The Biosurveillance Directorate under the Chemical Biological Medical Systems Joint Project Manager (CBMS JPM) has issued a new request for information (RFI) for commercially available technologies that perform or enable sample tracking of biological materials.
Sample tracking technologies of particular interest involve those that support the tracking of samples collected in the field, possibly without access to ground power or communications capabilities, but are compatible with those assets when available.
Technologies must be non-cumbersome, relatively inexpensive, and operate under a wide range of environmental conditions. The scope of the information that is being sought covers the tracking of biological samples from matrices including soil, water, insect vectors, vegetation, aerosol, blood, veterinary and zoonotic specimens, and recovery of biological materials from surfaces such as buildings and transportation systems.
Such systems should be capable of being integrated into DoD systems for automated delivery of a wide range of sample metadata. This request for information is focused solely on the tracking of materials and is not seeking information on other capabilities such as information management within sample repositories.
Both domestic and international are encouraged to submit white papers in response to this RFI. Full details are available under Solicitation Number: W911SR-12-I-0004. The response deadline is June 25, 2012.