(d)

Process unsolicited proposals in an expeditious manner and, where practicable, keep proposers advised as discrete decisions are made.

(e) Assure that each proposal is evaluated in a fair and objective manner.

(f) Assure that each proposal will be used only for its intended purpose and the information contained therein will not be divulged without prior permission of the proposer.

$9-4.904 Definitions.

(a) An "unsolicited proposal" is a written offer to perform work submitted by an organization or individual solely on its own initiative and not in response to a specific request made by ERDA. It does not include advertising material, commercial product offerings, commercial service offerings, contributions, technical correspondence, or capability statements. For purposes of this subpart, the definition does not include initial proposals or extensions or renewals of ongoing projects which fall under the provisions of subpart 9-4.51, Special Research Support Agreements with Educational Institutions.

(1) Advertising material

Written material designed to acquaint the Govenment with a potential proposer's present off-theshelf products or capabilities, or designed to determine the Government's interest in buying such products.

(2) Commercial product offerings Offers of standard Commercial products usually sold in substantial quantities to the general public and which the vendor wishes to see introduced into the Government's supply system as an alternate or replacement for an existing supply item.

(3) Commercial service offerings Offers of commercial services such as painting, janitorial, trash removal, and related services which are readily available using normal competitive procurement methods.

(4) Contributions Concepts, suggestions, or merely ideas presented to the Government for its use, with no expectation by the offeror that the Government will support the effort.

(5) Technical correspondence Written inquiries regarding Government interest in research areas, proposal explorations, technical inquiries, and research description.

(6) Capability statements

General statements informing ERDA

of an individual or organization's technical, business, manufacturing experience, capability, and background.

(b) Responsible official

The senior program official or the head of the staff office within whose area of responsibility the work contemplated by the unsolicited proposal falls.

(c) Project office

The individual designated by the responsible official, or designee, having responsibility for the unsolicited proposal.

(d) Receiving office

The office designated as the central control point for the receipt, distribution, accountability and status reporting of unsolicited proposals.

(e) Notice of program interest A method by which broad general technical problem areas needing investigation are published in order to stimulate the flow of unsolicited proposals. The notice describes problems, not desired solutions.

$9-4.905 Advance guidance.

The project officer will, when feasible, be available for technical discussions with potential proposers. Advance discussions shall be limited to clarification of broad areas of technical concern to ERDA as published in the Notice of Program Interest (9-4.950). ERDA personnel shall not provide any potential proposer with specific technical input and direction which would be the substance of any proposal. The ideas must be those of the proposer. The project officer will not indicate or imply in discussions that a proposal will result in the award of a contract or other arrangement. Nothing is to be suggested to encourage or authorize the proposer to perform any work at ERDA expense in anticipation of support of a contract or other arrangement.

$9-4.906

Content of unsolicited proposals.

Unsolicited proposals should contain the following information:

(a) Basic information name and address of submitter; date of submission proposal; reference to the notice of program interest, as appropriate; whether an individual or organization (indicate whether profit, nonprofit, educational, small business, or other); proposed starting dates and estimated period of performance; period for which proposal is valid (minimum of six months from date of submission); names and telephone numbers of the proposer's primary business and technical personnel to whom ERDA may contact for evaluation or negotiation purposes; signature of person authorized to contractually

represent the individual or organization; other federal, state or local governmental agencies to which the proposal has been submitted and/or those funding the proposed effort.

(b) Business and financial information a cost estimate for the proposed effort sufficiently detailed by element of cost to permit a meaningful evaluation; current financial statements; a descriptive brochure of the organization, if available; a brief description of the proposer's facilities; if an educational institution, whether it wishes to establish stipulated salary support amounts as the bases for charges for personal services of any professional staff members to be used on the project. If the institution wishes to establish such stipulated salary support amounts, the proposal should include the following information for each professorial staff member involved:

(1) academic year salary;

(2) other research projects or proposals for which salary is allocated; and

(3) any other duties, such as teaching assignments, administrative assignments, supervision of graduate students, or other institutional activities.

