Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

01/07/2021: Amendment 004: THE PURPOSE OF THIS AMENDMENT IS TO RESPOND TO INQUIRIES RECEIVED AND EXTEND THE DUE DATE FOR PROPOSALS. AMENDMENT 004 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS DOCUMENT IS HEREBY ATTACHED. THE... 01/07/2021: Amendment 004: THE PURPOSE OF THIS AMENDMENT IS TO RESPOND TO INQUIRIES RECEIVED AND EXTEND THE DUE DATE FOR PROPOSALS. AMENDMENT 004 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS DOCUMENT IS HEREBY ATTACHED. THE DUE DATE FOR PROPOSALS IS HEREBY EXTENDED THROUGH JANUARY 22, 2021 NOT LATER THAN 12:00 PM NOON EASTERN TIME. ALL OTHER TERMS REMAIN UNCHANGED. 12/22/2020: Amendment 003 THE PURPOSE OF THIS AMENDMENT IS TO CORRECT THE FOLLOWING SECTION J ATTACHMENTS TO THIS SOLICITATION: SECTION J ATTACHMENT 11 PRICING WORKSHEET IS HEREBY REVISED TO CORRECT THE “MOCK TASK ORDER 3” AND “MOCK TASK ORDER 4” TABS TO ALIGN WITH THE NUMBERED TASKS ESTABLISHED IN THE RESPECTIVE MOCK TASK ORDERS. SECTION J ATTACHMENT 2 PAST PERFORMANCE QUESTIONAIRRE IS HEREBY REVISED TO ALIGN WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS SECTION IN THE RFP, CORRECTING THE LANGUAGE IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE TO SHOW THAT REFERENCES SHOULD RETURN THE COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE TO THE CONTRACTOR BEING EVALUATED, AND SHOULD NOT SUBMIT THE QUESTIONNAIRE DIRECTLY TO THE GOVERNMENT. SECTION J ATTACHMENT 5 TASK 3 MOCK IS HEREBY RENAMED TO ALIGN WITH THE PWS DESCRIPTION. ATTACHMENT 5 TASK 3 MOCK IS HEREBY RENAMED “ATTACHMENT 5 TASK 3-MOCK-TESTFRAMEWORK”. NO CHANGES MADE TO THE PWS. SECTION J ATTACHMENT 6 TASK 4 MOCK IS HEREBY RENAMED TO ALIGN WITH THE PWS DESCRIPTION. ATTACHMENT 6 TASK 4 MOCK IS HEREBY RENAMED “ATTACHMENT 6 TASK 4-MOCK-CONFORMANCE LAB”. NO CHANGES MADE TO THE PWS. SECTION J ATTACHMENTS R1 IS HEREBY UPLOADED AND TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER THE ORIGINAL VERSION. ALL OTHER TERMS REMAIN UNCHANGED. NOTE THAT NIST INTENDS TO POST A SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENT(S) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE WITH RESPONSES TO ALL QUESTIONS RECEIVED BY THE DEADLINE FOR QUESTION SUBMISSION. 12/03/2020: Amendment 002 THE PURPOSE OF THIS AMENDMENT IS TO EXTEND THE DUE DATE FOR PROPOSALS AS FOLLOWS: FROM: DECEMBER 15, 2020 NOT LATER THAN 12:00 PM EASTERN TIME. TO: JANUARY 15, 2021 NOT LATER THAN 12:00 PM EASTERN TIME. ALL OTHER TERMS REMAIN UNCHANGED. 11/10/2020: Amendment 001 THE PURPOSE OF THIS AMENDMENT IS TO CORRECT SECTION L-INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS WITHIN THE RFP 1333ND20RNB77014 DOCUMENT. THE DOCUMENT UPLOADED HEREBY REPLACES THE VERSION UPLOADED ON NOVEMBER 09, 2020. ALL OTHER TERMS REMAIN UNCHANGED. 11/09/2020: THE PURPOSE OF THIS AMENDMENT IS TO POST THE OFFICIAL RFP - SOLICITATION 1333ND20RNB770014. THE OFFICIAL RFP IS HEREBY ISSUED ON NOVEMBER 9, 2020. THE DUE DATE FOR PROPOSALS IS DECEMBER 15, 2020 NOT LATER THAN 12:00 PM EASTERN. PLEASE REFERENCE THE ATTACHED DOCUMENTS FOR INQUIRY SUBMISSIONS. This is a pre-solicitation notice for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland campus. THIS IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY: This Notice is ONLY A NOTIFICATION that a solicitation is anticipated and forthcoming; No other information will be provided and no responses are required. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government, implied or otherwise, to issue a solicitation or award a contract. Additionally, only the official anticipated solicitation notice shall govern the acquisition. This solicitation will be advertised as a total Small Business Set-Aside under NAICS 541519-Other Computer Related Services. The small business size standard is $30 million. Anticipated Contract Information: This pre-solicitation notice is for a multiple award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for Information Technology and Database Applications Support Services (ITDASS). The Government further reserves the right to make no award. The anticipated IDIQ contract type allows for the issuance of only Firm Fixed Price type task orders. The Government intends to issue a solicitation under authority of FAR Parts 12 and 15. The Government intends to use a price/non-price tradeoff process to award multiple IDIQ type contracts to the responsible Offeror(s) whose Proposals represent the best value to the Government. The Government intends to award approximately three (3) IDIQ Contracts resulting from this solicitation. However, the Government reserves the right to award more or less contracts if determined to be in the best interests of the Government based on evaluation of the Proposals received. This includes the right to issue a single award if determined to be in the best interests of the Government based on evaluation of the Proposals received. The Government reserves the right to make an award to other than the lowest-cost/priced Offeror(s) or to the Offeror(s) with the highest technical rating if the Contracting Officer determines that doing so would result in the best value to the Government. The Contracting Officer intends to award without requesting revised Proposals, but reserves the right to request revised Proposals, if necessary. The anticipated contract(s) will be issued for a base ordering period of one year with four (4) one-year optional ordering periods, for a maximum cumulative value of $45,000,000.00 across all IDIQ contract holders. Related Previous Notices: Sources Sought Notice No. AMDTC-20-0001 was posted to www.beta.sam.gov on November 1, 2019 as part of the market research effort for this anticipated acquisition. Draft RFP