Attachment 2 - Performance Work Statement (1305M324Q0212).pdf

Performance Work Statement (PWS) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Science and Technology, ISCAD

NOAA Fisheries Open Science Work Flow Transformation and Training Program

BACKGROUND

The White House Office of Science and Technology Science Advisory Board, in a December 2022 Report on Open Data/Open Science recommended the implementation of FAIR data principles, the championing of open data and open source software, and the application of consistent Open Science principles across NOAA. These directives align with growing Federal mandates and the expectations of NOAA's user communities. In addition, NOAA Fisheries has numerous initiatives that will require incorporation of new data sources, in particular geospatial climate data into Fisheries models and research.

NOAA Fisheries has already adopted Open Science to improve the efficiency and quality of scientific products for a few specific teams. Examples include the development of FIMS tools for stock assessments, ecosystem status reports for the New England Fishery Management Council, data products for Alaska groundfish surveys, and projects deployed on the Fisheries Integrated Toolbox. Despite these advancements, Open Science practices within NOAA Fisheries are generally program-specific and maintained by one or a few team members. There is an urgent need to transition to Open Science practices across NOAA Fisheries and upskill the existing NOAA Fisheries workforce, specifically as applies to the needs of the NOAA Fisheries Data Modernization effort and to prepare staff for migration of NOAA data and computing to the Cloud. In addition, there are new Open Data and Open Science mandates for federal agencies, such as Public Access to Research Results, Open Source software mandates, and Open Data mandates. NOAA Fisheries staff will need upskilling in Open Science workflows specific to scientific staff working within federal agencies and working with fisheries and ocean climate data.

This Open Science project’s goal is to lead the training and community building necessary to modernize the way the NOAA Fisheries scientific community works and collaborates around data-intensive science, especially as NOAA Fisheries seeks to incorporate large earth data in the Cloud and ocean models into its fisheries research and applications. The Open Science program will be modeled off the NASA implementation and directly supports NOAA’s long-term mission #1: Climate Adaptation and Mitigation and NOAA’s Open Science mandates. The integration of Open Science is intended to support culture change, a complex process that requires structure and flexibility, technical expertise, and empathy so that staff at different skill levels can successfully engage and change. The three program objectives are to 1) develop a NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentor community across all the science centers and regional offices that is linked to the Open Science mentor communities in NASA (who are engaged in a similar upskilling effort), 2) empower NOAA Fisheries researchers with modern Open Science skills and skills for working with large cloud-based geospatial data repositories and for cloud-native computing, 3) amplify NOAA Fisheries research and leadership in the global Climate and Open Science movements, and 4) facilitate the technical training for staff in modern data science tools.

TASKS

Task 1: The Contractor shall plan, develop, and implement an Open Science community approach to mentoring across the NOAA Fisheries centers/offices. The Contractor shall help the NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentor team network with the Open Science teams at other federal agencies (specifically

NASA Data Centers working on earth data cloud migration) and coordinate co-working sessions to work on solutions to similar problems regarding upskilling staff in Open Science and Open Data. The Contractor shall act as the project manager for the NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentor group and help these mentors learn and work together to develop training for staff and to co-create reusable resources for NOAA Fisheries-specific scientific products. The project management tasks will include:

● 1.1. Organize and run bi-weekly virtual meetings for NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentors (40 staff distributed across NOAA Fisheries science centers and regional offices) for 6 months of the year, corresponding to months when Task 2 events are not occurring and allowing for breaks.

● 1.2. Organize co-working sessions with members of Open Science communities (rOpenSci, pyOpenSci, Jupyter Project. Rocker Project, Pangeo community, etc.) and with staff at other federal agencies (specifically NASA Data Centers) to help NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentors collaborate with the wider Open Science community on topics related to the Data Modernization and Cloud Migration effort. These will be virtual and at least monthly and may include a subset of the NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentors. Topics will vary depending on need, but contractor shall be able to design sessions ranging from team skills (e.g. psychological safety, DEIA, coaching, hybrid work and project management) to technical sessions on earth data cloud-computing or software design.

