Statement_of_Work _2015_SECTION_C.docx

SECTION C - DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF WORK

C.1 BACKGROUND

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) fulfills the legislative mandate of the National Science Foundation Act to provide a central clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data on scientific and engineering resources, and to provide a source of information for policy formulation by other agencies of the Federal Government.

This role was reinforced with the formal establishment of NCSES by Section 505 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. NCSES is responsible for statistical data on:

· Research and development (R&D);

· Science and Engineering workforce;

· U.S. competitiveness in science and technology (S&T) and R&D; and

· The condition and progress of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

NCSES disseminates data and information in a variety of ways including about 15 periodic surveys, as well as a variety of other data collections and research projects. These surveys yield the materials for NCSES staff to compile, analyze, and disseminate quantitative information about domestic and international resources devoted to science, engineering, innovation, and technology.

Each year NCSES produces about 30 publications, which can be roughly divided into the following categories:

· Detailed Statistical Tables —Extensive collections of tabulated data from the NCSES surveys;

· InfoBriefs —short reports highlighting results from recent surveys and analyses;

· Periodic "overview" reports, such as Science and Engineering Indicators or Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering;

· Special reports on focused topics such as Asia’s Rising Science and Technology Strength and Changing U.S. Output of Scientific Articles:1988-2003, updated with a recent report, and working papers that may contain exploratory or speculative content on topics related to NCSES data.

The data are also provided to users in a variety of formats and customized publications. NCSES also supports research using NCSES data, improvement of methodologies in areas related to the work of the Center, and education and training of researchers in large-scale nationally representative data sets.

C.2 SCOPE

The scope of this statement of work is limited to provision of analytical and technical support services in response to specific task orders approved and transmitted by the NSF contracting officer. The period of performance for this task order contract will be for one (1) base year (consisting of 12 months), and four (4) one-year options. NCSES anticipates a need for approximately 8-12 task orders per year for a 5-year period. The number of task orders per year is dependent on the availability of resources and the scope and complexity of the required projects.

The Contractor shall provide expert analytic and technical support on tasks involving science and technology (S&T) issues. Such tasks may include, but are not limited to, helping to produce Science and Engineering Indicators; preparing other reports; performing data analysis; data visualization; database management; data acquisition; data presentation; survey development work, including providing specialized statistical analysis support for survey sampling problems; and organizing workshops on S&T issues.

C.2.a Topics

While likely subject areas for tasks are specified below, some tasks may require expertise in additional areas beyond those specified. For each topic area, tasks may require familiarity with data sources, policy issues, patterns, and trends concerning subtopics in that area, including, but not limited to, those specified below. For each topic area, tasks may require familiarity with relevant international aspects of the area, as well as with U.S. aspects. In each topic area, tasks may require statistical analysis, data presentation, and survey design/development skills. It is understood that all required expertise is not likely to be available in one organization; therefore, the use of consultants and subcontractors is encouraged.

The contractor will be expected to perform tasks requiring expertise in the following areas:

· Pre-college S&T education. This includes student performance and assessment, course participation, curriculum, teacher quality and working conditions, demographic and other variations in participation and performance, use of information technology, and student preparation for higher education.

· Characteristics of higher education institutions. This includes laboratories and other research space; research instrumentation and facilities, including all types of research infrastructure; grants and other administrative mechanisms for funding research; and record-keeping, accounting, and other administrative practices.

· Higher education in science and engineering (S&E). This includes characteristics of students, postdoctorates, and faculty; educational innovations; degree production at undergraduate and graduate levels; demographic and disciplinary variation; interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and education; and the role of foreign nationals.

· S&E workforce. This includes demographic, educational, skill, and other characteristics of S&E workers; labor market dynamics; recruitment, mobility, migration, and retirement of S&E workers; and the role of foreign nationals. It also includes knowledge concerning doctoral scientists and engineers in academia.

· Research and development (R&D) funds and alliances. This includes sources of R&D support, including federal, nonprofit, and for profit organizations; variations in industrial R&D by industrial sector, firm size, geographic location, and other variables; partnerships and collaborations within and across institutional sectors and national boundaries; and international R&D investment flows. It also includes knowledge of the role of academic R&D within the total R&D enterprise, the sources of support for academic R&D, and the characteristics of the academic institutions and fields of science in which academic R&D takes place.

· Scientific productivity. This includes knowledge of S&E articles, patents, and other research outputs. Regarding articles, relevant topics include research collaboration, citations of related patents and articles, and effects of advances in information technology on publication practices and scientific productivity generally. Regarding patents, relevant topics include national and international patenting, citations of related patents and articles, academic patenting and licensing, variation by technical fields, and legal and strategic factors affecting patenting activity and intellectual property.

· Innovation and technological competitiveness. This includes competitiveness of U.S. high technology industries, trade balances in high technology, variations in technological competitiveness by industrial sector, and foreign direct investments.

