Final NCSES BAA 2022 for Posting.pdf

National Science Foundation

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics

Improving Surveys of the Science and Engineering Enterprise

Broad Agency Announcement

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) is a principal federal statistical agency housed within the National Science Foundation (NSF). NCSES’ primary role originated in the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 (42 U.S.C. 1862 (a) (6)): 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. The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 codifies the role of NCSES, defining its core activities (Section 505).

NCSES provides objective information on the U.S. Science and Engineering (S&E) enterprise in a global context. It serves a vital role in the collection, interpretation, and analysis of S&E data with respect to research and development (R&D), the workforce, U.S. competitiveness in science and technology (S&T), and educational attainment in the STEM fields. NCSES’ data collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination of statistical data are complemented by ongoing research activities. The Research Program at NCSES drives much of this research, directly satisfying two of NCSES’ core activities: to support research that uses NCSES data and to conduct methodological research in areas related to its work. This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is initiated and managed by the Research Program.

See https://ncses.nsf.gov/about for information about all NCSES programs and products.

Descriptions of our funding opportunities, including the Broad Agency Announcement, can be found at https://ncses.nsf.gov/about/funding-opportunities.

1.2 Purpose

The purpose of this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is to provide research opportunities to U.S. universities and other institutions of higher education, and their partners, to conduct a variety of research projects that will support the strategic objectives of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and partner Federal Statistical Agencies. NCSES would like to collaborate with universities, research institutions, and teams of researchers to address the following research priorities:

https://ncses.nsf.gov/about https://ncses.nsf.gov/about/funding-opportunities

• Asking about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Spanish-Speaking Community

• Developing a Single Race Question Appropriate for the US Population

• STEM Workplace App

• Predicting the “Minimal” Survey Respondent

2 Research Priority Areas

The research priorities titled in Section 1.2 are further explained below.

A. Asking about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Spanish-Speaking Community

Some federal surveys ask questions about sexual orientation (SO) and gender identity (GI) to collect data on the characteristics and well-being of sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. While Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) questions in existing data collections have been pretested and implemented successfully, there is still room for improvement in Spanish translation. One major issue is that monolingual Spanish-speaking respondents are often unfamiliar with the translations for response categories and as a result may report that they are “normal.” This problem is compounded because terms like “straight” in English are difficult to translate in a neutral and accessible manner in Spanish. Conflation of sexual identity and gender identity is also common among Spanish-speaking respondents, and item nonresponse remains high for Spanish SO questions. Effective Spanish translation of SOGI questions is vital to ensuring accurate statistics are derived from federal surveys.

NCSES and the U.S. Census Bureau seek proposals addressing how SOGI questions should be asked in Spanish to maximize respondent comprehension and minimize item nonresponse. The project will consist of some preparatory work, including a literature review and possibly preliminary qualitative interviews, but primarily focus on developing and testing questions in order to derive a final recommendation for Spanish-language SOGI questions on federal surveys.

For the preparatory work, the contracting institution may review academic literature, conference papers, and technical papers, as well as gather information from those who have evaluated Spanish SOGI questions or worked extensively with the Hispanic SGM population. The contracting institution should produce a report, framed in the context of federal surveys, summarizing the limitations of existing questions and describing the potential of any new wording discovered. The bulk of the project should involve pretesting Spanish-language SOGI questions using focus groups, cognitive interviews, or a similar method. The testing should involve monolingual Spanish-speaking respondents of varying Hispanic origins and demographic characteristics and document difficulties using directly translated English categories.

The contracting institution shall develop a final report describing the methods and findings of the qualitative data collection and proposing a final recommendation for Spanish-language SOGI questions on federal surveys.

Alongside the final Spanish-language questions, the report should provide a crosswalk for comparability to English response options and/or a parallel set of questions in English. This report should include justification of the potential merits of the revised wording. Methodological details on how the wording was developed in adherence to translation best practices should also be provided.

NCSES and the U.S. Census Bureau will be active partners in this effort. Contact people from these agencies will meet regularly with the contracted institution to stay informed of progress, provide relevant agency-specific information and guide next steps to aid the progress of the project. NCSES and the Census Bureau would look favorably on proposals that support the work and development of postdoctoral fellows or graduate students, as well as appropriate dissemination of the findings to the academic and government communities. Special requirements unique to this research priority area are that this project is expected to take 12 -16 months and proposals that include a Minority Serving Institution as a lead or partner will be evaluated more favorably.