No. DRFP1333ND20RNB770014 was posted to www.beta.sam.gov on August 4, 2020 to provide interested parties with information on the anticipated acquisition and provide an opportunity for parties to provide feedback. Note that all information given in this notice or its amendments is strictly DRAFT and is subject to change in the official RFP. Only the official RFP Notice, when posted, will govern the official acquisition. Anticipated Project Information: The purpose of this anticipated contract is to develop measurement science, IT models, IT standard reference implementations, IT tools, develop standard reference database (SRD) applications, and support scientific and technical information archival projects. The specific work shall be in accordance with and within the scope of the subsequent paragraphs (further detailed in the IDIQ Statement of Work posted with the official solicitation) and identified in the task orders placed under this IDIQ contract. The contractor shall provide information technology and database application support services in developing IT models, IT standard reference implementations, IT tools, to develop standard reference database applications, and archival data sets. . The Contractor shall provide all support for project oversight, equipment, administration and technical execution of this contract. The Contractor shall be responsible for maintaining accurate records of project activities. The Contractor shall develop solutions in one of more of the following measurement science and technical domains: Standards and Guidelines for Health and Biosciences: Health IT Testing Infrastructure - NIST is responsible for leading the development of the core health IT testing infrastructure that will provide a scalable, multi-partner, automated, remote capability for current and future testing needs. Support areas include, but are not limited to, modeling of implementation guides and standards for Health, development of test tools to validate conformance of software products to the implementation guides and standards, and development of reference implementations of the standards. Biosciences Infrastructure – NIST seeks to aid in the development of an infrastructure to support personalized medicine by developing standards, tests and associated algorithmic methods to enable the seamless exchange of quantitative data in support of clinical diagnostics, laboratory medicine, and medical images. Support areas include, but are not limited to, development of archival test sets and test software to assess bio-medical image contents, quality, and feature extraction. The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) - NIST will develop the measurement science, tools and standards necessary to enable greatly improved efficiency in the Nation's development and manufacture of new products and services based on innovative materials. With this initiative, NIST will extend its expertise in the development and use of materials modeling and simulations directed at manufacturing, and initiate the creation of a National measurement and standards infrastructure that would substantially lower the cost of both design and manufacturing for industries seeking to realize the benefits of computer-based materials discovery and optimization. Standards and Guidelines for Commerce: Cyber Physical Systems – is the tight conjoining of and coordination between computational and physical resources. An example is the Smart Grid – A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability. Such a modernized electricity network is being worked on at NIST. Support areas include, but are not limited to, modeling portions of the U.S. electrical grid standards to enumerate holes where new standards are required and where existing standards overlap and must be harmonized. Development of use case editors and modeling tools to help developers model the U.S. electrical grid and development of tools to validate conformance of software products to the standards, and development of reference implementations. Cloud Computing - NIST has been designated to accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop standards and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector, and other stakeholders. Support areas include, but are not limited to, modeling the required architecture for cloud implementations, development of taxonomies and vocabularies to harmonize nomenclature for cloud computing. Development of use case editors and modeling tools to help developers of the architecture documents, development of tools to validate conformance of software products to the standards, and development of reference implementations. Voting – NIST has been designated to accelerate voting system standards and guidelines. NIST will develop standards and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector, and other stakeholders. Support areas include, but are not limited to, IT modeling for voting common data formats IEEE 1622 and development of testing tools for the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, version 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0. Computer Security – NIST conducts studies and outreach necessary to provide standards and guidelines, tools, metrics and practices to protect our nations information and communication infrastructure. NIST works in the areas of identity management, cyber security, trusted networking, usability, interoperability, and reliability aspects of information technology. Support areas include, but are not limited to, IT modeling for access control and intrusion detection systems, reference implementations for biometric data exchange, testing tools for vulnerability reduction and continuous monitoring, analysis and development of guidance and standards for identity management and related fields, and testing and analysis of identity management solutions. Advanced Network Technologies – NIST seeks to research and apply measurement science to expedite the design, standardization and adoption of advanced network technologies and networked information systems. Particular programmatic emphasis include: (a) advanced wireless technologies to support public safety, cyber physical systems, and spectrum efficiency; (b) evolving the core Internet infrastructure to improve robustness and security; (c) researching measurement science to predict and control the behavior of complex networked information systems; and (d) high performance networking to support cloud computing. Support areas include, but are not limited to, (a) modeling (simulation, emulation, analytical) and analysis of performance and behavior of advanced network technologies, (b) rapid prototyping and empirical analysis of designs and emerging standards, and (c) design and development of test and measurement tools to evaluate performance, interoperability, and/or conformance of emerging commercial implementations and deployments of advanced network technologies. Standards and Guidelines for Physical Sciences and Technology: SRD Applications – NIST seeks to facilitate the collection, evaluation, archiving, and public dissemination of scientific, technical, and engineering data and information in the physical sciences in response to the national roadmap established by the National Science and Technology Council’s 2009 report “Harnessing the Power of Digital Data for Science and Society.” This report can be viewed at http://www.nitrd.gov/About/Harnessing_Power_Web.pdf. Computer Forensics and Software Assurance – NIST seeks to support the computer forensics and software assurance communities in several key areas including but not limited to development of tools to support computer forensics tool testing; development of methods for identifying software on disks, in memory, and in network traffic; development of material to support the static analysis tool exposition (SATE); and material for testing computer forensics and software assurance software. eNIST objectives - to eliminate paper and to automate manual, labor intensive administrative activities. The NIST employs cutting-edge web-based technologies to develop custom applications in support of NIST. The applications developed are not available in commercially developed packages (Commercial-Off-the-Shelf, or “COTS”) and therefore need to be developed in-house. These applications automate tasks and decrease the administrative requirements of the technical and support staff, while increasing responsiveness to customers and implementing a secure eNIST paperless environment. As a result, NIST scientists are able to spend more time working in their labs than working at their computers to fulfill administrative requirements. Several web-based applications have been created to store and track all of NIST’s publications, travel and project status reports provided to management. Management is able to obtain access to the information it needs easily, and the administrative burden on the technical staff has been decreased. Generation of required paperwork has been automated, removing that responsibility from the CNST support staff. The applications also serve as a data warehouse for publications and reports, providing backups of all data stored. The project reporting database was developed as a web-based application; it has been created to reduce the duplication of the storage of information while providing management with immediate access to project data without interrupting project staff. This application contains all project-related information such as funding, milestones, staff, progress, etc. for all of the CNST projects in the database. Access to the data is provided by user roles; i.e., director/deputy director, group leader, project leader, and staff. Logistical/Administrative Information: All offerors are advised that this project may be delayed, cancelled or revised at any time during the solicitation, selection, evaluation, negotiation and/or final award process. The solicitation and all amendments for this anticipated Request for Proposal will be posted on www.beta.sam.gov. It is the responsibility of the contractor to check www.beta.sam.gov frequently for any amendments or changes to the solicitation. The Government is not responsible for any loss of internet connectivity or for an offerors inability to access the documents posted at the referenced website. No CDs or hard copies will be made available. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with the submission of a price/technical proposal or if an award cannot be made. The solicitation is anticipated for release at the earliest is 16 days after the publication of this notice, but on or about November 5, 2020. The anticipated solicitation notice will reference this Pre-Solicitation Notice in the body. Interested parties must respond to the official solicitation in order to be considered for award of any resultant contract. However, no responses are requested in response to this Pre-Solicitation Notice. No phone calls will be accepted for this notice, and an offerors list will not be maintained. All interested vendors must be registered in SAM (www.beta.sam.gov ) for contract award and shall have their Representations and Certifications completed. The contract specialist for this solicitation will be Lynda Horton. All questions or comments must be forwarded in writing by e-mail to Lynda.Horton@nist.gov with copy to Keith Bubar, Contracting Officer, at Keith.Bubar@nist.gov.