● 1.3. Provide meeting summaries and analysis to assist identification of barriers impeding progress on and areas of opportunity for Open Science goals.

● 1.4. Act as the overall project manager for the activities planned by the NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentor team.

● 1.5. Check-in weekly to the NOAA Fisheries Open Science lead when requested and monthly with NOAA Fisheries leadership. These may be virtual video calls or asynchronous written reports and do not need to be formal.

● 1.6 In role as the mentor group project manager, attend up to two conferences per year and help facilitate activities, such as workshops, that the Open Science mentor group conducts.

Deliverables:

A. Email meeting and conference call information to participants within two business days of the request.

B. Draft and finalize agendas for the bi-weekly Open Science mentor meetings in Task 1.1 at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

C. Draft and finalize minutes for bi-weekly Open Science mentors meetings (Task 1.1) within seven business days after the meeting.

D. Monthly progress report to document results of meetings and conference calls.

E. Organize and maintain the monthly calendar of events for the NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentor group.

F. Maintain GitHub project boards, issue boards and message boards for the team.

G. Organize an in-person 2-day planning workshop for up to 40 mentors in Seattle, WA in Year 2 and an in-person 2-day culminating workshop in Miami, FL in Year 3. For the Seattle and Miami workshops, the Government will provide the conference room and any required equipment. The Contractor will organize the agenda and activities. All travel arrangements and costs for NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentors will be covered by their own centers and offices. The Government will reimburse the Contractor’s travel costs.

Task 2: Each year of the contract, the Contractor shall conduct synchronous and virtual (not in-person) team-based 2-month workshops on Open Science and reproducible scientific workflows tailored for the Data Modernization, Cloud-Migration, Cloud-Computing, and Climate-Ready Fisheries efforts at NOAA Fisheries. Each workshop shall consist of 5 training sessions (1.5 hour each) and 2 discussion sessions over the 2 months followed by 2 follow-up discussion sessions. Each workshop (one per year) will include a total of 120 staff (maximum) divided into 3 cohorts that go through similar material at their own meetings. During the workshop, each cohort will meet separately in 5 bi-weekly, 1.5 hour training sessions with an agenda and training topics designed by the Contractor and tailored to the cohort. The 3 cohorts will meet at different times of the week. Thus the Contractor shall facilitate 3, 1.5 hour meetings every 2 weeks during the 2 months for a total of 15, 1.5 hour training sessions over the 2 months in each year. In the week between the meetings, the Contractor will organize 2, 1-hour sessions where any workshop participant can join to discuss the topics (8 of these sessions total) in each year. At one-month post workshop and 3-months post workshop, the Contractor shall organize and facilitate a follow-up discussion for participants (one session for all 120 participants for a total of two follow-up discussion sessions) in each year. The workshops can include teams from the same or across centers/offices or be topic-specific to strengthen relationships and shared practices. These shall be focused on team’s current projects and concretely help teams implement more efficient workflows in the current projects. All workshop meetings will be virtual and recorded for participants who miss meetings.

For each workshop (120 staff divided into 3 cohorts) in each year, the following tasks will be required:

● 2.1. Assist in developing the nomination and selection of teams and staff for participation

● 2.2. Organize 3 pre-training virtual Q&As in the quarter before the workshop.

● 2.3. Develop the training plans, speakers and content for the workshop training sessions (15 total). Content shall reflect the needs identified by the mentor team (Task 1) and the cohort make-

up. Contractor shall be able to develop training content that includes all the following topics:

Open Science workflow tools in R and Python, skills for collaborative team work for scientific research, cloud-computing with earth data repositories, cloud-native computing, working with formal data repositories, reproducible scientific programming in R and Python, accessing remote-sensing and geospatial data repositories, development of templates and packages to assist reproducible workflows, creation of R packages for automated workflow management, reproducible reports in Quarto, and analysis of data workflows typical of large government reports to assist transformation to reproducible data workflows.

