SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- EVALUATIONS ASSESSMENTS STUDIES SERVICES AND SUPPORT
- Notice Date
- 7/16/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 12, Industry Assistance Office, Hampton,VA 23681-0001
- ZIP Code
- 23681-0001
- Solicitation Number
- SS-SOMA-EASSS
- Response Due
- 8/8/2014
- Archive Date
- 7/16/2015
- Point of Contact
- Sandra Chellis, Contract Specialist, Phone 757-864-3640, Fax 757-864-8863, Email sandra.chellis@nasa.gov - Timothy P Cannella, Contracting Officer, Phone 757-864-5028, Fax 757-864-9097, Email Timothy.P.Cannella@nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
Sandra Chellis
(sandra.chellis@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NASA Langley Research Center is hereby soliciting information for potential sources for a follow-on procurement to the Science Office for Mission Assessments (SOMA) support contract entitled, EVALUATIONS, ASSESSMENTS, STUDIES, SERVICES, AND SUPPORT (NNL12AA00B). An advance notice is published herein to provide information about services that are required. The SOMA is responsible for the management and oversight of evaluations, assessments, and studies for the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and may provide this support to other NASA organizations. The SOMA will process requirements for evaluations, assessments, studies, and associated logistics support, as described below through the Langley Research Center Office of Procurement.Also, the contract will support assessments for the Independent Program Assessment Office (IPAO) located at NASA Langley Research Center. The contract work will include the following: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST:Vendors are advised that the resultant solicitation will contain stringent requirements with regards to avoiding Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI), personal conflicts of interest, non-disclosure of sensitive and proprietary information, as well as limitations on future contracting. These requirements include, but will not be limited to the following: (1) The successful contractor shall be precluded from participating in any capacity in support of any proposal that might be submitted in response to a NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) issued Broad Agency Announcement including SMD released Announcements of Opportunity; (2) The contractor and its subcontractors and consultants shall be ineligible to perform on any work arising from, or related to, any proposal evaluation, assessment, or study on which it performed these services, except as required in performance of this contract; and (3) To the extent that the work under this contract requires access to proprietary, sensitive, business confidential, or financial data of other companies, and as long as these data remain proprietary, sensitive, or confidential, the contractor shall protect these data from unauthorized use and disclosure and agrees not to use the data for any other purpose including, but not limited to, competing for future work. Vendors are advised that a firewall cannot be used to mitigate Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI). Consequently the selected vendor will be restricted from pursuing other work outside of this contract that would cause Organizational Conflicts of Interest during the performance of this contract. EVALUATIONS: The contract work will support evaluation of proposals submitted pursuant to NASA FAR Supplement Part 1872, Acquisition of Investigations. The contract work will require that the vendor staff evaluation panels with a large number of subject matter experts (150 or greater evaluators), which might include a significant number of subcontracted or consultant evaluators. The evaluations are conducted in accordance with NASA FAR Supplement Part 1872.4, Evaluations of Proposals, for Space Science Missions and Investigations. The specific technical and performance requirements for each evaluation, assessment, or study will be defined. Due to the nature and sensitivity of the evaluations, it is imperative that evaluations be objective and void of organizational and personal conflicts of interest. A typical evaluation requires the contractor to staff one panel or multiple panels with panel leaders and subject matter experts to evaluate Space Science Missions or Investigation proposals. Typically, more than one expert is required in each area to ensure a competent review. A NASA representative will act as the Evaluation Panel Chair and provide instructions to the evaluation panel members on NASAs evaluation standards, definitions, and process to be used for the panel. Each expert reviews the proposals and submits their individual initial review results via a government provided web-based system, at a specified time period prior to a plenary evaluation meeting. Panels typically engage in a series of telecons over a specified period of time prior to a plenary meeting and develop draft consensus findings of strengths and weaknesses based on the criteria for each proposal. The draft consensus findings are then posted on a NASA provided secure web site. At a plenary meeting, the draft consensus findings are reviewed by all panel members in a plenary session of all panels. If multiple panels are required, the contractors consistency expert(s) reviews all findings to ensure all proposals are evaluated consistently and raises potential consistency issues at the plenary meeting for resolution by the evaluation