CLOSELY RELATED SBIR AWARDS.** If the small business
> concern has received ANY prior Phase I or Phase II award(s) from EPA
> or any Federal agency for similar or closely related re­search, submit
> the name of awarding agency, date of award, funding agreement number,
> amount, and topic or subtopic title. **DESCRIBE THE TECHNICAL
> DIFFERENCES AND REASONS WHY THE PRO­POSED NEW PHASE I RESEARCH IS
> DIFFER­ENT FROM RESEARCH CONDUCTED UNDER PRIOR SBIR AWARDS.** (This
> required proposal information [shall]{.underline} be counted toward
> proposal pages count limitation.)
>
> **11. DUPLICATE OR EQUIVALENT SBIR PRO­PO­SALS.** A firm may elect to
> submit essentially equivalent work under other Federal program
> solici­tations. In these cases, a statement must be included in each
> such proposal indicating: the name and address of the agencies to
> which proposals were submitted or from which awards were received;
> date of proposal submission or date of award; title, number, and date
> of solicitations under which proposals were submitted or awards
> received; specific applicable research topics for each proposal
> submitted or award received; titles of research projects; and name and
> title of project man­ager or principal investigator for each proposal
> submitted or award received. (This information **[shall]{.underline}**
> count toward proposal pages count limitation.)
>
> **12. PRIOR SBIR AWARDS.** If the small business con­cern has received
> ANY prior Phase II award from any Federal agency in the prior 5 fiscal
> years, submit name of awarding agency, date of award, funding
> agree­ment number, amount, topic or subtopic title, fol­low-on agreement
> amount, source and date of commit­ment, and current commercialization
> status for each Phase II. (This required proposal information shall be
> included as an attachment to the proposals and **[shall
> not]{.underline}** be counted toward proposal pages count limitation.)

**E. COST BREAKDOWN/ PROPOSED BUDGET**

Complete the budget form in Appendix C and include the form immediately
after proposal Section D.11. Photo­copy the form for the required copies
for submission. In­corporate the copy of the budget form bearing the
original signature into the copy of the proposal bearing the original
signature on the cover page. The budget form will count as 1 page in the
25-page limit. If budget explanation pages are included, they will count
toward the 25-page limit.

**F. PHASE I QUALITY ASSURANCE NARRATIVE STATEMENT**

Offerors must state whether or not their proposal in­volves data
collection or processing, environmental meas­urements, modeling, or the
development of environmental tech­­nology (whether hardware-based or via
new tech­niques). The Quality Assurance Narrative provides a state­ment on
processes that will be used to assure that results of the research
satisfy the intended project objectives. EPA is particularly interested
in the quality controls for data gener­ation and acquisition, and how
data validation and usability will be verified. This Quality Assurance
Narrative state­ment should not exceed 2 pages and will be included in
the 25-page limitation for the proposal. For each item below, either
present the required information, reference the speci­fic loca­tion of the
information in the proposal, or provide a justifi­ca­tion of why the item
does not apply to the proposed re­search.

> 1\. Identify the individual who will be responsible for the quality
> assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) aspects of the research. (QA
> is an integrated system of management activities involving planning,
> implementa­tion, documentation, assessment, and improvement to ensure
> that a process, or item is of the type and quality needed for the
> project. QC is the system of technical activities that measures the
> attributes and performance of a process or item against defined
> standards, to verify that they meet the stated requirements.)
>
> 2\. Discuss the activities to be performed or the hypoth­esis to be
> tested and criteria for determining acceptable data quality. (Note:
> Such criteria may be expressed in terms of precision, accuracy,
> representativeness, com­pleteness, and comparability or in terms of
> data quality objectives or acceptance and evaluation criteria.) Also,
> these criteria must be applied to determine the accept­ability of
> existing or secondary data to be used in the project. (In this
> context, secondary data may be de­fined as data previously collected
> for other purposes or from other sources.)
>
> 3\. Describe the study design. Include sample type(s) and location
> requirements, all statistical analyses that were or will be used to
> estimate the types and numbers of physical samples required, or
> equivalent information for studies using survey and interview
> techniques, or describe how new technology will be benchmarked to
> improve existing processes, such as those used by in­dustry.
>
> 4\. Describe the procedures that will be used in the cali­bration and
> performance evaluation of all analytical instrumentation and all
> methods of analysis to be used during the project. Explain how the
> effectiveness of any new technology will be measured.
>
> 5\. Describe the procedures for the handling and cus­tody of samples,
> including sample collection, identifi­cation, preservation,
> transportation, and storage, or how the accuracy of test measurements
> will be verified.
>
> 6\. Discuss the procedures for data reduction and re­porting, including
> a description of all statistical meth­ods to make inferences and
> conclusions, with identifi­cation of any statistical software to be
> used; discuss any computer models to be designed or utilized and
> de­scribe the associated verification and validation tech­niques.
>
> 7\. Describe the quantitative and/or qualitative proce­dures that will
> be used to evaluate the success of the project, including any plans
> for peer or other reviews of the study design or analytical methods
> prior to data col­lection.

A more detailed Proposal Quality Assurance Plan will be required in
Phase II. The plan will be required as part of the first Monthly Report
under the Phase II contract.

**IV. METHOD OF SELECTION AND EVALUATION CRITERIA**

All Phase I proposals will be evaluated and judged on a competitive
basis by peer reviewers from outside EPA. Proposals will be initially
screened to determine responsive­ness. As noted in Section III, proposals
exceeding the 25-page limitation will not be considered for review or
award. Also, as noted in Section I, any proposal addressing more than
one research topic, failing to identify the research topic by letter
symbol on the cover page, and submitting the same proposal under more
than one solicitation issued is 2003 will not be considered for review
or award. Proposals pas­sing this initial screening will be reviewed for
technical merit by external peer review panels of technical experts,
using the technical evaluation criteria described in A.1 be­low. Each of
the criteria are equal in value. These panels will assign each proposal
an adjectival rating of "Excellent", "Very Good", "Good", "Fair", or
"Poor", using the speci­fied criteria. The proposals assigned "Excellent"
and "Very Good" ratings will then be subjected to the programmatic
review within EPA, to further evaluate these applications in relation to
program priorities and balance using the criteria specified in A.2
below. Each proposal will be judged on its own merit. The Agency is
under no obligation to fund any proposal or any specific number of
proposals in a given topic. It also may elect to fund several or none of
the pro­posed approaches to the same topic or subtopic.

A.  **TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA**

> **1. EXTERNAL PEER REVIEW.** The external peer review panels will
> utilize the following evaluation cri­teria to rate each proposal. The
> criteria are of equal im­portance.

####### CRITERIA

> a\. The scientific and technical significance of the proposed
> technology and its appropriateness to the research topic. Quality and
> soundness of the re­search plan to establish the technical and
> com­mer­cial feasibility of the concept.
>
> b\. The uniqueness/ingenuity of the proposed con­cept or application as
> technological innovation. Originality and innovativeness of the
> proposed re­search toward meeting customer needs and achiev­ing
> commercialization of the technology.
>
> c\. Potential demonstration of performance/cost ef­fectiveness and
> environmental benefits associated with the proposed research,
> including risk reduc­tion potential.
>
> d\. Qualifications of the principal/key investigator, supporting staff
> and consultants. Time commit­ment of principal/key investigator,
> adequacy of equipment and facilities, and proposed budget to
> accomplish the proposed research. Adequacy and quality of the Quality
> Assurance Narrative State­ment.
>
> e\. Potential of the proposed concept for significant commercial
> applications. Potential for the com­mercialization plan to produce an
> innovative prod­uct, process, or device and to put it into commer­cial
> production and sales. Potential market and competition and other
> financial/business indicators of commercialization potential and the
> offeror's SBIR or other research commercialization record.

