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Questions & Answers

*Questions were taken from the live Q&A held on

15 November 2023 and edited only for grammar and clarity.

Q: How do we get in touch with the NGA Industry Engagement Team?

A: You can contact us at industryengagement@nga.mil.

Q: Is the Industry Strategy Summit being recorded?

A: The summit is not being recorded.

Q: Is there an agenda?

A: An agenda/flow of speakers is posted at: https://www.nga.mil/news/2023_Industry_Strategy_Summit.html.

Q: Will these slides be shared at the end of the briefing? 

A: The presentation slides can be found here: https://www.nga.mil/news/2023_Industry_Strategy_Summit.html

Q: What does CAE stand for in the presentation? 

A: Component Acquisition Executive (CAE). 

Q: We understand there will be an NGA Maven Industry Day. Can you please clarify?

A: NGA Maven Industry day is tentatively scheduled for 7 March 2024. More details will be 

posted soon.

Q: GEOSPI was planned on being an expansion of professional services with analytics, however 

all of the TOs so far have been professional services only. When will this change? 

A: Across the next several months, the GEO SPI program will be seeking service solutions on 

numerous requirements transitioning from the legacy MACSS program. Historically, NGA has employed government prescribed approaches articulating the number and type of labor categories 
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required for a mission-specific service solution. Under GEO-SPI, NGA continues to move away 

from this traditional contract environment. The GEO-SPI vendors will see a greater emphasis of 

requirements seeking contractor-provided solutions, and blended solutions where requirements 

owners can continue to define a portion of the technical approach while still taking advantage of 

contractors’ unique skills and approaches. 

Q: How do we get a new, innovated, and unique software solution evaluated? We submitted our 

product overview to NGA earlier this year. We conducted a presentation to the NGA team; we 

were approved for the catalog. However, our product has never been trialed or evaluated. What’s 

Next? 

A: Our teams are always looking for software products that satisfy approved and funded requirements. We rely on engagements with industry partners to help us understand cutting edge technology and how we should be thinking about incorporating it into our requirements and proposals. 

Keep an eye out for future opportunities on the ARC (https://acq.westfields.net) that may incorporate technology areas you are innovating in.

Q: If the PEO construct is not an org chart, are you saying that each of the discrete PMOs are reporting to people other than the PEO? 

A: The PEO construct defines acquisition oversight and decision making for acquisition activities. 

The PMO’s report to their PEOs for milestone and other acquisition decisions. Activities inside the 

PMO (programs and projects) report to the PMO lead or a designated authority determined by the 

PMO lead based on the scope and complexity of the work.

Q: Where can I find “The Way of AI” document?

A: You can find this document here: https://www.nga.mil/assets/files/230222-008_NGAs_The_

Way_of_AI_publication_WEB.pdf. 

Q: Is the software capabilities document classified or can it be shared on the low side? 

A: The NGA Software Way document can be found here: https://www.nga.mil/assets/files/

The_NGA_Software_Way.pdf. 

Q: Are you using ChatGPT for text reporting in AI/ML?

A: NGA is not using ChatGPT. However, there are a number of teams across NGA that are exploring generative AI, to include Large Language Models and how they can be leveraged in support 

of our missions.

Q: Are you interested in seeing new ways to handle data in an on prem infrastructure/private 

cloud platform to better support LLM using High-end GPUs? 

A: We’re always looking at new ways of doing things with emerging technology. Our Industry 

Engagement Team is a great first step to engaging with the NGA Team to match your technology 

with potential stakeholders. Please reach out to industryengagement@nga.mil. 
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Q: Did NGA put companies on contract for this exploration of GenerativeAI and, what is the best 

way to engage if you have AI capabilities that might warrant “exploration”? 

A: The best way to engage is to use our Front Door! Send us an email at industryengagement@

nga.mil. 

Q: Is there a Small Business Specialist dedicated to MAVEN? 

A: No. Given the limited size of the NGA Small Business team, requirements are assigned to our 

respective Small Business Professionals (SBP) based on ongoing workload. SBPs partner closely 

with various NGA acquisition stakeholders on every NGA requirement, from requirements development through contract award/administration. 

Q: NGA mentioned the continued need of change detection at global and regional scales in support of climate monitoring, prioritization of map updates, as well as more localized change detection to support facility/feature monitoring, however, Source just published the following statement: 

“The Source Directorate’s Office of Geography will cease funding of the RPM/RPMI data set on Nov 

15th. Accordingly, the acquisition of new RPM change detection data will be discontinued after this 

date.” Please clarify. 

