Communications Research for DSTL

C4ISR – Secure Information Infrastructure and Services (CSIIS). Provision of research in Command Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.

2013/S 106-182201

Contract notice

Services

Directive 2009/81/EC

Section I: Contracting authority/entity

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

DSTL
Porton Down
For the attention of: Jacky Pude
SP4 0JQ Salisbury
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 1980658117
E-mail: jmpude@dstl.gov.uk
Fax: +44 1980658400

Further information can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: The above mentioned contact point(s)

I.2)Type of the contracting authority

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions

I.3)Main activity

Defence

I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities/entities

The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: yes

DSTL, DE&S
Abbey Wood
BS34 8JH Bristol
UNITED KINGDOM

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description

II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:

C4ISR – Secure Information Infrastructure and Services (CSIIS).

II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance

Services
Service category No 14: Research and development services [2] and evaluation tests
NUTS code UKK

II.1.3)Information on framework agreement

The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)Information on framework agreement

Framework agreement with a single operator
Duration of the framework agreement

Duration in months: 36
Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 20 000 000 and 100 000 000 GBP

II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s):

Research services. Research services. Provision of research in Command Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) including Network Services, Communications, Information Assurance, Knowledge Management, Information Management and Information Exploitation.
MOD intends to seek a Prime Contractor for management and delivery of research including effective links across industry, academia and the SME supply chain.
The Prime contract mechanism should allow the supply base to be refreshed throughout the contract lifespan. The prime should facilitate access to innovative solutions and robust technical advice. MoD requires rapid response including Urgent Operational Requirements. In addition to the C4ISR area, this research will also support activities within the Land, Air, Maritime, Space and Cyber domains. Support maybe required to MOD policy and initiatives for interoperability with the US, NATO and wider international collaboration partners.
CSIIS research forms a major component of the C4ISR research and will support the following strands, spanning the physical/infrastructure to the cognitive/social levels, cognisant of the Defence Information Reference Model:
— Communications/Networks:
This strand will investigate and demonstrate options to support a continuously evolving single logical, reconfigurable, resilient information infrastructure (national and coalition) across deployed, fixed and mobile elements; enabling collaboration among Communities of Interest in executing Defence business processes.
— Information Assurance:
This strand will investigate and demonstrate policy and technology options for protecting information covering all levels of confidentiality, integrity and availability. This will enable secure information exchange and collaborative working within and between the differing security domains of the UK Government, MOD and coalition partners.
— Knowledge and Information Management:
This strand will investigate and demonstrate options supporting timely, context-relevant, evidence-based indicators, warnings and advice, with an assessment of confidence, in order to inform the formulation of actions that support decision-making at all levels in the context of a Single Information Environment.
Integration/fusion
The above strands cannot be considered individually, but as a whole against the following dimensions of the military environment:
— Command Levels – the research should be applicable across all command levels from Strategic to Lower-tactical. It should also consider the issues that arise in collaboration and information sharing between command levels.
— Environments – the research should be applicable across all military environments, including the three services but also the more recent environments such as cyber and space. The research should address issues arising from the need for collaboration and information sharing between environments.
— Information layers – the research should be applicable across all of the information layers, from the Cognitive and Business perspectives at the top of the stack to the network and communication layers at the bottom. This particularly applies to the issue of how to “optimise” Information Management / Information Exchange (IM/IX) which is dependent on a cross levels approach being taken.
— Mission Configurable and Open Systems – the research needs to be applicable against the default deployed operational environment of mission configurable, able to provide layers of assured access across coalition members at various levels of trust, including OGDs and NGOs. Similarly, this needs to be founded upon the government and defence drive to adopt open systems architectures to enable greater efficiency and flexibility in the evolution and development of capabilities from a wide set of suppliers, without the disadvantages of vendor lock in.
— This work should also support the development of target architectures for C4ISR.

II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

73110000

II.1.7)Information about subcontracting

II.1.8)Lots

This contract is divided into lots: no

II.1.9)Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: no

II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract

II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:

The UK MOD requires the ability to respond in a timely manner to Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) research needs across a number of technical disciplines/strands, including Networks, Services, Communications, Information Assurance, Knowledge Management, Information Management and Information Exploitation.
It is anticipated that a Prime contractor will be appointed to manage a research programme (and associated risks) that will in turn develop appropriate contracting and delivery mechanisms to ensure that individual research sub-contracts are managed and delivered to time, cost and quality standards and meet customer and stakeholder requirements. It is expected that the Prime will compete the appointments for the research strand leads via sub-contracts.
The appointed supplier will:
— Formulate with MOD stakeholders an innovative and challenging programme of research, with jointly agreed exploitation points between stakeholders and suppliers, which maximises gearing from Government, Industry and Academic Partners, in response to MOD requirements.
— Identify (and subsequently manage) Suppliers, Contractors, Information Providers and Subject Matter Experts who can contribute to conducting and delivering an agreed work programme, whilst maintaining agility to respond to urgent MOD requirements throughout the contracting period.
Following the completion of the PQQ responses, those organisations/partnerships deemed to meet MOD requirements (as Primes) will be issued with an Invitation to Tender, outlining specific requirements and detail required to respond. Tenders will be assessed and awarded against a weighting criteria of Technical 70 % and Commercial 30 %. Full details will be outlined within the ITT document. A bidders conference may be held once the ITT has been issued.
It is anticipated that contracts will be in place for a programme start date of late Autumn 2013. It is proposed that the contract duration will be three years from Contract award, with an option to extend for a further three years at the direction of the Authority.
Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 20 000 000 and 100 000 000 GBP

II.2.2)Information about options

Options: yes
Description of these options: There will be an option to extend for up to 3 years.

