19AQMM26N0296 RFI Instructions - FINAL.pdf

Boundaries and Sovereignty Encyclopedia

Operation, Maintenance and Sustainment

Office of the Geographer and Global Issues

Bureau of Intelligence and Research

Department of State

Request for Information

19AQMM26N0296

June 30, 2026

Bureau of Intelligence and Research Request for Information

Boundaries and Sovereignty Encyclopedia (BASE) 19AQMM26N0269

The purpose of this notice is to accomplish market research pursuant to Federal Acquisition

Regulation (FAR) Part 10, and to identify qualified and experienced HUBZone, WOSB, SDVOSB, and small businesses capable of and interested in providing the services described herein. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute an Invitation for Bid (IFB), Request for Quotation (RFQ), or Request for Proposal

(RFP). Additionally, there is no obligation or commitment on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described within this notice now or in the future. The

Government does not intend to award any contract(s) based solely on the submission of this notice. Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for information submitted in response to this notice, nor will it compensate respondents for any costs incurred in the development/furnishing of a response. The Government will not entertain telephone calls or questions for this RFI notice. Please note that a decision not to submit a response will not preclude a vendor from participating in any future solicitation.

The Government is providing a draft Statement of Work (SOW) as a courtesy to inform potential offerors of anticipated requirements. The Government will not accept questions on the SOW at this time. However, submission of comments and recommendations are optional.

BACKGROUND

The Boundaries and Sovereignty Encyclopedia (BASE) is the U.S. Government’s (USG) official repository of geography and foreign policy information pertaining to the depiction and description of international land boundaries as well as disputed territories and sovereignty issues.

BASE is maintained by the Department of State’s (DOS) Office of the Geographer and Global

Issues (GGI) within the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) and hosted on the StateToday site. BASE serves as the authoritative source of information on historical and contemporary boundary and sovereignty issues for cartographers, analysts, diplomats, and policymakers. GGI relies on BASE to fulfill the responsibilities given by OMB Circular A-16 and the Federal

Geographic Data Committee. The Encyclopedia is the companion to the Department’s only

National Geospatial Data Asset, the Large Scale International Boundaries (LSIB) dataset.

Purpose:

This Request for Information (RFI) is to identify qualified and experienced vendors capable of providing Boundaries and Sovereignty Encyclopedia (BASE) to INR/GGI. The desired outcomes for its customers and end-users are to obtain information on the following:

1) BASE-related corporate experience in a Federal Government environment

2) Required Functionality

3) Software Utilization and Geospatial Data

4) Security, Compliance, and Risk Management

5) Rough Order of Magnitude estimate

RFI Submission Instructions:

RFI responses shall be submitted in writing via email to: Nicolas Wilhelm, Contracting Officer at

WilhelmNA@state.gov; James Tyson, Contract Specialist at TysonJC@state.gov and Annie Harlow, Contract Specialist at HarlowAL@state.gov no later than 12:00 noon, EST on July 22, 2026.

All responses shall be submitted electronically (Adobe PDF format). Responding to this RFI is not a prerequisite to bid on a subsequent RFP, if one is issued. All responses must adhere to the page limits of ten (10) pages total (font Times New Roman 12). Please note, cover pages do not count towards the page limit. The submission shall be logically assembled. Each response section shall be clearly identified and shall begin at the top of a page. All pages of each response section shall be appropriately numbered and identified by the complete company name, date, and referenced number listed on the Notice in the header and/or footer.

mailto:TysonJC@state.gov mailto:HarlowAL@state.gov

Cover Page:

Company Name:

Company Point of Contact (POC):

POC Email:

POC Phone:

Contractor Address:

UEI Number:

Facility Clearance Level

Identify GSA Schedule Contracts (with applicable MAS SINs) or other GWAC:

State Socioeconomic Status under any of the following NAICS Codes:

• 519290: Web Search Portals and

All Other Information

• 518210: Computing Infrastructure

Providers, Data Processing, Web

Hosting, and Related Services;

