J&A-DETER Testbed sole source modification

Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1, the justification for the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is hereby justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.303-2 as follows: 1. Agency and Contracting Activity. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) proposes to issue a modification to extend an existing contract (HSHQDC-16-C-00024) that was previously entered into on a basis other than full and open competition. The proposed extension would add 12 months to the existing contract's period of performance. The existing contract is with the University of Southern California-Information Sciences Institute (USC-ISI). 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. a. Type of Action: Cost Reimbursable Contract Extension b. Type of Funding: 3 Year RDT&E Funds c. Year of Funding: FY 2017 d. Other Brief Descriptive Words and Phrases: DHS/S&T intends to procure, on a sole source basis, services to continue and enhance the operational procedures of the existing Defense Technology Experimental Research (DETER) testbed under the existing DHS contract HSHQDC-16-C-00024 for 12 additional months. The DETER testbed provides contained environments that allow researchers to safely test advanced defense mechanisms against "live" threats without endangering other research or the larger Internet. The DETER project began in 2004 with the creation of the DETER testbed and was originally jointly funded with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The DETER testbed is used to test and evaluate cybersecurity technologies by more than 200 organizations from more than 20 states and 30 countries, including major DHS-funded researchers, Government, industry, academia, and educational users. 3. Description of Supplies/Services. a. The DETER testbed is operated by the DETERLab, which is considered a leading cybersecurity experimentation lab. Both the DETER testbed and the DETERLab together are the components of the DETER Project. The DETER Project's mission is to enable the research community to conduct advanced research in cybersecurity through use of DETERLab's innovative methods and advanced tools, allowing for repeatable, scalable and scientifically verifiable experimentation for homeland security and critical infrastructure protection. The DETERLab, the experimental facility of the DETER Project, is one of the largest facilities devoted to experimental research with the scientific expertise for the development and evaluation of innovative cyber-defense technologies. The DETERLab is also the largest unclassified testbed that is available to research communities via web based access. b. DHS/S&T sponsors (funds) the operations of DETERLab specifically the DETER testbed environment. This effort focuses on providing cybersecurity researchers the ability to run experiments on a secure "virtual Internet." The testbed provides contained environments that allow researchers to safely test advanced defense mechanisms against "live" threats without endangering other research or the larger Internet. c. This requirement is to extend the current contract (HSHQDC-16-C-00024) in order to continue the DETER testbed operations with the current provider which is the University of Southern California-Information Sciences Institute (USC-ISI), an educational institution. The anticipated contract extension's period of performance would be for 12 months. 4. Identification of statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(3) pursuant to FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii), to establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC).