SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Request for Information - NOAA Regional Climate Centers
- Notice Date
- 6/13/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Region Acquisition Division, 7600 Sand Point Way, Northeast, Seattle, Washington, 98115-6349
- ZIP Code
- 98115-6349
- Solicitation Number
- NOAA-14-RCCs
- Archive Date
- 7/30/2014
- Point of Contact
- Alea A. Cox, Phone: 2065266026, Kate R. Steff, Phone: 2065266370
- E-Mail Address
-
alea.cox@noaa.gov, kate.r.steff@noaa.gov
(alea.cox@noaa.gov, kate.r.steff@noaa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Synopsis: This is a request for information (RFI) only, and is not a solicitation for a contract or grant award. This RFI notice is for information purposes only, is not a request for proposals, and does not obligate the Government in any way. The Government will not reimburse the respondents for any costs associated with the information submitted in response to this request. The Government will treat each submission as confidential. Background Since 1990, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has supported Regional Climate Centers (RCCs) to develop and provide environmental products and services tailored and responsive to the unique needs of different U.S. geographical regions, with an emphasis on private sector interests. RCCs develop and adapt datasets and tools to the regional level and develop new regional weather and climate data applications and web-based information resources. RCCs also provide expertise in integrated regional services, including via the early warning of and response to extreme weather and climate events, the contribution to and delivery of both episodic and regular weather and climate assessments, and the utilization of regional collaboration with private, local, state and federal partners. RCCs share their expertise in data and integrated regional services with NCDC, other NOAA programs and offices such as the National Weather Service (NWS), and other Government partners to foster a coordinated approach to region-specific climate information access, analysis, and dissemination. Through their regional geophysical and socioeconomic expertise, innovative development, and sustained activities, RCCs have successfully demonstrated the value of a regional NCDC focus. Today, many individuals and businesses rely on RCC products and services to inform their decision-making, grow their environmental intelligence, and become more prepared and resilient to weather and climate phenomena. As weather and climate hazards grow more prominent, this information underpins increasingly large investment and business decisions. Accordingly, NCDC must take steps to ensure its regional capabilities are as mature and reliable as are its core operations. Therefore, NCDC now seeks to continue its regional capabilities in a durable, affordable, and sustainable manner compliant with NOAA, NESDIS, and NCDC enterprise infrastructure, policies, and practices. For example, NCDC seeks to transition appropriate regional products and tools into NOAA operational products and tools, a multi-step process which ultimately provides users with certain assurances in product security, integrity, availability, transparency, reproducibility, and other stewardship aspects. Further, to facilitate efficiencies and organizational consistency, NCDC anticipates RCC geographical regions will match existing National Weather Service regions. NCDC's six Regional Climate Service Directors (RCSDs), who are geographically stationed across the U.S., will look toward RCC capabilities to implement and facilitate major operational components of NCDC's regional goals and to pursue complementarity with other regional capabilities. Through this arrangement, the RCCs will effectively provide execution of NCDC's regional priorities. RCCs support NOAA's mission to advance the understanding of the impacts of weather and climate extremes, variability and change through user engagement, and the translation of weather and climate data into useable information, products, and services for decision-makers. The RCC program directly supports the following legislative mandates: •National Climate Program Act of 1978, whose mandate is to "...establish a national climate program that will assist the Nation and the world to understand and respond to natural and man-induced climate processes and their implications." 15 U.S.C. §§ 2901-08 (1978). •U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990, which calls for the Federal Government to "...combine and interpret data from various sources to product information readily useable by policymakers attempting to formulate effective strategies for preventing, mitigating, and adapting to the effects of global change." 