● 2.4. Manage all communications for and run the 2-month workshops for 120 staff divided into 3 cohorts (maximum 40 staff per cohort). The workshop shall have five bi-weekly, 1.5 hour meetings with training topics for each cohort (equals, 15 training sessions total). Organize and run the sessions for participants from all three cohorts to discuss topics in the weeks between the cohort meetings (Task 2.3) for a total of 8 discussion sessions. Organize two follow-up virtual meetings (1 hour) for the workshop participants for participants to reflect on the impact of the workshops on their current workflows and skill-building.

● 2.5. Coordinate with organizations working with the Open Science Community for DEIA Early Career marine scientists to develop outreach activities with the NOAA Fisheries OS cohorts during workshops.

● 2.6. Develop performance metrics for the workshops and report on recommended new training activities based on feedback from the workshops.

A. Outreach emails and communications before, during and after the workshops (1 workshop per year).

B. Three outreach presentations to science centers and regional offices to promote and explain the Open Science team-based workshops. The slide deck will be made available to the Open Science mentor group.

C. Three two-month team-based workshops (one each year of the contract). Each workshop shall have a total of 120 staff divided into 3 cohorts of 40. Each cohort will have their own meetings and content will be tailored to the composition of the cohort.

D. Joint events with DEIA Early Career marine scientists during workshops.

E. A report and a virtual presentation on the accomplishments from each workshop intended for dissemination to local leadership and for local science center or regional office internal communications. The slide deck for the presentations will be made available for sharing with local science center and regional office leadership.

F. A report for NOAA Fisheries Open Science leadership summarizing the challenges, barriers and training gaps that teams report during the workshops regarding Open Science and Open Data adoption. The report shall highlight what are common barriers.

G. All presentations related tasks B and E will be released with an open license (CC0) so that they can be shared publicly.

Task 3: The Contractor shall coordinate the delivery of virtual, asynchronous and on-demand data science training program. The training program will be virtual courses focused on fundamental data science skills to include R, Python, Git, GitHub, Open Science workflows or any other identified skills gaps. The training program will be run in 3-month blocks with a cohort of up to 40 students. Year 1 shall have 1 block and Years 2 and 3 shall each have 2 blocks. In Year 1, the content will be focused on entry level skills. In Years 2 & 3, block 1 will focus on entry level skills and block 2 will focus on geospatial programming focusing on cloud-native workflows for big earth data in R and Python. The Contractor may subcontract to online course platforms for content delivery, but the Contractor shall oversee the program, monitor progress, and adapt offerings as necessary. For the duration of the contract, the Contractor shall provide a cloud computing platform (a JupyterHub) to be used during all the trainings and workshops and available to the mentors continuously. The platform will provide both Python (Jupyter Lab) and R (RStudio) servers.

● 3.1. Manage the communications, sign-ups and progress of NOAA Fisheries staff in the online training program. The training program will be run in 3-month blocks with a cohort of up to 40 students. Year 1 will have 1 block (40 students total during the year), and Years 2 and 3 will have two blocks (80 students total during each year). Block 1 will be introductory skill and Block 2 will be advanced and focused on geospatial data in the cloud.

● 3.2. Yearly evaluate the online training program and adapt offerings as needed.

● 3.3. Develop the content for the two geospatial blocks (Task 3.1) in Year 2 and 3. Content shall address both NOAA earth data access and the NASA DAAC (data centers) approach and tools for cloud-native computing. This content is highly specialized not available in standard online course platforms (Coursera, Udemy, etc.)

● 3.4. Provide and manage a JupyterHub for participants as part of training program and workshops. The JupyterHub must include Jupyter Lab, RStudio, and a GIS IDE (e.g. QGIS). The computing environments shall include geospatial environments based on Pangeo (for Python), Rocker (for R) and be ready for parallel computing (dask enabled). The JupyterHub shall provide resources from 2Gb RAM up to 128 Gb RAM for participants to choose from. The JupyterHub shall be available to the 40-person mentor group for the duration of the contract and to the workshop participants during their programs. Contractor shall provide the platform and cover the cloud compute and storage charges associated with the training needs. This JupyterHub is for teaching and training and the Contractor is allowed to clear storage as needed and restructure the storage provisions as needed to serve the training program and workshops. The JupyterHub shall be available within one-month of the start of the contract. The Contractor is responsible for all management and monitoring of the JupyterHub.