All peer reviewers will be required to sign an agree­ment to protect the
confidentiality of all proposal mate­rial, and to certify that no
conflict of interest exists be­tween the reviewer and the offeror. A copy
of both forms is available upon request; however, the identity of the
reviewer will not be released.

> **2. EPA PROGRAMMATIC REVIEW.** The pro­posals that received ratings of
> "Excellent" or "Very Good" by the External Peer Review Panel will be
> sub­ject to the programmatic review by EPA program man­agers using the
> criteria set forth below to select which of the "Excellent" and "Very
> Good" proposals will be funded. Projects will not be funded where EPA
> deter­mines the proposed research is already being supported by EPA or
> another known source. The evaluation cri­teria "a" through "c" are of
> equal value and will be used to evaluate the applications in relation
> to program priorities, balance and programmatic relevancy.

####### CRITERIA

> a\. The potential of the technology to meet Agency program priorities
> and to strengthen the overall balance of the SBIR program. How well
> the tech­nology fits into EPA's overall research strategy or program
> within the Phase I research topic.
>
> b\. The potential of the technology for significant environmental
> benefits and for strengthening the scientific basis for risk
> assessment/risk manage­ment in the Agency research topic area.
>
> c\. The potential of the technology to have broad ap­plication or to
> impact large segments of the pop­ulation.

**B. RELEASE OF PROPOSAL REVIEW INFORMATION**

After final award decisions have been announced, the technical
evaluations of the offeror's proposal will be pro­vided to the offeror.
The identity of the reviewer shall not be disclosed.

#### V. CONSIDERATIONS

######  A. AWARDS

The Government anticipates award of approximately 5 firm-fixed-price
contracts of up to \$70,000 each including profit. It is expected that
these contracts will be awarded with a contract start date of March 1,
2004. The period of performance for the contracts should not exceed six
(6) months. The primary consideration in selecting proposals for award
will be the technical merit of the proposal. Pro­posals shall be
evaluated in accordance with the Technical Evaluation Criteria stated in
IV.A. above. Source selection will not be based on a comparison of cost
or price. How­ever, cost or price will be evaluated to determine whether
the price, including any proposed profit, is fair and reason­able and
whether the offeror understands the work and is capable of performing
the contract.

This current solicitation is for Phase I only, and the Gov­ernment is not
obligated to fund any specific Phase I pro­posal.

Funds are not presently available for this contract. The Government's
obligation under this contract is contingent upon the availability of
appropriated funds from which pay­ment for contract purposes can be made.
No legal liability on the part of the Government for any payment may
arise until funds are made available to the Contracting Officer for this
contract and until the Contractor receives notice of such availability,
to be confirmed in writing by the Contracting Officer.

######  B. REPORTS

> 1\. The Contractor shall furnish two (2) copies of a monthly letter
> report stating progress made. One (1) copy of the report shall be
> submitted to the Project Of­ficer with one (1) copy to the Contract
> Specialist. The reports shall be submitted within 7 calendar days
> after the end of the reporting period. Specific areas of interest
> shall include progress made and difficulties encountered during the
> reporting period, and a state­ment of activities anticipated during the
> subsequent reporting period. The report shall include any changes in
> personnel associated with the project. Also, the first month's report
> shall contain a work plan and schedule of accomplishments for the
> subsequent months of the project. The Monthly Report shall include, as
> an at­tachment, a copy of the monthly voucher for the same period.
>
> 2\. Two (2) copies of a comprehensive Final Report on the Phase I
> project must be submitted to the Project Officer by the completion
> date of the contract. The Contract Specialist shall receive one copy.
> This Final Report shall include a single-page project summary as the
> first page, identifying the purpose of the research, a brief
> description of the research carried out, the re­search findings or
> results, and potential applications of the research in a final
> paragraph. The balance of the report should indicate in detail the
> research objectives, research work carried out, results obtained, and
> esti­mates of technical feasibility. The report should in­clude a
> discussion of any commercialization activity carried out during Phase
> I as well as future commer­cialization plans.
>
> 3\. Two (2) hard copies (and one copy on a disk in Word Perfect or
> ASCII format) of a publishable (cleared for the general public) 2-3
> page Executive Summary of the Final Report for Phase I must be
> sub­mitted to the Project Officer by the completion date of the
> contract. This special report should be a true sum­mary of the report,
> including the purpose of the project, work carried out, and results.
> The summary should stress innovativeness and potential
> commercialization. The Executive Summary will be placed on the EPA
> SBIR Web Site, and therefore, it should include the specific results
> the company is willing to release to the public.

######  C. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Phase I payments will be made as follows:

Eighteen percent (18%) of the total contract price upon receipt and
acceptance of a proper invoice with each of the first five Monthly
Reports. The remainder shall be paid upon receipt and acceptance of the
final report. Pursuant to the provisions of FAR 52.232-25, "Prompt
Payment," pay­ment will be rendered within thirty (30) days after receipt
of a proper invoice.

**D. INNOVATIONS, INVENTIONS, AND PATENTS**

1\. LIMITED RIGHTS INFORMATION AND DATA

a\. Proprietary Information

Information contained in unsuccessful proposals will re­main the property
of the offeror. The Government may, however, retain copies of all
proposals. Public release of information in any proposal submitted will
be subject to existing statutory and regulatory requirements.

If proprietary information is provided by an offeror in a proposal which
constitutes a trade secret, proprietary com­mercial or financial
information, confidential personal infor­mation or data affecting the
national security, it will be treated in confidence to the extent
permitted by law, pro­vided this information is clearly marked by the
offeror with the term "confidential proprietary information" and
pro­vided the following legend, which appears on the cover page of the
proposal is completed:

"For any purpose other than to evaluate the proposal, this data shall
not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be duplicated,
used, or disclosed in whole or in part, provided that if a funding
agreement is awarded to this offeror as a result of or in connection
with the submission of this data, the Government shall have the right to
duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the
fund­ing agreement and pursuant to applicable law. This restric­tion does
not limit the Government's right to use infor­mation contained in the
data if it is obtained from another source without restriction. The data
subject to this restric­tion are contained in pages \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ of
this proposal."

Any other legend may be unacceptable to the Govern­ment and may
constitute grounds for removing the proposal from further consideration
and without assuming any liabil­ity for inadvertent disclosure.

b\. Alternative To Minimize Proprietary Information

Offerors shall limit proprietary information to only that absolutely
essential to their proposal.

c\. Rights in Data Developed Under SBIR Funding Agree­­ments

The Contract will contain a data clause which will provide the
following:

SBIR RIGHTS NOTICE (MAR 1994)

These SBIR data are furnished with SBIR rights under Contract
No.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (and subcontract \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ if
appropriate). For a period of four (4) years after acceptance of all
items to be delivered under this contract, the Govern­ment agrees to use
these data for Government purposes only, and they shall not be disclosed
outside the Govern­ment (including disclosure for procurement purposes)
during such period without permission of the Contractor, except that,
subject to the foregoing use and disclosure pro­hibitions, such data may
be disclosed for use by support Contractors. After the aforesaid 4-year
period the Govern­ment has a royalty-free license to use, and to
authorize others to use on its behalf, these data for Government
pur­poses, but is relieved of all disclosure prohibitions and as­sumes no
liability for unauthorized use of these data by third parties. This
Notice shall be affixed to any reproduc­tions of these data, in whole or
in part.

d\. Copyrights

With prior written permission of the Contracting Offi­cer, the Awardee
normally may copyright and publish (con­sistent with appropriate national
security considerations, if any) material developed with EPA support.
EPA receives a royalty-free license for the Federal Government and
re­quires that each publication contain an appropriate ac­knowledgment and
disclaimer statement.

e\. Patents

Small business concerns normally may retain the prin­cipal worldwide
patent rights to any invention developed with Governmental support. The
Government receives a royalty-free license for Federal Government use,
reserves the right to require the patent holder to license others in
certain circumstances, and requires that anyone exclusively licensed to
sell the invention in the United States must nor­mally manufacture it
domestically. To the extent author­ized by 35 U.S.C. 205, the Government
will not make pub­lic any information disclosing a Government-supported
invention for a 4-year period to allow the Awardee a rea­sonable time to
pursue a patent.

