SOLICITATION NOTICE
70 -- Reviewer System
- Notice Date
- 9/1/2011
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 511210
— Software Publishers
- Contracting Office
- National Science Foundation, Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support, DACS, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room475, Arlington, Virginia, 22230
- ZIP Code
- 22230
- Solicitation Number
- E67781X
- Archive Date
- 9/16/2011
- Point of Contact
- Barbara B. Mitchell, Phone: (703) 292-7349, Greg Smith, Phone: 703-292-4591
- E-Mail Address
-
bmitchel@nsf.gov, gnsmith@nsf.gov
(bmitchel@nsf.gov, gnsmith@nsf.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- DESCRIPTION This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for the Division of Chemistry. The Chemistry Division seeks to create and sustain a dynamic reviewer database to facilitate selection of reviewers of NSF proposals, based on reviewer, investigator, and/or program officer selected keywords. This is envisioned as a first step along a path towards securing an integrated review management package. It is therefore important that the software will have the potential to be upgraded to offer features such as reviewer email correspondence and submission record management to facilitate the management of the entire review process. The successful bidder will need a demonstrated record of such operation on a scale comparable to that encountered at NSF (tens of thousands of submissions per year, with tens or hundreds of thousands of reviewer candidates). This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a separate written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation/synopsis reference number is E67781X is being issued as a Request for Quote (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-47. The period of performance shall be one year with one (1) one year option. Contractors shall submit a unit price and a total price for the item included in this acquisition where applicable. All responsible sources may submit a quotation, which shall be considered by the agency. Item Description: Specific features and performance expectations are as follow: 1. Shall contain a data repository for the Find Reviewers service to search. The database will initially be seeded with reviewer data provided by NSF, but will be expandable as specified below. 2. Shall have the capability to search for potential reviewers across multiple scientific databases such as Elsevier's Scopus and/or Thomson-Reuter's Web of Science for which NSF has subscription access. 3. Shall allow for import of proposals in batches and will provide a rank-ordered (by match criteria) list of potential reviewers for the proposals given a list of search keywords. 4. Shall have the ability for NSF personnel to manually search the database for reviewers that match one or more specific keywords that relate to a proposal. Keywords must be selectable from hierarchical drop-down lists, subdivided with successively increasing specificity (e.g., chemistry - analytical - spectroscopy - infrared...) 5. Searches shall target and/or return reviewer demographics, using information voluntarily provided by the reviewers 6. Shall be upgradeable to include functionality for email notifications and invitation management 7. Shall have un-moderated password-protected access for potential reviewers to modify/update/add their record, including contact information, interest/expertise keywords, conflicts, availability, and demographic information. 8. Shall have the ability for NSF personnel to submit multiple proposal data points and keywords for batch submissions at once via Excel, e.g. proposal ID, PI, title, keywords, project summary 9. Shall have the ability to track of comprehensive reviewer statistics, i.e. response rates, length of review time, number of late reviews, etc. 10. Shall adhere to the NSF data and Federal Information security guidance and policies (See Security Requirements) Security Requirements 1) Scope The requirements defined within this clause apply to the following circumstances: a) Contractor Owned - Contractor owned IT systems used in the support of performance of this Contract that are other than incidental in nature (CO). b) Contractor Owned - Interconnected: All Contractor owned systems that are directly connected with NSF owned networks or IT systems (CO-Int). 2) General a) The Contractor shall be responsible for Information Technology security for all systems used in performance of this contract, or those which are connected to a Government network. This clause is applicable to all or any part of the contract that includes information technology resources or services in which the Contractor must have physical or electronic access to NSF's information, including sensitive information and personally identifiable information, contained in unclassified systems that directly support the mission of the Agency. This includes information technology, hardware, software, and the management, operation, maintenance, programming, and system administration of computer systems, networks, and telecommunications systems. b) Contractor provisioning and utilization of Information, systems, technology, and data in the performance of this contract shall be managed in compliance with security and privacy laws, regulations, guidance, and direction including but not limited to the: Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA); National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidance; Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) on information security; applicable Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memoranda; NSF policies, procedures and guidance. 