A. A data science learning program for online data science courses in R, Python, Git, version control and other data science skills. 5 total 3-month blocks of the program serving a maximum of 200 staff (40 staff per cohort and 5 cohorts total over the 3 years of the contract). Block 1 will be introductory skill and Block 2 will be advanced and focused on geospatial data in the cloud.

B. Communications for recruiting participants for each block, management of communications to participants during courses. Collection of feed-back from staff after the blocks to assist improvement of the course offerings.

C. Progress report to include at a minimum the following: number of NOAA Fisheries staff enrolled, courses completed, and completion rate.

D. A cloud computing platform (JupyterHub) for both Python (JupyterLab) and R (RStudio) provisioned for data science, geospatial analysis, and cloud data access in R and Python.

Task 4: The Contractor shall amplify the work by NOAA Fisheries Open Data and Open Science mentor team across science centers and regional offices by helping create opportunities to showcase their work in existing channels (e.g. professional conferences, NOAA events such as EDM workshops) and by communicating this work directly with NOAA Fisheries leadership. Further, the Contractor shall help connect NOAA Fisheries Open Science leaders beyond NOAA and increase visibility of NOAA to global Open Science communities (e.g. NASEM, NASA, EPA, NCEAS, RStudio, Mozilla, Turing Way, rOpenSci, Pangeo, Posit, and PyOpenSci communities).

● 4.1. Develop a community engagement strategy and organize quarterly webinars to showcase the work of NOAA Fisheries Open Science for the wider NOAA Fisheries and Open Science community. Examples include arranging talks and assisting in the development of content for the NOAA Science Seminar Series and for individual science centers and regional offices.

● 4.2. Conduct monthly tag-up meetings with NOAA Fisheries leadership to share updates, opportunities, needs, and successes from the Open Science mentor training program and activities, and to help tie it into other ongoing efforts at NOAA and beyond.

A. A schedule of four outreach webinars each year with accompanying slide decks for a total of 12 webinars over the 3 years of the contract. Depending on context, the Contractor may be required to participate in the webinar.

B. A summary of monthly achievements and feedback for NOAA Fisheries leadership to be delivered at monthly 30-minute meetings with leadership.

SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES

Item Description Quantity Due Date Deliver to Reference

Task 1.1

Run bi-weekly meetings for NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentors

Varies 2 business days Project lead Deliverable 1A

Task 1.1

Prepare meeting agendas Varies 24 hours prior to meeting

Project lead and participants

Deliverable 1B

Task 1.2

Organize activities with the wider Open Science community

Varies Update monthly Project lead and participants

Deliverable 1E

Task 1.3

Provide meeting summaries and Varies Within 1 week of meetings Project lead Deliverable 1E analysis

1.4

Act as the overall project manager for the NOAA Fisheries Open Science mentor team

Varies Weekly Project lead Deliverable 1F

Task 1

Plan, develop, and implement an Open Science community across NOAA Fisheries

Varies End of Year 2 Project lead Deliverable 1G

Task 2.1

Nomination and selection of teams and staff for participation in team-based trainings

Once per year Qtr before cohort Project lead Deliverable 2A

Task 2.2

Organize 3 pre-training Q&As in the quarter before the workshops

3x per year Qtr before cohort Project lead Deliverable 2B

Task 2.3

Develop all material for and run the 2-month workshops for 120 staff total divided into 3 cohorts of 40 per year. Each workshop will consist of 5 bi-weekly 1.5 training sessions for each cohort (= 15 training sessions total) and 2 discussion sessions in each off-week (= 8 discussion sessions total).

1x per year Qtr to be arranged with project lead

Project lead Deliverable 2C

Task 2.4

Develop DEIA outreach activities during workshops

Multiple events per year

Per arrangement with project lead Project lead Deliverable 2D

Task 2.5

Develop performance metrics for the team-based workshops and report on recommended new

1x per year

At the end of each team-based workshop (Task 2.3)

Project lead Deliverable 2E training activities based on feedback from the workshops

Task 2

Report on the team-based 2-month workshops on Open Science and reproducible scientific workflows

1x per year

Within 1 qtr of the end of the team-based workshops (Task 2.3)

Project lead Deliverable 2F

Task 3.1

Run 3-month training programs of online courses in introductory computing and big data geospatial analysis for a cohort of 40 staff.

1x Year 1 2x Year 2 2x Year 3

Qtrs for delivery per arrangement with project lead

Project lead Deliverable 3A

Task 3.2

Manage the communications and sign-ups and the progress of students

Varies

Weekly over the 24 month period of the training program.

Project lead and participants

Deliverable 3B

Task 3.3

Coordinate content development for the big data geospatial blocks.

Twice total Two weeks before geospatial blocks.

Project lead Deliverable 3C

Task 3.4

Provide and manage a cloud computing platform for mentors, team-based workshop participants, and training program participants to use over the course of the contract period.

For the duration of the contract.

Provide access to mentors within one month of start of contract.

Provide access to other participants within one week of their programs or workshops.

Project lead Deliverable 3D

Task 3

Evaluate training program for the online delivery of data science courses.

Update course selection.

Varies 1x per year Project lead Deliverable 3F

Task 4.1

Develop a community engagement strategy and organize webinars

Varies monthly Project lead Deliverable 4A

4.2

Conduct short monthly tag-up meetings with NOAA Fisheries leadership

Varies monthly Project lead Deliverable 4B

QUALIFICATIONS

The proposed personnel must have experience in the following:

● Program planning and management in a team environment.

● Developing performance metrics and milestones.

● Working with diverse interagency teams.

● Experience with teaching teams Open Science workflows and tooling within large organizations, specifically developing and teaching tutorials on Git, GitHub, R, Python, Quarto, JupyterHubs, RStudio, and cloud-native computing for science teams.

● Experience managing the logistics of virtual workshops and teams.

● Development of content for workshops and training in big data geospatial computing with cloud-optimized data.

● Deep knowledge and connection with the US Open Science community.

● Knowledge and expertise of NOAA Fisheries policies and programs, as well as experience with planning, and Federal financial management and operations.

PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

This contract includes a Performance Requirements Summary (PRS). The PRS plays an integral role in the administration of the contract. In addition to any applicable inspection clauses or other related terms and conditions contained in the contract, the PRS serves as a primary tool for inspection and acceptance of services as facilitated by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). Evaluation of the Contractor’s overall performance shall be in accordance with the performance standards set forth in the PRS, and will be conducted by the COR. The PRS constitutes a material aspect of the contract and will not be changed or otherwise modified without prior written approval of the Contracting Officer.

Required Service and Designation

Desired Outcome

Performance Standard

Acceptable Quality Level

Monitoring Method

Incentive/ Disincentive

Task 1 Deliverables 1A-1G

-Meetings are set up with correct scheduling, attendees, and logistics

- Agenda are correctly drafted and provided to attendees in advance of the meeting

Performance standard met at least 95% of time

COR will solicit feedback from requesters; Use of email or GitHub issues to determine request date and scheduling date; Review of agendas and meeting notes by requester

Material-poor performance evaluations;

corrective action plan

- Meeting notes are accurate and provided to internal attendees within 2 business days of the meeting and/or attendees

Task 2 Deliverables 2A-2F

-Team-based trainings are publicized 1-month before meeting via email and presentations to FMCs

- Trainings are conducted as scheduled

- Meeting notes are accurate and provided to attendees within 7 business days of the meeting

- Summary reports and presentations are prepared and delivered within 1 quarter of the conclusion of the team trainings

Performance standard met at least 95% of time

COR will solicit feedback from requesters; Use of email and GitHub issues to determine request date and scheduling date; Review of agendas, meeting notes and reports by requester and/or attendees

Material-poor performance evaluations;

corrective action plan

Task 3 Deliverables 3A-3F

- Course delivery platform provides the type and quality of data science courses needed by staff. Staff complete courses and have sufficient support.