(c) Technical information a concise title and an abstract of the detailed proposal, of approximately 200 words, describing the proposed effort; a discussion of the purpose of the proposal focusing on how the work will help to support the accomplishment of ERDA's mission; names of proposer's key personnel including the principal investigator or team leader along with brief biographical information on each; type of support proposer requests of ERDA including facilities, equipment, materials, and personnel resources.

$9-4.908 Agency point of contact.

All unsolicited proposals will be submitted to a central control point within ERDA to establish agency accountability, tracking, and reporting. Responsibility for controlling and accounting for unsolicited proposals from organizations and individuals is vested in the senior procurement official, Headquarters.

Unsolicited proposals shall be submitted to the office of the ERDA senior procurement official, Headquarters.

$9-4.909

(a)

Review and evaluation.

Receipt of unsolicited proposals will be acknowledged promptly by the receiving office and processed expeditiously.

Proposers will be notified as to the ultimate disposition of their proposals.

(b) Prior to making a comprehensive evaluation, the receiving office shall determine that the document contains the information required by §9-4.906, has been approved by an official or other person authorized to represent the organization, and is not advertising material, commercial product offerings, commercial service offerings, contributions, technical correspondence, or capability statements as defined in §9-4.904.

(1) Although the document may not meet the foregoing requirements, a copy of the document shall be forwarded to the responsible official for review of its technical merits. If the decision is made not to proceed further, a comprehensive evaluation need not be made, and the document may be considered and handled as advertising material, commercial product offerings, commercial service offerings, contributions, technical correspondence, or capability statements. The proposer will be told how the document is being interpreted and the reason(s) for not considering it as an unsolicited proposal.

(2) However, if the document contains most of the information required by $9-4.906, the missing information may be requested by the receiving office from the proposer so that it may be processed as an unsolicited proposal.

(3) After the receiving office has acknowledged receipt of the document, completed its preliminary review and established accountability, it will send copies of the unsolicited proposal to the responsible official(s). Each unsolicited proposal that is circulated for a comprehensive evaluation shall have an agency control number and legend attached or imprinted on it by the receiving office identifying it as an unsolicited proposal, and stating that it shall be used only for purposes of evaluation.

(c) The responsible official shall assign a project officer and such other personnel as necessary to evaluate the proposal fairly and objectively. In some instances the responsible official may find it advantageous to subject the proposal to external rather than internal evaluation, such as that performed by the National Bureau of Standards in the case of the Small Inventors Program. In such cases, the prior written permission of the proposer shall be obtained.

(d) Evaluation factors. In evaluating an unsolicited proposal, other than one for commercial demonstrations, the project officer shall consider the following factors:

(1) the potential contribution which the proposed work is

expected to make to ERDA's specific mission, if supported at this time;

(2) the capabilities,

related experience, facilities, or techniques which the proposer possesses and offers, and which are considered to be integral factors for achieving the objectives of the proposal;

(3) the qualifications, capabilities, and experiences of the proposed investigator, team leader, or key personnel who are considered to be critical in achieving the objectives of the proposal; (4) how the proposal differs from current work in the same subject area, and the significance of this difference; and,

$9-4.901.

(5) whether the proposal meets the criteria set forth in

(e) If, after evaluation, it is decided that the proposal will not be supported:

(1) The project officer prepares a written statement setting forth the basis for rejection of the unsolicited proposal, submits one copy to the responsible official and retains one copy in the permanent file.

(2) The responsible official prepares a letter to the proposer with copies to the receiving office and the project officer.

(f) If the decision is to support the proposal, the project officer shall prepare a "Justification for Acceptance of Unsolicited Proposal" and submit it to the responsible official, with one copy to the receiving office. The justification shall address each of the evaluation factors contained in §9-4.909(d). The approved justification shall be appended to the procurement request.

(g) The justification shall, as a minimum, be reviewed and approved as follows (in the case of a cost shared contract, include both contractor's and Govenment's shares in determining dollar value):

(1) Approval. The senior program official shall approve a justification for acceptance of an unsolicited proposal in excess of $5 million unless otherwise designated by the head of the agency. The senior program official or designee may approve a justification for acceptance of an unsolicited proposal in excess of $500 but less than $5 million.

(2) Concurrence on justifications prior to approval shall be obtained from the designee of the senior program official and the