**E. COST SHARING**

Cost sharing is permitted for proposals under this Pro­gram Solicitation;
however, cost sharing is not required nor will it be an evaluation
factor in consideration of your pro­posal.

**F. FEE OR PROFIT**

Reasonable fee (estimated profit) will be considered under this
solicitation. For guidance purposes, the amount of profit normally
should not exceed 10% of total project costs.

**G. JOINT VENTURES OR LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS**

Joint ventures and limited partnerships are eligible pro­vided the entity
created qualifies as a small business as de­fined in this Program
Solicitation.

**H. RESEARCH AND ANALYTICAL WORK**

1\. For Phase I, a minimum of two-thirds of the research and/or
analytical effort must be performed by the proposing small business
concern unless otherwise approved in writing by the Contracting Officer.

2\. For Phase II, a minimum of one-half of the research and/or
analytical effort must be performed by the proposing small business
concern unless otherwise approved in writing by the Contracting Officer.

**I. CONTRACTOR COMMITMENTS**

Upon award of a funding agreement, the Awardee will be required to make
certain legal commitments through acceptance of numerous clauses in
Phase I funding agree­ments. The outline that follows is illustrative of
the types of clauses to which the Contractor would be committed. This
list should not be understood to represent a complete list of clauses to
be included in Phase I funding agreements, nor to be specific wording of
such clauses. Copies of complete terms and conditions are available upon
request.

**1. INSPECTION.** Work performed under the contract is subject to
Government inspection and evaluation at all times.

**2. EXAMINATION OF RECORDS.** The Comptrol­ler General (or a duly
authorized representative) shall have the right to examine any directly
pertinent records of the awardee involving transactions related to this
contract.

**3. DEFAULT.** The Government may terminate the contract if the
Contractor fails to perform the work con­tracted.

**4. TERMINATION FOR CONVENIENCE.** The contract may be terminated at
any time by the Government if it deems termination to be in its best
interest, in which case the Contractor will be compensated for work
per­formed and for reasonable termination costs.

**5. DISPUTES.** Any dispute concerning the funding agreement that
cannot be resolved by agreement shall be decided by the Contracting
Officer with right of appeal.

**6. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.** The awardee will not discriminate against any
employee or applicant for employ­ment because of race, color, religion,
sex, or national origin.

**7. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR VETERANS.** The awardee will not
discriminate against any employee or application for employment because
he or she is a disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era.

**8. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR HANDICAP­PED.** The awardee will not
discriminate against any em­ployee or applicant for employment because he
or she is physically or mentally handicapped.

**9. OFFICIALS NOT TO BENEFIT.** No Govern­ment official shall benefit
personally from the contract.

**10. COVENANT AGAINST CONTINGENT FEES.** No person or agency has been
employed to solicit or secure the contract upon an understanding for
compensation except bonafide employees or commercial agencies maintained
by the Contractor for the purpose of securing business.

**11. GRATUITIES.** The contract may be terminated by the Government if
any gratuities have been offered to any representative of the Government
to secure the contract.

**12. PATENT AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGE­MENT.** The Contractor shall report
each notice or claim of patent or copyright infringement based on the
performance of the contract.

**13. AMERICAN-MADE EQUIPMENT AND PRODUCTS.** When purchasing equipment
or a product under the SBIR funding agreement, purchase only
Ameri­can-made items whenever possible.

**J. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION**

1\. The Program Solicitation is intended for informa­tional purposes and
reflects current planning. If there is any inconsistency between the
information contained herein and the terms of any resulting SBIR funding
agreement, the terms of the funding agreement are controlling.

2\. Before award of an SBIR funding agreement, the Government may
request the offeror to submit certain organizational, management,
personnel, and financial infor­mation to assure responsibility of the
offeror.

3\. The Government is not responsible for any monies expended by the
offeror before award of any funding agree­ment.

4\. This Program Solicitation is not an offer by the Gov­ernment and does
not obligate the Government to make any specific number of awards. Also,
awards under the SBIR program are contingent upon the availability of
funds.

5\. The SBIR program is not a substitute for existing un­solicited
proposal mechanisms. Unsolicited proposals shall not be accepted under
the SBIR program in either Phase I or Phase II.

6\. If an award is made pursuant to a proposal submitted under this
Program Solicitation, the Contractor will be re­quired to certify that he
or she has not previously been, nor is currently being, paid for
essentially equivalent work by any agency of the Federal Government.

7\. Notwithstanding the relatively broad definition of R/R&D in Section
II, Definitions, hereof, awards under this solicitation are limited to
APPLIED forms of research. Pro­posals that are surveys, including market,
state-of the-art and/or literature surveys, which should have been
performed by the offeror prior to the preparation of the proposal, or
the preparation of allied questionnaires and instruction manuals, shall
not be accepted. If such proposals are submitted, they shall be
considered as not in compliance with the solicita­tion intent, and
therefore, technically unacceptable.

8\. The requirement that the offeror designate a topic, and only one
topic (see page 1, Section I above), is also necessary. EPA receives
hundreds of proposals each year and has special teams of reviewers for
review of each re­search topic. In order to assure that proposals are
evaluated by the correct team, it is the complete responsibility of the
offeror to select and identify the best topic.