· Variations among U.S. states. This includes knowledge about differences among states in the S&T areas listed above.

· Public understanding of and support for S&T. This includes public knowledge of S&T, public interest in S&T, public support for various S&T-related activities and innovations, sources of public information about S&T, and public acceptance of pseudoscientific belief systems.

C.2.b Content and Style Standards

NCSES products undergo extensive internal and external review for accuracy, technical quality, stylistic consistency, objectivity, and relevance. In performing tasks under the contract, the Contractor must be prepared to make changes to draft work products in response to comments from NCSES staff, outside experts, and officials in policy-making positions. Task orders will specify procedures for review and revision of work prepared by the Contractor.

Draft NCSES products are reviewed using the following criteria:

· Objectivity. Balanced, factual presentation of issues that is free of policy bias.

· Policy relevance. Utility to various audiences, including especially policy makers. Writing style appropriate to the technical sophistication of the intended audience(s).

· Accuracy. Support in the data for any factual statement, clear indication of data uncertainties, appropriate use of statistical techniques and adherence to NCSES statistical standards, and appropriate technical documentation.

· Empirical quality. Appropriate use of data and evidence from all available sources.

· Technical consistency. Consistent information across different sources and products, with clear explanations of apparent differences in information.

· Editorial consistency. Adherence to NCSES style guidelines for textual and graphical presentation, stylistic consistency within a given report, readily comprehensible presentation of information.

· Metadata quality. Provides fully-documented methodologies, current taxonomies, and well-organized data sets to support NCSES’s data repository role.

(Ref. Appendices C and D.)

Both in drafting work and in reviewing work drafted by others, the Contractor shall adhere to the above standards.

C.2.c Quick Turnaround Tasks

NCSES sometimes receives information requests on a quick turnaround basis, especially from policy-level officials such as the National Science Board, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the NSF Director. These requests often involve analytic support as described in Section C.3.c(a) below. These tasks involve fixed deadlines by which a large amount of analytic work (relative to available time) must be produced (e.g., three data tables in an afternoon; six properly formatted figures suitable for a PowerPoint presentation that will be made in one week by a high level executive who has a general idea of the points he or she wants to make, but may change his or her idea about the best way to make them.) The Contractor requires the flexibility to staff and execute such tasks such that it can reliably deliver high quality work on a timely basis.

C.3 STATEMENT OF WORK

Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall be required to furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government, as needed to perform the Statement of Work below.

Task orders may require the contractor to perform one or more of the following kinds of services:

C.3.a Analysis, research, and writing for ongoing reports. The Contractor shall provide assistance for developing chapters or shorter portions of ongoing NCSES reports on S&T issues, such as Science and Engineering Indicators. Such assistance may include:

a) preparing a detailed outline of a report or section thereof. Such an outline shall ordinarily be based on previous versions of a report, but incorporate modifications specified by NCSES and/or suggested by the Contractor. Such an outline will ordinarily be developed in close consultation with the NCSES task leader.

b) gathering information for possible inclusion in a report, including research articles, scholarly publications, survey results, statistical data, government reports, and other materials.

c) preparing the text of a report or section thereof based on a detailed outline approved by NCSES.

d) assembling current data necessary for updating a report, performing tabular and/or statistical analyses on these and other data that are required for updating, and/or preparing tables and figures that present these data effectively and conform to NCSES guidelines.

e) preparing material on a discrete issue (e.g., enrollment in graduate education) for inclusion in a chapter or report largely prepared by others. Such material may be prepared either to be integrated into the body of a report or to be presented as a separate "sidebar," set apart from the remainder of the text. Such material may summarize research articles, other scholarly literature, survey results, statistical data, policy debates, or other materials involving S&T issues.

f) preparing "Highlights" or an "Executive Summary" summarizing major points of a report.

C.3.b Analysis, research, and writing for reports on special topics. The Contractor shall provide assistance for developing special reports (or portions thereof) on S&T issues. Such assistance may include:

a) preparing a detailed outline of a report or section thereof. Such an outline will ordinarily be developed in consultation with the NCSES task leader. It shall translate general descriptions of topics to be covered into a work plan that (1) specifies the major topical headings to be used in organizing the report, (2) identifies relevant quantitative and/or qualitative data (from NCSES or other sources) to be synthesized and bodies of literature to be summarized, and (3) details timetables for production of drafts and other interim work products.

b) gathering information for possible inclusion in a report, including research articles, scholarly publications, survey results, statistical data, government reports, and other materials.

c) preparing the text of a report or section thereof based on a detailed work plan approved by NCSES.

d) preparing tables and figures for a report that present quantitative data effectively and conform to NCSES guidelines.

e) preparing material on a discrete issue (e.g., enrollment in graduate education) for inclusion in a chapter or report largely prepared by others. Such material may be prepared either to be integrated into the body of a report or to be presented as a separate "sidebar," set apart from the remainder of the text. Such material may summarize research articles, other scholarly literature, survey results, statistical data, policy debates, or other materials involving S&T issues.

f) preparing "Highlights" or an "Executive Summary" summarizing major points of a NCSES report written by the Contractor or by others.

