NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771

R -- NASA HQS CONSOLIDATED PEER REVIEW SOURCES SOUGHT DUE 041399 POC James L. Becker, Contracting Officer, Phone (301) 286-4223, Fax (301) 286-0356, Email James.L.Becker.1@gsfc.nasa.gov -- James L. Becker, Contracting Officer, Phone (301) 286-4223, Fax (301) 286-0356, Email James.L.Becker.1@gsfc.nasa.gov WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://nais.nasa.gov/EPS/HQ/date.html#PEERREV-2000. E-MAIL: James L. Becker, James.L.Becker.1@gsfc.nasa.gov. NASA Headquarters is issuing this sources sought synopsis to determine if there are certified 8(a) small businesses capable of meeting NASA's upcoming requirements in support of proposal peer review activities for the NASA Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications, the Office of Space Science, the Office of Earth Science, the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, and the Office of Human Resources and Education. Interested, certified 8(a) small businesses and non-8(a) small businesses which meet the size standard provided below are requested to provide their name, location, size, and detailed information demonstrating their technical understanding of the work requirements identified below, as well as their qualifications, capabilities, experience, and past performance history for such work. If no 8(a) small businesses respond to this announcement, or if those that do respond are determined to be incapable of meeting the requirement identified below, this procurement may be conducted as asmall business set-aside. If no small businesses which meet the size standard respond to this announcement, or if those that do respond are determined to be incapable of meeting the requirement identified below, this procurement will be conducted under Full and Open Competition Procedures. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. In either event, it is anticipated that an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Fixed-Price contract with certain cost-reimbursement elements will be issued with a five-year period of performance and a total contract value in excess of $50 million. The anticipated start date is February 2000. The SIC Code and Size Standard for this action are 8741 and $5 million, respectively. The DPAS rating for this procurement is DO-C9. A brief description of peer review and NASA's peer review requirements are as follows: The Contractor shall manage, be responsible for, and provide data base support to all organizational components of NASA Headquarters in support of the Agency peer review process. NASA Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Supplement 1835.016 and 1872.403 dictate that peer review will be the method used to evaluate and select research for funding. NASA funds intramural and extramural research primarily through solicited grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and arrangements with other Government agencies, industry and academia. Solicitation mechanisms used are primarily the NASA Research Announcement (NRA), the Announcement of Opportunity (AO), and the Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN). Proposals submitted in response to these solicitations are evaluated using peer review, which is defined as scientific evaluation by a NASA and/or non-NASA specialists, of proposals submitted in response to NRA's, AO's, and CAN's. Peer review is also used to evaluate unsolicited proposals. Peer Reviews evaluate relevance to NASA's objectives; intrinsic scientific and/or technical merit, including the researcher's capabilities and qualifications; and cost. External peer review is essential to ensure that NASA funds only the highest quality, relevant research. Policies for peer review are documented through the instructions in the solicitations, as named above, which are written by NASA scientists, managers, or executives. Specific peer review methods differ somewhat among offices or disciplines. Some NASA program offices use standing peer review committees, some use ad hoc committees, and some use a combination for each individual announcements. Peer reviewers include qualified scientists, engineers and/or other appropriate personnel from public and private academic institutions, industry, Government laboratories and agencies, and foreign countries. NASA and its peer review support contractors maintain databases of discipline experts to help identify appropriate candidates. Reviews are conducted by mail and/or by panel meetings, depending on the logistics specific to the review. Mail reviews may be conducted to allow for the use of reviewers with very specialized expertise on technical and scientific issues. Often a panel review is used to reconcile differences among mail reviews, and also to advise NASA on the larger scientific and programmatic context of the proposed research. The peer review contractor must be capable of maintaining a highly dependable World Wide Web (WWW) site for the receipt of Notices of Intent to propose and then the final cover page and proposal summary of the actual proposals. The number of such electronic submissions ranges from a few dozen to sometime several hundred, depending on the breadth of the solicitation. The contractor is