Can anyone help me out by explaing the differences between a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) & a Program Research & Development Announcement(PRDA)? I've looked high and low to find some documentation on distinctions between the two but am still confused. Thanks!

Can anyone help me out by explaing the differences between a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) & a Program Research & Development Announcement(PRDA)? I've looked high and low to find some documentation on distinctions between the two but am still confused. Thanks!

There is no difference. A Program Research and Development Announcement is a Broad Agency Announcement.

I just found something on the DARPA website that makes the following distinction: "Under a BAA both procurement and non-procurement instruments may be awarded. Under a Research Announcement only non-procurement instruments may be awarded". Anybody know of any other distinctions?

Scjet,

That's a distinction that DARPA makes, but that is not true as a general proposition. An agency can have a BAA and award nonprocurement instruments only.

http://www.management.energy.gov/documents/AcqGuide17pt5.pdf

PRDA can be unsolicited and "dissimilar concepts" can be selcted.

Broad Agency Announcement is a FAR term, defined at 2.101 and explained in detail at 35.016. Program Research and Development Announcement is neither defined nor explained in FAR and is only mentioned at 2.101, 15.602, and 15.604. The main user of the term appears to be by the Department of Energy, in its FAR supplement, where it is discussed in some detail at 917.7300. If you read that you'll see that it is basically a type of broad agency announcement. Neither term appears in the United States Code.

The first use of the term in the FAR System was in March 1984, when DOE first published its FAR supplement. See 49 FR 11975 (Mar. 28, 1984). The earliest mention of PRDA in the Federal Register was by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in 1976, which was later absorbed by the Department of Energy. That announcement introduced the concept as follows:

Unlike most Federal procurement techniques where bids or proposals are solicited to fulfill a specific, well-defined need and can be evaluated on the basis of how well they may completely fulfill that particular need, the PRDA is intended to be used for solicitation of proposals which may further fairly broad programmatic needs or goals. The PRDA procedure is competitive in the sense that proposals received in response to an announcement are competing for a part of the limited amount of funds available in the agency's budget for the furtherance of the particular program goals identified in the announcement; however, it is not competitive in the usual sense that any one proposal is expected to fulfill the Government's requirements as specified or described in the traditional solicitation document.

41 FR 10601 (Mar. 12, 1976). DOE retained the concept.

In short, a PRDA is a BAA or, if it makes you feel better, a variation of the BAA concept.

Thanks for ALL the help and guidance!