Logistical_Support_Contract_Webinar_1_7_15.pptx

Department of Education Logistical and Administrative Support Services for Grant Competition Peer Reviews

U.S. Department of Education Office Of innovation and improvement (OII)

January 8, 2014 OII Mission:

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Welcome!

This webinar is being conducted as part of market research for the Department of Education requirement titled “Department of Education Logistical and Administrative Support Services for Grant Competition Peer Reviews.”

This webinar will be lead by Brigid Lochary, Contract Specialist, Pamela Bone, Contracting Officer, and Ayesha Edwards-Kemp, Program Office Representative.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

agenda Webinar Objectives Procurement Details Background & Purpose of Peer Review Support Office of Innovation and Improvement Overview Logistical and Administrative Support Tasks Capability Statement Logistics Vendor Questions Next Steps

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Webinar Objectives

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Webinar Objectives The purpose of this webinar is to:

Promote transparency in contracting Facilitate strategic partnerships Learn of any barriers to competition

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

PROCUREMENT DETAILS

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Proposed contract vehicle The Department anticipates awarding multiple contracts or purchasing or ordering agreements for this requirement.

Work will be issued as fixed-price or cost-reimbursement/time-and-materials task orders.

Each task order will be competed among the awardees.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

The ideal number of awards is 3 -5 awards; however, the number of awards will depend on the quality of proposals received. There is no minimum or maximum number of awards.

Not all awardees may be awarded an actual task order at the time of the base contract award. There may or may not be a guaranteed minimum award amount for each vendor, depending on the contract vehicle.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

The Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) will be the primary user of these contracts. The initial task orders issued in 2015 will likely be for OII grant competitions only.

Other program offices will have the ability to use this vehicle but it is unlikely that they would in 2015.

Other offices currently have their own peer review support contracts that will not expire until various times after 2015.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

PREVIOUS CONTRACT

Services for OII were previously provided by an 8(a) vendor. It has not yet been determined if the competition will be limited to 8(a) vendors. It is anticipated that the competition will be limited to small businesses.

The current incumbent for OII is Longevity Consulting, contract number ED-OII-13-C-0029.

It is likely that the incumbent will be eligible to compete for the new contract vehicle.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Background & Purpose

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

The Department of Education has an ongoing requirement for logistical and administrative support for peer reviews.

The purpose of this procurement is to provide logistical and administrative support for peer reviews of Office of Innovation and Improvement programs and other programs at the U.S. Department of Education.

This procurement covers a wide variety of programs authorized under Title 20 of the United States Code: Education.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

For the purposes of this procurement:

“Peer Review” includes but is not limited to convenings, meetings, webinars, whether face-to-face or, via telephone conference or via the Internet (i.e. a webinar), where individuals assemble on-site or virtually to review and score an assigned set of grant applications.

Peer Reviews provide for a competitive and objective evaluation by well-qualified reviewers chosen for their expertise and ability to assess the quality of a proposed project.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Office of Innovation and Improvement

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Office of innovation and improvement The Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) is a strategically designed group of programs, each serving specific education constituencies with grants, services, and information.

More than 20 competitive grant programs are administered by four program offices.

Charter Schools Program (CSP) Parental Options and Improvement Programs (POI) Teacher Quality Programs (TQP) Investing in Innovation (i3)

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Logistical And administrative support tasks

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Logistical & Administrative Support Tasks Meet and Communicate with the Department Project Management Support Reporting Administrative Support for Grant Competition and Peer Review Processing and Pre-Screening Grant Applications Peer Reviewer Support On-Site Reviews – Applications, Hotel Locations and Travel, and Administrative Tasks Reviewer Honorarium Competition Website and Database Design, Development, and Maintenance

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Meet and Communicate with the Department Conduct regular (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) meetings, including an initial project kick-off meeting with the Department.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Project Management Support Meet regularly to review the status and performance of contract deliverables, discuss challenges or problems, and adjust schedules.

Check-in weekly with each COR and provide monthly written reports.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Reporting Ensure accountability through reporting:

Monthly Progress Reports Monthly Expenditure Reports* Final Report

*Applies to cost-reimbursement/time-and-materials task orders.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Administrative Support for Grant Competitions and Peer Review Provide administrative support services for grant competitions including, but not limited to:

Assisting with the preparation of the technical review form (TRF) Providing data extraction services Copying documents onto portable data storage devices Preparing official grant files Redacting information Shredding confidential materials Documenting peer review strengths and weaknesses

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Processing and Pre-Screening Grant Applications Process and Pre-Screen Electronic and Hardcopy Applications, which can include but is not limited to:

Download and print copies of submitted applications from Grants.gov Checking to ensure each application had a PR Award number, DUNS, and Tax Identification Number Data entry of items not in G5 Extracting application information from G5 and uploading it to reviewer database Comparing data in G5 with the application information obtained during the pre-screening

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Peer Reviewer Support Peer reviewer support services including, but not limited to:

Securing peer reviewers for each grant competition Checking reviewers for conflict of interest Assigning/Reassigning peer reviewers to panels Preparing and emailing background materials to each peer reviewer Making arrangements and recording telephone conferences, webinars, and in-person reviewer orientation Surveying peer reviewers at the conclusion of the review

