The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency published a new draft topic under the BIG-R BAA seeking innovative solutions to current GEOINT research methods Oct. 19.

The Boosting Innovative GEOINT Research BAA, known as the BIG-R BAA, enables NGA to adopt phased approaches and use multiple contract instruments to target expertise, mitigate risk and create an innovative environment for developing new capabilities. NGA published the primary BIG-R BAA in July 2020.

The new topic is titled “GEOCOG - Mapping the Human Element of Geospatial Intelligence — Optimizing Analytic Workflow by Assessing Behavioral and Cognitive States,” and seeks an answer to the central question of any new technology: Did it actually help?

“Right now there are lots of technology-centric capability metrics we can employ to measure how well the insertion of a new dataset or algorithm technically improved analysis,” said NGA’s Joeanna Arthur, GEOCOG program manager. “But we need a better, scalable way to measure the actual usability and utility of these advances to the human performing the analysis.”

The objective of GEOCOG is to leverage advances in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience to develop low-cost, unobtrusive methods to measure, estimate and model analysts’ behaviors and cognitive states during human–machine teaming.

Please follow the BIG-R BAA, solicitation number HM0476-20-BAA-0001, on https://sam.gov  or http://www.grants.gov for the latest on the upcoming Industry day and final topic. Submit questions, concerns, or feedback on this draft topic to GEOCOG_IndustryDay@nga.mil.