9\. Instructions to Offerors - Competitive Acquisition (May 2001) FAR
52.215-1

\(a\) *Definitions (as used in this provision).*

> "Discussions" are negotiations that occur after es­tablishment of the
> competitive range that may, at the Contracting Officer's discretion,
> result in the offeror being allowed to revise its proposal.
>
> "In writing," "writing," or "written" means any worded or numbered
> expression that can be read, repro­duced, and later communicated, and
> includes electron­ically transmitted and stored information.
>
> "Proposal modification" is a change made to a pro­posal before the
> solicitation's closing date and time, or made in response to an
> amendment, or made to correct a mistake at any time before award.
>
> "Proposal revision" is a change to a proposal made after the
> solicitation closing date, at the request of or as allowed by a
> Contracting Officer as the result of nego­tiations.
>
> "Time," if stated as a number of days, is calculated using calendar
> days, unless otherwise specified, and will include Saturdays, Sundays,
> and legal holidays. However, if the last day falls on a Saturday,
> Sunday, or legal holiday, then the period shall include the next
> working day.
>
> \(b\) *Amendments to solicitations.*
>
> If this solicitation is amended, all terms and con­ditions that are not
> amended remain unchanged. Of­ferors shall acknowledge receipt of any
> amendment to this solicitation by the date and time specified in the
> amendment(s).
>
> \(c\) *Submission, modification, revision, and with­drawal of
> proposals.*
>
> \(1\) Unless other methods (e.g., electronic com­merce or facsimile)
> are permitted in the solicitation, proposals and modifications to
> proposals shall be sub­mitted in paper media in sealed envelopes or
> packages (i) addressed to the office specified in the solicitation,
> and (ii) showing the time and date specified for receipt, the
> solicitation number, and the name and address of the offeror. Offerors
> using commercial carriers should ensure that the proposal is marked on
> the outermost wrapper with the information in paragraphs (c)(1)(i) and
> (c)(1)(ii) of this provision.
>
> \(2\) The first page of the proposal must show---
>
> \(i\) The solicitation number;
>
> \(ii\) The name, address, and telephone and fac­simile numbers of the
> offeror (and electron­ic address if available);
>
> \(iii\) A statement specifying the extent of agreement with all terms,
> conditions, and pro­visions included in the solicitation and agreement
> to furnish any or all items upon which prices are offered at the price
> set opposite each item;
>
> \(iv\) Names, titles, and telephone and facsimile numbers (and
> electronic addresses if available) of persons authorized to negotiate
> on the of­feror's behalf with the Government in con­nec­tion with this
> solicitation; and
>
> \(v\) Name, title, and signature of person author­ized to sign the
> proposal. Proposals signed by an agent shall be accompanied by
> evidence of that agent's authority, unless that evidence has been
> previously furnished to the issuing office.
>
> \(3\) Submission, modification, revision, and with­drawal of proposals.
>
> \(i\) Offerors are responsible for submitting pro­posals, and any
> modifications or revisions, so as to reach the Government office
> designated in the solicitation by the time specified in the
> solicitation. If no time is specified in the soli­citation, the time
> for receipt is 4:30 p.m., local time, for the designated Government
> office on the date that proposal or revision is due.
>
> \(ii\) (A) Any proposal, modification, or re­vision received at the
> Government office des­ignated in the solicitation after the exact time
> specified for receipt of offers is "late" and will not be considered
> unless it is received before award is made, the Contracting Officer
> deter­mines that accepting the late offer would not unduly delay the
> acquisition; and---
>
> \(1\) If it was transmitted through an electron­ic commerce method
> authorized by the soli­citation, it was received at the initial point
> of entry to the Government infrastructure not later than 5:00 p.m. 1
> working day prior to the date specified for receipt of proposals; or
>
> \(2\) There is acceptable evidence to establish that it was received
> at the Government in­stallation designated for receipt of offers and
> was under the Government's control prior to the time set for receipt
> of offers; or
>
> \(3\) It is the only proposal received.
>
> \(ii\) (B) However, a late modification of an otherwise successful
> proposal that makes its terms more favorable to the Government, will\
> \
> be considered at any time it is received and may be accepted.
>
> \(iii\) Acceptable evidence to establish the time of receipt at the
> Government installation in­cludes the time/date stamp of that
> installation on the proposal wrapper, other documentary evidence of
> receipt maintained by the install­ation, or oral testimony or
> statements of Gov­ernment personnel.
>
> \(iv\) If an emergency or unanticipated event interrupts normal
> Government processes so that proposals cannot be received at the
> office designated for receipt of proposals by the exact time specified
> in the solicitation, and urgent Government requirements preclude
> amendment of the solicitation, the time spe­cified for receipt of
> proposals will be deemed to be extended to the same time of day
> speci­fied in the solicitation on the first work day on which normal
> Government processes resume.
>
> \(v\) Proposals may be withdrawn by written notice received at any
> time before award. Oral proposals in response to oral solicitations
> may be withdrawn orally. If the solicitation authorizes facsimile
> proposals, proposals may be withdrawn via facsimile received at any
> time before award, subject to the conditions specified in the
> provision at 52.215-5, Fac­simile Proposals. Proposals may be with­drawn
> in person by an offeror or an authorized representative, if the
> identity of the person requesting withdrawal is established and the
> person signs a receipt for the proposal before award.
>
> \(4\) Unless otherwise specified in the solicitation, the offeror may
> propose to provide any item or combi­nation of items.
>
> \(5\) Offerors shall submit proposals in response to this solicitation
> in English, unless otherwise permitted by the solicitation, and in
> U.S. dollars, unless the provi­sion at FAR 52.225-17, Evaluation of
> Foreign Curren­cy Offers, is included in the solicitation.
>
> \(6\) Offerors may submit modifications to their pro­posals at any time
> before the solicitation closing date and time, and may submit
> modifications in response to an amendment, or to correct a mistake at
> any time be­fore award.
>
> \(7\) Offerors may submit revised proposals only if requested or
> allowed by the Contracting Officer.
>
> \(8\) Proposals may be withdrawn at any time before award. Withdrawals
> are effective upon receipt of no­tice by the Contracting Officer.
>
> \(d\) *Offer expiration date.*
>
> Proposals in response to this solicitation will be valid for the
> number of days specified on the solicita­tion cover sheet (unless a
> different period is proposed by the offeror).
>
> \(e\) *Restriction on disclosure and use of data.*
>
> Offerors that include in their proposals data that they do not want
> disclosed to the public for any pur­pose, or used by the Government
> except for evaluation purposes, shall---
>
> \(1\) Mark the title page with the following legend: This proposal
> includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the Government and
> shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed---in whole or in
> part---for any pur­pose other than to evaluate this proposal. If,
> however, a contract is awarded to this offeror as a result of---or in
> connection with---the submission of this data, the Gov­ernment shall
> have the right to duplicate, use, or dis­close the data to the extent
> provided in the resulting con­tract. This restriction does not limit
> the Govern­ment's right to use information contained in this data if it
> is obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject
> to this restriction are contained in sheets \[insert numbers or other
> identification of sheets\]; and
>
> \(2\) Mark each sheet of data it wishes to restrict with the following
> legend: Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject
> to the restriction on the title page of this proposal.
>
> \(f\) *Contract award.*
>
> \(1\) The Government intends to award a contract or contracts
> resulting from this solicitation to the respon­sible offeror(s) whose
> proposal(s) represents the best value after evaluation in accordance
> with the factors and subfactors in the solicitation.
>
> \(2\) The Government may reject any or all propo­sals if such action is
> in the Government's interest.
>
> \(3\) The Government may waive informalities and minor irregularities
> in proposals received.
>
> \(4\) The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award a
> contract without discussions with offerors (except clarifications as
> described in FAR 15.306(a)). Therefore, the offeror's initial proposal
> should contain the offeror's best terms from a cost or price and
> tech­nical standpoint. The Government reserves the right to conduct
> discussions if the Contracting Officer later determines them to be
> necessary. If the Contracting Officer determines that the number of
> proposals that would otherwise be in the competitive range exceeds the
> number at which an efficient competition can be conducted, the
> Contracting Officer may limit the num­ber of proposals in the
> competitive range to the greatest number that will permit an efficient
> competition among the most highly rated proposals.
>
> \(5\) The Government reserves the right to make an award on any item
> for a quantity less than the quantity offered, at the unit cost or
> prices offered, unless the of­feror specifies otherwise in the
> proposal.
>
> \(6\) The Government reserves the right to make multiple awards if,
> after considering the additional ad­ministrative costs, it is in the
> Government's best in­terest to do so.
>
> \(7\) Exchanges with offerors after receipt of a pro­posal do not
> constitute a rejection or counteroffer by the Government.
>
> \(8\) The Government may determine that a propo­sal is unacceptable if
> the prices proposed are materially unbalanced between line items or
> subline items. Un­balanced pricing exists when, despite an acceptable
> total evaluated price, the price of one or more contract line items is
> significantly overstated or understated as indicated by the
> application of cost or price analysis techniques. A proposal may be
> rejected if the Contrac­ting Officer determines that the lack of
> balance poses an unacceptable risk to the Government.
>
> \(9\) If a cost realism analysis is performed, cost realism may be
> considered by the source selection authority in evaluating performance
> or schedule risk.
>
> \(10\) A written award or acceptance of proposal mailed or otherwise
> furnished to the successful offeror within the time specified in the
> proposal shall result in a binding contract without further action by
> either par­ty.
>
> \(11\) The Government may disclose the following information in
> postaward debriefings to other offerors:
>
> \(i\) The overall evaluated cost or price and technical rating of the
> successful offeror;
>
> \(ii\) The overall ranking of all offerors, when any ranking was
> developed by the Agency during source selection;
>
> \(iii\) A summary of the rationale for award; and
>
> \(iv\) For acquisitions of commercial items, the make and model of the
> item to be delivered by the successful offeror.
>
> \(12\) ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICTS OF IN­TEREST (EPAAR 1552.209-71) (MAY
> 1994) ALTER­NATE I (MAY 1994)
>
> \(a\) The Contractor warrants that, to the best of the Contractor's
> knowledge and belief, there are no relevant facts or circumstances
> which could give rise to an organizational conflict of interest, as
> de­fined in FAR Subpart 9.5, or that the Contractor has disclosed all
> such relevant information.
>
> \(b\) Prior to commencement of any work, the Con­tractor agrees to
> notify the Contracting Officer im­mediately that, to the best of its
> knowledge and belief, no actual or potential conflict of interest
> exists or to identify to the Contracting Officer any actual or
> potential conflict of interest the firm may have. In emergency
> situations, however, work may begin but notification shall be made
> within five (5) working days.
>
> \(c\) The Contractor agrees that if an actual or poten­tial
> organizational conflict of interest is identified during performance,
> the Contractor will immedi­ately make a full disclosure in writing to
> the Con­tracting Officer. This disclosure shall include a description
> of actions which the Contractor has taken or proposes to take, after
> consultation with the Contracting Officer, to avoid, mitigate, or
> neu­tralize the actual or potential conflict of interest. The
> Contractor shall continue performance until notified by the
> Contracting Officer of any contrary action to be taken.
>
> \(d\) Remedies - The EPA may terminate this con­tract for convenience,
> in whole or in part, if it deems such termination necessary to avoid
> an or­ganizational conflict of interest. If the Contractor was aware of
> a potential organizational conflict of interest prior to award or
> discovered an actual or potential conflict after award and did not
> disclose it or misrepresented relevant information to the Con­tracting
> Officer, the Government may terminate the contract for default, debar
> the Contractor from Government contracting, or pursue such other
> rem­edies as may be permitted by law or this contract.
>
> \(e\) The Contractor agrees to insert in each subcon­tract or
> consultant agreement placed hereunder pro­visions which shall conform
> substantially to the language of this clause, including this
> paragraph, unless otherwise authorized by the Contracting Officer.