panel. The NASA Evaluation Panel Chair provides guidance on the format of the findings to ensure they meet NASA standards and are suitable for use in debriefing the proposers. Typically, all evaluators vote on the overall grade for each proposal using the stated evaluation criteria to identify proposal strengths and weaknesses. The contractor prepares a final report of the results. The contractor will be required to evaluate proposals in the areas of technical, management, cost, schedule, and other areas of emphasis. The proposals are submitted in response to Announcements of Opportunities (AOs), NASA Research Announcements (NRAs), Cooperative Agreement Notices (CANs), or other Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs). The contract work in support of evaluations also includes preparing supplementary material to accompany AOs, NRAs, CANs, or other BAAs including technical information related to the opportunity, report formats, and logistics guidelines for proposers responding to the AO. The contract work will include identifying expertise needed for the evaluations and staffing panels with appropriate subject matter experts including expertise in project/program management, systems engineering, spacecraft systems (e.g., power, propulsion, attitude determination and control, mechanical, thermal, communications), instrumentation, mission design, ground systems, mission operations, entry descent and landing, safety and mission assurance, schedule, and cost. The contract work will include providing analysis tools necessary to conduct the evaluation, planning and coordinating the logistics and security of the evaluation, compliance with contract and review panel conflict of interest and non-disclosure reporting requirements and established procedural requirements of the panel, documenting panel findings, and preparing interim and final evaluation reports. ASSESSMENTS: The contract work will include assessments of current and potential NASA programs and includes technical assessments relative to the likely performance of technical systems and the impact of new technologies on technical systems; management assessments relative to the effectiveness of management systems, processes, and tools and assessments of components of NASA programs; cost assessments relative to mission development and life cycle costs and cost risk; schedule assessments relative to analyzing past mission development schedules, estimating mission development schedules, and assessing schedule risk; and other assessments including risk, safety, environmental impact, mission trajectory, resource utilization, analyses of instruments, spacecraft and launch vehicle designs, systems engineering, safety and mission assurance, fabrication and assembly, and test and launch operations on programs or projects. STUDIES: The contract work will include special studies for management, science, technical, cost, schedule, and workshop and conference activities. Management study activities include gathering information and analyzing options for possible management systems; and gathering information and analyzing the structure, performance and effectiveness of actual management systems in NASA programs and in similar endeavors. Scientific study activities include gathering information; reviewing systems for handling and analyzing samples of extraterrestrial materials; defining payloads to meet scientific goals; investigating potential science objectives for small, low-cost missions or planetary protection; and investigating the applicability of science concepts to particular missions. Technical study activities include analyzing the feasibility of instrument, spacecraft, and mission design; investigating mission options and associated performance expectations; analyzing system designs; analyzing technologies needed to accomplish specific goals; analyzing propulsion and mission operations capabilities; and analyzing data handling and analysis systems. Both cost and schedule study activities include gathering information on past cost and schedule performance of NASA missions or investigations and analyzing results for use on future mission or investigation cost and schedule evaluations. Workshop and conference study activities include scientific and engineering analyses, studies and evaluations of requirements, management, technical and logistics support for the purpose of conducting informational workshops and conferences. FACILITIES, LOGISTICS, AND INFORMATION SUPPORT: The contract work will include logistics support for evaluations, assessments, studies, meetings, conferences and related workshops, to include, but not limited to: distributing information to evaluation panel members; developing and maintaining evaluator contact lists, proposal distribution plans, and meeting attendance plans; briefing evaluators on conflict of interest issues; and ensuring all evaluators have signed non-disclosure agreements and delivered all conflict of interest related documentation required by the contract and panel. The contract work will include ensuring the logistics for each meeting or site visit are appropriate; preparing compliance matrices; maintaining attendance logs; posting approved questions to proposers; preparing evaluation briefing books; generating and distributing explanatory materials; providing logistical support as necessary; preparing and distributing documentation on conference/workshop results; making appropriate number of copies of videos and handouts; and providing