Inactive

INTRODUCTION This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availabilit... INTRODUCTION This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified business sources. This notice is strictly for market research and information purposes only. Your responses will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible small business concerns. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 561611 (Investigation Services), as those domestic sources having annual revenue of $20.5 million or less. Background: The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is studying 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), as well as 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. The Director of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) authorized the establishment of a National Construction Safety Team on February 21, 2018 to perform a technical investigation of the 2017 Hurricane Maria and its impacts on Puerto Rico. The purpose of this investigation is to characterize: 1) the wind environment and technical conditions associated with deaths and injuries; 2) the performance of representative critical buildings, and designated safe areas in those buildings, including their dependence on local lifelines; and 3) the performance of emergency communications systems and the public's response to such communications. Scope of Requirement: NIST is seeking information from all responsible small business sources capable of providing investigation services to support the NCST by performing an in-depth analysis of deaths and injuries that are directly and indirectly related to Hurricane Maria's impacts on Puerto Rico. The deaths that are of particular interest to the investigation are those directly or indirectly related to building and/or building system failures, which may involve failure to one or more of the following: structural system, fire protection (active or passive) system, air-handling system, and building control system. Key Requirement Tasks: The principal goal of this project is for a Contractor to identify deaths in Puerto Rico directly and indirectly related to Hurricane Maria, and more specifically identify deaths attributed to building and/or building system failure(s). The Contractor shall provide services to gather data related to deaths in Puerto Rico, conduct verbal autopsies and/or clinical panels to determine attribution of deaths that occurred immediately after the storm made landfall. NIST will provide data from other projects related to the Hurricane Maria NCST investigation and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program's (NWIRP's) study to identify any additional deaths that should also be studied in-depth. Please see the Draft Statement of Work for more details. QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE Questions regarding this sources sought notice may be submitted via email to Hing Pan Wong, Contract Specialist, at hnw6@nist.gov. Questions are due by or before 11:00 AM EST on September 10, 2019. Questions will be anonymized and answered via sources sought notice amendment following the question submission deadline. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS All responsible small business sources able to provide the services described above are asked to email a response to Hing Pan Wong, Contract Specialist, at hnw6@nist.gov by or before 11:00 AM EST on September 18, 2019. Please include the following information in the response: 1. Name of company authorized to provide services, along with their address and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, and email address). 2. The company's primary NAICS, size classification, and socio-economic status (i.e., Small Business, Woman Owned Small Business, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, etc.). 3. Brief description of capabilities in relation to the task areas identified in this sources sought notice and the attached Draft Statement of Work. 4. Information on any GSA Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) or other Government-wide contracts through which the company offers these services, if applicable. 5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider. Responses are limited to a maximum total of ten (10) pages in MS Word or searchable PDF format. IMPORTANT NOTES This notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes. No award will be made as a result of this notice. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response; however, NIST will recognize as restricted or proprietary data which is clearly marked such.