expected to produce logs sorted by a wide variety of data fields based on these WWW submissions and supply them to NASA within a few days of their submission deadlines. The contractor shall be responsible for the receipt and secure storage of proposals received (as many as 500 at a time in order to accommodate the submissions to multiple solicitations) and shall also be responsible for accurately making up packagesof proposals to be sent to the designated mail and panel reviewers, in advance of the peer review activity itself. Some NASA offices require the contractor itself to determine the identity of these reviewers; in other cases, NASA personnel will identify them. Each panel typically consists of 7 to 10 members, and it is common to have as many as six panels meeting simultaneously to accommodate all the proposals submitted in response to a single solicitation (as many as 150). Panels typically meet for three days, requiring the panel members to be resident for up to four nights. The solicitation of panel members may be done by phone or letter, for which the support contractor may be responsible. The support contractor ensures that applicable panel members are appropriately and promptly reimbursed for their travel costs to attend panel meetings, and as necessary, arranges for the logistics of the meeting itself at commercial or NASA facilities. The support contractor is responsible for receiving and collating allmail reviews transmitted back in advance of the meeting, and for real-time support of the panel meeting itself, including near real-time word processing support to document the reviews that are produced by the panel. After the panel has finished its deliberations, the contractor shall be responsible for cleaning up all paperwork and for returning the proposals to secure storage at their facilities. In order to demonstrate the capability to respond to NASA's requirement for peer review, potential small business offerors should provide the following information: (1) Demonstrate the ability to work with a variety of groups, which include the ability to manage teams of peer review personnel and multiple, simultaneous review panels;(2) availability of key personnel with project management experience for activities with multiple sub projects/tasks; (3) the ability to manage and coordinate the associated proposal receipt and storage, meeting logistics support, travel, scheduling, etc. that are diverse and frequently simultaneous; (4) Demonstrate experience in database development, management, modification, and maintenance, in a secure network environment; (5) proof of acceptable or approved accounting system for Government cost-reimbursable contracts; and (6) the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references for whom the potential offeror has provided peer review or similar type services during the past three years. After initial review of all submittals, firms may be invited for oral presentations. The requested information should be submitted no later than 2 p.m., EDT, April 13, 1999, to: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210.H, Attn: Mr. Jim Becker, Building 17, Room S110, Greenbelt, MD 20771. Questions about this synopsis may be sent by E-mail to the sole point of contact: James.L.Becker.1@gsfc.nasa.gov or call (301) 286-4223. This synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information solicited. Full, accurate, and complete information is required by this request in accordance with 18 U.S.C. 1001, which also prescribes the penalties for making false statements. All responses shall be in writing and shall not exceed five typed pages. A page is defined as one side of a sheet, 8 -1/2 X 11 inches, with at least one inch margins on all sides, using not smaller than 12 characters per inch type font. Responses may be forwarded to Mr. Jim Becker via electronic transmission or by facsimile transmission to (301) 286-0356. If sent by facsimile, offerors are responsible to verify receipt of the information by Jim Becker. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in the CBD and on the NASA Acquisition Internet Service. The anticipated release date of the subsequent RFP is on or about August 1, 1999, with an anticipated proposal due date of on or about September 1, 1999. A draft solicitation will be issued prior to the release of the RFP to give offerors the opportunity to submit comments, which may be taken into consideration during the preparation of the RFP. The subsequent solicitation and any documents related to this procurement may be available over the Internet in Microsoft Office Suite (Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, or PowerPoint 4.0) format on the World-Wide Web (WWW) NASA/HQ Business Opportunities home page at URL http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/HQ/class.html. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor the aforementioned Internet site for the release of the final solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments, if any. Hard copies of the solicitation will not be mailed. Any referenced notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nnotes.htm. Posted 03/30/99 (D-SN314327). (0089)

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