FBI High Value Detainee Interrogation Group “Advance the Science of Interrogation” Contract Announcement

The following broad agency announcement (BAA) was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on April 5, 2012. The announcement is designed to elicit “research proposals for behavioral science research to advance the science and practice of intelligence interviewing and interrogation.”

THE HIGH VALUE DETAINEE INTERROGATION GROUP INTELLIGENCE INTERVIEWING AND INTERROGATION RESEARCH

BAA-202200
26 pages
April 2012

The purpose of research supported by the HIG is to advance the science and practice of intelligence interviewing and interrogation. Offerors will conduct research for the HIG in their facilities. The HIG has defined several areas for long-range study and advisory support. These research areas include but are not limited to:

Field observations of military and strategic interrogators, intelligence interviewers and debriefers in order to document strategies, methods and outcomes;

Surveys and structured interviews of interrogators, intelligence interviewers and debriefers specified by the Government in order to document what these operational personnel think works and does not work and the development of operationally-based best practices which may be later investigated via laboratory or field studies;

Development, testing and evaluation of metrics for assessing the efficacies of interrogations, intelligence interviews and debriefs and of the use of particular interrogation, intelligence interview and debrief strategies and methods;

Field quasi-experimental studies to evaluate the efficacy of new evidence-based interrogation, intelligence interview and debrief strategies and methods;

Laboratory studies to test and/or discover new interrogation, intelligence interview and debrief methods;

Laboratory or field studies to assess the validity of evidence-based interviewing, deception detection, and other relevant principles and/or methods across non-U.S. populations both with and without the use of interpreters;

Laboratory or field studies on fundamental psychological processes (to include but not be limited to decision-making, emotion, motivation, memory, persuasion, social identities and social development) as these are relevant to interrogations, intelligence interviews and debriefs;

Laboratory or field studies of interpersonal processes (e.g., social influence, persuasion, negotiation, conflict resolution and management), with particular attention to cultural and intercultural issues; and

Topics considered out of scope for this BAA include the development of technologies for credibility assessment or other performance support aids, methods relying exclusively on case studies, and language training.