A: NGA intends to explore a variety of complementary capabilities for change detection. 

Q: What is meant by semantic uncertainty? 

A: Semantic uncertainty arises in situations where humans give names to things, and especially 

when those things are mapped as geographical information. It therefore occurs whenever two 

analysts do not have an absolutely clear and identical conceptualization of the classes of objects 

they are studying.

Q: MAVEN is heavily focused on just CV model development and applications. With the interest 

in LLM’s/NLP to improve summarization/reporting, will there be a separate RFI/RFP to explore 

integration with LLMs and is there an estimated timeline of when those would come out? 

A: There are a number of teams across NGA that are exploring generative AI, to include Large 

Language Models and how they can be leveraged for summarization/reporting. These efforts are 

in the very early stages so we don’t have a firm timeline on when to expect any RFI/RFP’s specific 

to integrating LLM’s into operations. 

Q: Will these LM requirements be in the soon to be published NGA S&T BAA? 

A: NGA is planning to start posting BAA topics in the mid-December timeframe; the first topic 

will be Geospatial Intelligence Foundation Model, which will focus on technologies to automate 

mapping, charting, and geodesy functions. NGA is committed to exploring all technologies that 

advance the GEOINT mission through the BIG-ST BAA, including LLMs; however, before topics are 

formally posted, we are not able to provide additional information.
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Q: Any small business initiatives related to professional services, including Accounting, Finance, 

and Human Resources? 

A: Projections on whether NGA plans to set-aside respective requirements for Small Business will 

be listed on the Business Opportunities List on the ARC. The ARC can be accessed at https://acq.

westfields.net.

Q: Is NGA able to aid non-IT small businesses in partnering with IT companies for entry into AI 

development? 

A: NGA often hosts industry days for specific acquisitions, which can serve as an opportunity for 

companies to partner. NGA cannot serve as a broker to partner companies with each other.

Q: Can you expand on NGA giving small businesses equal opportunities as large businesses?

A: There is no way to ensure equal opportunities. Many opportunities are requirements-driven. 

Small businesses need to respond to opportunities that are posted on the ARC.

Q: Where is this “digital twin” articulated by NGA Foundation Office? 

A: NGA’s digital twin was addressed by the Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 

in his 22 May 2023 remarks at the USGIF GEOINT Symposium. The entirety of his remarks are 

found here: Remarks as prepared for Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth , Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for 2023 USGIF GEOINT Symposium | National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency (nga.mil). “You may have heard of digital twins. A virtual representation of a real-world 

system, a digital twin is typically used to predict conditions, responses, or results of the real-world 

system by modeling inputs in a prediction of future potential. An example is the aeronautical 

industry building digital twins of aircraft engines, to help predict how well and how long they’ll 

perform under various maintenance conditions. We’re seeking to build a dynamic digital twin for 

foundation data of the entire globe, by building an automated federation of feature-level data, 

updated and provided in near real-time.” Now that computers are powerful and seamlessly integrated, and mass storage is economical, NGA’s quest for a digital twin may become a reality as 

it seeks to transform itself into a data-centric organization relying on automation and integration of 

Foundation GEOINT content to provide consumers with an immersive digital experience.

Q: When will the Foundational Digital Twin RFI be released to Industry? 

A: NGA continues to organize around this effort by identifying, defining, and planning for acquisition activities, with no set timeline for an RFI release.
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Q: One of the aspects of NGA CORE is to provide analytics to more users across the NGA, by 

which NGA focuses on creating containerized microservices that run at scale. Can you explain 

how NGA will fund vendors’ efforts to create microservices which run at scale? Traditionally, the 

government purchases software licenses which are used to develop tradecraft, that is deployed in 

different environments. Will NGA continue paying for traditional licenses to use vendors analytics, 

or only microservices, or both? 

A: For commercial software products, it is up to each vendor to determine if refactoring their application for containers make sense for their business. For government software products, NGA will 

fund our development contracts to make this change if and when it makes sense. NGA is moving 

toward a service centric architecture, but that doesn’t mean 100% of all software is going to be 

a micro-service. We will continue to use both traditional licensing while exploring new licensing 

options for microservices. 

Q: How does a company with nascent security get started with security and risk mitigation?

