Research, academic, and infrastructure/DARPA support
Added: Sep 28, 2015 10:34 am Revision P FedBizOpps1JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVALFOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITIONArmy Research Laboratory Human Research & Engineering DirectorateSimulation Training & Technology Center (ARL-HRED-STTC)1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACCAPG),Research Triangle Park Division, Orlando Branch, P. O. Box 12211, Research TrianglePark, NC 27709-22112. Description of Action: ACC-APG-Orlando proposes to issue a new contract for four (4)years, (Base Year is twenty (24) months with two (2), one year options), with the University ofCentral Florida Institute for Simulation and Training (UCF-IST). The contract will be a Firm-Fixed Price type contract funded with Fiscal Year (FY) 15 tough FY19 (when appropriatefunding becomes available) Research Development Test and Evaluation Budget Activity 1, 2,and 3 (formally known as 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 Science and Technology [S&T] funds), as well asfunding from other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies seeking to leverage ARL-HREDSTTC'sresearch and development capabilities.Name of Proposed Contractor: University of Central FloridaStreet Address: 4000 Central Florida Blvd.City, State, Zip: Phone: Orlando, FL 32816The total estimated value of the proposed action is $ 9,300,000.003. Description of Services: This proposed contract will maintain essential infrastructurecapabilities for Modeling, Simulation, and Training (MS&T) initiatives in which the ARLHRED-STTC resides. ARL-HRED-STTC mission is to addresses critical Army emerging needsand ARL Campaign Plan requirements in MS&T which include: adaptive training, virtualhumans, advanced distributed simulation, medical technologies, augmented reality, and 3-Dimmersive environments. Via this proposed contract, UCF-IST will maintain essential coreMS&T infrastructure capabilities and engineering support identified in this document. Thecurrent partnership with UCF-IST enables the ARL-HRED-STTC to focus its limited personnelon research project execution and laboratory work while the contractor is required to supplementprofessional, technical and administrative support related to aspects of laboratory operations.This support addresses the operational needs within the primary ARL-HRED-STTC facility andalso satellite research laboratories located in other areas of the Central Florida Research Park.Support under this proposed effort shall include the following services:(a) Operation Coordination: Provide support for operations, facility coordination, taskermanagement, public affairs coordination, budgeting (mission and customer), ARL'sunique time keeping processes, DoD force protection and security. This includes uniquerequirements for the medical simulation studies, human experimentation, large virtualmultiplayer experimentation with Soldiers, Cadets and civilians and Joint Service Anti-Terrorism Exercises (ATX).Revision P FedBizOpps2(b) Technical/Administrative Support: Provide property management, unique budgetprocessing requirements and all technical support tasks such as prepare reports, providebriefings, attend meetings, in support of MS&T areas of research and development toinclude non-mission funded customer work.(c) Operation and Strategic Planning: Provide personnel to support the strategic planningfocused on the operation and facility efforts in support the MS&T unique initiatives.(d) Provide personnel to support the coordination of various sponsored activities withinthe ARL-HRED-STTC, PEO STRI, Major General Maddux events, and other uniquerequirements in the Orlando area to include; Team Orlando visitors, meetings, workshopsand conferences:(e) Additionally, ARL's Director, Dr. Thomas Russell's has instituted the DARPAEnterprise Strategy. ARL-HRED-STTC is partnering with DARPA as a model for theDARPA Enterprise Strategy. UCF-IST has been working with DARPA for ten (10) yearsand has won several awards for their project management and acquisition excellenceexpertise with DARPA. UCF-IST stands alone in their holistic approach to providingengineering support and management support services required to maintain deeppartnerships across DARPA Divisions. This support includes RM, IRB support and anominal (10% to 13%) for engineering support.(1) Engineering Support: DARPA engineering services will constitute a nominaleffort of 10 to 13 percent of the total annual labor for this contract. UCF-IST hasassembled a unique team to work DARPA programs as well as dozens of DARPASBIR efforts. Today, the ARL-HRED-STTC is one of the largest SBIR supportoffices to DARPA. The unique blend of engineering support provided by UCFISTconstitutes a novel approach to providing engineering support services toinclude; design efforts and decision support in areas such as: cognitiveneuroscience, robotics, advanced physics, team and individual training,information processing, material science, hardware and software development.(2) Resource Management: Support for the DARPA resource management to themaximum extent allowed by non-Government personnel. This includes fiscaltracking, audit preparations, and the tracking of contract and in-house funding andexpenses on a per program basis.(3) Independent Review Board (IRB). Preparation for protocol review andapproval: Provides support for work performed in the submission, approval andmonitoring of Independent (Institutional) Review Board. These specialized studiesinclude; animal studies in the specialize field of medical training as well asspecialized chemical and materiel studies.4. Authority: FAR 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other supplies or services willRevision P FedBizOpps3satisfy agency requirements.5. Reasons for Authority Cited:a. BackgroundIn 1992, with the establishment of the Army's Simulation Training and InstrumentationCommand (STRICOM) in Central Florida Research Park, Orlando, Florida, UCF-IST wascreated to support collaboration among STRICOM, Other Government Agencies (OGAs), theMS&T defense industry, and other academic institutions. Today, UCF is the only academiccenter in the world supporting all members of Team Orlando's military complex located in theCentral Florida Research Park. As time passed Central Florida became the unquestioned leaderand hub to the world's largest MS&T community. Today it is home to more than 200 modeling,simulation and training companies and the world's best theme parks all leveraging modeling andsimulation techniques. As part of the Team Orlando partnership between military organizations(Army, Navy, Marine Corp & Air Force) and those 200 modeling and simulation companies,UCF-IST continues to provide a national treasure of MS&T expertise.As the simulation and training mission grew it took on dimensions hardly imagined - even in the'90s. The discipline's horizons stretched far beyond mechanical engineering and computerscience to encompass psychology, cognitive science, robotics, human factors engineering,mathematical analysis, philosophy, learning theory, culture studies, to name a few. With all thesemultidisciplinary underpinnings, modeling and simulation became a discipline worthy of its ownadvanced levels of scientific study.As such the Army needed additional support and that expertise came from UCF-IST as a residentpartner with the establishment of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement(CRADA) to establish an Open Campus laboratory with STRICOM (ARL-HRED-STTC waspart of STRICOM until 2004 before it moved to RDECOM until 2010 and now resides as ARLHRED-STTC). Today, UCF-IST partnership with ARL-HRED-STTC is on their third CRADA.As part of the current CRADA ARL-HRED-STTC resides in a UCF owned building as well asseveral shared labs across Central Florida Research Park in Orlando, Florida.Today, ARL-HRED-STTC has several contract vehicles with UCF-IST awarded by ACC-RTP toinclude a five (5) year, with two (2) one (1) year options IDIQ which is valued at $75,000,000for research and development work. This IDIQ has awarded over 90 different task orders forMS&T research and development that is used by all the military Services. The personnel underthis IDIQ (W91CRB-08-D-0015) understand Army systems, databases, contracting, personnelinitiatives and acquisition. As this IDIQ comes to a close other methods for Research andDevelopment are being used to continue the partnership with UCF. However, the infrastructuresupport will not be covered under any of the other contract vehicles. Therefore, this J&A issubmitted to maintain essential infrastructure capabilities identified in section 3 tough theapplication of infrastructure services and nominal DARPA engineering support.b. AlternativesIn developing the strategy to award a sole source contract to UCF-IST, there are tee (3)Revision P FedBizOpps4alternatives that were addressed, none of which would satisfy the requirement to maintain theessential infrastructure service capabilities for the ARL-HRED-STTC needs:(1) Use In-House Resources: ARL-HRED-STTC does not have the depth or breadthacross infrastructure services within each discipline to maintain an MS&T facility that awell-endowed research institution would provide.(2) Suspend Services: Since there is a critical Army need to maintain current R&Dcapabilities in MS&T, this alternative was not considered.(3) Award a new contract tough competition: Peer industry and universities engaged inMS&T typically do not mix infrastructure support, top quality R&D services as well asadministrative support. Therefore, substantial duplication of cost to the Governmentwould be expected and not recovered tough competition at this time.c. ImpactIt is in the best interest of the Government to award a new contract to UCF-IST. Failure to do sowill negatively impact the ARL-HRED-STTC's mission and result in substantial duplication ofcost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered tough competition. Since ARLHRED-STTC does not have the breadth and depth of personnel to meet the current demand onrequirements of an Army lab this new contract is required for two reasons; (1) the duplication ofcosts and time concerns if the ARL-HRED-STTC Government personnel would vacate and try tomove to a different facility, and (2) a substantial duplication of cost to the Government in orderto ramp up a new contractor. By awarding this new contract substantial duplication of cost canbe saved by the Government with no time delays or loss of mission. Below are some examples ofareas of cost savings:(1) Cost of Moving to a New Facility: The Army has been located at its current facilitysince the early 2000's during that time several other agencies have been supported by theinfrastructure personnel hired by the Army. The impact of moving spreads across Armyagencies and partnerships in Team Orlando as other agencies seek to leverage MS&Twork. Additionally, the Army has invested many millions of dollars in this facility tobuild out the infrastructure capability and upgrades to meet DOD requirements thatcannot be found in typical commercial real estate space. Therefore a substantialduplication of cost to the Government would be expected and not recovered toughmoving to a new building. As an example of this, in Figure 1 shows costs of a typicalCentral Florida Commercial Property that the Army could move into if the decision wasto vacate the current facility. This would result in is substantial costs to the Government.Using data acquired in the last 12 months during the Government Market Research andleveraging the Central Florida Office Research Report from the Colliers InternationalGroup who surveys sales and leasing activity in six (6) surrounding areas of CentralFlorida. Based on the potential four (4) year contract proposed, Figure 1 estimates thatthe cost to the Government for a comparable building would be $5,366,400 over four (4)years. Under our current approach the Army would only be expected to pay $647,720 forRevision P FedBizOpps5all the current building space. That would be a savings of $4,718,680 over the life of thisfour (4) year contract. This analysis demonstrates the substantial increase in cost to theGovernment; this cost would have to be taken from S&T funds which would impact ourmission.Figure 1 ‐ Market Research Labor JustificationAdditionally, since the early 2000's the Army has invested over $5M in major facilityrenovations, security, classified facilities, and upgrades. These costs would most likelybe required again if ARL-HRED-STTC moved to a new facility. This would not includethe major loss of hours for the move as well as the mission loss from the use of missionfunds to pay for the expenses.(2) Duplication of Cost Ramping Up a New Contractor: During the life of thepartnership with UCF-IST the infrastructure personnel and DARPA engineers haveestablished an extensive network of close and significant working relationships andcollaborations with ARL, Army Research Institute, DARPA and other key Armylaboratories. Additionally, the training, certification, travel for certification and expertiseassociated with these positions is voluminous and leads to the synergy created betweenlabs. There would be substantial duplication of costs that would not be recovered inramping up another contractor at this time. In figure 2 an estimate of the costs to rampingup a new contractor is documented. It is estimated that the cost in the first year would be$1,125,826 to the Government. Additionally, tee (3) examples of these uniquerequirements are also documented below:Revision P FedBizOpps6Figure 2 - Estimated Ramp of Cost for New Contractor(1) Security Personnel. ARL-HRED-STTC has extremely unique electronicgates, security system and badge control. All of these systems have extensive trainingthat needs to be undertaken for operation, safety and to meet the ARL-HRED-STTCStandard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The gates alone are tens of thousands of dollarsand have complex control systems. UCF-IST not only understands this but theysupplement the Government by controlling the systems. UCF-IST security personnel aretrained and certified tough Army and state classes. Their job includes opening andclosing the facility and working the gate procedures and entrance and exits for ourbuildings.Security personnel sit on the ARL-HRED-STTC quarterly security meeting and play aninstrumental role in our ATX exercises and documenting our security procedures. Theirone-on-one relationships with Team Orlando community and working