Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Development

This SOP has internal roles only.

Purpose

To encourage contract proposals using creative and innovative approaches in research areas identified by the government.

Procedure

NIAID does not establish a competitive range for broad agency announcements (BAAs). Following peer review of technical proposals, the government may create an order of merit ranking. At that point, the contracting officer, assisted by the contracting officer's representative, selects the awardees.

Contracting Officer's Representatives

Working on a BAA follows similar procedures to a request for proposals (RFP), with a few exceptions. BAAs differ from standard RFPs in the following ways:

• Instead of a statement of work, the government provides research and technical objectives in the BAA solicitation that describe the research areas the government is interested in.
• The offeror, not the government, develops and defines a statement of work, including work requirements and performance specifications.
• The government negotiates with offerors. During negotiations, an offeror can work with a contracting officer to refine the statement of work to incorporate peer reviewer and program comments.

Contact your contract specialist if you have any questions about working with BAAs.

Contract Specialists

• When preparing a BAA solicitation, use Specification Package—Template with Instructions for Broad Agency Announcement.
• When awarding multiple contracts under a BAA, if the award decision does not follow the technical order of merit ranking, document the rationale in a memo to the NIAID deputy director for science management to be routed through the DEA director. Find a route slip on the OA Workspace.

OA Procurement Technicians

• Make sure BAAs are posted on the Federal Business Opportunities FedBizOpps Web site.
• See the Federal Business Opportunities SOP for details.

Contacts

Staff Only Contact

If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.

Links

NIH Manual Issuance 6035, Broad Agency Announcements

FAR Subpart 35.016, Broad Agency Announcement

FAR Subpart 6.102, Use of Competitive Procedures