Attachment 1 SOW for Innovation and Technology Ecosystems Workshops.pdf

Statement of Work

I. Requiring Office:

National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems 2415 Eisenhower Avenue Alexandria, VA 22314

II. Project Title Innovation and Technology Ecosystems Workshops for the Directorate of Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP).

III. Performance Period Period of Performance (POP): February 15, 2024 – February 14, 2025 Base Quantity: 4 Workshops

IV. Overview of Project This project will include the design and implementation of Ideas Labs for the NSF’s Directorate of Technology Innovations and Partnerships (TIP) from 02/15/2024-02/14/2025.

Each Ideas Lab will consist of three stages: A Preliminary proposal, Ideas Lab workshop and a Full proposal. The Ideas Lab workshop is an interactive gathering of participants interested in collaboratively developing potential solution approaches to a specific problem or a grand challenge. It is expected to be an intensive and focused meeting, typically 3 to 5 days long. It can be either fully virtual, in-person or a hybrid of the two. The Ideas Lab concept is described in the NSF PAPPG Chapter II.F.6. These events will be designed to create an interactive and free-thinking environment, where participants from a range of institutions get together and immerse themselves in collaborative thinking processes to develop meaningful and realistic solutions to a problem posed at the outset of the Ideas Lab.

Each of these Ideas Lab workshops will be designed to engage up to 60 maximum participants and will be led by a Workshop Director whose role is to assist in defining the topics and help guide discussions. The Workshop Director will be joined by a number of mentors who are selected by NSF based on their expertise. Specific outcomes from the Ideas Lab workshop expected to include:

• Participants identify specific challenges to be addressed.

• Participants organize into teams proposing specific solution approaches to these challenges.

• Teams pitch their solutions to the NSFs; and

• Based on the pitched solutions NSF may invite selected teams to submit a full proposal.

V. Scope of Work and Deliverables The Contractor shall provide the personnel, services, software and other resources needed for the planning, organization, administration, development and delivery of the virtual and in-person events that will be run in order to meet the objectives described above. The table below outlines the specific tasks, and estimated timeline for a single representative Ideas Lab event.

Scope of Work Item Description Dates/Timeline Kick off meeting with NSF and contractor

• Discuss the following:

1. Description of Ideas Lab workshop scope and goals

2. Proposed method of presentation format and customization of the technology platform used to facilitate a collaborative virtual online experience.

3. Project Management tools proposed for tracking status of contracted activities. Minimum tools should include schedule with key milestones aligned with agreed upon activities associated with administering preparations for and executing the project, e.g., project management board, transmittal communications, execution of participant feedback survey.

• Summary notes from Kickoff meeting

• Secure repository to house materials from contractor/NSF meetings for duration of contract period.

• Within one week of contract award or official NSF notice to proceed, hold kick off meeting.

• No later than three days after kickoff, provide NSF with summary notes from Kickoff meeting and access/user credentials to any secure digital platforms and/or data repositories to be used for the project.

Project Setup and Administration

Set up account management system, and activities associated with administering the project. These include set up of a project management dashboard, onboarding of the organizers, and coordination of project administration.

Setup to be completed two weeks prior to first virtual event and administered throughout duration of contract.

Project Coordination

Coordination and facilitation of planning meetings (and other communications) for the purposes of articulating the event objectives, designing agendas and activities that meet these objectives, coordinating logistics associated with delivery of these activities and briefing any Organizers, Presenters or Mentors who are part of the event.

Throughout duration of contract. It will include biweekly meetings with NSF, or as needed.

Virtual Venue Customization

Customization of a virtual platform to set up and maintain a virtual venue for the duration of the online interactions. The

To be set up at least two weeks before first virtual event and updated at least two weeks before virtual venue serves as a location for Organizers and Participants to interact and collaborate before, during and after events.

second iteration of virtual workshops begin.

Workshop Orientation

Technical preparation and delivery of a 2hr introduction to the workshop series

TBD at Kickoff

Short day event facilitation (4 events)

Technical preparation and delivery of four interactive, virtual short-day events.

Ideas Lab dates TBD at the Kickoff Design & Preparation for In-Person Activities

Activities associated with (on and off-site) preparation for facilitation, agenda and activity design, and creation of workshop activity collateral for the Solution Development phase.

Throughout duration of contract. It will include biweekly meetings with NSF, or as needed. To be concluded one week prior to event.

Virtual Venue Customization

Update virtual platform to serve as an online collaboration hub during in-person events.

To be completed at least 48 hours before each in-person event.

Three day, In-person Event Facilitation

Daily onsite preparation and delivery of an in-person event.

1. Solution Ideation

2. Selection & Stewarding

3. Teaming, Development, and Feedback

Dates TBD at the Kickoff

Virtual Venue Customization

Update virtual platform to serve as an online collaboration hub at conclusion of in-person workshop. The virtual platform will be used to assist with asynchronous feedback.

To be completed within 3 days following the end of each in-person event.

Ideas Lab post- Workshop

Summary of ideas developed during the workshop

To be completed within 3 business days following the conclusion of the Ideas Lab

Deliverables

• Biweekly meetings with NSF staff, or as needed. These will include debrief meetings following each event to determine any needed adjustments/updates for future events.

• Biweekly meetings with NSF and proposal writing consultant team leaders, or as needed.

• Event plans outlining the staffing, agenda, run of show, etc. for each event.

• Materials to provide attendees in each session (for virtual and in-person events)

• Walkthrough with NSF program officers of virtual platform prior to first event.

• Process to track participants from each proposing team at virtual workshop sessions.

• Facilitation of all virtual and in-person events

VI. Requirements Contractor Requirements/Skillsets:

• Has previous experience working with NSF or industry in organizing interactive workshops or meetings, similar to Ideas Lab events.

• Has demonstrated experience in facilitating workshops resulting in concrete outcomes

• Has expertise in creating an interactive and free-thinking environment, where participants from diverse perspectives immerse themselves in collaborative thinking processes to generate new ideas and develop actionable solutions to complex problems.

• Has experience facilitating collaborations among participants from diverse backgrounds including, but not limited to, academia, industry and non-profits.

VII. Place of Performance For virtual events, the place of performance shall be the contractor’s site(s). In-person events will be hosted at a TBD conference facility. The contractor will not be responsible for coordinating the conference travel logistics.

VIII. Special Requirements None

IX. Personnel Skills Necessary personnel skills for this project include:

• Meeting facilitators with expertise in designing and facilitating in-person and virtual events that create cross-disciplinary collaborations

• Mentors with expertise in building industry/academia partnerships and/or research development

• Staff to set up and maintain virtual platforms

X. Government Furnished Property None

XI. Workplan, Timelines, Milestones The work plan, timeline, and milestones required to complete this study must be included in the proposal.

XII. Travel Requirements Contractor will provide travel for its team to in-person events at established per-diem rates under federal travel guidelines. Travel must be approved in advance by the COR and will be invoiced for at actuals to the Travel Contract Line Items.

XIII. Conflicts of Interest Not applicable