Can FFRDCs and government agencies respond to a BAA?
In general, Government labs and FFRDCs are not permitted to compete directly with other sources. Proposals submitted by FFRDCs and Government labs are handled as in-house efforts. The proposals should be submitted directly to the appropriate DARPA program manager (PM) who must carefully evaluate their unique contributions. If a lab or FFRDC submits a proposal to a BAA, they will be sent a letter thanking them for their interest and stating that the proposal will be reviewed, but not as part of the BAA evaluation. If a PM wants to work with a lab or FFRDC, a justified “in-house” effort would be the way to fund it. If a proposer wants to include lab or FFRDC work, this sometimes can be done as a subcontract (depending on the lab), or by referring to “work being submitted independently to DARPA.” The latter case would then refer to the SOW provided separately by the lab. Two exceptions to the above include (a) DOD sponsored FFRDCs that function primarily as research laboratories, and (b)