A: Start with the ODNI National Counterintelligence and Security Center Enterprise Risk 

Mitigation Blueprint for Non-Intelligence Agencies: https://www.dni.gov/files/NCSC/documents/products/Risk_Mitigation_Web_2023.pdf. 

Q: Do you use GSA STARS III? 

A: NGA uses a variety of vehicles to obtain software licenses, though we have not used STARS III 

to date. 

Q: Any plan to do a government wide procurement of commercial satellite AIS? 

A: NGA will be looking to commercial industry to deliver insights and analytics that use a diverse 

set of sources, including AIS.

Q: Would NGA Commercial Services be open to created domain, location, function-specific event 

driven subscriptions created from multiple commercial services to which your mission partners and 

analysts can subscribe? This would require fusing the content from multiple providers and making 

it available via a data streaming platform.

A: NGA is interested in those capabilities. If you have something you’d like to show us please 

email industryengagement@nga.mil. 

Q: What about Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) as a procurement option?

A: NGA does have the ability to utilize OTAs as a procurement option, and uses that authority 

when appropriate. 
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Q: Is Facility Clearance a requirement for a Vendor to initiate engagement with NGA? Are there 

any opportunities for unclassified work? 

A: NGA does have requirements for unclassified work. Please see the monthly NGA Business Opportunities posted on the ARC (https://acq.westfields.net) for specific opportunities. 

Q: What I haven’t heard yet is anything about Spend Under Management (SUM) from the PEO 

structure. Will NGA comply with OMB SUM goals and use more Tier 3 and Tier 2 acquisition contracts? 

A: Tier 2 is procurement spending via Government-wide or multi-agency contract vehicles that 

reflect strong management practices, including data and information sharing across agencies 

and use of cross-agency metrics. Tier 3 is procurement spending via Government-wide contract 

vehicles that meet additional “Best in Class” standards for management and stewardship. The PEO 

structure will allow NGA to improve its existing contract management, and implement/improve 

its spend under management. 

Q: Is there an organization chart showing the new PEO structure? 

A: The chart will be included in the slides when we post them to the Summit website: https://www.

nga.mil/news/2023_Industry_Strategy_Summit.html.

Q: Is CIO-T (or some office) preparing for CMMC 2.1 requirements for USG contracting? 

A: The NGA Cybersecurity Office, headed by our Chief Information Security Officer, has responsibility for preparing for CMMC. Currently CMMC is undergoing a pilot with several participants 

from within the Defense Industrial Base. Upon completion of that pilot, NGA will review the results 

and determine how to approach implementation. 

Q: Please tell me the source document for “J-ran.”

A: Unfortunately, the Joint Regional Edge Nodes (JREN) CONOP is classified, but if that is not an 

impediment, NGA’s Architecture and Engineering Office (TA) can provide the JREN CONOP and 

architectural documentation. 

Q: Can Industry anticipate any JREN specific contract opportunities in FY24?

A: As capabilities are deployed out to the 4 JRENs in FY24, more opportunities for vendors and 

contractors to provide capability are expected to increase. 

Q: Will NGA release the STARDUST opportunity? 

A: NGA is still in the process of refining its requirements for STARDUST. There is not currently a 

scheduled RFP release date. Please continue to check the ARC for updates (https://acq.westfields.

net). 
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Q: Does NGA use an “open topic” model for SBIR and STTR, like the Air Force has pioneered 

through AFWERX? 

A: At this point, we are not planning to issue open SBIR/STTR topics. 

Q: Has the Solicitation for the Luno A and B IDIQ already closed or will that be released in 

the future? 

A: Luno A and Luno B are multi-award Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contracts slated to 

award in FY24. They are intended to transform NGA’s approach for geospatial information and 

knowledge, expand access to data and services for the National System for Geospatial Intelligence, accelerate workflow modernization objectives, and integrate data and services into enterprise capabilities. The Luno A and B Requests for Proposals (RFP) have yet to be released, though 

the Luno A draft RFP was released on 31 Oct via the SBU ARC. NGA posted a notification on sam.

gov as to where vendors could find the draft. NGA is actively addressing questions received in 

response to the Luno A draft RFP. As the actual RFP for Luno A and Luno B are posted, NGA will 

make similar notifications. 

Q: Can Kelly address the suspension of Contractor Telework? 