B. Developing a Single Race Question Appropriate for the US Population

In 1977, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, which established standards for the collection of race and ethnicity within Federal agencies. While the standards were revised in 1997 and reviewed again in 2016, the standards have remained the same for over 40 years. NCSES and other statistical agencies recognize that racial and ethnic identity has evolved over the decades, and there are shortcomings to asking race and ethnicity in these ways. There is interest in exploring further revisions to these questions.

The most desirable outcome would be to combine the two questions into one race question with more inclusive categories. However, there are considerations as to how people prefer to classify themselves and how this differs by factors like age, level of education, and recency of immigration (or family’s immigration) to the United States. Additional sociological factors may influence self-identification, such as family influences and composition of the communities in which the respondent lives, works, socializes, etc. Context of the data collection is also a concern—do respondents identify differently depending on who is asking (such as their employer) or sponsoring the survey (e.g., the federal government), and the topic of the survey questions?

To move closer to a single and inclusive race question appropriate for the diverse population of the United States, NCSES would like to conduct mixed mode research. In the first stage, qualitative work and/or a literature review may be necessary to refine a question or questions to be tested, but this should be a minor part of the project. Our hope is to attract a researcher(s) already familiar with this subject area and the ways these questions are asked across surveys, limiting the amount of preparatory work necessary. Most of the research will preferably use a quantitative instrument accompanied by qualitative probing. If requested, NCSES can provide the single race question we are piloting in an experimental data collection, as a starting point.

Our suggestion for the quantitative data collection is to capture potential correlates of self-identification, as noted above, as well as obtaining responses to the pilot race question(s), possibly under different scenarios.

This would be supplemented with qualitative interviews to understand the nuances of the responses, the potential for reliability and measurement error, and to further refine the question(s) tested. This quantitative/qualitative sequence may be conducted in a single phase or iterative, as the researcher(s) sees fit.

Ideally the research will recommend a single question appropriate for federal government data collections.

However, if no single question is ideal for all situations or subpopulations, this would also be an informative finding and NCSES would accept multiple question versions designed for specific subpopulations or survey situations. Regardless of the recommendation, deliverables should include detailed findings of the shortcomings of the recommended question(s) in certain contexts or subpopulations.

NCSES will be an active partner in this effort, meeting regularly with the contracted institution to stay informed of progress, provide relevant agency-specific information and survey contexts, and guide next steps to aid the progress of the project.

NCSES will look favorably on proposals that support the work and development of postdoctoral fellows or graduate students, as well as the dissemination of the findings to the academic and federal government communities. A special requirement unique to this research priority area is that proposals including a Minority Serving Institution as a lead or partner will be evaluated more favorably.

C. STEM Workplace App

NCSES has been taking steps to investigate app-based data collections using smartphones for its survey populations. Parallel to this, NCSES is developing ideas for better understanding sexual harassment including gender-based bullying, hostility, and discrimination in the workplace and STEM education settings. Combining these two efforts, NCSES would like to collect pilot data on sexual harassment and similar discriminatory behaviors in the STEM workforce using a smartphone app.

Current NCSES work on app-based data collection assumes data collection would occur in bi-annual cycles, similar to NCSES’ current protocols. The app-based data collection for this STEM Workplace App project would instead recruit panelists to receive somewhat frequent but short survey check-ins on the topic. From our investigative work involving literature review and qualitative data collections, NCSES can provide topics for the survey(s) and references for existing surveys on workplace harassment but not specific questions. We favor a study of sexual harassment capturing interpersonal workplace incivility labeled as gender and heterosexist harassment rather than narrowly focusing on unwanted sexual attention and coercion.

A probability-based data collection is desirable but not necessary for this test. However, the population studied should align with (some portion) of an NCSES Human Resources Statistics survey and help NCSES understand the incidence of workplace sexual harassment in this (sub)population. It is encouraged to oversample groups more susceptible to harassment such as women, racial and ethnic minorities, and sexual and gender minorities. The contracting agency should specify data collection protocols such as target population, sample size, frame or recruitment platforms, recruitment strategy, contact strategies during data collection, key features of the app, and other relevant details. The proposal should specify research questions it intends to answer or inform.

