The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a new Request for Information (RFI) in support of the BioWatch program.
The effort seeks to determine the current state of technologies that can provide a Biological Trigger/Detector added to the BioWatch sample collection process.
The item would be used in conjunction with current or future collection and identification technology and would serve to reduce the time to detect and improve BioWatch operational performance.
A successful candidate technology will have the ability to:
- Detect indicators of potential biological agents within one minute
- Detect these indicators at low concentrations with a high degree of confidence
- Distinguish biological agent indicators from inorganic material and environmental background (dirt, brake dust, construction material, etc.)
- Demonstrate a low rate of false positives and false negatives
- Operate in a wide variety of indoor physical environments (e.g., office buildings, mass transit facilities), Ability to operate in outdoor environments
- Transmit results and system status electronically and be controlled remotely
Further details are available via Solicitation Number: HSHQDC-15-I-11103. The response deadline is January 30, 2015.
Companion BioWatch RFIs were also simultaneously released for related areas including: Autonomous Indoor Sampling Systems, Portable Biological Identifier Systems, Aerosol Collection and Alternatives to PCR Detection.