across ARL are anexample of this collaboration. As stated in recent ARL findings for the Anti-TerrorismExercise's After Action Review and showcased in the 2013 ARL Annual Awards. UCFISTwas commended with the aid of the State of Florida on the ARL-HRED-STTCfacility to meet DOD Anti-Terrorism Standards for Buildings in accordance withregulation UFC 4-010-01 signed 1 October 2013 per DOD Instruction 2000.12 and 10USC 2859. This regulation instructs all DOD components to fully comply with theseregulations with no exceptions authorized. This was a result of the upgrade made to theARL-HRED-STTC facility costing $800,000 which was funded tough UCF by theState of Florida to comply with the extremely unique requirements and led by theexpertise of the UCF-IST security team. Any new source for this contract would result ina substantial duplication of cost to the Government and would not be expected to berecovered tough that competition, as stated in FAR 6.302.Revision P FedBizOpps7(2) Public Affairs Officer (PAO). Our PAO must understand ARL, RDECOMand Army procedures and is our interface for all VIP visits and messaging going in andout of the building. The PAO also is the main interface to PEO STRI PAO as PEO STRIis the ARL-HRED-STTC main transition partner who recently moved under Commandof a two-star general, MG Maddox. This brings unique requirements when interfacingwith PEO STRI and their Command Group. Our existing PAO has over 20 yearsexperience in the Army with Public Affairs and these added responsibilities since movingunder ARL in 2010 creates a vital responsibility and significant uniqueness to the job.(3) Tasker and Budget Personnel. Most organizations have Governmentpersonnel doing this work. Because of the complexity of the tasker and budget systems inARL, the Government has spent tens of thousands of dollars training UCF-IST personnelto support these efforts. UCF-IST personnel work side by side in partnership withGovernment personnel. They understand GFEBS, ATAAPs, MIPRs, WBS and all theunique characteristics of Army budgeting systems and databases. In 2014, ARL-HREDSTTChad over 300 taskers from various agencies. To accomplish this, the incumbenthas unique expertise about the originations and mission of the ARL-HRED-STTC,interface to Team Orlando and historical databases to rely on. He also documents andmanages all the ARL-HRED-STTC SOPs which are unique to the ARL-HRED-STTC.Taking collectively the unique training and certification requirements for each of the personnelfrom UCF-IST in order for them to work in their current infrastructure and service jobs wouldnot be economically feasible as a whole to ramp up another contractor at this time. Losing theservices as a whole will be detrimental to ARL-HRED-STTC resulting substantial duplication ofcost to the Government.6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:A notice of this requirement was publicized in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2 on theArmy's Single Face to Industry Registry from 3 March 2015 tough 17 April 2015.There were no responses to this notice.7. Actions to Increase Competition: DOD's Better Buying Power initiative guidanceemphasizes the importance of removing obstacles from competition.ARL-HRED-STTC is committed to establishing best practices to increase Full and OpenCompetition. As such it is anticipated that tee (3) actions will be taken:(a) Any follow-on contract would separate the requirements for infrastructure andengineering support for DARPA. Since the engineering support is nominal (10% - 13%)it was anticipated that this method of placing the two (2) different contracts: one (1) forinfrastructure and the other for engineering support services may increase competition inthe future. This is in line with the latest Better Buying Power initiative guidance justreleased in DOD Instruction 5000.02.Revision P FedBizOpps8(b) An industry day explaining the type of work ARL is doing with DARPA and theirneeded support will be held.(c) Additionally, ARL will utilize the Army's Single Face to Industry Registry for theengineering support to DARPA. This announcement will be placed online for anextended period of time.These actions may result in increasing the competition for this support in the future.8. Market Research: Infrastructure Support & DARPA Engineering SupportFAR 10.002, (b.1) states that the extent of market research will vary, depending on such factorsas urgency, estimated dollar value, complexity, and past experience. In conducting the MarketResearch over the past twelve (12) months the ARL-HRED-STTC personnel Dr. NealFinkelstein, Ms. Thao Pham, Mr. Jose Rentas, Mr. Joe Traugott and Mr. Jim Nelson got involvedwith leadership and discuss the requirements for this contract. Identifying and understanding thecharacteristics of the service requirements was the key to the Market Research. ARL