Deliverables should include a privacy protected data file with weights (if applicable), codebook, and transparent methodological documentation (including screenshots of the app) that can be shared by NCSES with other researchers. We would also like a paradata file showing contact history, times of app access, and length of time engaging with the app for each session. If time and budget allow, the contracting agency can also provide analysis of potential errors in the data such as coverage, panel conditioning, nonresponse, temporal influences (e.g. media news stories affecting perceptions), etc., and documentation of attrition and engagement patterns.

NCSES, particularly those representing the Statistics and Methods Program (SMP) and the Research Program, will be an active partner in this effort. NCSES representatives will meet regularly with the contracted organization to stay informed of progress, provide relevant agency-specific data and information, and advise next steps to aid the progress of the project. NCSES would look favorably on working with a team that includes a postdoctoral fellow or graduate student interested in building a career in this research priority area. A special allowance unique to this research priority area is that proposals may exceed the requested $500,000 limit but must explain how the project would be conducted for $500,000 and what the additional funds allow.

D. Predicting the “Minimal” Survey Respondent

Survey data collections routinely ask all sample cases to complete the full questionnaire, enticing cases to do so through repeated contacts, offers of multiple modes, and possibly a (higher) incentive late in the field period.

Despite these efforts, nonresponse remains high. It may be more efficient to identify potential respondents who have a very low propensity to respond to a full questionnaire but would complete a partial or reduced instrument, if asked. Unlike in nonresponse follow-up studies, these cases would benefit from offering the partial instrument at the first contact before the case is burdened by multiple requests to complete a full questionnaire.

Also on the operational side, achieving a partial complete early in the field period would save costs. On the data quality side, planning for partial data would allow us to intelligently design a core module that provides sufficient data for imputation of the rest of the questionnaire.

This research project is interested in identifying these “minimal” respondents who would participate if we asked the minimum of them at the first contact but not if we asked them to complete a full questionnaire. We expect this work to include modeling propensity to respond, identification of characteristics that qualify a case as a minimal respondent and use of auxiliary data to identify cases and/or supplement the partial data. If possible, the study could collect pilot data or conduct a simulation to support this work. A future phase of the project (not part of this project) could involve an experiment to test the methods. This research is part of NCSES’ broader effort to implement modular survey data collections. NCSES is partnering with the Economic Research Service (ERS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture on this project.

The contracting institution is welcome to propose or create any datasets rich enough to motivate successful proof of concept. However, ERS can provide data from the National Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) in the form of public-use files or restricted-use files accessed through a secured data enclave.

The FoodAPS is an interesting dataset to predict “minimal” respondents because the respondents are asked to provide a food diary for 7 days. Respondents varied in the number of days they submitted receipts and the thoroughness of the data submitted. FoodAPS paradata would only be available through the enclave and licensees would have to allow time for approval of their project and the required confidentiality training.

NCSES and ERS will be active partners in this effort. NCSES and ERS representatives will meet regularly with the contracted organization to stay informed of progress, provide relevant agency specific information and data, and guide next steps to aid the progress of the project. NCSES and ERS would look favorably on proposals that support the work and development of postdoctoral fellows or graduate students, as well as appropriate dissemination of findings to the academic and government communities.

3 Program Guidelines

This BAA, due to its broad research focus, does not lend itself to the use of a common work statement. As such, no single North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code will be issued for the BAA. NAICS codes will be specific to each individual contract award, as determined by the type of activity in which the offeror will be engaged.

The Government reserves the right to select for award any, all, part, or none of the proposals received in response to this announcement. This BAA is an expression of interest only and does not commit the Government to pay any concept paper or proposal preparation costs. This announcement constitutes the public announcement, as contemplated by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and FAR 35.016. A formal Request for Proposals or other solicitation regarding this announcement will not be issued.

3.1 Schedule

The open period for BAA concept papers is 45 calendar days after the BAA has posted in Sam.gov in the Contract Opportunities search. The due date will be explicitly noted in Sam.gov. Concept papers will be submitted using the online Broad Agency Announcement Management System (BAAM) which will open for submissions approximately 2 weeks before the deadline. Following the submission of the concept paper, NSF may invite offerors to participate in the second step of the evaluation process by submitting a detailed technical and cost price/budget (see Project Proposals, section 3.8.2). These will also be uploaded to the BAAM system and due 60 days after invitation.