audio-visual equipment, copiers, computers and printers. The contract work will be accomplished through telecons, web-based conferencing, and face-to-face meetings requiring travel. The contract work will also include requirements to provide facilities, Internet access, and web-based conferencing tools, at a level of protection sufficient to prevent unauthorized access to Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) material, for up to 100 attendees. The work also involves providing information system support in the form of subject matter expertise, or data related to subject matter expertise, required to support a third party systems development contractor in generating information systems for evaluations, studies, and assessments. The work will involve providing information necessary for the third party contractor to implement and populate information systems such as databases, web pages, or analysis tools. The contract work will require that the contractors personal computer (PC) based system be compatible with a MAC-based system. INFORMATION REQUESTED:Interested vendors having the required specialized capabilities to perform the effort as described above should submit a capability statement of seven pages or less, indicating those capabilities. The capabilities statement should include the following: 1. Summary of the vendors specialized technical capabilities to meet the requirements above. 2. In order to assess the capabilities of small business concerns, address the vendors ability to comply with Federal Acquisition Regulation clause 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting (Dec 1996), section (b)(1) which requires that at least 50 percent of the cost of contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the concern. 3. Address the vendors capability to manage and finance performance under the contract, especially considering the staffing requirements for the evaluation panels. As part of the capability statement, the vendor should also address their capability and willingness to comply with the strict Organizational Conflicts of interest (OCI) avoidance and limitation of future contracting requirements and restrictions above; as well as avoidance or mitigation of personal conflicts. 4. Teaming arrangements are permitted. Please provide a discussion of the teaming relationship if you intend to form a team for this procurement. If the teaming partners are already identified, you should provide the name of all substantial teaming partners, to include prime joint venture participants and major subcontractors, the anticipated type of teaming arrangements, address the specific services each member will provide, and include applicable capabilities for each member. In some cases you may be able to joint venture with one or more small businesses and not be considered affiliated as long as each member of the joint venture is small under the applicable NAICS code (13 CFR 121.103(h)(3)). The limitation on subcontracting would apply to the cooperative effort of the joint venture not each individual member (13 CFR 125.6(i)). 5. The capability statement must also include the following: Name, DUNS number and address of firm; size of business including average annual revenue for the past 3 years and number of employees; ownership; based on the NAICS standard cited herein, whether they are Other than Small Business, Small business, (8a), Veteran Owned, Woman Owned, or HubZone; number of years in business; affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, potential teaming partners, prime contractor (if potential sub) or subcontractors (if potential prime). 6. List of relevant work performed in the past three years, contract numbers, technical description, contract type, dollar value of each procurement; and point of contact with email, physical address and phone number. 7. Please advise if the requirement is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. A commercial item is defined in FAR 2.101. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this procurement is 541712, and the size standard under this code is 1,000 employees. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released it will be it will be synopsized and posted accordingly. It is the potential vendors responsibility to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. This synopsis is for market research and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of information collected.The information provided will assist the Government in its assessment of the current market and future acquisition planning strategy. All responses are requested to be submitted to NASA Langley Research Center, Attn: Sandra Chellis, Mail Stop 12, Hampton, VA 23681 or by email to sandra.chellis@nasa.gov no later than 1200 noon ET, Friday, August 8, 2014. Please reference SS-SOMA-EASSS in any response. Technical questions should be directed to Andrea O. Salas, Phone: 757-864-5790, Email: andrea.o.salas@nasa.gov with "Technical Question" annotated in the subject line. Procurement related questions should be directed to Sandra Chellis at 757-864-3640, Email: sandra.chellis@nasa.gov with "Contracting Question" annotated in the subject line.
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(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/NASA/LaRC/OPDC20220/SS-SOMA-EASSS/listing.html)
- Record
- SN03426971-W 20140718/140716234831-b5929fa183167bb413d81743e3418225 (fbodaily.com)
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