Inactive

The mission of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) includes rapid identification and development of new technologies to counter emerging threats. Traditional procurement and assistance proc... The mission of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) includes rapid identification and development of new technologies to counter emerging threats. Traditional procurement and assistance processes sometimes take too long and are ineffective at deploying state-of-the-art Homeland Security innovations. Therefore, DHS has developed an Innovation framework to be implemented utilizing the flexibility of an Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS) to engage non-traditional Government contractors, including start-up companies. This engagement is intended to better understand and assist new companies so they have more opportunities to work with the Department. Through targeted non-dilutive funding and providing opportunities for operational testing and market access, DHS hopes to incentivize product developers to open the aperture of their development roadmaps to include homeland security solutions. DHS refers to this OTS, and will refer to subsequent OTS amendment employing this framework, as an "Innovation OTS." The objective of the Innovation OTS is to promote competition among non-traditional Government contractors, with a streamlined approach to address specific needs related to Homeland Security. Furthermore, in general, technical topics for the Innovation OTS will be the result of either "ideation" workshops that focus on specific needs related to Homeland Security, or joint DHS operator S&T requirement gathering activities (e.g., Homeland Security Industry Days.) Therefore, under the auspices of the Innovation OTS, calls will be issued to seek solutions to the technical topic areas resulting from ideation workshops.