U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND) Challenge Program

The purpose of this request for information is to conduct market intelligence for information gathering. Specifically, NSF is soliciting information from interested parties about the NSF and SPRIND Challenge Program as currently envisioned. Respondents are encouraged to offer their own insights on the activities that would best support the agency’s goals of enabling researchers and innovators to apply unconventional approaches to create game-changing technologies and translate discoveries into tangible applications and products utilizing a process based on the SPRIND Challenge model.

This market intelligence effort is an opportunity for NSF to hear from and receive feedback from potential proposers as well as the broader community regarding:

1. Prospective Vision and Capabilities: Please provide your own vision up to three pages to execute the program and achieve the performance objectives under each of the four primary workstreams. Include the specific capabilities, resources, experiences, networks and activities you would utilize to support this program, including (but not exclusively) demonstrated understanding of European State Aid Laws related to procurement and contracting. Specify which workstream(s), if any, would need to be subcontracted out. Highlight your vision and capabilities as it applies to teams of U.S. researchers and innovators as well as teams with participants from Germany and other international locations. Responses are optional but will help NSF gain a better understanding of the universe of organizations capable of and interested in supporting this and future technology translation activities.

1. Feedback: If you have feedback, questions, areas of concern or suggestions on how this program could be structured as outlined in this document, this is an opportunity to provide that feedback. Questions and feedback may be submitted directly in response to this market intelligence effort. Questions and feedback may be included at the end of the Prospective Vision and Capabilities document (and do not count towards the page limit) or separately. NSF is especially interested in a high-level breakdown of the estimated costs of the activities described and the suggested roles and responsibilities of the contractor in relation to NSF and SPRIND (refer to the Roles and Responsibilities Chart included in this market intelligence package and the relevant section of this document).

Companies and individuals are welcome to submit information regarding Prospective Vision and Capabilities or Feedback, or both.

This posting shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a request for quotations or proposals. No solicitation document exists, and a formal solicitation may or may not be issued by the Government as a result of the responses received to this posting. The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses. All costs incurred responding to this market intelligence will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Failure to respond to this market intelligence will not preclude participation in any future solicitation.

Any information received becomes the property of the Government and will not be returned to the submitter. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or program sensitive information contained in their response. As desired, interested parties may also specify any restrictions on how their response may be shared or disclosed.

Submission Details: Please submit your responses to this market intelligence via email to Alexandra Roig Vitali at avitali@nsf.gov before 11 April 2025, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. When submitting your response, please ensure that attachments do not exceed 20 MB in size and reference NSF-SPRIND-FY25-RFI in the email subject.