3) Protection of Sensitive Information a) In the course of performing official duties, Contractor may have the need to access sensitive information or personally identifiable information (PII). Sensitive information includes personally identifiable information and sensitive NSF information such as proposal review, reviewer identity tied to reviews, unfunded proposals, proprietary parts of funded proposal; and other similar information. The majority of sensitive information maintained by NSF is in systems of records protected under the Privacy Act sensitive data. Sensitive information may also exist in other types of records, such as databases, log files, e-mail, and correspondence files. All Contractor personnel are responsible for recognizing sensitive information and avoiding inappropriate or accidental access, use, or disclosure in accordance with NSF IT policies. b) Personally identifiable information (PII) refers to information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as their name, social security number, biometric records, etc., alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, etc. All Contractor personnel are responsible for recognizing personally identifiable information and avoiding inappropriate or accidental access, use, or disclosure in accordance with NSF IT policies. c) The Contractor must not use or redistribute any NSF information processed, stored, or transmitted by the Contractor except as specified in the Contract. d) All Contractor personnel with access to the systems or applications covered under this contract must have training appropriate to their role. As well, they must have annual Security Awareness Training (SAT) provided. e) In addition, personnel with enhanced access (security administrators, domain administrators, system administrators, DBAs, etc.) must also take at least one day (8 hours) of specialized security training. 4) Privacy Impact Assessment a) Consistent with the E-Government Act of 2002 and in OMB Memorandum M-03-22, the Contractor will conduct a privacy impact assessment for information system. b) PIAs are conducted to ensure that there is no collection, storage, access, use, or dissemination of identifiable information from or about members of the general public and businesses that is not needed or authorized, and that identifiable information that is collected is adequately protected. PIAs may address issues relating to the integrity and availability of data handled by a system, to the extent these issues are not already adequately addressed in a System Security Plan. 5) System Security Plan a) The Contractor shall provide, implement and maintain an IT System Security Plan (SSP) using the process identified in NIST SP 800-37. The IT SSP must comply with the recommendations in NIST Special Publication 800-18 "Guide for Developing Security Plans for Federal Information Systems." b) The Contractor shall ensure that the SSP specifically addresses: i) Account Management Lifecycle - that all access is properly approved, altered and/or removed when a person starts a new position, moves to new responsibilities, and leaves the Contractor or sub-Contractor. ii) Changes to system configuration or sensitive data are properly approved, logged and monitored. iii) A description of the vulnerability management program, including how vulnerabilities are identified, remediated (or risk accepted), how ongoing updates are applied to system baselines, and how End of System Life (EOSL) software and hardware will be addressed. iv) That appropriate training is provided to ensure an aware workforce. 6) Configuration Management a) The Contractor shall certify applications are fully functional and operate correctly as intended on NSF systems using the US Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) (formerly Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC)). The USGCB common security configurations are available from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Web site at http://checklists.nist.gov. b) Applications designed for normal end users shall run in the standard user context without elevated privileges. c) The use of common security configurations is mandatory. This requirement must include all common security configurations for computing and networking systems, as available, to Contractor products and services delivered under this contract. NIST SP 800-53 "Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations" is recommended as a guide to defining the security configurations. d) The Contractor shall not deviate from the approved security configurations without written authorization from the Contractor's Senior Management. e) The Contractor shall implement software implementation, operation, maintenance, update, and/or patching in a manner that does not alter the settings from the approved configurations. f) The Contractor will make every reasonable effort to remain current with all software versions, patches or new releases. Appropriate testing is required to ensure that business functionality is not compromised by updates. 7) Right to Audit a) The Contractor shall provide access to NSF designated personnel, including the Office of Inspector General, to the Contractor's and sub-Contractors' facilities, installations, operations, documentation, databases and personnel used in performance of the Contract. Access shall be provided to the extent required to carry out a program of IT inspection, investigation and audit to safeguard against threats and hazards to the integrity, availability and confidentiality of NSF data or to the function of computer systems operated on behalf of the NSF, and to preserve evidence of computer crime. b) NSF will provide two weeks' notice for routine reviews, but reserves the right for immediate access in the event of a security incident. c) Access to Contractor personnel and systems is to be provided at no additional cost to NSF. d) In the event of a security incident, NSF will negotiate cost sharing based on the results of the investigation. e) Contractor personnel may be required to participate in NSF' Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) process. 