SubjectMatter Experts (SMEs) have extensive knowledge in working with support contractors. They arecontinually reading trade journals, contact knowledgeable people (Government, industry andacademia) concerning support that other organizations received. In Team Orlando, we aresurrounded by the other Services, all who work with support contractors for various acquisitionneeds. Although our S&T support is uniquely different as well as our lab security needs, havingadditional eyes and ears go over these requirements in terms of how the other Services receivethis help aided with the market research.Contacting specialists and other SMEs all are part of this process. In the past twelve (12)months, taking advantage of the lessons learned with previous infrastructure support personnelwas collected. These SMEs evaluate White Papers, review market surveys prepared bycompanies, conduct site visits and attend trade shows, conferences, and symposia. All of thisinformation obtained and surveyed over the last twelve (12) months aided in the MarketResearch.Additionally, in the past twelve (12) months SMEs used Internet tools, to perform Web searches,review results of recent market research on support requirements and visited the Better BuyingPower Initiative Web Portal all providing valuable information when looking for similarrequirements. Obtaining source lists from other contracting activities such as PEO STRI wasalso helpful.Furthermore, in preparation for the past IDIQ awarded to UCF-IST in 2007 which containedinfrastructure support, ARL-HRED-STTC assessed other potential candidates. Universities thathad both strong technical as well as administrative skills were evaluated. In an effort todetermine the feasibility of competition, ARL-HRED-STTC's Principal Investigators conductedtelephone interviews, attended various trade shows, conducted web searches, reviewed WhitePapers, reviewed engineering publications and participated in the Inter-service/Industry TrainingSimulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) to see if any other universities had the desiredqualifications. In reviewing the possible candidates, it was considered essential that theRevision P FedBizOpps9candidates have an established and extensive link to the Central Florida military Services andMS&T community. It was also necessary that laboratory space be available to conductnumerous MS&T experiments and perform research within the ARL-HRED-STTC corecompetencies.The results from this Market Research analysis indicated that individually, a few institutions hadsome level of capabilities and knowledge needed to meet the ARL-HRED-STTC mandatedsupport. However, each of the comparison institutions had strengths in certain areas over somebut none of the institutions compared with UCF-IST's overall strengths. The Market Researchindicates UCF-IST is the only institution that has the depth and breadth of capabilities, expertiseand experience to address all core capabilities with a focus that is directed to specific ARLHRED-STTC laboratory needs.Furthermore, Figure 2 continues the Market Research which shows a comparison of labor ratesunder contract number W91CRB-08-D-0015 comparing them to the Government ServicesAdministration (GSA) rates. The main labor category rates from GSA are compared to thecurrent cost rates from UCF-IST. The rates for the labor for each category range from -86% to+39% with an average of -13% lower overall.Figure 2 - Market Research Budget Justification Cost Comparison9. Procurement History: Contract number W91CRB-08-D-0015 awarded on 24 March 2008by the U.S. Army RDECOM Acquisition Contracting Center was a sole source IDIQ namedResearch, Academic and Operations Support (RAOS) in the amount of $75,000,000. TaskOrder 0087 under that IDIQ was awarded 26 Sept 2013 to the UCF-IST for infrastructuresupport. The value of that task order was $1,500,897.Revision P FedBizOpps1010. Additional Information to support the justification:a. Acquisition Data Availability: This requirement is for essential infrastructure support for theARL-HRED-STTC consequently since this is an infrastructure support contract there are noacquisition packages, technical data packages, or specifications under this effort.b. Unusual and Compelling Urgency: Not applicable since FAR 6.302-2 - Unusual andCompelling Urgency, is not the authority cited for this proposed action.c. Competition in Subcontracting: FAR 52.244-5, Competition in Subcontracting, will beincluded in the solicitation and resulting contract. It is not anticipated that any major subcontractingwill result under this proposed contract. However, the PCO will encourage themaximum use of subcontracting competition for supplies, materials, and non-technical services.
W911NF-15-R-A0001 Department of the Army Materiel Command Army Contracting Command Aberdeen Proving Ground
9/28/15, 10:34 AM