II.2.3)Information about renewals

This contract is subject to renewal: no

II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completion

Duration in months: 36 (from the award of the contract)

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions relating to the contract

III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:

Dstl reserves the right to request deposits, guarantees or other forms of security. Further details will be provided in the Invitation to Tender documents.

III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:

III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:

Any Contract awarded shall be entered into by a Single legal entity on the part of the successful tenderer.

III.1.4)Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject, in particular with regard to security of supply and security of information:

III.1.5)Information about security clearance:

Candidates which do not yet hold security clearance may obtain such clearance until: 2.12.2013

III.2)Conditions for participation

III.2.1)Personal situation

Criteria regarding the personal situation of economic operators (that may lead to their exclusion) including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: The Authority will apply all the offences listed in Article 39(1) of Directive 2009/81/EC (implemented as Regulation 23(1) of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations (DSPCR) 2011 in the UK) and all of the professional misconducts listed at Article 39(2) of Directive 2009/81/EC (see also Regulation 23(2) in the DSPCR 2011) to the decision of whether a Candidate is eligible to be invited to tender.
A full list of the Regulation 23(1) and 23(2) criteria are at http://www.contracts.mod.uk/delta/project/reasonsForExclusion.html#dspr

Candidates will be required to sign a declaration confirming whether they do or do not have any of the listed criteria as part of the pre-qualification process.
Candidates who have been convicted of any of the offences under Article 39(1) are ineligible and will not be selected to bid, unless there are overriding requirements in the general interest (including defence and security factors) for doing so.
Candidates who are guilty of any of the offences, circumstances or misconduct under Article 39(2) may be excluded from being selected to bid at the discretion of the Authority.
Applicants will be assessed in accordance with the information provided in a PQQ.

III.2.2)Economic and financial ability

Criteria regarding the economic and financial standing of economic operators (that may lead to their exclusion)

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: The proof that is required to demonstrate the necessary technical capacity and capability will be detailed in the PQQ.

III.2.3)Technical and/or professional capacity

Criteria regarding the technical and/or professional ability of economic operators (that may lead to their exclusion)

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met:
Will be detailed in the PQQ.

III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts

III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts

III.3.1)Information about a particular profession

III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure

IV.1.1)Type of procedure

Restricted

IV.1.2)Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Envisaged number of operators 4
Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates: The Contracting Authority will use a PQQ to down select an appropriate number of operators to proceed to Invitation to Tender stage. Those organisation wishing to express an interest to be the Prime Contractor shall email: jmpude@dstl.gov.uk by 17:00 hrs on 1.7.2013.

IV.1.3)Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

IV.2)Award criteria

IV.2.1)Award criteria

The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated below

1. Technical. Weighting 70

2. Commercial. Weighting 30

IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction

An electronic auction has been used: no

IV.3)Administrative information

IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:

Dstlx-10000.

IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Notice on a buyer profile

Notice number in the OJEU: 2013/S 63-105581 of 29.3.2013

IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document

Payable documents: no

IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

1.7.2013 – 17:00

IV.3.5)Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up

English.

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence

This is a recurrent procurement: no

VI.2)Information about European Union funds

The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no

VI.3)Additional information:

The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement, and the contract will be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender. Suppliers interested in working with the Ministry of Defence should register on the MOD Supplier Information Database (SID) Register, available at www.contracts.mod.uk

The MOD SID is a database of active and potential suppliers available to all MOD and UK Defence procurement personnel, and is the main supplier database of MOD Procurement organisations. Please note: the registration and publication of a company profile on the MOD SID does not mean or imply that the supplier has in any way been vetted or approved by the MOD. Suppliers wishing to compete for advertised MOD contracts must respond to any specific call for competition by submitting a separate expression of interest in accordance with the instructions of the purchasing organisation.
The Contracting Authority shall include all units and establishments of the UK Ministry of Defence and any other UK government department or contracting authority.
Organisations interested in acting as a supply chain member should note that subcontract opportunities are published using the DCO and www.contracts.mod.uk

Potential supply chain members may also contact the Authority in order to obtain and complete a Supplier Capability form which will be considered and passed to the successful Prime at the Authority’s discretion.
Advertising Regime OJEU: This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk GO Reference: GO-2013531-DCB-4844673.

VI.4)Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures

DSTL, DSTL

VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals

VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:31.5.2013