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U.S. DOT FY 2024.1 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A


* * * 2/6/24 Update: The Pre-solicitation is now closed. Topic questions are no longer being accepted. * * *

This U.S. DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum provides small businesses an opportunity to submit clarifying questions on the topics published in the U.S. DOT Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.1 Phase I Pre-Solicitation. Questions will be answered by the Technical Experts/Topic Authors at the U.S.DOT Operating Administrations during this period. Questions shall be limited to improving the understanding of a particular topic's requirements and should not share proposal ideas nor proprietary information.

The U.S. DOT’s FY 2024.1 Pre-Solicitation period is January 4,2024, through February 6, 2024, at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (ET). Only questions posted within this period will be responded to.

How to Use the SBIR Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum:

Register: Anyone can view questions but registration is required if you wish to post a question and receive a notification when it is responded to.

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Search: Browse the existing questions by category to find the topic you are interested in and to see if your question has already been addressed. If you see a question you are also interested in ,you can add a vote to the question, or leave a comment.

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  1. Select the research topic your question is related to from the drop-down menu that appears when you begin typing.
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Please note, all comments will be public information. Potential offerors shall not include in the question(s) or comment(s) any information that they do not wish to be made public. Telephone inquiries or meeting requests will not be addressed and may be removed. The U.S. DOT shall not respond to requests for advice or guidance on any offeror’s solution to any SBIR topic, and shall not consider any submitted materials other than questions.

Thanks for joining our SBIR Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum.

If you experience technical difficulties, please contact usat DOTSBIR@dot.gov.
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50 results found

  1. Question re delivery of blood products (including blood type, patient permission or refusal?). Possible suggestion to amend/split SBIR topic

    Hello --

    The topic area "Prehospital Post-Crash Care Systems Improvement" makes certain assumptions that present challenges to implementation "in the real world," today.

    Specifically, the solicitation calls for "an innovative treatment for bleeding includes damage control resuscitation (DCR) treatments such as the administration of whole blood, blood products (e.g., red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma, platelets, and cryoprecipitate) and adjuvant therapies (e.g., Recombinant activated factor 7 (rFVIIa))."

    But in order for such an approach to be safe and effective, agencies need to know certain biological / physiological as well as clinical details about the people who have been involved in…

    1 vote

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  2. Corrosion Indicator Coating

    I have a two part question regarding this SBIR topic.

    1. Is there coating currently applied on the internal surface of the pipeline?
    2. Is the technology targeted towards new pipelines or existing assets?
    2 votes

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  3. prevent, detect and mitigate corrosion inside pipelines

    The topic asks for ways to prevent, detect and mitigate corrosion inside pipelines. Are ideas only dealing with detection of corrosion considered?

    1 vote

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  4. Does the expected technology need to possess either sound modulators or fiber optics?

    Just for clarification, does the expected technology need to possess either sound modulators or fiber optics? We are assuming these to be examples that the proposed solution is not limited to.

    "The proposed solution is expected to use technology such as high frequency sound modulators or metrology in fiber optics coupled with software to rapidly identify defects."

    2 votes

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  5. External Computer Vision

    Is SBIR interested in V2X solutions for 24-NH1, or are these algorithms specific to internal vehicle processes? We provide AI/ML solutions for infrastructure and could potentially push surrounding vehicle and VRU data to connected vehicles, but as written this section appears to be intended as algorithm development specific to onboard computers.

    4 votes

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  6. placard

    The topic description says in general "Placards are often subjected to harsh conditions during transportation, including exposure to weather elements, chemical exposure, and physical damage". But then, in the specific description of the desired solution, only one environmental factor is mentioned: "The overall solution . . . must be able to survive high excessive heat". Is excess heat the most important factor in evaluating a solution, and is there a quantitative criteria anticipated for the final solicitation? (e.g. temperature and time of exposure)

    1 vote

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  7. Would each proposal be expected to cover the full range of failure points?

    Would a proposal focused on a particular broad class of failure points that only covers a subset of likely major failure points be in scope and of sufficient interest, or would you prefer proposals for technologies capable of mitigating the full range of likely failure points?

    6 votes

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  8. FT4-Small Transit vehicle vision

    Is there a cost target here? There are vision augmentation systems we use in our industry but may be a bit pricey. Also is the focus on more HW/Display or will we need to synthesize imagery?

    1 vote

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  9. Are metallic placards of interest?

    we could fabricate metallic placards, but we worry about the costs.
    Is there a cost target?

    1 vote

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  10. Can separate and different co-located hazardous materials placards be proposed for redundancy?

    The overall solution should identify or propose a readily available tool, technology, or material to improve the survivability of placards on rail tank cars or other motor vehicles that were involved in a hazardous material incident or withstand environmental damage without compromising or degrading safety. For the survivability of pertinent information it seems redundant hazardous materials placards on the bulk package would be helpful. The primary placard might be engulfed in flames but a secondary one may be accessible to first responders arriving on the scene.

    1 vote

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