Unsolicited Contract Proposals

If you have a unique and innovative product or service that would support the SEC’s mission, you may want to consider submitting an unsolicited proposal.

Before beginning the unsolicited proposal process, carefully review the specific requirements of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 15.6.

Please consider the following:

• Due to the amount of marketing material received, the SEC may not respond to submissions determined to be advertising, commercial offers or contributions as described in FAR 15.603(b).
• Many of the submissions that the SEC receives as FAR Subpart 15.6 Unsolicited Proposals are rejected because they do not meet the requirements for a valid unsolicited proposal per FAR 15.603(c), or content requirements listed in FAR 15.605. Please closely review each of these requirements prior to submitting your proposal.
• The SEC does not intend to respond to proposals submitted multiple times or other follow-up inquiries to a rejected submission, unless the subsequent submission is a valid unsolicited proposal whereby the proposed product or services differs significantly from those proposed in prior submissions.
• The SEC does not pay for the preparation of, or work done prior to award resulting from, an unsolicited proposal.
• Companies have the choice of submitting the unsolicited proposal with or without restrictions on the use of any data it contains. Unsolicited proposals may include data that the submitter does not want disclosed for any purpose other than evaluation of the unsolicited proposal. If such a restriction on the proposal is desired, the title page must be marked with the following legend. (Proposals marked with any other legend will be returned per FAR 15.609(c).):

Use and Disclosure of Data

This proposal includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed, in whole or in part, for any purpose other than to evaluate this proposal. However, if a contract is awarded to this company as a result of or in connection with the submission of these data, the government shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the resulting contract. This restriction does not limit the government’s right to use information contained in these data if they are obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction is contained in Sheets [insert numbers or other identification of sheets].

Each sheet of your unsolicited proposal containing data that you want to restrict must be marked with the following legend:

Use or disclosure of the data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this proposal.

• The agency point of contact may seek internal technical support to assist in conducting the initial review determination (FAR 15.606-1).
• The information provided on this webpage constitutes the agency’s complete and entire unsolicited proposal procedures per FAR 15.604(a)(6).

Examples of rejected submissions include:

• An innovative approach that does not benefit the SEC’s mission.
• A superior product/service that does not, in and of itself, constitute a unique and innovative idea.
• Proposals that address a known agency requirement, including those that have been or are existing requirements under contract.
• Submissions of products or services that are similar to those offered by numerous vendors are often not innovative and unique.

Unsolicited proposals should be directed to:

Nick Chung, Office of Acquisitions
ChungNic@sec.gov