**VI. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS**

A. Your proposal with an original and nine (9) copies shall be received
at one of the following addresses by 12:00 p.m. (noon), local time, on
May 23, 2003.

**[U.S. MAIL ADDRESS:]{.underline}**

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

> Solicitation No. PR-NC-03-10274 - Safe Buildings\
> SBIR
>
> Closing Date: May 23, 2003 at 12:00 p.m. (noon)
>
> Attention: Marsha Johnson, Special SBIR Phase I
>
> RTP Procurement Operations Division (D143-01)
>
> Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
>
> **[HAND CARRIED/COURIER ADDRESS:]{.underline}**
>
> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
>
> Solicitation No. PR-NC-03-10274 - Safe Buildings\
> SBIR
>
> Closing Date: May 23, 2003 at 12:00 p.m. (noon)
>
> Attention: Marsha Johnson, Special SBIR Phase I
>
> RTP Procurement Operations Division (D143-01)
>
> 4930 Old Page Road
>
> Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

**IMPORTANT!!! Please note Section V, Paragraph J.9(c) concerning Late
Proposals, Modifications of Pro­posals and Withdrawal of Proposals.**

**Telegraphic, telecopied or facsimile proposals will NOT be considered
for award.**

B. Please do not use special bindings or covers. Staple the pages in the
upper left corner of the cover sheet of each proposal.

C. All copies of a proposal shall be sent in the same package.

D. The proposal should be self-contained and written with the care and
thoughtfulness accorded papers for pub­lication.

**VII. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION SOURCES**

(See Appendix D)

**VIII. SBIR PHASE I SAFE BUILDINGS AND WATER SECURITY RESEARCH TOPICS**

*Program Scope:* The objective of this solicitation is to increase the
incentive and opportunity for small firms to undertake cutting-edge,
high-risk, or long-term research that has a high potential payoff if the
research is successful. Federal support of the front-end research on new
ideas, often the highest risk part of the innovation process, may
provide small businesses sufficient incentive to pursue such research.

EPA's SBIR program does not fund basic research or literature searches.
It is recognized that any research and development project starts out as
a concept of the inventor. Basic theoretic research studies and
preliminary laboratory testing of the concept are often needed to
develop an idea. Literature and other surveys and questionnaires are
also needed to rule out duplication and inappropriate research study and
process detail, finally leading to the process de­sign of a prototype
apparatus or process that could be tested to show the feasibility of the
innovation. These basic re­search activities and preliminary studies
should be com­pleted before preparing an SBIR proposal.

*Program Topics:* The proposed research must directly pertain to EPA's
environmental mission and must be re­sponsive to EPA program interests
included in the topic descriptions of this solicitation. The research
should be the basis for technological innovation resulting in new
com­mercial products, processes, or services which benefit the public and
promote the growth of the small business. This special SBIR solicitation
is focused on safe buildings and water security.

Please note that EPA is issuing this solicitation and three others with
the same opening and closing dates. All solicitations are available from
March 27 to May 23, 2003, on the EPA SBIR Web Site
(http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir) or by calling the EPA SBIR help line
(800-490-9194). EPA's Special SBIR Solicitations also include Solutions
for Western USA Environmental Problems (e.g., coal bed meth­ane, chronic
wasting disease, mining, and nonroad en­gines) and Monitoring of Air
Pollution. The Regular SBIR Solicitation includes topics on
nanomaterials and clean tech­nology, drinking water and wastewater
treatment, and solid and hazardous waste management. The opening and
closing dates are the same for all solicitations.

Specific topics in this solicitation include: (A4) Safe Buildings, and
(B4) Water Security.

> **A4. SAFE BUILDINGS**

There are significant efforts throughout the Govern­ment to develop and
implement systems that detect acts of terror­ism, contain and respond to
the problem, and protect the American people and the environment. One of
EPA's goals following the events of September 11, 2001, is to evaluate,
characterize, and develop tools that can be used to detect, contain,
decontaminate, and manage hazardous chemical and biological materials
purposefully introduced into buildings. Research is needed to develop
improved technologies for preventing, detecting, warning of, contain­ing,
and decontaminating hazardous biological and chemi­cal materials
purposefully introduced into buildings.

-   Improved detection technologies for biological and chemical
    contaminants. Specific technology needs include, but are not limited
    to, small tunable ultra­violet/visible lasers for real-time, trace
    detection of contaminants such as explosives, toxic industrial
    chemicals, biological agents, and chemical warfare agents and/or
    their derivatives/precursors. These lasers should be suitable for
    rugged, field appli­ca­tions.

-   Improved, environmentally friendly biological and chemical
    decontamination systems which may reflect changes in application
    conditions and/or concen­tra­tions, materials compatibility with
    regards to indoor surfaces and decontaminant, or other protective
    strategies.

-   Improved building design and operational methods for preventing or
    containing a chemical or biological attack.

-   Safe, effective, cost-effective and environmentally friendly
    treatment and disposal methods for contam­inated waste material.

**B4. WATER SECURITY**

There are special needs associated with protecting drink­­ing water
systems and wastewater treatment plants from acts of terrorism.

> DRINKING WATER

Research is needed in technologies, equipment, and other tools for
drinking water systems and their components which consist of collection,
pretreatment, treatment, storage, and distribution facilities and
operations. This research may address threats of either physical or
contaminant disable­ment and disruption (e.g., biological, chemical,
biochemi­cal) in various-sized systems. Technologies, equipment, and
other tools are needed to detect and warn of chemical and biological
contaminants (including biotoxins), contain and treat source and
contaminated water, minimize cross-connections with wastewater, and
decontaminate water sys­tems equipment. Research in this area should also
benefit the larger context of safe water even under non-threat
situations.

-   Technologies and tools are needed to help drinking water utility
    operators and emergency response per­sonnel detect chemical and
    biological, and as ap­propriate, biochemical contaminants, that could
    be introduced into drinking water systems. Re­search is needed on
    detectors, either in-the-system or hand-held, which provide
    real-time early warning and de­tec­tion of biological and chemical
    contaminants in treated water via molecular methods or micro-array
    technology, chemical fingerprinting, quantitative struc­ture activity
    relationships (QSAR), or similar types of advanced identification
    techniques.

