Introduction

Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA) Management & Operating Contractor of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) owned Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is seeking an Expression of Interest (EOI) from prospective offerors who would like to work with the DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) funded Cybersecurity Operations Research, Experimentation, Integration, and Innovation (COREII) program in developing the technical architecture and approach for development and deployment of the COREII platform.

Background
The COREII platform consists of a suite of software tools and applications, datasets, visualizations, and advanced search and retrieval capabilities. Many of these components exist independently of COREII and/or are being developed in parallel to COREII, which limits their interoperability and accessibility by a central single unified infrastructure. Unifying COREII components and resources into a unified application requires a robust, scalable architecture that remains flexible and modular as new components are developed and integrated.

Process
This EOI will be evaluated by relevant stakeholders from BEA and the COREII program team. The decision to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the COREII Platform will rely on the stakeholders’ assessments of EOI responses and will also consider the number of EOI’s received. Criteria for selection for RFP will be based on the proposed project schedule, funding, technical maturity, alignment with COREII’s objectives, and readiness as described in the EOI. Note, all respondents invited to participate in the anticipated RFP will be required to register with System for Award Management (SAM.gov) and the INL Vendor Portal (vendor.inl.gov).

EOI responses shall include the following information:
• Company profile
• Previous industry experience with DOE
• Demonstration of strong background in Artificial Intelligence (AI) development
• Description of experience scaling Large Language models (LLMs) in various deployments
• Description of experience in implementing explainable AI Models including SHAP (Shapley additive explanations) and LIME (local interpretable model-agnostic explanations) frameworks
• Description of experience building Knowledge Graphs
• Description of ability to process and present DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) publications into artificial intelligence models
• Description of ability to co-develop the platform to be on-premise at BEA
• Description of ability to develop an open-source based platform that is extensible by BEA developers
• Unique characteristics, attributes, or applications distinguishing company from other potential responses

As determined by BEA, responders to this EOI may receive an RFP that will require detailed technical and price proposals for evaluation and ranking under a source selection process. Note, this EOI request does not constitute a solicitation and does not guarantee inclusion in the anticipated RFP solicitation and/or subsequent solicitations. Rather, selections for inclusion in the anticipated RFP solicitation and/or subsequent solicitations will be at the sole discretion of the relevant stakeholders referenced above.

The contract type for development of the COREII Platform is anticipated to be time-and-materials.
The RFP release is anticipated during August of FY2024. Initial source selections are anticipated prior to the end of FY 2024 following proposal receipt, with planned authorization to start in October of FY 2024. Note these dates are subject to change at the sole discretion of BEA.

With this EOI, BEA is developing a solicitation list for a formal RFP solicitation. If your organization would like to be considered for participation in the COREII RFP solicitation, please complete the submission requirements listed above in this EOI. BEA will select organizations based on responses to the criteria listed above.

Submittal Requirements
Interested firms are requested to provide expressions of interest (via email) by close-of business on 07/31/2024. Responses must include sufficient written information confirming the responder’s qualifications that addresses each of the criteria listed in the “Process” section above.

Note that responses must be no more than five (5) pages in length in PDF format. Only select respondents, as determined by BEA, will receive an invitation to participate in the anticipated RFP solicitation.

Responses should be submitted to Dan Stout, Contract Supervisor, via email at Daniel.Stout@inl.gov, with the subject line “Response to COREII EOI.” Questions must be submitted in writing via email.

Proprietary Information
Because information received in response to this EOI may be business sensitive or proprietary to the responding party, respondents must mark information in their responses accordingly.

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