The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to award on a sole source basis under authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13.5-Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items (FAR 13.501) to the contractor, President and Fellows of Harvard College (Berkman Center), as the only capable source that can provide an independent review and assessment of a non-profit corporate governance structure designed for a multistakeholder setting in support of NTIA's broader evaluation and assessment of the proposal to enhance the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN's) accountability related to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Stewardship Transition. The President and Fellows of Harvard College (Berkman Center) shall provide experts with experience and proven capability to perform an independent review and assessment of a non-profit corporate governance structure designed for a multistakeholder setting. This requires professional services of a unique, technical, and highly-skilled nature including through understanding of ICANN and it procedures and processes, multistakeholder approaches and processes, data analysis, and the Internet domain name system (DNS). Congress has mandated the review prior to NTIA transitioning it's stewardship of certain Internet technical functions to the global multistakeholder community, which is to be completed by June 30, 2016. Sole source determination is based on the following: The statutory authority for this action is FAR - 6.302-1 only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. NTIA requires the independent review and report to be completed no later than June 30, 3016. Pursuant to FAR 5.101(a), a sources sought notice of the proposed contract action was posted. Stating the specific purpose for the sources sought notice was to: (1) identify organizations with the requisite qualifications, and (2) interested businesses, organizations, and academic institutions that believe they are capable of meeting the requirements outlined in the synopsis. The synopsis was published on January 5, 2016 on FBO. This contract requires the contractor to have detailed knowledge and a thorough understanding of ICANN, a California-based, non-profit corporation that currently performs the IANA functions and manages these technical functions through a governance model in which a multistakeholder community-interested parties from all over the world and from multiple sectors and industries, including technical, government, business, and public-interest organizations-develop policies that support how the Internet DNS is operated. Furthermore, this requires a contractor to be an expert knowledge and a thorough understanding of Internet architecture and governance mechanisms, as well as the global political ecosystem that shapes and influences the policies relating to those mechanisms. Additionally, there would be risks of conflict of interest from private sector corporations as many of them are involved in the policy development processes and decisions before ICANN that benefit their corporation. That being said, NTIA believes that it would be extremely difficult for private sector corporations to provide an unbiased independent review and assessment of the multistakeholder community's proposal. Based on the aforementioned requirements, the Berkman Center has the specialized qualifications and is considered by the private sector and other stakeholders including other governments to be an honest broker in conversations about the relationship between the Internet and related technologies, entities and society. The source sought notice received one response. While the interested vendor has experience with NTIA policies, they did not have experience or expert knowledge of ICANN nor the processes and procedures or multistakeholder processes which is a requisite and a must have for NTIA. Moreover, the submission lacked an understanding of the requirement to provide NTIA with an independent review and assessment of the multistakeholder's community proposal for the IANA Stewardship transition. Contracting with the Berkman Center, which has the requisite expertise and knowledge to perform an independent review and assessment of a non-profit corporate governance structure, not only mitigates schedule risk, but also eliminates conflict of interest concerns. The Berkman Center, its faculty members, fellows and extended community has demonstrated exceptional expertise, longevity, past performance and capability to perform the requirement expeditiously to meet this high profile national need for NTIA. The Berkman Center as actively observed and contributed to the global community's understanding of ICANN since its inception, and have analyzed its unique role in various context and forums. The team assembled for this project has made a series of important scholarly contributions in the thematic zone of the RFP. It is anticipated that the award will be for a period of 5 months. This requirement is being conducted under FAR Subpart 13.5-Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items (FAR 13.501). The intended procurement will be classified under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 611310 Colleges, Universities and Professional Schools, Business Size Standard: $27.5 Million. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no request for proposal document will exist for this requirement. However, parties interested in responding to this notice shall submit technical data, including price and sufficient documentation to determine capability/qualifications in providing the same or similar subscription and support services. All statements received by the closing date of this notice will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to meet or exceed the Government's requirements in writing via e-mail to M Williams using e-mail address:
contact@example.gov with the solicitation number referenced in the subject line. Interested organizations shall submit their responses by/no later than Friday, March 18, 2015 12 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.