15 U.S.C. §§ 2921, 2931-38 (1978). The RCC program also supports the NOAA Next Generation Strategic Plan's Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Goal, which articulates a long-term vision to build "an informed society anticipating and responding to climate and its impacts" (http://www.ppi.noaa.gov/ngsp). Purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) This RFI is intended to inform NOAA on the current status of industry and non-profit sources, business practices, technical capacity, and operational capability. NOAA is providing all industry and non-profit stakeholders an opportunity to comment and respond. NOAA encourages communication and a robust dialogue on this RFI. Information Requested Interested parties should submit a written statement of interest discussing how they will meet the requirements of an RCC. The statement should describe the party's approach to each activity listed below. 1.Regional Engagement and Requirements Capture •Engage with industry, economic, and demographic sectors throughout the region to understand their climate-related issues, needs, awareness, and capabilities. •Assess, prioritize, and translate constituent needs into actionable requirements for products, information, tools, and services in association with the RCSD and with attention to planned or existing capabilities from non-NOAA providers. 2.Adapt and Develop Tools, Products, Information and Services Responsive to Regional Needs •Develop and execute projects which deliver Tools, Products, Information, and Services responsive to the priority requirements that are compliant with NOAA, NESDIS, and NCDC enterprise infrastructure, policies, and practices. This may include attention to system or product performance, capability maturity models, software coding standards, product metadata, documentation, forms and formats, regional weather and climate data, and information aggregation, among other things and as appropriate. •Test, validate, and quality assure project deliverables. •Sustain RCC deliverables, products and capabilities as needed and appropriate to assess their value to sectoral, regional and other user needs. Collect and analyze user feedback and recommend, to the RCSD, the termination, modification or transition of capabilities to an NCDC operational state as appropriate. 3.Transition Appropriate Tools, Products, Information, and Services to NCDC Operational States •Maintain inventory, maturity information and readiness states on RCC developments and capabilities and, together with the RCSD and NCDC, regularly review and assess these for possible transition to NCDC operational states. •Develop and execute transition projects which result in new or upgraded NCDC operational products, software, systems, information, services and other capabilities. This will include close coordination with NCDC and attention to established transition procedures which can include development of Maturity Matrices, "Ready for Archive" assessments, Submission Agreements, formal reviews, transmission protocols, load and performance testing, security assessments, media and training information, configuration management and other documentation. 4.Services •Synthesize regional weather and climate data and information. Contribute to both sustained monitoring and event-driven assessments of the impacts of regional weather and climate extremes, variability, and change. These assessments may be requested for either technical or non-technical audiences, and may serve NCDC's operational assessments. •Enable more environmentally-informed private and public-sector decisions and projects in the region through relevant capacity building (e.g., training, education, awareness) and user support services. •Collect observations in near real-time as provided by NWS COOP observers through NWS systems, and provide these data to NCDC at a minimum of once a day and in end-of-month collections and support the identification, reporting, tracking, and resolution of issues in the data. •Support the adjudication process for regional observations that may have established new all-time records for jurisdictions (e.g., states). Industry Day The Government plans to hold an Industry Day event on July 31, 2014 in Ashville, NC. Details will be sent to interested vendors. The responses from this RFI will tailor the topics that will be discussed in the Industry Day event. Industry Day will provide Industry the opportunity to learn more about the RCC program, what mission we support and areas where Industry can contribute. NCDC Managers will provide an overview of the organization and long term procurement projections along with Acquisition strategies. The afternoon will close with the opportunity for Industry to meet with Government personnel and other vendors/suppliers. Written comments in response to the RFI, no longer than fifteen (15) pages in length, should be submitted electronically in PDF, no later than July 15, 2014, to: Alea.Cox@noaa.gov. Please do not submit marketing material or business proprietary information. Contracting Office Address: U.S. Department of Commerce/NOAA Western Acquisition Division 7600 Sandpoint Way NE SOU6 Seattle, WA 98115
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NOAA/WASC/NOAA-14-RCCs/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Contractor's facilities, United States
- Record
- SN03394598-W 20140615/140613234425-b715e3c9255b932f6e8dc3e055acdcb2 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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