**SOLICITATION ID: When the Solicitation is published, it will be under 75D301-25-R-00072**
PROGRAM SUMMARY:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intends to issue a Fiscal Year 2025 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Applied Research in reference to the Development and Demonstration of Mine Safety and Health Technology. This pre-solicitation notice is intended for informational purposes only and does not commit the Government to make an award or to pay for white paper or proposal preparation expenses generated by potential offerors in response to this announcement.
PROGRAM BACKGROUND:
The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act) permanently established the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research under the direction of an Associate Director, within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. One purpose of this office is to enhance the development of new technology and technological applications, and to expedite the commercial availability and implementation of such technology in mining environments. The MINER Act grants the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research the authority to (1) award competitive contracts and grants to institutions and private entities to encourage the development and manufacture of mine safety equipment and (2) award contracts to education institutions or private laboratories for the performance of product testing or related work with respect to new mine technology or equipment. This announcement is an opportunity for the award of contracts for enhancing safety in mines.
The primary goal of the MINER Act technology mandate is to improve/increase the use of technology in mines to improve mineworker safety and health, and the intent of this broad agency announcement is to support enabling activities such as technology identification, validation, demonstration, adaptation, and/or commercialization. The Office of Mine Safety and Health Research of NIOSH is soliciting concept papers to conduct research, exploratory development, testing, or evaluations of new technologies to improve mine safety, or to adapt technologies from other industries for application in mining environments. The primary interest of this broad agency announcement is to promote the modification or final development of practical technologies or systems that can be adopted by the mining community in a short period of time. Under this specific solicitation, proposals to conduct theoretical or basic research will not be considered. NIOSH strongly encourages proposals that include collaboration with mining industry partners who understand the reality of the mining environment and can provide insight into unique mining-related design requirements and potential commercialization of the technology.
The following examples are presented to further illustrate appropriate submissions under this solicitation beyond the more general guidance listed previously:
Since 2007, 160 contracts have been issued in response to these solicitations. Fatality and injury data continue to highlight the need to develop new or improve existing technologies or adapt technologies from other industries to address safety and health issues in surface, and underground mines related to the coal, metal, non-metal, and stone, sand, and gravel mining sectors. NIOSH has typically provided a number of topical areas of importance to guide responders in addressing its highest priorities; this solicitation continues that practice as described below. However, NIOSH strongly encourages responders to propose solutions to other health and safety issues that are responsive to our guidelines; these proposals are evaluated under the same criteria as submittals under the focus area and receive equal consideration for funding. Overall, twenty-six percent of the contracts funded under this program have come from this category of submittals and, in several fiscal years, have made up all of the funded proposals.
ACQUISITION OBJECTIVE:
PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: All work is intended to take place at the Contractor’s Site.
The Government anticipates the following Area(s) of interest will be included in the solicitation:
Prior BAA solicitations included focus areas relating to a smaller, lighter, more ergonomic, and more economical version of the current continuous personal dust monitor for respirable coal dust and a similar real-time dust monitoring unit to detect respirable crystalline silica dust applicable to all industry segments. While regulatory compliance currently requires mass-based measurement, NIOSH believes there is a market for units measuring coal dust, silica, or both, that are low enough in cost that they can either be issued to every miner to provide near real-time results and allow miners to identify elevated dust/silica levels and take immediate corrective action to prevent overexposure or be routinely used to evaluate the efficacy of engineering controls to protect the workforce. In addition, the new silica rule by MSHA (Federal Register 28218, Vol. 89, No. 76, April 18, 2024 “Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection”) may further increase the market for units that measure respirable silica dust, especially in real-time.
This continuing BAA focus area is included to stimulate potential research and development opportunities in this critical area. As background, the Continuous Personal Dust Monitor currently in use in underground coal mining (Thermo Scientific PDM3700) has significantly improved respirable coal dust monitoring capabilities and compliance with MSHA coal mine dust exposure regulations and demonstrated the value in providing near-real time exposure information directly to the miner and operator. By limiting solutions to a mass-based unit to meet regulatory requirements however, many promising alternatives are eliminated. As a result, NIOSH has opened this solicitation to other measurements techniques with the aim of driving technology to the level where every miner, irrespective of job categorization, could be provided a personal wearable unit.
Currently, there is no viable instrument to measure respirable crystalline silica dust in real-time. Measurement of respirable crystalline silica dust in real time would provide miners the ability to learn their potential exposure hazards and allow them to remove themselves from those hazardous areas. Developing a respirable crystalline silica monitor has unique challenges to overcome in order to be accepted in industry, capable of distinguishing silica from other dust types, ability to present exposure data in common units of concentration encountered in mining (mg/m3), miniaturized to be a wearable unit, durable to withstand a mining environment, permissibility requirements for use in explosive atmospheres for the coal market, low cost to be affordable such that every miner could have their own wearable device, etc. to name just a few.
Therefore, while non-regulatory coal and silica dust measurement is a focus area, emphasis should be placed on low-cost units to measure respirable crystalline silica dust in real time.
CONTEMPLATED ACQUISITION DETAILS:
1. This procurement is anticipated to be solicited as a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) and will be solicited as full and open competition.
2. The Broad Agency Announcement will be made available via the Government Point of Entry (GPE) www.SAM.gov.
3. The applicable NAICS code is 541715.
4. Firm-Fixed Price Contracts are anticipated.
5. The anticipated Period of Performance for the contract is as follows: Work that will be completed in 36 months or less is desired under this solicitation, but this is not a firm requirement; projects requiring up to 48 months will be considered. The Period of Performance must be attainable; past contracts with a Period of Performance of 12, 18, and 24 months have required modifications to add additional time. Such contract modifications are costly to the Government and will require concessions on the part of the contractor. In the event additional time is requested to complete the contract, the Government will not be able to increase the overall price of the contract to cover any additional costs. Please ensure the proposed level of effort is appropriate for the work to be performed.
6. The tentative date for Broad Agency Announcement issuance is planned for December 12, 2024. The tentative due date for receipt of Concept Papers is January 10, 2025.
7. Interested contractors must have an active registration, including completion of the annual representations and certifications, in the System for Award Management (SAM) at http://sam.gov to be eligible for award.
NOTE: This is not a request for concept papers or proposals. A response to this notice is neither requested nor required. The full BAA solicitation will be posted on www.sam.gov on or around December 12, 2024. Potential offerors shall respond to the solicitation, inclusive of any amendments, in order to be considered for award.
