WEBVTT

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[Bill] Hello everyone, I am pleased and honored to be joined

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today by my colleague Soraya Correa, the Chief
Procurement officer at the Department of

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Homeland Security. We are excited to announce together

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the changes that we've made to our Long-Range
Broad agency announcement process.

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My organization. The DHS Science and
Technology Directorate has been

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working closely with Soraya and her team to
deliver a better experience for

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you. Soraya will share more details with you
about our new Long-Range BAA

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in a moment. But in addition to improving
our Long-Range BAA, we've also

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improved this website. So you may have
an easier time in navigating the site

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and finding the information you need. If you
are new to our site, it's purpose is

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to connect companies of all sizes with
opportunities to do business with DHS.

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If we have a need or a requirement for
our Homeland Security Technology

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it will be posted here. We are targeting
unique, revolutionary and maturing

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technologies, that demonstrate the potential
for significant improvement in Homeland

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Security missions and operations.
If you've visited this website

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before you'll find more simplified, streamlined content

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along with improved navigational tools to make
it easier for you to understand how your

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ideas and capabilities align with our
research and development priorities.

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For us to deliver innovative solutions that fill technology

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gaps, you first need to understand
who we are, who we serve

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and how we do business? So who are we? S&T provides

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Science and Engineering expertise to protect
the nation from natural and manmade disasters

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and emerging threats. This includes supporting
the departments mission to strengthen

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security at our borders, airports, seaports transportation

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hubs and even cyber space. This extends to protecting

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citizens and communities during
emergencies and natural disasters.

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So who do we serve? Our customers are broad.
All the DHS components like

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Customs and Border Protection, FEMA,
U.S. Coast Guard and TSA as

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well as our First Responder community.
There are also critical infrastructure

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operators. Those essential to areas
such as utilities, transportation and

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communications just to name a few
and finally, Homeland Security

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practitioners from across government and industry.
Our business is going

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to enhance operational security and build
resilience capacity in an environment

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where the security landscape is ever changing. To deliver

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solutions to our customers. We need
to number one, better understand

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customers needs. We do this by engaging
security operators on the front-lines

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to better understand the operational
challenges they face in complex

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threat environments. This allows us to define
the requirements and work with industry

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innovators like you to develop cost effective solutions.

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Number two, we need to persue an innovative
approach that enables us to take advantage

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of best practices and leverage capabilities across DHS

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to drive efficiencies and deliver results and to ensure the

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effective transition of products we engage our
procurement and acquisition colleagues at the

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beginning of that process. As part of this we
continually seek to bring new technology

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to the table, to ensure the safety and
resiliency of our communities

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and those who protect them. And number three we need to

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execute effectively, by using agile business
tools and vehicles like this Long-Range

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BAA we are better positioned to quickly
transition technical solutions in

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the operations that are scalable and repeatable.
By reaching out to industry,

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universities, labs, First Responders and across all

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levels of government we are advancing
collaborative R&D to make impacts

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in today's increasingly complex threat environment.
But I have to give credit

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where credit is due and credit to this goes to
Soraya and her procurement team.

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And by streamlining the Long-Range
BAA in such a way that you have

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to enable our interaction with business to
be much smoother and much faster

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so I really appreciate your perspective on how
this is really going to help that relationship

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and that partnership going forward. [Soraya] Thank
you Bill, it's a pleasure to be here with you today

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to deliver this exciting news. In today's digital age, where

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innovation moves fast. We need to have the
trust of the business community.

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To build this trust, I have implemented several
initiatives focused on hearing from industry

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on how we can improve our business practices.
Bill this goes back to

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something you said a few moments ago, about how
we do business and strengthen

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the trust with our industry partners. Essentially you spoke

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and we listened and you know what, we
learned a few things. Our processes

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could be more efficient, our needs should be clearer and

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our communications need improvement.
With your help Bill we took this

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feedback and updated our business model.
As a result we have a new

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Long-Range BAA on our web portal, which was posted

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June 4th. Let me briefly detail why this matters.

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First, it simplifies the whole process from the
time of announcement through contract award.

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Second, we reduced time-frames from inception to award

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we cut five and half months off the current process.

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Finally, it allows for more transparent communications
to industry, including direct contact

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with our Program Managers. You can pitch your research

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concepts, demonstrate your working prototypes
using videos and we even ask questions

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about your ideas and concepts. Gone is the white paper

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and the lack of transparency. In it's place is
our new Long-Range BAA

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process, which includes a discussion
with an S&T Program Manager,

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followed by a two phase procurement process.
Let me outline this process.

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Phase one is completed within a 21 day
period and includes a virtual

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pitch to our peer review panel and a decision
as to whether or not your

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idea is approved to advance to phase two. Phase two,

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which also is completed within 21 days,
involves submission of a written

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proposal, an assessment by our panel
and a decision about contract award.

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This is also new. We will actually provide

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technical feedback for proposals that are not accepted.
I really appreciate

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the opportunity to work with your team Bill
to build this new process.

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[Bill] Well, thank you Soraya for being a partner in this effort
you and your team have been

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continuously driving this effort to smooth our relationship

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with industry, to make things better, faster,
easier and smoother for them to partner with us.

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So I want to give credit and thank you for the
work that you are doing in that space.

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[Soraya] Thank you. [Bill] One other item to know.
All of our Long-Range BAA topics are featured

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inside the S&T industry guide, which is on our S&T website.

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We encourage you to stay connected with us and let us

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know how this is working for you, so please contact
us with any questions that you may have.

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For Soraya and all of our DHS colleagues,
thank you for your time

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and consideration and thank you for partnering with us.
We look forward to working with you to deliver the solutions

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needed to strengthen the security of our nation and
again to all of you, thank you for tuning in.

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www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology