The National Science Foundation (NSF)/National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) conducts research and publishes high quality reports on the scope, quality, and vitality of the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. One area of importance is venture capital and private equity investment that is critical for commercializing nascent and emerging technologies that originate from scientific research. NCSES requires comprehensive and accurate data and information on global venture capital and private equity financing, including by country, financing stage, and technology area. NCSES is particularly interested in global patterns of venture and private equity finance by country, technology, and financing stage; the patterns and trends of early stage venture capital financing; and developing indicators of venture capital and or private equity investor interest in technology areas. NCSES is a U.S. statistical agency and has rigorous standards for data quality and accuracy. Therefore, the vendor shall include documentation in its technical proposal that addresses the quality, coverage, and accuracy of its data. Data coverage, time period, and other characteristics: --Global venture capital data by calendar year from the mid-1990s to 2015 or the most recent year; --Global venture capital and private equity by amount invested in countries based on the location of the portfolio company taking the investment; --Global venture capital financing and private equity by stage of financing; --Global venture and private equity capital by technology area. The vendor shall have a comprehensive classification that has broad and sub-fields of technologies. The vendor shall include a description of its classification system and how it was developed; --Data on venture and/or private equity-backed firms that have ties and/or a relationship to the academic sector, such as the university attended by founders and/or key personnel of firms and/or firms that originated as start-ups from universities; --It is desirable that the vendor has data or indicators on investor interest in technology areas, such as the pre-money valuation of companies prior to an investment or financing. The vendor shall provide a description of its data that could be used as an indicator of investor interest in technologies; and, --It is desirable that the vendor has data on angel investment financing by such variables as financing stage and technology area. The vendor shall provide documentation on the extent of its coverage and accuracy of angel investment. Other requirements: --These data shall be available through a tool/platform that allows NCSES to easily create customized tabulations that are downloadable in Excel format; --The vendor shall provide technical assistance to NCSES, including generating customized tabulations and other data and answering queries from NCSES on data, the software tool/platform, and the investor and investment climate; and, The Government anticipates awarding a firm fixed price purchase order with a base period of performance of one (1), twelve (12) month period. The anticipated dollar value for this requirement is within the simplified acquisition threshold. Evaluation Factors: Contractors shall respond with a technical and price quote. The technical quote shall clearly and fully demonstration the offeror's capabilities in regard to the technical requirements described herein. Note: stating your firm understands and will comply with and/or paraphrasing NSF's requirements is not adequate. Quotes shall provide the following: 1. Provide no more than a six (6) page statement outlining your firm's technical capacity to perform the described work; and, 2. Provide a firm fixed price quote. The price shall include software/data licenses for a minimum of two (2) users for a period of one year starting at the award of the contract. Access to the data shall be limitless and must be granted on a continuous basis. The vendor's quote must include technical support (responding to technical inquiries or providing training on the software, if appropriate), to include maintenance, in their price quote. Evaluation Criteria: The contemplated purchase order will be made using a best value source selection scheme using tradeoffs. The Government will make award to the firm whose quotation represents the best value to the Government, price and non-price factors considered. The non-price factors and their relative weights are identified below. Overall, the non-price factors, when combined, are; significantly more important than price in the overall selection decision. Non price related factors: - Data quality, including number and variety of data sources, methods, and policies for ensuring accurate, high quality data; - Coverage, including by country, technology, financing stage; and, - User-friendliness of the software tool/platform, including the ease of conducting queries and generating data tabulations. Price: Price will be evaluated for reasonableness. Submission of Quotes: Quotations must be submitted by 3:00PM (ET) on Friday, December 23, 2016. Submit quotations electronically to
contact@example.gov. It is the offeror's responsibility to ensure that the Contract Specialist received their quotations by the date and time specified. No alternate quote will be accepted. No quote shall be reimbursed. The Government reserves the right to award on initial quotes, without discussion, if considered to be in the best interest of the Government. All offerors should submit their best price and technical capabilities to perform in accordance with the request for quotes in their initial submission.