C.3.c Analytic support. The Contractor shall provide analytic support. The following types of activities are anticipated:

a) generating statistical tables, figures, charts, and other graphical representations from existing data sets, as specified by NCSES. Data may come from databases derived from non-NCSES sources or from NCSES surveys such as:

· Survey of Doctorate Recipients;

· Survey of Earned Doctorates;

· Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering;

· National Survey of College Graduates;

· Early Career Doctorates Project;

· Higher Education Research and Development Survey;

· Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development;

· Business R&D and Innovation Survey;

· State Government R&D Expenditure Survey.

b) obtaining statistical data from government and private sources and from published reports, as requested by NCSES. The Contractor shall prepare such data in a format to be specified by NCSES in the statements of work for individual task orders and usable by NCSES and other analysts for data analysis (generally MS Excel or SAS databases). The contractor shall also prepare the necessary data documentation.

c) combining data from different sources into a single database usable by NCSES and other analysts and preparing documentation for this database.

d) cleaning and checking data. This may include performing computerized edit checks on tabulations to check for internal consistency (e.g., across totals and subtotals, between current and previous year data) and/or consistency across data sets.

e) conducting literature searches. This may include listing relevant documents to be reviewed, preparing annotated bibliographies, reviewing selected documents, and preparing briefings or reports synthesizing the findings from literature searches.

f) performing exploratory survey-related activities. This may involve conducting interviews, administering focus groups, or doing case studies to inform future data collection decisions or contribute to revision of an existing survey. It may also involve conducting survey improvement/methodological research projects and quick response surveys under NCSES’ OMB clearance for these purposes. In addition, it may involve drafting Federal Register notices and other documents required to meet regulatory requirements connected with these exploratory activities.

g) preparing short background or analytic papers not intended for publication. Such papers may be aimed at sketching the dimensions of an S&T issue, identifying potential data sources, or comparing how different surveys operationalize a concept. Topics can range widely (e.g., a comparison of the R&D definitions used in NCSES surveys with those used to qualify for the research and experimentation tax credits; a review of taxonomies used to classify fields of research; a summary of available data on environmental R&D).

h) arranging external reviews. Although NCSES ordinarily obtains external reviews gratis through normal professional channels, it may on occasion task the Contractor to identify an appropriate external reviewer(s) for a report and make arrangements for obtaining a review on a quick turnaround basis.

i) reviewing draft NCSES products. This may involve reviewing one or more aspects of content and style, as described above under Subsection C.2.b.

C.3.d Statistical and other quantitative analysis. The Contractor shall perform statistical or other quantitative analyses, either for survey sampling and development or for research using databases from NCSES and other appropriate sources. The Contractor shall report on the results of these analyses, providing complete documentation of statistical and all other technical procedures used. Analyses may include:

j) methodological analyses for developing and evaluating new approaches to data analysis or data collection and preparation, including analyses with large non-survey based datasets.

k) development of survey and sample designs (e.g., generating a statistical sample from a design and providing complete documentation).

l) exploratory analyses using state-of-the-art methods for analyzing and modeling survey and non-survey data, including enhanced data visualization.

m) methodological analyses to address the statistical significance of trends or relationships.

n) trend, multivariate, or longitudinal analyses on selected topics, using multivariate regression, logit analysis, or other advanced statistical techniques.

o) analyses requiring the synthesis of data from multiple sources to inform a single issue area.

Analytical tasks are likely to require the assistance of researchers or specialists with legal, statistical, mathematical, economic, social or behavioral, econometric, or other appropriate technical or computer expertise.

C.3.e Organizing and Conducting Workshops. The Contractor shall organize workshops or similar meetings on special topics for the purpose of information gathering. In consultation with the NCSES task leader, the Contractor may assist in identifying experts who should be invited to workshops, inviting the experts, commissioning background papers, coordinating the exchange of information among participants before and after the workshop, and preparing a formal report of the proceedings. The Contractor shall arrange and pay for travel and per diem for all workshop participants (within government regulations) and shall make all necessary catering arrangements.

C.4 TASK MANAGEMENT

The Contractor shall manage tasks to ensure that high quality work is performed in a timely and efficient fashion. The contractor shall, as necessary, identify, recruit, and manage consultants and subcontractors with appropriate skills and topical expertise to ensure that performance is high quality, timely, and efficient. The contractor shall perform selected tasks on a quick turnaround basis, as defined in C.2.c above.

C.5 TRAVEL

The government anticipates that some travel may be required under the contract for meetings with the NSF COR and other NSF staff. The Government expects that such travel will not exceed three (3) trips to NSF headquarters, currently located in Arlington, Virginia. Travel associated with specific tasks will be specified in individual Task Orders.

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