Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

The purpose of solicitation Amendment 0002 is to incorporate the attached revised Statement of Work which changes the end of the anticipated period of performance from October 15, 2021 to November 15,... The purpose of solicitation Amendment 0002 is to incorporate the attached revised Statement of Work which changes the end of the anticipated period of performance from October 15, 2021 to November 15, 2021. All other terms and conditions of the solicitation remain unchanged. *************************************************************************************************************************************************** The purpose of solicitation Amendment 0001 is to provide responses to the following questions received from industry and extend the due date for responses: Industry Question Number 1: Are the tweets in English? NIST Response: Yes, the tweets are in English. Industry Question Number 2: Is English the original language of the posted content? (This question assumes these are authentic, actual tweets by authentic, actual twitter users?) NIST Response: Yes. The tweets are in their original form. Industry Question Number 3: Do the public security incidents occur in the U.S., globally, or are they regionally specific? NIST Response: The public safety incidents are world-wide but focus on areas with significant English usage, as we do not want to introduce non-English content as a significant factor. Industry Question Number 4: In what format will the Twitter tweet sets be delivered (i.e. .xls.? access,?) to the personnel for judgment? (They say we use NIST tools to deliver our judgments, I am wondering if the tweet sets come to us via that tool—assumption is yes-- or some other way). NIST Response: The tweet sets come to you through the provided tool. The provided tool displays the tweet in native format, in plain text format, and provides a tested interface for collecting assessments. Industry Question Number 5: Are tweet sets delivered simultaneously, i.e. you get all 1.2K at once and can work your way through them as you see fit, or one at a time and you must go through them sequentially? NIST Response: The current interface requires you to go through them sequentially. However, the user can stop at any time and resume work later where they left off. Industry Question Number 6: Do the individual tweets come with time-stamps and/or Twitter usernames and Twitter profile location, or are judgements strictly to be made on the tweet content alone? NIST Response: The judgments are made on the full tweet, including username, location (if known), date, etc. Industry Question Number 7: What is the name of the tool that we will be using? NIST Response: The tool is a custom tool developed by the technical coordinators of the task. Industry Question Number 8: Is the work under solicitation number 1333ND21QNB770481 a follow-on requirement to any work performed currently or in the past, or will this be a new requirement? NIST Response: The specific solicitation is new work, but we have had very similar requirements in the past using very similar data and tools. Industry Question Number 9: If possible, can you please provide the most recent contract or task order number? NIST Response: This is a new requirement. However, a recent similar task order was SB1341-16-CQ-0025 / 1333ND21FNB770066. The due date for solicitation responses is hereby changed to no later than 5:00pm ET on Monday, August 23, 2021. All other terms and conditions of the solicitation remain unchanged. **************************************************************************************************************************************************** This is a Combined Synopsis / Solicitation for Commercial Items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6 – Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation of Commercial Items – as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. The solicitation is issued using simplified acquisition procedures under the authority of FAR Part 13. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION. QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT (i.e. STANDARD FORM) WILL NOT BE ISSUED. This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2021-05 dated 03-10-2021. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541990, All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. The small business size standard is $16.5 million. This acquisition is 100% set aside for small businesses. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENTS Background The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory's (ITL) Information Access Division's Retrieval Group works with industry, academia and other Government agencies to promote the use of more effective and efficient techniques for manipulating information not specifically structured for automatic use--especially the browsing, searching, and presentation of that information. Accurate evaluation of the capabilities of current information access systems is a prerequisite to improving the systems' capabilities. Human-created annotations are essential to the evaluation of information systems. Over the years, these evaluations have helped dramatically improve the overall state-of-the-art in information retrieval systems. The work of the Retrieval Group includes the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC). One of the main goals of TREC is to promote research in information retrieval (IR) by providing appropriate test collections. IR test collections consist of three parts: a set of documents, a set of information needs called "topics" that can be answered by some of the documents in the document set, and a set of relevance assessments that lists for each topic the set of documents that are relevant to that topic. Judging the quality of a system response requires Contractor personnel with a background which demonstrates applied use of sound analytical skills (e.g., former intelligence analysts), extensive experience in using search engines to gather information for decision making (not just a causal use of search engines), and good general computer skills. The end result of this project is to use the information gathered from the Contractor personnel to modify, test or improve existing search engines and also to develop new state of the art search engines. Also, this information is shared with universities around the US that are developing new ways to search for data on the web. This project is part of the NIST mission of "promoting U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement in science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life". With this project NIST seeks to advance the existing technology and to help create new technologies that help to improve our way of life. Objectives The scope of this procurement is the provision of support services to produce judgments for Twitter tweets with respect to a set of approximately 15 “incident” topics. Contractor personnel shall use tools provided by NIST to do this task. Required Specifications Please see the attached Statement of Work for details. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE The period of performance shall be August 25, 2021 through October 15, 2021. PAYMENT TERMS The Contractor shall be paid, in accordance with Net 30-day payment terms, upon receipt and acceptance of a proper invoice, in accordance with the firm fixed price payment schedule established at time of award. APPLICABLE PROVISIONS AND CLAUSES Please see the attached document for applicable provisions and clauses. QUESTION AND ANSWER PERIOD CAR 1352.215-73 INQUIRIES (APR 2010): Offerors must submit all questions concerning this solicitation in writing electronically to Ms. January Magyar, Contract Specialist, at january.magyar@nist.gov. Questions must be received by or before August 16, 2021 at 5:00 PM ET. Any responses to questions will be made in writing, without identification of the questioner, and will be included in an amendment to the solicitation. Even if provided in other form, only the question responses included in the amendment to the solicitation will govern performance of the contract. (End of Provision). DUE DATE FOR QUOTATIONS All quotations must be submitted via email to Ms. January Magyar, Contract Specialist, at January.magyar@nist.gov. Submission must be received not later than August 19, 2021 at 5:00 PM ET. REQUIRED SUBMISSIONS The Offeror’s quotation shall consist of two (2) volumes as detailed below. Each quotation volume shall include the Offeror’s name, DUNS number, and CAGE code in the cover page, header/footer, or other easily identified location. The Contracting Officer intends to award a purchase order without discussions but reserves the right to enter into discussions if in the best interest of the Government. Volume 1: Technical Response This volume shall contain the Offeror’s cover letter and technical response. Cover letter and technical response (not including cover page, table of contents, or key personnel resumes) shall not exceed fifteen (15) single sided pages. Text shall be no less than 12-point Arial font, or otherwise legible font, in read-only Microsoft Word or searchable Adobe PDF format. The cover letter shall include the name, title, phone number, and email address of the Offeror’s primary solicitation point of contact and the individual authorized to negotiate on behalf of the Offeror (if negotiations are determined to be necessary). The technical response shall include the resume of the proposed key personnel and a narrative description of the Offeror’s technical approach, clearly demonstrating the Offeror’s understanding of the requirements and its ability to manage schedule, logistics and staffing effectively in accordance with the SOW. Volume 2: Business Response This volume shall contain the Offeror’s business response/quotation in read-only Microsoft Excel format or in searchable PDF format. All figures must be rounded to the nearest hundredth. Quotations shall be submitted on a firm fixed price basis in accordance with the contract line item structure listed below. However, the offeror shall provide a further breakdown of the proposed firm fixed price that provides, for each of the Tasks 1 – 2 from the SOW, the proposed labor categories to be used, estimated hours per labor category, and total price. The breakdown shall clearly show that the sum of the total prices for each of SOW Tasks 1 – 2 equal the total proposed firm fixed price for CLIN 0001. Additionally, offerors shall include a proposed fixed price payment schedule. The proposed payment schedule shall be tied to the acceptance of individual deliverables to the maximum extent possible. The following must also be included: Contractor DUNS DUNS shall be used to verify the offeror’s active System for Award Management (SAM) registration. Offerors must have an active registration at www.SAM.Gov to be considered for award. Completed Provisions Please complete the highlighted areas in the applicable provisions and clauses documents and return with submissions. CONTRACT LINE ITEM STRUCTURE: Responsible Offerors shall provide pricing for the following line item: LINE ITEM 0001: Support services in accordance with the Statement of Work (SOW) titled “2021 Text Retrieval Conference TREC Incident Stream Extreme Task.” Includes performance of all Tasks 1 – 2 in accordance with the SOW. EVALUATION CRITERIA AND BASIS FOR AWARD In accordance with FAR 52.212-2: Evaluation – Commercial Items as included in the attached Applicable Provisions and Clauses document, the Government intends to award a purchase order resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose quotation, conforming to the solicitation, represents the best value to the Agency. Best value shall be determined using the trade-off evaluation method. Quotations shall be evaluated against the following non-price evaluation factors and price. Non-price evaluation factors include the following in descending order of importance: 1) Technical Approach and 2) Key Personnel. Non-price factors when combined are more important than price for this requirement. The Government anticipates making an award without discussions. Technical Approach: The Government will evaluate the offeror’s technical approach for performing each task in the SOW. The technical approach proposed shall be evaluated for overall understanding of Government requirements, realism, and expected effectiveness. The technical approach shall also be evaluated for realism and reasonableness in managing schedule, logistics, and staffing effectively. Key Personnel: The Government will evaluate the extent to which the resume submitted for the offeror’s proposed key personnel demonstrates the proposed individual meets or exceeds the minimum qualifications detailed in the SOW and has the appropriate education, qualifications, and experience to efficiently and effectively address requirements in accordance with the SOW. Price: Pricing will be evaluated but not scored. Price evaluation will determine whether the proposed prices are complete and reasonable in relation to the RFQ requirements.