For offerors invited to participate in both steps, final decisions on awards are expected in June 2022.

Awarded projects will be expected to commence on September 1, 2022. For projects requiring data access or other preparatory steps before the primary research activities can begin, we encourage offerors to allow time for this prior to official kick-off.

This BAA and amendments issued thereto will be posted to Sam.gov. It is the responsibility of the offeror and interested parties to be aware of BAA amendments by regularly checking the Sam.gov website by registering there to receive notifications and updates to this specific solicitation.

3.2 Communications Protocol

Those parties interested in responding to this BAA are invited to contact the BAA Program Manager, the Research Director at NCSES, via e-mail (see section 3.3) with questions about the Research Priority Areas. The BAA Program Manager is the authority on the interpretation and intent of the Research Priority Areas and information from other sources and contacts may not be accurate. NCSES welcomes proposals that expand the focus of the methodological projects listed in section 2. Parties with ideas that expand the focus may ask the BAA Program Manager to review an abstract to confirm that the idea would be of interest to NCSES. All non-technical inquiries should be directed to the BAA Contracting Officer.

All interested applicants are invited to attend a webinar discussing the BAA Research Priority Areas and the application process, scheduled for December 15, 2021, from 2-3pm. To receive the webinar link, register in advance at: https://nsf.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_N-YPkUs5T7myyctlYoUaFg.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of the BAA Program Manager and BAA Contracting Officer.

Any exchanges of information must be consistent with procurement integrity requirements of section 27 of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 423, as amended) (see FAR 3.104).

Prior to and throughout the submission process, all information exchanges of a technical nature will be conducted through the BAA Program Manager, and exchanges of a non-technical nature through the Contracting Officer.

There shall be no discussion of proposals submitted by other offerors or proposal evaluation data.

Offerors are advised that any indication of interest, in the affirmative, is not meant to imply nor in any way impart an obligation on the part of the Government that an award will be forthcoming for the offered work or project.

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3.3 Data Sources and Points of Contact

For questions and clarifications, the contact information for the NCSES BAA Program Manager and the BAA Contracting Officer are below. As noted in Section 3.1, submissions should be uploaded to the BAAM.

NCSES BAA Program Manager, Dr. Jennifer Sinibaldi jsinibal@nsf.gov BAA Contracting Officer, Destiny Phillip dphillip@nsf.gov

3.4 Offeror Eligibility

This solicitation is unrestricted. All qualified offerors, including universities, may submit project concept paper(s).

All offerors must be registered in the System for Award Management SAM.gov prior to project award.

3.5 Project Qualification Requirements

This BAA solicits research projects in response to the specific research themes listed in the Section 1.2 and corresponding to the research priorities in Section 2.

3.6 Program and Project Funding Limits

Funding for this program as appropriated in the Federal budget for NSF will make available approximately $2 million for projects determined by the NSF to be technically consistent with the objectives of this BAA and of interest to the Government. Awards are subject to the availability of funds. NSF reserves the right to expand the award amount to allow for projects with exceptional merit.

No funding provision or commitment can be made at the time of award for phased or expanded work or projects beyond the initial or base phase funded at the time of award that the applicant may propose in its submissions.

If appropriated funds are authorized, NSF may, at its discretion, provide additional funding for phased or expended effort under existing awards.

Awards may be of any dollar value, but it is anticipated that most individual awards (or that part of the Government’s portion in a cost sharing arrangement) will have dollar values ranging between $50,000 and $500,000, over 1 -2 years. Any deviation from this guidance is specific to a Research Priority Area and is noted in Section 2.

Awards resulting from this BAA will be made based on the evaluation results of a two-step process.

The Government reserves the right to fund all, some, one, or none of the proposals submitted; may elect to fund only part of a submitted proposal; and may incrementally fund any or all awards under this BAA. The Contracting Officer will have the ultimate authority and responsibility to make final scope determinations for selections of proposals that will not be totally funded to ensure the portion selected meets the solicited requirements.

