SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Recruit and Assess Military Special Forces members
- Notice Date
- 6/21/2012
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541720
— Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
- Contracting Office
- Department of Veterans Affairs;VA Boston Healthcare System;Contracting Officer (90C);940 Belmont Street;Brockton MA 02301
- ZIP Code
- 02301
- Solicitation Number
- VA24112Q0533
- Response Due
- 7/12/2012
- Archive Date
- 10/10/2012
- Point of Contact
- Cheri Wicks (No Phone Calls;
- E-Mail Address
-
Only)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Boston Healthcare System, has a requirement for recruitment and assessment of members of military Special Forces units for a research study. A firm fixed price contract for a base year and 4 option years is anticipated and shall be awarded. It is the Government's belief that only the Center for Research & Development possesses the required capabilities to successfully meet this requirement. It is the Government's intention to solicit and negotiate only with this source. Please refer to the Sole Source Justification. This is not a solicitation; it is notice of intent to sole source a requirement. Inquiries/information received after the established deadline shall not be considered. The submission of any data for review shall not impede award of this contract as planned. The Government does not intend to pay for information solicited. This synopsis is issued pursuant to FAR 6.302-5. JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 1.Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs, VISN 1, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT 689/90C Medical Center. PR #: 689-13-1-371-0001 2.Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Processed: Initiate a new contract with the Center for Research and Development. The action being reviewed and approved is a new firm fixed price (FFP) contract. 3.Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet the Agency's Needs: National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (NCPTSD) at the VA CT Healthcare System is conducting studies of active duty, special operations military personnel in order to better understand why some individuals are more vulnerable to stress related psychological illnesses (such as PTSD) while others are less vulnerable and more stress resilient. This work requires ongoing, direct involvement with special operations units by individuals who have security clearances and who are officially associated with said units. This means the NCPTSD needs to have a contract with people who have unique and ongoing access to these special operations units in order to facilitate NCPTSD research. The NCPTSD does not have this capability and, therefore, has used the Center for Research and Development (CR&D) in the past to accomplish NCPTSD research objectives. CR&D has personnel with security clearances who have access to and who are actively involved with current collaborative research between NCPTSD and special operations units. These CR&D personnel have been and are effective in facilitating NCPTSD research because they have years of experience with both the NCPTSD and in conducting operational research and are a known entity to the special military units. These special units are reluctant to permit access to individuals they do not know; over the past few years the established track record of the NCPTSD/CR&D team have made this research possible. Since they know the personnel and trust them this permits the NCPTSD access to their units. Within the special operations community these relationships take years to cultivate; without them the NCPTSD could not continue its current research. If the NCPTSD had to start over with a new company, it would require a minimum of 2 years to re-develop the special access that is currently available to the NCPTSD. This would represent a significant and unacceptable loss to the NCPTSD. The specific services CR&D provides are: interfacing and meeting with key personnel in these units to explain the goals, hypotheses and designs of current and new NCPTSD research; coordination and recruitment of participants for the research; data collection and data entry on site for exporting to NCPTSD. The time period and dates of performance are monthly and within each fiscal year. Data is delivered to NCPTSD at the end of each data collection cycle (typically monthly); the total estimated value of these services is $33,000.00 per year. 4.Statutory Authority Permitting Other than Full and Open Competition: 41 U.S.C. 3304 (a) (1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1. ( X ) (1) Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements per FAR 6.302-1; ( ) (2) Unusual and Compelling Urgency per FAR 6.302-2; ( ) (3) Industrial Mobilization, Engineering, Developmental or Research Capability or Expert Services per FAR 6.302-3; ( ) (4) International Agreement per FAR 6.302-4 ( ) (5) Authorized or Required by Statute FAR 6.302-5; ( ) (6) National Security per FAR 6.302-6; ( ) (7) Public Interest per FAR 6.302-7; 5.Demonstration that the Contractor's Unique Qualifications or Nature of the Acquisition Requires the Use of the Authority Cited Above (applicability of authority): The Center for Research and Development is highly specialized in supplying services for research clinical data retrieval. CR&D is unique and represents the one responsible source of a highly specialized service in that it has: A) personnel with security clearances at the SECRET and TOP SECRET level (including Secret Compartmented Information, SCI); and B) over 10 years of experience conducting psychological, physiological and biological research in these special military