Notice of Intent to Award Sole Source to NET ESOLUTIONS CORPORATION (NETE)

INTRODUCTION This is a pre-solicitation / notice of intent synopsis for a sole source noncompetitive (including brand-name) award to NET ESOLUTIONS CORPORATION (NETE), for Development of a Graph Network of CSR's Chartered Study Sections using Miltiple Bibliometric Reference Points. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Office of Acquisitions (OA) on behalf of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) intends to negotiate and award a Firm Fixed Price purchase order on a sole source noncompetitive basis for the Development of a Graph Network of CSR's Chartered Study Sections using Miltiple Bibliometric Reference Points to NETE, 8280 Greensboro Drive, Suite 200, McLean, VA 22102-3885. BACKGROUND The Director of CSR and the Project Officer are members of the committee referred to in a. above. Fortuitously, CSR conducted a similar organizational structure study approximately one year ago. Thus, we are in the position of being able to extend rather than build from scratch. This study needs to be extended to all units (study sections) with greater detail. The current contract with NET ESOLUTIONS CORPORATION (NETE) was awarded as contract number HHSN268201200369P after an open competition. The existing contract with NETE has a subcontract arrangement with SciTech Strategies (STS) who has performed an initial study on a sample of CSR's peer review units. The current NETE contract contains partially overlapping scope in the sense that the same technologies are being used, but the contract does not have adequate funds to support this new requirement. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE The period of performance of this Firm Fixed Price purchase order is three months (250 hours). PROJECT DESCRIPTION The contractor shall supply all labor, materials, facilities, equipment, and supplies to perform or supply the following: - Using data from the scientific literature, conduct topic modeling studies of the publications of CSR's expert reviewers as well as those of the applicants for grant money whose proposals are reviewed by CSR. The unit of clustering is the chartered study section at CSR and the unit of review is the R01 application. The scope of the project would be mapping the activity of approximately 173 study sections corresponding to the review of approximately 48,000 applications. - Extend the graph network previously developed for 165 CSR study sections to account for all 173 study sections and using a richer input consisting of all reviewers (regular and ad-hoc) as well as R01 applications for two years of review. - Develop visualizations of the scientific areas represented by these data in the background of a global map of science previously developed by SciTech that CSR maintains data rights. - Quantify citation activity across study section represented by applicants and reviewers and normalize to citation activity in those fields JUSTIFICATION See the attached Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC). REGULATORY AUTHORITY This acquisition is conducted under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c) as set forth under FAR Part 13.106-1 (b) (1), Soliciting from a single source not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, and is exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6, Competition Requirements. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) is 541690 and the Size Standard is $14 Million. This pre-solicitation / notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. This announcement constitutes the only notice; proposals are not being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The determination by the Government to award a purchase order on a sole source noncompetitive basis Development of a Graph Network of CSR's Chartered Study Sections using Miltiple Bibliometric Reference Points to NETE, 8280 Greensboro Drive, Suite 200, McLean, VA 22102-3885 is based upon the market research conducted in accordance with one or more of the techniques specified in FAR Part 10-Market Research, Subpart 10.002(b)(2). Any information received as a result of this pre-solicitation / notice of intent will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct any future competitive procurements. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability for any future competitive procurement by responding to this notice in writing, no later than 3:30PM EST on March 25, 2013. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient documentation to establish the interested parties' bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement. All responses must reference this pre-solicitation / notice of Intent number NHLBI-CSB-(RG)-2013-112-JEF and may be submitted electronically to the Contracting Specialist, Jenn Frazier, at jenn.frazier@nih.gov or by mail to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Suite 6121A, Bethesda, MD 20892-7902, Attention: Jenn Frazier.