In addition, the Government reserves the right to create and maintain a reserve list of proposals for potential funding, if additional funding becomes available.

Offers considered unresponsive to the Government’s requests for information in a timely manner, defined as meeting government deadlines established and communicated with the request, may be removed from further consideration.

mailto:jsinibal@nsf.gov mailto:dphillip@nsf.gov

3.7 Cost Sharing

For the purposes of this BAA, cost sharing is a generic term denoting any situation where the contractor or institution bears some burden of the reasonable, allocable, and allowable contract cost. The term encompasses cost matching, participation in-kind, or other investment of resources as a means of venture sharing in lieu of a formal cost sharing arrangement, third-party in-kind contributions, cost limitations (direct or indirect) and similar concepts. Generally, many forms of cost participation, by their very nature and definition, minimize or negate the opportunity for profit or fee.

Cost sharing by awardees is not mandatory under this BAA, but because of the potential for long-term benefits to those firms or institutions involved in these research, development and demonstration activities, NSF prefers to share costs.

3.8 Project Selection Process

This BAA selection process is structured as a two-step process.

3.8.1 Project Concept Papers

The first step of the process is the submission and evaluation of project concept papers. As detailed in Section 4, the concept paper provides a brief overview of the research effort, including the current state of research in the field, the proposed technical approach for furthering this research according to NCSES’ goals and interests, as well as a rough order of magnitude of cost and schedule data. Concept papers will be used to gauge applicability of and the Government’s interest in the proposed approach to the research. All offerors must first submit a project concept paper to be considered for an award.

Concept papers shall be submitted to the online Broad Agency Announcement Management System (BAAM) within 45 days of the posting of the BAA or by the deadline posted, if later. NSF will work to complete concept paper evaluations approximately 30 days after receipt and will notify the offeror of the final decision. Actual timelines will depend on the volume of concept papers received.

3.8.2 Project Proposals

Following concept paper evaluation and discussion, NSF may invite the offeror to submit a detailed technical and cost price/budget for award evaluation. Proposals shall be prepared in accordance with the requirements of Section

5. Submissions that are incomplete, materially lacking, or not responsive to the technical requirements of this BAA, may be returned unevaluated, or evaluated as is, without further opportunity for revision, at the discretion of the NSF’s evaluation committee.

Project proposals shall be submitted to the online Broad Agency Announcement Management System (BAAM).

Deadline will be determined by NSF and explicitly stated in the invitation letter, allowing for approximately 60 days to prepare the project proposal.

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3.9 Intellectual Property Rights

Awards will generally contain detailed provisions concerning patent rights, rights in technical data and computer software, data reporting requirements, and other terms and conditions which may be negotiated as part of the award process. Offerors must describe any limitations on any intellectual property (patents, inventions, trade secrets, copyrights, or trademarks) that will impact the Offeror’s performance of the contract or impact the Government’s subsequent use of any deliverable under the contract. The Offeror must describe the intellectual property in sufficient detail to describe the limitations (Data assertions of the Offeror or any subcontractor, potential patent licenses required by the Government, etc.), and to describe why or how the Government can accomplish the stated objectives of this BAA with the limitations described or proposed by the Offeror.

This information must be included in Volume III, Supplemental Information, of the proposal.

3.9.1 Proprietary Data Restrictions

Offerors are advised that the project concept papers and/or proposals may contain data the offeror does not want disclosed to the public for any purpose or used by the Government except for evaluation purposes. If the offeror wishes to restrict such data, the cover page of all submittal documents must be marked with the following legend, and relevant sheets marked as instructed.

This proposal includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed – in whole or in part – for any purpose other than to evaluate this proposal. However, if a contract is awarded to this offeror as a result of – or in connection with – the submission of these data, the Government shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the resulting contract. This restriction does not limit the Government’s right to use information contained in these data if they are obtained from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction are contained in Sheets [insert numbers or other identification of sheets].

Each restricted data sheet shall be marked as follows:

Use or disclosure of data contained on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this document.

To the extent that such restrictions on proprietary data or information would not interfere with the intent of the Government to make the results of the work and projects awarded under the BAA available to all interested parties, and if in conformance with the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552, as amended), the Government will honor those desires.