-   Security systems and technologies are needed, in­cluding early
    warning "smart" systems which use detection devices and techniques
    in combination with computer-based software, to help drinking water
    utility operators identify contaminants in distribution systems.
    Research is also needed on software or com­puter-driven planning
    tools to provide analysis and operational optimization when a
    portion of a drink­ing water system becomes disabled or disrupted.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by drinking water utility operators, emergency responders, and
    other decision officials to treat source water in the event of a
    disablement or dis­ruption to a drinking water system. Research is
    also needed for improved treatment technologies which include point
    of use/point of entry (POU/POE) treatment devices for individual
    homes, buildings, and structures and transportable or modular
    treatment systems which could be employed for the duration of time
    when water supplies are contaminated or treat­ment systems are
    inoperable.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by drinking water utility operators and emergency response
    personnel to decontaminate treated water that has been contaminated
    with chemi­cal and biological, and as appropriate, biochemical
    contaminants, prior to its release to wastewater treat­ment plants or
    receiving waters.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by water utility operators, emer­gen­cy response personnel, and
    other decision of­ficials to decontaminate drinking water systems and
    equipment and return them to use with minimal down time.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by drinking water utility operators and emergency response
    personnel on disposal of residues (e.g., floc, sludge) associated
    with the above decontamination activities. Research is also needed
    on technologies, equipment, and techniques to mini­mize the effects
    of deliberate disruption of drinking water systems including
    cross-connection to waste­water systems.

WASTEWATER

Research is needed in technologies, equipment, and other tools to
protect wastewater systems which consist of collection, treatment,
storage, and disposal facilities and operations. This research may
address threats of either physical or contaminant disablement and
disruption (e.g., biological, chemical, biochemical) in various-sized
systems. Technologies, equipment, and other tools are needed to de­tect
and warn of chemical and biological contaminants, con­tain and treat
contaminated wastewater, decontaminate waste­water systems and equipment,
minimize cross-connections with drinking water, and dispose of treatment
residuals. Research in this area should also benefit the larger context
of safe water even under non-threat situa­tions.

-   Technologies and tools are needed to help waste­water utility
    operators and emergency response per­sonnel detect chemical and
    biological, and as appro­priate biochemical, contaminants that could
    be introduced into wastewater systems. Research is needed on
    detectors, either in-the-system or hand-held, which provide in
    real-time early warning and detection of biological and chemical
    contaminants in wastewater via molecular methods or micro-array
    technology, chemical fingerprinting, quantitative structure activity
    relationships (QSAR), or similar types of advanced identification
    techniques.

-   Security systems and technologies are needed for real-time
    monitoring and intrusion detection to help wastewater utility
    operators in the early warning of a contamination event. Research is
    also needed on soft­ware or computer-driven systems which include
    "expert" or "learning" components to allow con­tinued and effective
    operations when a portion of a wastewater system becomes disabled or
    disrupted.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by wastewater utility operators and emergency response
    personnel to treat wastewater that has been contaminated with
    chemical and bio­logical, and as appropriate biochemical,
    contaminants prior to its release from a wastewater treatment plant.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by wastewater utility operators, emergency response personnel,
    and other decision of­ficials to decontaminate wastewater systems and
    equip­ment and return them to use with minimal down time and an
    established level of decontamination ef­fectiveness for receiving
    waters.

-   Technologies, equipment, and techniques are needed that could be
    used by wastewater utility operators and emergency responders on
    disposal technologies for the residues (e.g., sludge, grit)
    associated with the above treatment activities. Research is also
    needed on technologies, equipment, and techniques to mini­mize the
    effects of deliberate disruption of waste­water systems including
    cross-connection to drinking water systems.

**IX. SUBMISSION FORMS AND CERTIFICATIONS**

The attached forms, Appendix A - Proposal Cover Sheet, Ap­pendix B -
Project Summary, and Appendix C - SBIR Proposal Summary Budget, should
be downloaded and printed from the Internet or photocopied, and
completed as indicated under Section III, Proposal Preparation
Instruc­tions and Requirements. The purpose of these forms is to meet the
mandate of law or regulation and simplify the sub­mission of proposals.

**Appendix A**

**U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY**

# SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PROGRAM

**SOLICITATION NUMBER PR-NC-03-10274**

**SAFE BUILDINGS AND WATER SECURITY PHASE I**

**PROPOSAL COVER SHEET**

PROPOSAL
TITLE:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

FIRM NAME:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

MAILING
ADDRESS:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

CITY:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_STATE:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
ZIP:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

AMOUNT REQUESTED: \$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ PROPOSED DURATION
(PHASE I): 6 MOS

(Not to Exceed \$70,000)

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation will
be valid for 300 days\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

TOPIC (check one)

\_\_\_\_ A4. Safe Buildings

\_\_\_\_ B4. Water Security

CERTIFICATIONS AND AUTHORIZATIONS: Answer Y(Yes) or N(No)

\_\_\_\_1. The above concern certifies that it is a small business
concern and meets the definition as stated in the pro­gram solicitation.
Please note: Firms that are a wholly owned subsidiary of another entity
do not meet the eli­gibility require­ments of an SBIR award.

\_\_\_\_2. The above concern certifies that a minimum of 2/3 of the
research and/or analytical effort will be performed by the proposing
firm.

\_\_\_\_3. If the proposal does not result in an award, is the
Government permitted to disclose the title and technical abstract page
of your proposed project, and the name, address, and telephone number of
the official of the proposing firm to any inquiring parties?

\_\_\_\_4. The above concern certifies that it is a woman-owned small
business concern and meets the definition as stated in the program
solicitation.\*

\_\_\_\_5. The above concern certifies that it is a socially and
economically disadvantaged small business concern and meets the
definition as stated in the program solicitation.\*

\_\_\_\_6. The above concern certifies it is a HUBZone small business
concern and meets the definition as stated in the program
solicitation.\*

\_\_\_\_7. Do you plan to send, or have you sent, this proposal or a
similar one to any other Federal agency? If yes, which? Use acronym(s)
for each agency, (e.g., DOD, NIH, DOE, NASA,
etc.)\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\* For information purposes only.

8\. Choose one of the following to describe your Organization Type:

\_\_\_\_\_Individual \_\_\_\_\_Partnership
\_\_\_\_\_Corporation\_\_\_\_\_LLC

9\. Provide the following information: Tax Identification
No:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Dun & Bradstreet
Number:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Common Parent
Name:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

> ENDORSEMENTS

Authorized Negotiator: Person Authorized to Sign Proposal:

Print Name: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Print Name: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Title:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Title:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Telephone:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Telephone:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Fax:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Fax:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

E-mail:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
E-mail:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Signature:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Signature:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Date:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Date:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

PROPRIETARY NOTICE: For any other purpose than to evaluate the proposal,
this data shall not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be
duplicated, used or disclosed in whole or in part, provided that if a
funding agreement is awarded to this offeror as a result of or in
connection with the submission of this data, the Government shall have
the right to dupli­cate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided
in the funding agreement and pur­suant to applicable law. This
restriction does not limit the Government's right to use information
contained in the data if it is obtained from another source without
re­striction. The data in this proposal subject to this restriction is
contained on pages \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ of this proposal.

**Appendix B**

**U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY**

**SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PROGRAM**

**SOLICITATION NUMBER PR-NC-03-10274**

**SAFE BUILDINGS AND WATER SECURITY PHASE I**

**PROJECT SUMMARY (Limit to One Page)**

FIRM NAME, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBER, AND E-MAIL ADDRESS:

Firm Name:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Telephone: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Address:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Fax:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
E-mail:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

TITLE OF PROPOSAL:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

TOPIC LETTER AND DESCRIPTION:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

NAME, TITLE, AND E-MAIL ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT
MANAGER:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT, RESULTS, AND POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATION

**(Limit to 400 Words; Must be Publishable):**

**Appendix C**

**SBIR PROPOSAL SUMMARY BUDGET**

(See Instructions on the Next Page)

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Organization and Address

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

A. DIRECT LABOR (PI and other staff, list separately) Hours/Est. Rate:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

B. OVERHEAD:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

C. OTHER DIRECT COSTS: (list separately)

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

D. TRAVEL: List purpose and individuals and/or title

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

E. CONSULTANTS: (List Est. Rate and Hours)

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

F. GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**TOTAL COSTS (Total of A through F above)**
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

G. PROFIT (\_\_\_\_%) Not to exceed 10% of total project costs
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**TOTAL PROJECT PRICE (Total costs + Profit)
\$\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

PRINT NAME: TITLE:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

SIGNATURE:
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ DATE
SUBMITTED: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

This proposal is submitted in response to EPA SBIR Program Solicitation
No. PR-NC-03-10274 and reflects our best estimate as of this date.

**INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPENDIX C**

The purpose of this form is to provide a vehicle whereby the offeror
submits to the Government a pricing pro­posal of estimated costs with
detailed information for each cost element, consistent with the
offeror's cost account­ing system.

If the completed summary is not self-explanatory and/or does not fully
document and justify the amounts re­quested in each category, such
documentation should be contained, as appropriate, on a budget
explanation page im­mediately following the budget in the proposal. The
form Appendix C will count as one page in the 25-page limit, and any
budget explanation pages included will count separately toward the
25-page limit. (See below for discus­sion on various categories.)

A. Direct Labor - List individually all personnel included, the
estimated hours to be expended and the rates of pay (salary, wages, and
fringe benefits).

B. Overhead - Specify current rate(s) and base(s). Use current rate(s)
negotiated with the cognizant Federal ne­gotiating agency, if available.
If no rate(s) has (have) been negotiated, a reasonable rate(s) may be
requested for Phase I which will be subject to approval by EPA. Offerors
may use whatever number and types of overhead rates that are in
accordance with their accounting systems and approved by the cognizant
Federal negotiating agency, if available.

C. Other Direct Costs - List all other direct costs which are not
otherwise included in the categories described above, i.e., computer
services, publication costs, subcontracts, etc. List each item of
permanent equipment to be purchased, its price, and explain its relation
to the project.

D. Travel - Address the type and extent of travel and its relation to
the project.

E. Consultants - Indicate name, daily compensation, and estimated days
of service.

F. General and Administrative (G&A) - Same as B above.

G. Profit - Reasonable fee (estimated profit) will be considered under
this solicitation. For guidance purposes, the amount of profit normally
should not exceed 10% of total project costs.

**Appendix D**

**SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION SOURCES**

State-of-the-art information, including service and cost details, useful
in preparing SBIR proposals or in guiding research efforts may be
obtained from the following sources:

National Technical Information Service (NTIS)

5288 Port Royal Road

Springfield, VA 22161

\(513\) 569-7562

EPA Headquarters Library (3404)

US Environmental Protection Agency

401 M Street, SW

Washington, DC 20460

\(202\) 260-5922

The Hazardous Waste Collection and Database are available for use in the
EPA Headquarters Library, the 10 EPA Regional libraries, EPA
laboratories in ADA, OK; Edison, NJ; Las Vegas, NV; Research Triangle
Park, NC; and the National Enforcement Investigations Center in Denver,
CO. The Database runs on an IBM AT/XT or compatible equipment and may be
pur­chased from NTIS using the NTIS order number PB87-945000.

The Environmental Quality Instructional Resources Center

1200 Chambers Road, R.310

Columbus, OH 43212

\(614\) 292-6717

\[Especially related to Drinking Water and Waste Water Treatment\]

National Small Flows Clearinghouse (SWICH)

P.O. Box 7219

Silver Spring, MD 20910

1-800-677-9424

\[Topic themes include source reduction, recycling, composting, waste
combustion, collection, transfer, disposal, landfill gas, and special
wastes\]

ACCESS EPA (#055-000-00509-5) 1995 Edition

A consolidated guide to EPA information resources, services, and
products. It provides access to:

Public information tools

Major EPA dockets

Clearing houses and hot lines

Records management programs

Major EPA environmental databases

Library and information services

State environmental libraries

"ACCESS EPA" may be ordered at a cost of \$16.00 each from the U.S.
Government Printing Office, New Orders, Superintendent of Documents,
P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954, or telephone (202)512-1800,
or from NTIS using order number PB-147438.

Vendor Information System for Innovative Treatment Technologies (VISITT)
profiles 325 innovative technologies available from 204 vendors to treat
ground water in situ, soil, sludges, and sediments. It includes
technologies in all stages of development-bench, pilot, or full. VISITT
is available at no charge on diskettes compatible with personal
computers using DOS operating systems. To order VISITT diskettes and
user manual, and to become a registered user, call the VISITT Hotline at
1-800-245-4505.

ENVIROSENSE

Internet: http://www.epa.gov/envirosense

ES includes numerous databases and addresses industry and small business
needs by establishing specific compli­ance assistance, P2, regulatory,
and specific industry sector (SIC) data sets.

**Appendix E**

**COMMERCIALIZATION FACTSHEET/PATENT SEARCH**

(Finding Commercial Products; Conducting a Patent Search; Searching for
Federal Research;\
Standards/Certifying Bodies)

***FINDING COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS***

The technology you are proposing may already be being sold in the
market. There are five Web searches recom­­mended as the minimum for
determining if the technology is commercially available. In each case,
when having trouble look for the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) or
other advice on searching.

*Web Search Using General Search Engines*

There are around 320 million indexed Web pages and the Web continues to
grow exponentially. One problem with this rate of growth is that no
single Web search engine is capable of indexing the whole of cyberspace.
We rec­ommend using at least one meta-engine and two search engines.

A meta-engine is a search engine which searches other engines that
actually catalog or index sites. Examples are Metacrawler,
http://www.metacrawler.com/, and Dogpile, http://www.dogpile.com. We use
that search to iden­tify which search engines seem to be producing the
best results and then use those engines for more complicated queries
which cannot be supported by Metacrawler and other meta-engines.

Two engines for more detailed searches at present are Hotbot's More
Options page
(http://www.hotbot.com/default.asp?MT=&SM=MC&DV=7&RG=com&act.super=+More+Options+&DC=10&DE=2&\_v=2&OPs=
MDRTP) and Alta Vista's Advanced Query Page
(http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq). Both engines
allow you to search new groups (Usenet) as well as the Web. Hotbot has
the largest number of pages in­dexed by any Web browser as this is
written. Alta Vista has the next most extensive coverage. Unfortunately,
queries are constrained to the options presented. Alta Vista supports
any Boolean query you can design. Both sites have a search by subject
feature that provides another path to sites of interest. Because Digital
Equipment Corpor­ation, who maintains Alta Vista, is a high-tech company,
this engine has traditionally been strong on indexing sci­ence and
technology sites.

When searching, expand or narrow your keywords over time. For example,
when searching for "sapphire liquid crystal displays," you may want to
broaden to liquid crystal displays or just displays. Also remember to
use abbrevi­ations such as LCD.

*Thomas Register of American Manufacturers:* Long a staple of corporate
buyers and market researchers, you can access Thomas Register on-line
for free at http://www.thomasregister.com/. Once you obtain your free
mem­bership, you can search the 155,000 companies by product. You may
have to try a few different keywords to get hits.

*Hoovers*: Hoovers on-line at http://www.hoovers.com provides access to
profiles on over 12,000 companies. These are the major firms in America,
including subsidiaries of foreign operations. By using the keyword
search, you can look for companies making products in areas related to
your technology. Hoovers provides hypertext links to go to the company's
Web page. Phone, fax, and street address are also provided. If you
cannot find the informa­tion on the Web, ask for relevant product
literature from their marketing departments.

*Press Releases:* PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com/) redistributes
corporate press releases. It provides coverage of newly released
products that might not otherwise be found on the Web.

