SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Study of the Impacts of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico
- Notice Date
- 5/3/2018
- 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 B130, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1410, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1410
- Solicitation Number
- AMDTC-18-0010
- Archive Date
- 6/9/2018
- Point of Contact
- Abdul-Kudus Yahaya, Phone: 3019758497, Keith Bubar, Phone: 3019758329
- E-Mail Address
-
abdul-kudus.yahaya@nist.gov, keith.bubar@nist.gov
(abdul-kudus.yahaya@nist.gov, keith.bubar@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Contracting Office Address National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640 This notice is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation or an obligation on the part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for conducting a follow-on acquisition. NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Notice, or otherwise pay for the information requested. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this Notice and NIST use of such information. NIST requests that proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary data and present it as an addendum to the non-restricted/non-proprietary information. In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data in the information paper. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the information submitted. NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST NOW NIST is seeking support for the Engineering Laboratory /National Construction Safety Team/ National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (EL/NCST-NWIRP) Study of the Impacts of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. Vendors responding to this source sought notice should demonstrate capabilities to provide the services requested. After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed and specifications are developed for NIST's minimum requirements, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. If at least two capable small businesses are identified during this market research, then any competitive procurement that resulted may be conducted as a small business set-aside. NIST is seeking responses from all qualified responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Background/Mission: The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will study the impacts of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, focusing specifically on the performance of critical buildings and their dependence on distributed infrastructure (such as electricity and water), the characteristics of the wind environment and technical conditions associated with deaths and injuries, and emergency communications and the public's response to those communications. Under the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act, signed into law in 2002, NIST is authorized to establish teams to investigate building failures that have resulted in substantial loss of life or that posed the potential for substantial loss of life. Based on a preliminary reconnaissance to Puerto Rico in December 2017, the NIST Director authorized the NCST investigation to determine: • the characteristics of the storm hazards-the pattern, location and cause of injuries and fatalities; • the performance of emergency communications systems and the public's response to such communications; and • the performance of representative critical buildings and designated safe areas in those buildings, including their dependence on infrastructure such as electricity and water. Additionally, the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP) was established by Congress "...to achieve major measurable reductions in the losses of life and property from windstorms through a coordinated Federal effort, in cooperation with other levels of Government, academia, and the private sector, aimed at improving the understanding of windstorms and their impacts and developing and encouraging the implementation of cost-effective mitigation measures to reduce those impacts." Under the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act, additional efforts will be performed in Puerto Rico to determine: • the impacts to and recovery of small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs), as well as businesses in retail and service industries • the impacts to and recovery of education and health care services Scope of Requirement: NIST is seeking information from all sources capable of conducting surveys and interviews with various Puerto Rican populations affected by Hurricane Maria and/or who have knowledge related to the hurricane's impacts on Puerto Rico and the island's subsequent recovery process. Surveys and interviews could include, but are not limited to, the following populations: • Personnel of relevant State/Commonwealth and local Government agencies/departments, including emergency management and public works • Owners/operators of small and medium manufacturers (with a focus on supply chain disruption) • Owners/managers of retail and service establishments • Medical/health professionals • Education professionals • Engineers and other professionals involved in the management of infrastructure • Members of the public Specific Requirements: Requirement 1. One requirement is for the Contractor to conduct a series of quantitative, structured surveys regarding emergency communications, business recovery and the recovery of critical social functions in Puerto Rico. Activities include, but are not limited to: 1a. Developing or purchasing sample frames 1b. Allocating sample(s) across units 1c. Contacting individuals both inside and outside of Puerto Rico (via telephone or in-person) 1.d Collecting data using NIST-developed survey instruments 1e. Conducting large-scale, multi-community quantitative surveys (either in person, via phone using computer-assisted telephone interviewing, or using mixed methods) 1f. Obtaining a pre-established number of complete responses for each survey instrument 1g. Performing minimal data analysis (e.g., descriptive statistics) 1h. Delivering cleaned and usable datasets 1i. Producing final reports (that include information on response rates, documentation of methods, and lessons learned). 