SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATESHIP PROGRAM
- Notice Date
- 2/25/2013
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1640, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1640
- Solicitation Number
- NB109000-13-01203
- Archive Date
- 3/31/2013
- Point of Contact
- Randy E. Schroyer, Phone: (301) 975-6314, Jo-Lynn S Davis, Phone: 301-975-6337
- E-Mail Address
-
randy.schroyer@nist.gov, jo-lynn.davis@nist.gov
(randy.schroyer@nist.gov, jo-lynn.davis@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- THIS IS NOT A FORMAL REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST) TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE to determine the availability of small businesses and socio-economic categories of small businesses (e.g., 8(a), service-disabled veteran owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, veteran-owned small business, and women-owned small business) under NAICS code 541690, that have the capability, experience, and expert knowledge in the area of administering a Post-Doctoral Research Associateship (or similar) Program. The establishment of a Post-doctoral Fellowship Program is specifically articulated in the Organic Act, Post-doctoral Fellowship Program (15 U.S.C. 278g-2), which states - the Institute shall establish and conduct a post-doctoral fellowship program, subject to the availability of appropriations, which shall be organized and carried out in substantially the same manner as the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Post-Doctoral Research Associateship Program that was in effect prior to 1986, and which shall include not less than twenty nor more than 120 new fellows per fiscal year. In evaluating applications for fellowships under this section, the Director shall give consideration to the goal of promoting the participation of underrepresented minorities in research areas supported by the Institute. Statement of Work (DRAFT) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Postdoctoral Research Associateship Program 1. BACKGROUND The mission of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC)/ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life. The research performed at the NIST research laboratories to support this mission is of vital interest to the United States and the larger global scientific community. The NIST Postdoctoral Research Associateship Program, in its authorization, provides two-year excepted term appointments for outstanding scientists and engineers chosen through a national competition. The program has more than fifty-five years of historic excellence in identifying and recruiting world-class postdoctoral scientists and engineers to work at NIST. NIST currently participates as part of the National Research Council (NRC) Research Associateship Program (RAP), which includes 28 federal agencies, with NIST as the first agency to participate in 1954. NIST is not only interested in recruiting outstanding new scientists and engineers through the postdoctoral program to contribute to its cutting edge research during postdoctoral appointments, but NIST is also interested in retaining a significant number of postdoctoral associates afterwards as employees of NIST's regular staff scientists and engineers. In the NIST Postdoctoral Research Associateship Program, there are two important objectives that must be kept in proper balance for the exceptional conduct of the program. These objectives are: 1) to provide postdoctoral scientists and engineers of unusual promise and ability opportunities for research on problems, largely of their own choice, that are compatible with the research interests of the sponsoring NIST laboratory; and, 2) contribute to the general research effort to the NIST laboratory. The NIST Postdoctoral Research Associateship Program, begun in 1954, is a Congressionally-mandated program accommodating up to 120 new postdoctoral fellows per year. 2. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES The Contractor shall provide overall administration services as outlined in this document for the successful conduct of a NIST-wide Postdoctoral Research Associateship Program for NIST. This shall include providing the necessary personnel, materials, equipment and facilities (except as otherwise specified) for services to support such a program throughout the NIST laboratories. The Contractor shall provide administrative support for NIST to be able to make research associate awards twice per year to scientists and engineers at the doctoral level in a national competition that undergoes a rigorous professional scientific review process of each application. This administrative support shall include recruitment of potential, qualified applicants, collection of application packages and rigorous scientific review of application packages to provide NIST sufficient information to make the postdoctoral research associate awards. The awards made by NIST will provide opportunities to enable Research Associates to further increase their proficiency in research, and to make governmental laboratory facilities, often including unique equipment, available to the scientific community. The contract will be offered for one base year and four (4) one-year option periods. The required tasks listed below shall be applicable for the base year, and also for each of the one-year option periods. 3. CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS a. Develop, maintain, and update a database of NIST-submitted Research Opportunities and make these opportunities available to the research and academic communities at large through a web-based interface. Research Opportunities must be searchable via web-interface by potential applicants using NIST Research Adviser name and keywords. At a minimum, an annual call (nominally in the late spring) for review of research opportunities shall be organized by the Contractor via email, with notification to the COR, requesting all Research Advisers update their contact information, and edit/delete/add any pertinent research opportunities. The Contractor shall continue to offer the ability to all Research Advisers, and the COR, to modify the research opportunities via electronic means throughout the year. b. Provide free and open application information via the internet and all necessary application forms (http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/RAP/PGA_047698) to the academic and research communities, with two discrete competition opportunities per year, for application deadlines of 1 February and 1 August of each year. For each competition, the Contractor shall provide the application forms available for download from a web-based interface in portable document format (pdf). Any modification to the use of the pdf format must be approved in advance by the COR. The Contractor shall provide access to all application materials to the COR and individually to the appropriate proposed NIST Research Adviser via a secure web interface. The Contractor shall receive, log, and develop