• 541360: Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services

Examples:

519290 and 541360: Small

518210: Other than Small

List Applicable Socioeconomic

Classification

Example: Small Business, Small Disadvantaged

Business; HUBZone; Economically Disadvantaged

Woman-Owned; Service-Disabled Veteran Owned;

8(a)

Requested Information:

The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), Office of the Geographer and Global Issues

(INR/GGI) seeks information from interested vendors that can provide capabilities and services for Boundaries and Sovereignty Encyclopedia (BASE) that will satisfy the draft Statement of

Work. Citing examples, please describe your capabilities, services, and experience meeting requirements similar in scope and complexity to the requirements of the draft SOW. In addition to a description of capabilities and experience, INR/GGI seeks responses to the following questions:

A. Corporate Experience (maximum two (2) page response)

1. Federal past performance: List BASE-related projects performed for Federal customers, including:

Project #1:

Agency

Contract dollar value

Period of Performance

Prime vs. subcontractor role

Summary of project challenges and how they were resolved

Project #2:

Agency

Contract dollar value

Period of Performance

Prime vs. subcontractor role

Summary of project challenges and how they were resolved

NOTE: add more rows as needed not to exceed two (2) pages

B. Required Functionality (maximum one (1) page response):

1. Describe the architecture toolset used to map and analyze political entities or boundaries.

2. Describe how the company incorporates geospatial data services into web search portals, including support for versioned boundary data and SpaceTimeID-style linking frameworks.

3. Provide a project example where your company has deployed this solution.

C. Software Utilization and Geospatial Data (maximum two (2) page response)

1. Describe how the company has utilized open-source software to build web infrastructure supporting customized search, artifact management, and geospatial data delivery.

2. Describe your experience implementing open-source tools to support these capabilities, including any experience with full-text search indexing (e.g., OCR-converted PDFs), metadata tagging, and linkage management between non-spatial artifacts and geospatial entities.

3. What are some lessons learned, success stories, and challenges overcome that the company has encountered when integrating geospatial data services into the web-search portal?

D. Security, Compliance, and Risk Management (maximum four (4) page response)

1. How has the company developed or hosted a web portal accessible to U.S. Government personnel via credentialed access, such as on the U.S. Government's Protected

Internet eXchange (PiX) or equivalent secure hosting environments?

2. Supply chain & SCRM: Detail Supply Chain Risk Management controls, including vendor vetting, component provenance, and tamper detection.

3. Information assurance: Describe how the online portal is used, hosting and compliance posture (e.g., FedRAMP status, NIST SP 800 53 mapping) and data residency

4. Accessibility: Provide approach to Section 508 accessibility for user portals and documentation.

5. Describe how the company has complied with security protocols for establishing web hosting infrastructure, including Authority to Operate (ATO) requirements, vulnerability monitoring, and managed cloud environments?

6. Describe your company's experience implementing role-based access controls, content-level tagging workflows, and audit logging to enforce appropriate access restrictions across diverse user profiles including administrators, internal and external boundary analysts, policy supporters, cartographers, and machine/automated users in compliance with Federal CUI handling requirements.

7. Describe your company's experience supporting interoperability across Federal agencies for geospatial data systems, including compliance with NSDI data standards, API-based data exchange, and bulk export/import of boundary datasets for supporting multi-agency data sharing.

E. Rough Order of Magnitude estimate (maximum one (1) page response)

1. Provide rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimates, including considerations that could impact pricing.

NOTE1: Estimated number of users = 100 / Enterprise-wide

NOTE2: this is not a price proposal request.

NOTE: The information derived from this RFI will assist INR/GGI in identifying sources that can satisfy the Boundaries and Sovereignty Encyclopedia (BASE) requirements. The information and specifications provided in the RFI are subject to change and are not binding on the

Government. INR/GGI has not made a commitment to procure any of the items presented, and release of this RFI should not be construed as a commitment or authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.