NGA - Boosting Innovative GEOINT - Science & Technology Broad Agency Announcement (BIG-ST BAA)

The National Geospatial‑Intelligence Agency (NGA) has issued a Broad Agency Announcement titled “Boosting Innovative GEOINT – Science & Technology” (BIG‑ST BAA) to solicit concepts that tackle challenging geospatial‑intelligence (GEOINT) problems. The initiative is organized around three core technical domains: Foundational GEOINT, Advanced Phenomenologies, and Analytic Technologies, and is open to all entities capable of developing solutions that advance NGA’s research portfolio.

Proposals are expected to address specific active topics issued under the BAA, the most recent being Topic 5—“Better Ingested GEOINT: Identifying Artificial Intelligence and Manually Manipulated Media” (BIGISLAND). Applicants must prepare detailed abstracts and full proposals in response to these targeted calls, following the process outlined in the General Solicitation and accessing all required documents through the classified Integrated Controls and Resources (IC‑ARC) portal. Only proposals submitted in compliance with the Technical and Functional Specification for the selected topic will be considered.

All solutions must satisfy the NGA’s scientific and engineering requirements for GEOINT research and be developed strictly within the bounds of classified information handling and acquisition mandates.

Contract Opportunity Type: Solicitation (o)

Product Service Code: AC13-NATIONAL DEFENSE R&D SERVICES; DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - MILITARY; EXPERIMENTAL DEVELOPMENT
NAICS Code:
541715-Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)

The Boosting Innovative GEOINT-Science and Technology (BIG-ST) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) invites proposers to submit innovative concepts to address hard GEOINT problems that align to one or more of the following technical domains:

(1) Foundational GEOINT,

(2) Advanced Phenomenologies, and

(3) Analytic Technologies.

BAA Process and Topic Call Publication:

The BIG-ST BAA is a general announcement of NGA’s research interest, including criteria for selecting proposals and soliciting the participation of all offerors capable of satisfying the Government’s needs.

The requests for abstracts and/or proposals are transmitted via Topic Calls that are published separately under the BIG-ST BAA General Solicitation at various times during the open period of the General Solicitation. Topic Calls will be published via updates to the BIG-ST BAA General Solicitation site on Sam.gov, Grants.gov (Opportunity ID:351404), and/or the Acquisition Research Center (https://acq.westfields.net). Interested parties should periodically check these websites for updates.

No submissions shall be accepted to the General Solicitation; abstracts and proposals will only be reviewed in response to Topic Calls.  Please refer to the Topic Calls for Abstract and Proposal due dates. 

The BIG-ST BAA General Solicitation, HM047623BAA0001 Revision 2 (dated 04/02/2025), is posted and applies to Topic 5 and forward.  See Attachments/Links.

Closed Topics:

Topic 1 - Geospatial-Intelligence Foundational Model (GFM) is closed

Topic 2 - Magnifying University Science Expertise (MUSE) is closed.

Topic 3 - VLBI+G Signal Chain Development (VLBI+G) is closed.

Canceled Topics:

Topic 4 - Production of Radio Frequency (RF) Surveys from Commercial On-orbit Passive RF (RF-COP) is cancelled.

Active Topics:

Topic 5 - Better Ingested GEOINT - Identifying Artificial Intelligence and Manually Manipulated Media (BIGISLAND) is open.

Updated Description (as of 4/11/2025): Interested parties must have an account to log into the Classified IC-ARC to see the notice, and all associated RFP documents. Instructions for obtaining an Acquisition Research Center (ARC) account can be found in the BIG-ST BAA HM047623BAA0001 General Solicitation under section 4.5.8.3.  

After logging in to Classified IC-ARC:

Go to "NGA" --> Go to "Efforts" --> Under Acronyms search "BIG-ST" --> Go to "Contractor Bidders Library" 

For additional support with account access please contact the ACE Helpdesk at secure 855-4ACE or unclassified 703-230-6300.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please review the following new/updated documents under Attachment/Links:

• Updated: BIGST_BAA_HM047623BAA0001_GeneralSolicitation_REV2_20250402
• Updated: BIGST_BAA_HM047623BAA0001_Provisions_Clauses_20250402

A summary of changes can be found within the BIG-ST BAA General Solicitation Revision 2 dated 04/02/2025. Changes are highlighted in YELLOW.

Notice ID: HM047623BAA0001

Additional buyer information

Department/Ind. Agency: DEPT OF DEFENSE
Sub-tier: NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA)
Major Command: ATTN: MS S84 - OCS