- Reports with sufficient metrics and details to evaluate the data science program

40 staff members successfully complete introductory data science curriculum in each year (1 block in Years 1, 2 and 3)

20 (and up to

40) staff members successfully

COR will solicit feedback from requesters; Use of email or GitHub issues to determine request date and scheduling date; Review of plans, agendas and reports by requester and/or

Material-poor performance evaluations;

and geospatial workshops complete geospatial curriculum (block 2) in Years 2 and 3.

attendees

Task 4 Deliverables 4A and 4B

- Outreach and communication events are conducted by deadlines

- Presentation materials are correctly drafted and provided to requester for review in advance of the meeting

-Contractor attends monthly meetings with NOAA Fisheries leadership with a summary report on progress

Performance standard met at least 95% of time

COR will solicit feedback from requesters; Use of email, GitHub issues, or other asynchronous communication to determine scheduling dates and plan tasks; Review of presentation material by requester

Material-poor performance evaluations;

CONTRACTOR CONDUCT

Contractor’s employees shall comply with all applicable Government regulations, policies and procedures (e.g., fire, safety, sanitation, environmental protection, security, “off limits” areas, etc.) when visiting or working at Government facilities. The Contractor shall ensure their employees present a professional appearance at all times and that their conduct shall not reflect discredit on the United States or NOAA.

The Contractor shall ensure its employees understand and abide by NOAA’s established rules, regulations and policies concerning safety and security.

KICK-OFF MEETING

The Contractor shall attend a contract kick-off meeting with the Contracting Officer, COR, and Project Lead/Officer within 5 business days after the date of award, or another date/time specified by the Government. The purpose of the meeting is to set the standards of performance, clarify details, place of performance, building access time, communication channels, anticipated travel (if any), required

Government training, and progress report and invoicing details. The kick-off meeting will be held via teleconference.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All deliverables are the property of the U.S. Government. All documents, analyses, files (digital or other), reports, notes and photos are to be used only by Contractor personnel assigned to this contract. Copies are not to be disseminated to anyone outside of the NOAA Fisheries or to any other contractor personnel without explicit release from the NOAA Fisheries Project Lead.

GOVERNMENT FURNISHED RESOURCES

The Government will not furnish any resources, equipment or materials to the Contractor in support of this contract. The Contractor will not require access to DOC/NOAA systems in performance of this contract.

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

Work will be conducted at other than the government facility (i.e. off-site or virtually).

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The contract period of performance is 36 months with full implementation of the Open Science training program by the end of year 3.

OVERTIME AND TRAINING

Overtime is not anticipated or authorized at this time. If overtime is required, a contract modification must be executed by the Contracting Officer prior to performance.

Training is authorized for NOAA Fisheries/NOAA/DOC specific systems and requirements. Completion certificates must be submitted to the COR no later than 3 business days after the start of the contract or completion of courses after authorization. The following training is currently required to be completed under this contract.

● NOAA IT security (required for all contractors)

● Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response Training IAW NAM 1330-52.222-

70(b)(6) (required for all contractors, contractor-provided)

● Records Management 101 (required for all contractors)

TRAVEL AND OTHER DIRECT COSTS

Travel is anticipated for this contract. A planning meeting with up to 40 mentors (in-person and virtual) will be in Seattle, WA in Year 2 and a culminating with up to 40 mentors (in-person and virtual) will be in Miami, FL in Year 3. In addition, travel may be needed to attend planning meetings at the science centers or conferences to work with the Open Science mentor group. Travel will be reimbursed in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations and all contractor travel shall be approved by the COR and Project Lead prior to the actual travel, using the NOAA Fisheries Travel Authorization Form. Any travel conducted prior to the receipt of proper written authorization from the Government will be done at the Contractor’s own risk and expense.

Other direct costs are anticipated for this contract. All individual costs of $1,000 or more shall be approved by the COR and Project Lead via written approval prior to incurring the cost. Any cost incurred prior to the receipt of proper written authorization from the Government will be done at the Contractor’s own risk and expense.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Public Access to Research Results Requirements. Per federal policy, all scholarly publications arising from federally funded work must be submitted to the NOAA Institutional Repository (NIR) for archiving after publication. Researchers are required to use their ORCID identifier with publications. Any data generated with federal funds and used in publications must be made available at the time of publication in a public data repository and a data DOI referenced with the NIR entry.

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/