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

On-Site Reviews – Applications, Hotel Locations and Travel, and Administrative Tasks Provide support for on-site peer review competitions including, but not limited to:

Making travel and hotel arrangements Serving as a liaison with the hotel Record-keeping during the review process Developing, distributing, and collecting evaluation forms Returning all applications, scoring materials, and all unused materials and supplies to the Department

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Reviewer Honorarium Pay each reviewer an honorarium amount specified by the program staff for the completion of work associated with the peer review.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Competition Website and Database Design, Development, and Maintenance Develop and maintain a Grant Competition Webpage that meets all of the Department IT requirements Create a web-based or electronic system that collects key information about each application

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Questions

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Questions received via email Is there an incumbent contractor or contractors? If yes, who are they? If yes, are they eligible to submit proposals and be awarded contracts under this solicitation?

Longevity Consulting, contract number ED-OII-13-C-0029, is the incumbent in OII. The acquisition strategy has not been determined at this time, but the Department anticipates that the incumbent will likely be eligible for competition.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

As this may be an ED-wide vehicle, please provide the names of all vendors currently providing contract support for ED peer reviews.

Other current ED contracts for peer review support are listed below. Please note that these contracts are not due to expire in 2015 and may be continued to be used until they do expire.

Office of Postsecondary Education – Command Decisions Systems & Solutions, Inc., ED-OPE-12-A-0022 Office of Elementary and Secondary Education - Leed Management Consulting, Inc., ED-ESE-14-D-0004 Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services - Lux Consulting Group, Inc., ED-OSE-12-C-0015

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

What is the Department’s proposed level of effort/labor hours? What is annual dollar estimate, base and option years for this contract?

The proposed level of effort and dollar estimates have not been determined at this time. It is not known how many grant competitions will be held and supported via this contract vehicle at this time. The Department will not be sharing these estimates once they are determined.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

The current OII contract is scheduled to expire in April 2015. Does the Department anticipate an overlap in the contracts? If not, how does the Department plan to support grant competitions between April and when the new contracts take effect?

The Department does not anticipate that new awards will be made before April 2015. Services will likely be provided “in-house” by Department employees after the current contract expires and before the new contracts are awarded.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Are comments and questions about the PWS included or excluded from the 4 page limit for the capability statement?

Comments and questions regarding the PWS may be excluded from the 4 page capability statement limit. Please limit questions and comments to no more than 4 single-spaced pages, with a minimum of one-inch margins and 12 point font.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Is it acceptable to discuss relevant experience or past performance of key personnel if that person was not employed by the offering vendor at the time of the experience?

Yes, these experiences are permissable to discuss in capabilities statements but they must be attributed to the individual personnel not the organization.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Will the Department look favorably upon a small business that has a teaming agreement in place with a large subcontractor when submitting a proposal?

Teaming with a large business does not necessarily add value to a proposal or capability statement. Team arrangements should be considered valuable as they add capability and capacity to meet the qualifications listed in the RFI, whether teaming partners are large or small.

In a set-aside environment, the prime vendor must perform more than 50% of the work.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Please provide a detailed explanation of the evaluation process. Will the Department identify significant strengths, significant weaknesses, deficiencies, or no identified ratings – as applicable - for each Technical Evaluation Sub factor, and if so, how are Adjectival Ratings defined?

The Department is only conducting market research at this time. Therefore, there will be no formal evaluation of capability statements. The capability statements will be reviewed to determine if there are small businesses or other socio-economic status vendors capable of completing the Department’s requirements. No ratings will be assigned, and the Department will not identify strengths, weaknesses, or deficiencies.

*PLEASE NOTE* The Department is NOT soliciting proposals for this requirement at this time. The Department is seeking 4 page capability statements for market research purposes only.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Next Steps

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Capability statement logistics Capability Statement are due no later than 12:00 pm ET on Monday, January 12, 2015.

Capability Statement have a 4 page limit (excluding resumes, questions, and comments on the PWS), 12pt font.

Please limit questions and PWS comments to no more than 4 single spaced pages.

The expectation is that vendors do not repeat language in the capability request, but that they demonstrate their capabilities and experience in the areas listed within the Request for Information.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

Capability statement logistics All questions and comments must be submitted in writing, via email.

Submit Capability Statements and Questions to:

Brigid Lochary at Brigid.Lochary@ed.gov with a copy to Pamela Bone at Pamela.Bone@ed.gov.

There will also be a question and answer period during the procurement phase of this planned acquisition.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

What happens next?

Capability Statements will be reviewed. Feedback on individual capability statements will not be shared with vendors.

Comments on the PWS will be considered.

A solicitation containing a revised PWS will likely be released in February or March 2015. The solicitation will likely be posted on FedBizOpps or GSA eBuy.

Award is planned for June or July 2015.

A copy of this PowerPoint will be posted on FedBizOpps along with an attendee list and responses to vendor questions.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

To accelerate the pace at which the US identifies, develops, and scales solutions to education’s most important and persistent challenges.

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