a file for each application to include, in addition to the complete application form, a research proposal for the proposed postdoctoral work, university transcripts, a statement of previous and current research, and three confidential reference reports. In addition to these documents provided by the applicant, the Contractor shall include in the application package an evaluation by the requested NIST Advisor/Mentor, which confirms the interest of NIST in the proposed research. Any application missing such an evaluation, or returned with a negative evaluation shall not be sent by the Contractor to the review panel. The Contractor shall check each application file prior to review and notify each applicant of required documents that are missing. The Contractor shall screen all research scientists to eliminate anyone who does not meet the criteria of U.S. citizenship at time of application and limit those applications to those holding the Ph.D. degree less than five years at time of application. c. Invite and appoint panelists for the competitive review of applications. These panelists shall be experts actively involved in scientific research. Panels shall be established in the broad disciplinary areas of Chemistry, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics, and include those with expertise matching the subject matter of the submitted research proposals. To maintain the excellence of quality panels of renowned scientists and engineers, at a minimum the panelists must have held a Ph.D. in an appropriate panel discipline for at least 10 years, have a documented history of scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and/or of chapters in books, oral or poster presentations at professional meetings, membership in and service to professional societies, and mentorship of scientific research. Distribution of panel reviewers per broad area will vary depending on the distribution of applications within the disciplines, but a general distribution would be Chemistry - 30; Earth and Atmospheric Sciences - 20; Physics - 35; Life Sciences - 35, and Engineering - 50. Sources of panelists include, but are not limited to, members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM); individuals recommended by NAS, NAE and IOM members and their sections liaisons; individuals recommended by other panelists; individuals identified through contacts at national meetings, and individuals identified by the Contractor based on specific discipline searches. The Contractor shall possess sufficient experience and knowledge to identify panelists with expertise matching the subject matter of the submitted proposals. Care should be taken to assure that there are no possible conflicts of interest when selecting panelists. Panelists should be chosen for an initial term of three years, with possible renewal upon satisfactory performance for an additional three years. Composition of individual panels should be assessed for balance in gender, age, race and ethnicity. Panel reviews should be conducted on-site at least once per year, during which time quality assurance is performed to ensure that all reviewers are familiar with review procedures and scoring of application packages. d. Securely collect all information for application packages for distribution for the panel reviews in the appropriate research areas. Conduct expert panel reviews of application packages, occurring each March and September for the respective competition deadlines of February and August. A minimum of three expert reviews shall be conducted per application, with additional reviews conducted, if deemed necessary due to score spread of greater than 10% between reviewers. Any expenses associated with the conduct of the review panels are the responsibility of the Contractor. e. Provide a roster that ranks all applicants based on panel review to the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), who will provide the Contractor with an affirmation or declination of interest to support proposed research efforts. After the Contractor's review panel has completed its evaluation process, the Contractor shall provide individual application scores to the COR. The COR will respond with these responses to the Contractor within 60 days of the date the roster is received by the COR. NIST is responsible for issuing offers and for all procedures relating to on-boarding of selected postdoctoral research associates. f. After the NIST selection process has been completed, the Contractor shall work with the COR to record the offers, and offer results (acceptances and declinations) in a secure database to be set up and maintained by the Contractor; records in the database must include, but may not be limited to, information on all applicants, such as name, Ph.D. university, demographic and other information, such as a list of associates' lab/Center location, start and end dates, and advisor name. The access to the records is restricted to the Contractor, the NIST COR, and those NIST staff that the NIST COR approves to have access. g. All tools employed by the Contractor, including applications, conduct of reviews and review outcomes and fiscal and technical reports shall be implemented electronically; i.e. use only paperless management tools/web-based systems. Reference to the existing research opportunity list, including keyword and advisor searches can be found at: http://nrc58.nas.edu/RAPLab10/Opportunity/Opportunities.aspx?LabCode=50 and reference for how to apply can be found at: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/RAP/PGA_046398 h. Conduct annual staff visits to the NIST Gaithersburg, MD campus and the NIST Boulder, CO campus. The visits shall be of one-day duration, and travel expenses are the responsibility of the Contractor. Coordination of the visits shall be made with the COR, who will assist in approval of visitor access to each campus for the visits. During the visits, the Contractor shall update the laboratory administration and NIST research advisors on program matters and receive feedback on how the program is functioning at the laboratory level. In addition, group interviews with associates working at NIST laboratories shall be conducted in order to gather information on the performance of NIST as a host research agency. Reports on the performance of NIST labs shall be provided to the COR, as part of the annual report. Subsequently, adjustment to program management shall be made as necessary by the Contractor to address the concerns of the laboratory administration or by the laboratory to address concern raised by the associates. i. The Contractor shall work with the COR to extract information from end of tenure reports, which the COR will provide, to store in a database and provide summaries of data as requested. These will include, but are not limited to, number of scientific, peer-reviewed publications, information on subsequent employment, highlights of completed research during the associateships, and patents and inventions achieved by the Associates