A: NGA is not suspending all contractor telework. That said, just as offices are reexamining telework for their government employees, they are reexamining at whether telework makes sense in 

a post-Covid environment for the work being performed on contract. If offices determine that their 

work can be better performed with more on-site presence, NGA contracting officers will contact 

companies to revise applicable contract language.

Q: Are the small business category goals (e.g., WOSB, HubZone, etc.) rewarded in source selection evaluations? In other words, can a bidder get extra credit for using those harder to reach 

small businesses? 

A: There is no order of precedent among the socio-economic categories; the Contracting Officer 

will consider market research and NGA’s progress in meeting its small business goals in determining which socio-economic category to use. NGA acquisition stakeholders conduct market research for every Agency requirement in order to maximize small business prime contract or small 

business subcontracting awards. For those requirements where the Contracting Officer believes 

he/she will receive two or more offers from responsible small businesses at fair market prices, then 

the requirement may be set aside for small business (or small businesses in one of the socio-economic categories). 

Q: Where do you post the information regarding Socio-economic Small Business Outreach events? 

A: The planned socio-economic outreach events, once finalized, will be publicized via the ARC 

and the NGA homepage. 
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Q: How do we get a 1-1 meeting for an 8(a), WOSB firm that provides GIS Services in the industry 

but has not worked with NGA thus far?

A: The Small Business Program Office has not begun the 1 -1 meetings. When planning is finalized for those sessions, announcements will be posted on the ARC and the NGA homepage to 

publicize those events. In the meantime, if you have no done so, you should contact the Industry 

Engagement team at industryengagement@nga.mil to begin the enterprise-level discovery process.

Q: Any forward thinking regarding asymmetrical battlespaces that can disrupt highly advanced 

technologies using a more simplistic approach from adversaries using lower tier technologies? 

A: We’re always thinking about this problem. In fact, our push to adopt NGA CORE, have teams 

follow The NGA Software Way, and implementation of the Joint Regional Edge nodes have the 

very intended side effects (infrastructure as code, no downtime upgrades, resilient global mesh) 

that will minimize disruption to our mission.

Q: There were a number of new opportunities mentioned today (new RFIs, Summit, new Maven 

opportunities, etc.). The majority of them are not currently listed on the latest Business Opportunities (10/30/23) listing on the unclassified ARC. When will they be listed there?

A: The NGA Business Opportunities list is updated at the end of each month, with business opportunities that have matured to the point of public announcement. Several of the opportunities 

mentioned during the Summit have not yet reached that level of maturity. For example, many of the 

planned MAVEN opportunities are still in the early planning stages as NGA migrates from other 

contracting vehicles to NGA vehicles. Please continue to monitor the unclassified ARC for updates 

to NGA’s Business Opportunities.

Q: Does NGA plan on using GSA vehicles more often than putting contracts out on the ARC?

A: NGA posts its monthly business opportunities on the ARC. Those opportunities include acquisitions planned for GSA vehicles.

Q: Does NGA solicitations require FCL/Clearance for its data related procurements? What portion 

of your solicitations require FCL? Can highly competitive companies make it into NGA without FCL? 

If so, how?

A: Clearance requirements are determined on a case-by-case basis for each procurement, regardless of the type of commodity or service provided. NGA does not keep metrics on the number of 

solicitations requiring facilities clearances.

Q: Which BAA was the speaker just referring to?

A: NGA Research’s new Boosting Innovative GEOINT - Science and Technology (BIG-ST) BAA will 

be published on sam.gov and grants.gov starting mid-December. The first topic will be Geospatial 

Intelligence Foundational Model; future topics will be added throughout FY24. 
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Q: Do you do 8(a)Sole Source?

A: NGA utilizes all available procurement vehicles, including 8(a) sole-source as appropriate. 

Q: Does NGA list opportunities in GSA’s eBuy also? 

A: NGA utilizes GSA eBuy when appropriate for the item/service being procured. Vendors can 

set up alerts for the NAICS codes they provide to ensure they get timely notification of new opportunities.

Q: Is there any update that can be provided on the status of pending award for the RDC solicitation? 

A: We are still in source selection evaluation. 

Q: Do the small businesses need to apply for the Mentor Protégé Program with their mentor, or do 

you help coordinate that? 

A: The mentor submits the application on the company’s behalf. The company needs to ensure that 

the mentor is a right fit for them as NGA can’t facilitate the relationship.