The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Health Affairs has issued a pre-solicitation notice for the Gen-3 autonomous bio-detection system under the BioWatch program and plans to release a final solicitation next month for Phase I of the effort. An industry day is planned for March 4. The first phase will consist of independent testing of bio-detectors. The schedule is consistent with plans laid out last fall by Bob Hooks, deputy assistant secretary for Weapons of Mass Destruction and Biodefense at OHA (TR2, Nov. 26, 2008). DHS has worked with several contractors–IQuum, Microfluidic Systems, Inc., Northrop Grumman [NOC] and U.S. Genomics–under separate awards to advance the development of autonomous bio-detection systems that will replace existing sample collectors in major urban areas of the country. The existing systems require manual retrieval of samples for lab analysis and reporting whereas the Gen-3 systems will do the analysis and communicating automatically. The pending competition is not limited to those companies currently involved in the DHS effort.