in the program. The reports shall be submitted on Contractor-provided forms, available for download on the program website. The standard form currently used by all participating Federal Government agencies can be found at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/RAP/PGA_053498 j. Promote the NIST program broadly to recruit the brightest and most talented scientists and engineers with recent doctoral degrees in disciplines of interest and compatibility to NIST to conduct research at NIST research laboratories. This includes a combination of information disseminated through print advertising, direct mailing, electronic mailing and internet postings using professional societies and employment sites. General plans for such dissemination should be detailed in the Contractor's proposal. Specific attention should be made by the Contractor for outreach to under-represented populations in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), including disseminating information through minority-focused meetings, recruitment at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU's), Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSI's), tribal colleges and universities, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institutions (AANAPISI's). The Contractor shall respond to mail, telephone, e-mail, and personal inquiries and provide application details, forms and instructions, and additional information, as requested. A list of the estimated number of Research Advisers, Research Opportunities, and Applicants is given below: Estimated number of applicants per review period: February: 130 ± 30 August: 100 ± 30 Number of Research Opportunities: 700 ±50, over NIST's six organizational units ("Laboratories") 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND DELIVERABLES a. Monthly Financial Reports showing; actual expenses through the month; and funding available for expenses. These Monthly Financial Reports shall be delivered to the COR within 14 calendar days after the end of the month described in the report. b. Annual written technical report within 60 days of the end of a contract year that summarizes information on publicity, applications received and reviewed, final status of offers made, as well as a compilation of individual associate final reports received in the prior 12 months. A list of all associates should be given for the year, with appropriate lab/Center location, start and end dates, and adviser name. The summary shall also include a listing of aggregate percentages of under-represented groups in STEM by group. These statistics shall be given for each competition for all applicants, and then for the selected postdoctoral associates. Annual financial reports should be given at the end of each year in the annual report. c. A summary of the applications submitted shall be delivered to the COR within 7 days of the application deadline (e.g. for the February 1 deadline, application summary due on or before February 7, and for the August 1 deadline, application summary due August 7). d. A roster that ranks all applicants based on panel review shall be delivered to the COR within one week of the completion of the panel review. For the February competition, the ranking list is due on or before March 15th; and for the August competition, the ranking list is due on or before September 30th. e. Summary of required deadlines: • Applications submitted in an online application system; Contractor staff screens for eligibility (February 1, August 1); • Pre-review roster sent to COR/application packages sent to research advisers - 1 week following deadline; • Advisor review forms returned to COR and validated, then COR sends to Contractor for inclusion in the application package - 3 weeks following application deadline; • All application packages deemed complete and approved by NIST advisors made available to reviewers for online scoring and comments - completed reviews received by Contractor within 3 weeks; and • Review results finalized by Panel Chairs and Co-Chairs. Review results made available to COR within 7 days. 5. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall maintain a quality control program to ensure that the requirements of this project are met. This program shall be created to identify and correct deficiencies to maintain a consistent, high quality of services throughout the life of this contract. 6. INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA The summary of applications for each competition will be inspected for completeness by the COR within 7 days of submission by the Contractor, with any questions submitted within that 7 days. Similarly, the summary ranking list for each panel review will be inspected for completeness within 7 days of submission. The Annual written technical report, as described in section 4, will be reviewed by the COR within 30 days, for approval/non-approval, which will subsequently be forwarded to the CO to place in the contract file. Small businesses and socio-economic categories of small businesses that currently possess such capabilities and have prior experience administering post-doctoral fellowship programs or similar programs, using this expertise, are encouraged to respond to this notice by providing the following information: 1. Brief narrative providing evidence of the ability to administer a post-doctoral fellowship program comparable to that articulated in the Organic Act. 2. Capabilities Statement discussing core competencies. 3. Current socioeconomic status of your company including applicable North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes. 4. Indication of whether your company currently has an active registration, including on-line representations and certifications at the System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) website. Contractors must have a valid, current registration to be considered for award. No telephone requests will be honored. All information provided will become property of NIST and will not be returned. The synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. This is not a solicitation for proposals and no contract will be awarded from this announcement. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement and any follow-up information requests. Respondents will not be notified of the results of their capability statement assessment, but may be contacted for additional information. All capability statements and information requested above must be submitted via e-mail to randy.schroyer@nist.gov. Responses must be submitted not later than the response date for this Sources Sought Notice. Responses shall be limited to 5 typed pages, including attachments.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/NB109000-13-01203/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: To be Determined, United States
- Record
- SN02995415-W 20130227/130225234607-bc1848c4574da50fbaa5841c8f0f41fd (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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