The U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) is seeking a contractor for the procurement entitled Technical Support for Career and Technical Education Innovation Challenges. The purpose of this contract is to provide technical support to the Department in the administration of public competitions, challenges, and exploration of emerging technology. The technical support activities are intended to provide OCTAE subject matter expertise and thought partnership in advancing the use and development of emerging technologies to expand the capacity of Career and Technical Education. Tasks may range from brief, urgent requests to multi-year strategic technology development projects. The tasks under this contract will involve logistical and administrative support for competitions involving software development; exploration of education technology; development and implementation of national communication strategies; scans of industries and labor markets; collection and analysis of data; and policy analysis. In addition, the contract may involve all aspects of logistical and related support for conferences and meetings. This contract is intended to provide technical support to the Department across a wide range of subject areas related to key issues in: - Challenges, competitions, and prizes - Mobile software application development - Two- and three- dimensional simulations - Development and deployment of websites and web-based applications - Software programming and interoperability standards - Communication and Outreach. Specific and immediate areas of interest to the Department include: - Analysis of the education simulation, gaming, software, and hardware markets - Management of challenges to identify innovative simulations and mobile applications to assist with career exploration. - Exploration and analysis of interoperability standards for educational simulations Given the nature of this requirement, the Department anticipates that the contractor should be experienced with team approaches consisting of specialized vendors to successfully perform the range of functional requirements described in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). OCTAE seeks a contractor that is skilled in conducting and managing national competitions, conducting outreach, evaluating submissions, and awarding prizes and has an understanding of information technology, online communications, social media, using crowdsourcing as a means to solve complex problems, and Federal data collection and competition policies. Request for Comments: The Department plans to award a single-source ID/IQ contract to a certified small business contractor to execute this project. Participation by Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) and HUBZone Small Businesses (HUBZONEs) is encouraged. The purpose of this market research is to identify potential offerors, clarify OCTAE operational requirements, and remove any barriers that might inhibit competition. Interested parties are invited to submit comments to the draft ID/IQ PWS and the draft Order PWS, identify any competition barriers and respond to the Request for Capability Statements. Capability Statements Interested parties should consider submitted a capability statement that is tailored to the specific requirements contained in the attached DRAFT ID/IQ Performance Work Statement for Challenge, Simulations and Innovation and the DRAFT ID/IQ Task Order Performance Work Statement for a Career Counseling App Challenge. Capability statements will be requested during the Webinar that will be conducted on June 11, 2014 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Details for the webinar are provided below. Interested parties should be sure to sign up for additional alerts related to this Sources Sought Notice (see the bottom of this page for this option). Please note the Department will not release the estimated level of effort for this contract. After the webinar, the Department will post a list of participants to help promote the teaming of complementary parties. In addition, the Department will post a transcript of the webinar event so that interested parties not able to participate on the webinar will receive all of the pertinent information. Specific information to be included in the Capability Statements includes: a. Company name, address, point of contact and contact information b. Business size (large business or small business) and, if small, all applicable socio-economic categories (e.g., SDVOSB, HUBZone small business, WOSB, SDB, etc.) and the NAICS codes for which the company is qualified c. Currently held GSA Federal Supply Schedules that are appropriate for this type of work d. Specific examples of recent or current contract work with another federal government agency or agencies that requires the same type of administrative and logistics support for public challenges e. Page Limit - 10 pages (DO NOT INCLUDE RESUMES) Companies may elect to provide brief descriptions of the individuals who are currently directly supporting and/or have recently directly supported this type of work and indicate if they would be available to support this requirement f. Any anticipated teaming arrangement to better meet these requirements, including the name of the other company/ies and their business size, NAICS codes and specific experience currently performing and/or recently performing this type of work. THIS NOTICE IS FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE REQUEST FOR RESPONSES WILL ONLY BE USED AS PART OF THE DEPARTMENT'S MARKET RESEARCH AND NOT AS A RESPONSE TO A FORMAL SOLICITATION. IF THE DEPARTMENT DECIDES TO PURSUE A PROCUREMENT FOR THE SERVICES DESCRIBED IN THE PWS, A FORMAL SOLICITATION WILL BE ISSUED AND A FORMAL RESPONSE WILL BE REQUIRED FOR AN INTERESTED PARTY TO BE CONSIDERED FOR AWARD. Invitation to Webinar: Interested parties are invited to participate in a webinar on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. During this webinar, the Department will share its vision and goals for the procurement as well as answer questions. Please RSVP for the webinar to Heather.Watroba@ed.gov by 2:00 pm ET on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Please note that you will not receive a confirmation to your email. The details for the webinar are posted below. Written responses to this notice are due by 12:00 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. Responses shall be submitted electronically to Heather.Watroba@ed.gov with a cc: to Stephen.Scheffer@ed.gov. WEBINAR INFORMATION Topic: CTE Challenges Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 Time: 2:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00) Meeting Number: 749 211 332 Meeting Password: OCTAE ------------------------------------------------------- To join the online meeting (Now from mobile devices!) ------------------------------------------------------- 1. Go to https://educate.webex.com/educate/j.php?MTID=m23bead4b7c55e35b6224a290b797b8b0 2. If requested, enter your name and email address. 3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: OCTAE 4. Click "Join". 5. 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