1j. Collecting data using a similar survey instrument at multiple points in time (longitudinal data collection) The selected vendor must be able to provide survey services (written and oral) in both English and Spanish, and be able to physically travel to Puerto Rico or other U.S. locations as needed to provide these survey services. Requirement 2. Another requirement is for the Contractor to conduct a series of qualitative interviews regarding hurricane-related deaths/injuries, emergency communications, infrastructure, business recovery and the recovery of critical social functions in Puerto Rico. Activities include, but are not limited to: 2a. Developing or purchasing sample frames 2b. Contacting individuals both inside and outside of Puerto Rico (via telephone or in-person) 2c. Collecting data using NIST-developed interview guides (either in person, via phone using computer-assisted telephone interviewing, or using mixed methods) 2d. Obtaining a pre-established number of complete responses for each interview guide 2e. Transcribing interviews (from audio recordings to electronic transcripts) 2f. Delivering cleaned and usable sets of transcripts per interview guide 2g. Producing final reports (that include documentation of methods and lessons learned) The selected vendor must be able to provide interview services (written and oral) in both English and Spanish, and be able to physically travel to Puerto Rico as needed to provide interview services. 3. For all data collections, additional activities may include: a. Developing and disseminating outreach methods (documents, letters, emails, phone calls, etc.) to aid in respondent recruitment b. Developing data collection protocols for training c. Conducting training for all data collectors, including on the following topics (1) survey and interview protocols, (2) physical security, (3) recognition of respondent stressors and availability of mental health resources, and (4) mental health protections for interviewers d. Conducting routine monitoring of data collection for quality assurance/quality control e. Protecting data using appropriate IT data collection, storage, and analysis processes f. Conducting surveys and interviews in fluent Spanish g. Performing cross-cultural and conceptual English-to-Spanish translation of all documents and protocols (with less reliance on linguistic/literal equivalence) h. Performing cross-cultural and conceptual Spanish-to-English translation of all data and reports provided to NIST (with less reliance on linguistic/literal equivalence) i. Creating and implementing pilots for each of the data collections j. Creating and implementing innovative ways to reach/contact people who might have been displaced by the hurricane or moved away from Puerto Rico. k. Conducting up to 3,000 quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews over a 6-9-month time frame k. Partnering with or collaborating with local (Puerto Rican) experts in the social sciences, emergency communication, education, healthcare, businesses, disaster recovery, and/or local U.S. Census staff and other relevant organizations. m. Working within the requirements of the Department of Commerce's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and/or the NIST Institutional Review Board (IRB) to achieve approvals on data collection instruments and methods n. Meeting human subjects training requirements set forth by NIST's Institutional Review Board (IRB) 4. The contractor lead for the project will be responsible for the following activities: a. Project management a. Project meetings with NIST b. Progress reporting to NIST, including final reports c. Regular review and evaluation of data collection procedures and respondent recruitment strategies. A. Information sought In your response to the sources sought notice, please address the following in your Capability Statements in the order in which they are listed below. 1. What is your company's experience in addressing all of the specifications discussed above, in an organized format (preferably in the same order as listed above) that allows for a direct correlation to the requested information. 2. Description of your company's previous experience providing the services described in this notice. 3. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and finalizing its market research. 4. Describe the company's services availability to the public. B. Administrative Information Requested The following information is also requested to be provided as part of the response to this source sought notice. 1. Name of Company, Address, DUNS number, CAGE code, and point of contact information of your company (Name, title, telephone number, and e-mail addresses of individual(s) who can verify the capabilities identified in the responses) 2. Provide the Company's business size, if applicable 3. Indication of whether the services described in this notice are currently on one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts or other applicable contracts and, if so, the applicable contract number(s). 4. Responses are limited to a total of 10 pages. The responses must be in MS Word format. 5. Submission of requested information may be made via email to: Contracts Specialist: Abdul-Kudus Yahaya Email Address: abdul-kudus.yahaya@nist.gov
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