NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Procurement Office, Code 289 Greenbelt, MD 20771

A -- CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN SPACE DATA AND INFORMATION SCIENCES (C ESDIS) SOL RFP5-21624/251 DUE 050895 POC William A. Hatchl, Contracting Officer (301) 286-3764. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) intends to modify Contract NAS5-32337 with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). This sole source modification will increase the level-of-effort by 47,817 labor hours to continue operating the Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences (CESDIS) until the contract expires on July 5, 1998. Under this contract, USRA is responsible for conducting research into the use of advanced computer science technologies that are applicable to the analysis of high volume earth and space science data, computational science into the remote access and operation of distributed satellite data systems, and the development of efficient algorithms for the complex interplay of numerical physical models and satellite observational data. The management and coordination of research under this contract requires interacting with university computer science departments around the country as well as research institutions, industry, and other government facilities. The CESDIS operation requires a national consortium of universities to encourage major university computer science departmental participation. CESDIS provides the administration and executive oversight of more than 25 grants. These grants involve university commitments to established tenured assistant professorships in related fields of information science, visiting research faculty positions, and supporting graduate student fellowships under joint CESDIS/university programmatic direction. USRA solicits participating memberships in the CESDIS through a competitive process and selects members based on an outside peer review committee with NASA concurrence. USRA is uniquely qualified to provide the required research and services for the following reasons: (1) USRA is a consortium of universities chartered to develop and facilitate support for earth and space related computing research and development in the university community. USRA has 75 university members, which include nearly all institutions that have graduate research programs in earth and space sciences and computer sciences. Additionally, USRA's membership base enables its contacts to extend throughout the university community; (2) USRA possesses the required experience necessary for the management of the CESDIS as well as other similar institutions in the field of computing, information science, networking, and earth and space sciences. USRA manages three other computer science institutes besides CESDIS, for NASA. No other institution or consortium provides comparable breadth or depth of computer science department, institute management expertise, and involvement with the earth and space sciences research community; and (3) in accordance with the contract, USRA has negotiated a letter of agreement with the University of Maryland to establish a tenured professorship for the CESDIS director in the computer science department to be competitively selected. The statutory authority for Other Than Full and Open Competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1)--Only One Responsible Source. Any other firm desiring consideration must fully identify its capability to provide these services or must submit a proposal within fifteen (15) days of the publication of this synopsis to the address and individual listed above. See Numbered Note(s): 22. (0128)

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