8) Physical Security a) The Contractor shall maintain the systems required for this agreement, including any operational support systems in secure, access-controlled facilities. b) These facilities will comply with all required fire protection codes. 9) Backup/Recovery a) All databases and software required to operate the systems will be backed up whenever changed, and backups retained for periods of time sufficient to ensure that restoration prior to a failure can be accomplished. b) Copies of the backups must be stored in a secure facility offsite from the primary systems. c) Routine restoration of deleted files must not be dependent on the off-site versions. 10) Schedule a) For contract start-up and initial transition, NSF DIS and the Contractor shall jointly prepare and submit a PIA and SSP for the Contractor system(s) to NSF Senior Management, per the following protocol: i) Within 1 week of the contract being awarded NSF will provide the Contractor with a list of information required in order to complete the PIA and SSP. ii) The Contractor shall submit the requested information for NSF review and approval determination within 60 days after Contract award. iii) NSF will review the package and the Contracting Officer will provide the Contractor with a determination of suitability: accepted or returned unaccepted for rework and resubmission. iv) Failure to receive NSF approval of a package constitutes non-compliance and the Contracting Officer shall respond with administrative actions as allowed by the terms and conditions of the contract. b) For the sustaining contract period of performance, which begins with the conclusion of the formal contract start-up/initial transition period, the Contractor shall prepare and submit annual updates to the PIA and SSP to the Contracting Officer for NSF review and approval decision as follows: i) The Contractor shall update any outstanding POA&Ms, SSPs and other documents that may be required by NSF to show that an effective continuous monitoring and defect management regime is in place. ii) Failure to receive NSF approval of a package constitutes non-compliance and the Contracting Officer shall respond with administrative actions as allowed by the terms and conditions of the contract. 11) The Contractor shall incorporate the substance all of the above clauses in all subcontracts. The following clauses and provisions are incorporated and will remain in full source in any resultant award. The full text of these clauses and provisions may be accessed electronically at this website: http://www.arnet.gov/far/. Offerors shall use the following website to completed their Certifications and Representations www.bpn.gov/orca (FAR 52.212-3) The following items are incorporated by reference: FAR 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Condition Commercial items applies to this acquisition. FAR 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition that includes the following clauses cited therein: 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract; 52.219-6 Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside; 52.219-8 52.222-3 Convict Labor; 52.222-19 Child Labor -- Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies; 52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities; 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity; 52.222-35 Equal Opportunity for Special Disabled Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans; 52.222-36 Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities; 52.222-50 Combating Trafficking in Persons; ; 52.225-13, Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases; 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer - Central Contractor Registration. Selection Criteria NSF will make a source selection decision based on lowest price, technically acceptable and to include the ability to demonstrate record of such operation on a scale comparable to that encountered at NSF (tens of thousands of submissions per year, with tens or hundreds of thousands of reviewer candidates). Questions are due by September 6, 2011, 11:00 a.m. and must be sent via email to bmitchel@nsf.gov. The email subject line must include solicitation number "E67781X". Quotes are due no later than September 12, 2011, 11:30 a.m. EST by email to bmitchel@nsf.gov. If you are unable to send your quote by email, please contact Barbara Mitchell for alternative delivery instructions. Quote should be marked with RFQ number E67781X and addressed to Barbara B. Mitchell, Contract Specialist. Point of Contact: Barbara B. Mitchell, Contracts Branch, Phone (703) 292-7349, Fax (703) 292-9140, Email: bmitchel@nsf.gov Contracting Officer: Gregory N. Smith (703) 292-4591 Email gnsmith@nsf.gov
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/NSF/DACS/DACS/E67781X/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: National Science Foundation, Division of Chemistry, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 1055S, Arlington, Virginia 22230, Arlington, Virginia, 22230, United States
- Zip Code: 22230
- Zip Code: 22230
- Record
- SN02560086-W 20110903/110902103409-807db67617d101612c3fc642edafc20c (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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