environments. This is unique in that although many companies have personnel with clearances, they do not have personnel possessing both clearances and highly specialized experience in neurobiological work. The special units to which NCPTSD has access require some of the highest levels of security clearances that are possible to have (i.e. TS-SCI); this status, coupled with research experience and a history of working within these special units, makes CR&D unique to the needs of the NCPTSD. Individuals who are not familiar with the culture of special military units may not realize that these special units are VERY reluctant to work with people they do not know. Apart from our research group they have traditionally avoided letting any research groups into their systems for neurobiological research; the NCPTSD has had unique access over the years because we worked to establish these long-term relationships and have used the same personnel to maintain these research relationships with the units via CR&D. NCPTSD is not aware of any other company that can provide this unique service. It would cause unacceptable delays in NCPTSD capabilities to conduct research within these units if we had to start with a new company and restart the process of getting the special units to accept these new personnel. In summary, CR&D is the only firm capable of providing the services described above for the NCPTSD neurobiological studies work in elite military units without the VHA/NCPTSD experiencing a substantial delays in fulfilling its requirements and or a loss of access to special units that could not be expected to be recovered through competition. 6.Description of Efforts Made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as deemed practicable: Market research has not been conducted in conjunction with our request. To our knowledge no other company has access for purposes of neurobiological research to these Special Military Units and Special Training sites. We have spoken with the command of each unit and have been informed that the NCPTSD relationship for research with such units is unique. 7.Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable: It is our belief that the price provided to the Government for this service is fair and reasonable. The cost to NCPTSD are based on labor costed at a doctoral rate of $143.00 per hour (which is significantly less than many doctoral rates used in government that are between $157.00 and $190.00 per hour) and costed at a non doctoral rate of $48.00 per hour. Each year we anticipate that CR&D will facilitate the recruitment of 100 participants. In the past, the cost to the NCPTSD has been 20/hrs per week at the doctoral rate and 40 hours/week at the non doctoral rate. This total cost per year is $31,812.00 and is fair and reasonable based upon NCPTSD experience with similar contracts. In accordance with FAR 13.106-3, price analysis comparing current proposed prices to prices awarded under the expiring contract will be used by the Contracting Officer to make a positive determination of fair and reasonable pricing. 8.Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results, or a Statement of the Reasons Market Research Was Not Conducted: A market research has not been conducted in conjunction with our request to the Center for Research and Development. A sources sought notice will be posted in FBO. 9.Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other than Full and Open Competition: Our previous research work has been performed by the Center for Research & Development and to maintain consistency in our research we would like the research team to remain intact and employ the same methods for recruitment, data collection and analysis. The fact CR&D is familiar with NCPTSD protocols and current studies significantly helps us get the work done in a timely manner for presentation. The Center for R&D has performed well for our previous studies; their work has been both timely and good research objectives. 10.Listing of Sources that Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition: Any sources responding to the sources sought posting will be forwarded on to the using services for possible future consideration. 11.A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome any Barriers to Competition before Making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required: The NCPTSD continues to actively survey and monitor developments in the military and research communities so as to be aware of any new companies that might meet the needs of the NCPTSD for these services. The requirement will by synopsized to the Government Point of Entry (GPE), Federal Business Opportunities. Responses will be forwarded to the requesting services. The VA could pursue the ability to acquire security clearances for TS and TS-SCI related government work. This would significantly assist the NCPTSD to have direct access to units. However, these clearances do take time (average time for getting a person a clearance level of TS is two years) but in the long run would be very useful to NCPTSD. At present, approval for using CR&D is sought for more than one year due to the fact that our current research protocols are based on projects requiring 3 years of effort. Continuing with CR&D would prevent an unacceptable disruption in both data collection and our ability to complete projects in a timely manner.
- Web Link
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FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/BoVAMC/VAMCCO80220/VA24112Q0533/listing.html)
- Record
- SN02783164-W 20120623/120622000403-a4a13ce2f17cecca6bd3005039740975 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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