*Patents:* We discuss patent searches in the next section of this
factsheet. Look for patents related to your tech­nology, then examine the
assignee field. Companies licensing or patenting technology in areas
related to your tech­nology are competitors that may be introducing
products similar to the one you are considering proposing. Search for
their Web pages using one of the resources above.

***CONDUCTING A PATENT SEARCH***

*What is a patent?* A patent is a right to an invention that is granted
by the U.S. Government or a foreign gov­ernment. It gives the holder an
exclusive right to use an invention during a period of time. In the
United States, before a patent can be issued, the inventor must
demonstrate his or her invention is new and non-obvious. To be new, an
invention must not have been known nor made by others in the U.S. The
invention also can not have been previously patented or presented in a
publication prior to the claimed date on which the invention was made.
Patents are handled by the U.S. Patent Office.

Non-obvious is established with reference to what would be obvious to a
person of ordinary skill in the relevant technology (or technologies) at
the time of the invention. A general rule is that the more complicated
the technology and the greater the rate at which it is developing, the
higher the skill-level of that hypothetical ordinary person. Non-obvious
is determined by examining prior patents, technical publications, and
non-secret work being conduct­ed. Usually some aspect of an inven­tion
will be non-obvious and thus capable of being patented.

It is important to recognize that different rules apply in different
countries. In the U.S., you have 1 year from the time of first
disclosure, use, publication, or sale of an invention to patent the
invention. Where more than one person or group makes a claim to be the
inventor, the patent goes to the person or group that can demonstrate
prior­ity in time. Overseas, the rules are different. Usually the
invention must be patented before any public disclosure, use,
publication, or sale. In case of a dispute, priority goes to the first
person or group to apply for a patent, regard­less of who may actually be
the inventor. You can, however, get the same overseas priority rights
you would get from simultaneously filing overseas and in the U.S. if you
file in each relevant country within 12 months of a U.S. patent
application.

*How to search for U.S. patents*: To search the Patent Office go to
http://patents.uspto.gov/index.html.

The Boolean search capability of the Patent Office enables constructing
complicated searches to narrow in on patents of interest. It allows two
terms Booleans in the first search, with more complicated queries when
refining a search. You can search specific sets of years or the entire
database. The advanced search gives you the ability to look in any or
all of the fields in the patent---a very nice feature. Coverage includes
all patents issued no later than one week earlier. It includes all
utility, design, and plant patents since 1976. Claims and pictures are
not included. (See below, Reading Patents.)

The IBM Patent server contains over 2 million patents. Where drawings
are part of the patent, they have been scanned in and can be viewed. Off
the home page, you have the option of searching from 1995 to present or
1971 to present. Hypertext links on the home page let you search by
patent number, use Boolean Logic, or do a text search in various
sections of the patent. Try to be as targeted as possible in your search
terms. For example, "environ­mental monitor" will return 42 patents
issued in 1995 or later on IBM's server. "Mercury monitor," by
comparison, returns only three.

*Reading Patents*: Once you have found a patent that looks relevant for
your interests, examine the abstract and the claims. The abstract
provides an overview of what is covered. The claims give you the
specific scope of the patent.

There are three paths for finding other patents of interest, once you
have found the first one. The first method is to look at the class (or
classes) of the patent. You can find patents addressing similar problems
by looking in those classes. To fine tune the classes to use, look at a
number of relevant patents. Examine the classes that are listed on the
patent. Select those classes that most frequently appear across your
sample of patents for further examination.

The second method is to look at the patents cited as references. The
final method is to look at patents that refer­ence the one you are
examining. By searching text, relevant classes, and patents referred to
or referencing relevant patents you can quickly determine if a U.S.
patent has issued on a technology of interest. CAUTION: Examining U.S.
patents does not assure you the technology has not been patented
elsewhere. Further, if the patent is only ap­plied for and has not yet
been issued, you will not find it.

***SEARCHING FOR FEDERAL RESEARCH***

There are two sets of publicly available data on Federal Research.
FEDRIP, or Federal Research in Progress, provides access to current
civilian agency research. FEDRIP includes:

-   Department of Agriculture

-   Department of Energy

-   Department of Veterans Affairs

-   Environmental Protection Agency

-   Federal Highway Administration

-   National Institutes of Health

-   NASA

-   National Science Foundation

-   US Geological Survey

-   National Institute of Standards and Technology

-   Nuclear Regulatory Commission

-   Small Business Innovation Research

Parts of FEDRIP may be searched for free at The Community of Science,
http://fundedresearch.cos.com/. Separate databases exist for the
National Institutes of Health, NSF, USDA, and the SBIR program---which
means you must do multiple searches. You can also search projects of the
Medical Research Council of the United King­dom. To search all of FEDRIP,
go to http://grc.ntis.gov/fedrip.htm. There is a \$350 fee.

In addition, by going to an agency's Web site, you can find information
on their current and/or past awards. The National Technical Information
Service (NTIS) is the designated repository of research reports. It
contains technical reports and other government-produced information
products. The free access parts may be searched at http://www.ntis.gov/.

Perhaps the best comprehensive resource for searching is the RAND's
RaDiUS at http://www.rand.org/radius/. RaDiUS stands for "Research and
Development in the United States." It is the first comprehensive
database that tracks in real time the research and development
activities and resources of the U.S. Government. Among its sources are
the following: the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA); USDA's
Current Research Infor­mation System (CRIS); HHS's Computer Retrieval of
Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP) and Information for
Management, Planning, Analysis, and Coordination (IMPAC) system; DoD's
R-1 and R-2 Budget Exhibits and Work Unit Information Summaries (WUIS);
DOE's la­boratory information system; the Federal Assistance Awards Data
System (FAADS); the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS); OMB's MAX
system; DVA's R&D Infor­mation System (RDIS); NSF's Science and
Technology System (STIS); and NASA's 507 System.

You must be a Government Contractor to subscribe to RaDiUS. The small
business fee is \$1,000 per year per password.

***STANDARDS AND CERTIFYING BODIES***

If you are going to introduce a commercial product, it most likely will
have to meet certain standards and be cer­tified as meeting those
standards. For example, we all are familiar with the Underwriter
Laboratories seal found on household electrical products---a
certification of safety under normal use.

A wide range of bodies creates standards or certifies products. To find
relevant standards, we recommend be­ginning at the American National
Standards Institute's "Internet Resources for Standards Developers,"
located at:
http://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/overview/overview.aspx?menuid=3.
The site provides links to U.S. bodies developing ­standards.

In the U.S., private-sector laboratories, like UL commonly do
certification. These organizations rely on stand­ards developed by
consensus bodies such as the American Society for Testing and Materials
(http://www.astm.org/) or Federal agencies such as EPA. ASTM maintains
an International Directory of Testing Laboratories at:
http://astm.365media.com/astm/labs/. The Directory can be searched by
geographic location, lab name, subject area, or keywords.

**IMPORTANT!!**

**IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT CARD TO CONFIRM RECEIPT OF
YOUR PROPO­SAL, PLEASE COMPLETE A STANDARD SELF-ADDRESSED POSTCARD
CONTAINING THE FOLLOW­ING INFORMATION AND ATTACH TO THE
[ORIGINAL]{.underline} OF EACH PROPOSAL:**

Please type the following and fill in the blanks as appropriate:

**This will acknowledge the receipt of your proposal titled:**

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

**Topic Letter \_\_\_\_\_. The evaluation of proposals and the award of
SBIR Contracts will require approx­imately 10 months, and no information
on proposal status will be available until final selection(s) is made.
Your proposal has been assigned EPA No.
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**(to be filled in by EPA).

**Date:\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

REVERSE SIDE: Please type the following in the upper left-hand corner
(return address) and self-address the card to your corporate official:
(Post cards that do not meet not postal service standards will not be
returned).

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

U.S. EPA

RTP/POD (D143-01)

RTP, NC 27711

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use \$300

Your Firm Name

Address

City, State Zipcode

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**