The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued the FY13.1 Pre-Solicitation pursuant to the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 (Public Law 97-219), the Small Business Research and Development Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-564), and the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-81). The purpose of this letter is to invite small business concerns especially women and minority owned to submit Phase I proposals to the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. Small businesses must have the capability to conduct research or research and development (R/R&D) in any of the homeland security-related topic areas included in the solicitation.

The FY13.1 solicitation includes the following five topics for which Phase I proposals are sought at this time.
· Radio Frequency (RF) Sensing of Personnel in Wooded Areas
· Hybrid Analysis Mapping (HAM)
· Burn-Saver Device
· GPS Disruption Detection and Localization
· Quick Disconnect Cables for Utility Power Distribution Systems

During the period December 4 through December 19, 2012, proposers have an opportunity to have direct contact (by telephone or email) with the technical points of contact listed for each topic to ask technical questions about specific technical topics contained in the solicitation. No further direct contact between proposers and the technical points of contact shall occur from December 20, 2012 through January 23, 2013 for reasons of competitive fairness. Proposals may be submitted from December 20, 2012 through January 23, 2013 at 2:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

The solicitation is available on the Federal Business Opportunities https://www.fbo.gov website, quick search using “HSHQDC-13-R-00009”. Each concern submitting a proposal must qualify as a small business in accordance with SBA’s regulations (13 CFR 121.701 through 121.705). Interested parties will need to register if they do not already have an established account at: https://sbir2.st.dhs.gov/portal/public/Menu.action?page=sbir_submission_login prior to submitting its proposal. We recommend that this be done in advance of the proposal submission.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about the DHS S&T Directorate’s SBIR Program, please feel free to contact me at 202-254-6966 or via email at [email protected].