3.9.2 Other Award Information

Awards under this BAA may be subject to the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, depending on the type of final products or reports to be delivered under each award. The Act requires that all electronic products prepared for the Federal Government be accessible to persons with disabilities, including those with vision, hearing, cognitive, and mobility impairments. Proposers can view Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, https://www.access-board.gov/ict/ and the Federal IT Accessibility Initiative (Home Page) (https://www.section508.gov for detailed information.

https://www.access-board.gov/ict/) https://www.access-board.gov/ict/) https://www.section508.gov/

The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA): Offerors are advised that any activities involving information collection (i.e., surveys, questionnaires, etc.) from 10 or more non- Federal entities, including States, are subject to PRA requirements and may require the NSF to coordinate an OMB Information Collection Clearance, a process that generally takes six months or more.

4 Project Concept Papers

No project will be considered for an award without an approved project concept paper. All project concept papers must respond to the specific research priorities in Section 1.2. The NSF will not evaluate concept papers that do not correspond to a research priority in Section 1.2. Project concept papers can cover multiple research priority areas, but the concept paper must explicitly identify all priority areas covered by the concept paper. An offeror may submit a proposal to more than one priority area, but a separate concept paper is required for each project.

An offeror may not submit more than one proposal per priority area.

Project concept papers shall be prepared simply and economically and shall provide a concise description of the proposed research project, organized as defined in the following sections. Concept papers shall be no more than four (4) pages in length (excluding cover page); no less than 11- point font, 1” margins, and 1.15-spacing; single-sided US-letter size pages. Concept paper submissions should not include promotional brochures, advertisements, recordings, or other extraneous material.

4.1 Cover page

Concept papers shall include a cover page containing the following information:

• Working title of the proposed project

• BAA Research Priority Area (Section 1.2)

• Names, phone numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses for the principal technical and contractual points of contact (person or persons authorized to negotiate on the behalf of the offeror and who can contractually obligate the offeror organization) and the Unique Entity Identifier number of the submitting organization

• Secondary offeror organization addresses (project partners), if any

• Date of submission

• Proprietary data restrictions, if any (See Section 3.9.2)

4.2 Technical Approach

The Technical Approach shall contain the Abstract, Scope of Work, and Expected Outcomes and Dissemination Plan.

4.2.1 Abstract

In this section, the offeror shall describe the following:

Summary statement – Provide a succinct statement of the aim of the project (i.e. the problem being addressed) and the expected final product. In most cases, the summary statement will be two or three sentences.

Context – Briefly describe the current state of research in the area and the specific issue intended to be solved or improved. Please provide only a couple key citations pointing to critical literature. At this stage of the proposal process, thorough citation of background information is not necessary.

Proposed approach – Provide an overview the proposed research plan.

4.2.2 Scope of Work

The offeror shall elaborate on the proposed approach by describing the general scope of work planned for this research activity. This section shall describe (as applicable) the methods, testing, software development, field work, and analysis activities, as well as the data used and generated, in sufficient detail to communicate the breadth of activities proposed. A detailed work breakdown structure is not required. The offeror shall indicate major progress milestones and associated deliverables as part of this section. In most cases, this is the largest section of the concept paper.

4.2.3 Expected Outcomes and Dissemination Plan

Identify the significant outcomes expected from the project and potential papers, presentations, and other publicly disseminated materials. Proposals designating NCSES-Awardee co-authored presentations and manuscripts for peer review are important to this BAA program. Virtual mid-term and final presentations to NCSES and/ or its federal agency partner are expected.

4.3 Qualifications

The Qualifications section of the concept paper shall introduce the project team, the team’s experience, and any unique capabilities.

4.3.1 Project Team

List all key offerors proposed for the project, including offerors from outside the prime offeror’s institution.

Organize the team by institution name and briefly describe each person’s roles and responsibilities on the project.

Provide a short synopsis of each key person’s education, experience, and other qualifications applicable to the proposed project, as well as any supervisory relationships. If applicable, provide information on the business type (small, large, non-profit, or disadvantaged) for each offeror organization. Designate who will be the main point of contact for regular check-ins with the NCSES methodological team during the project. Including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows on the project team is important to this BAA program.

4.3.2 Unique Capabilities

Briefly describe any unique capabilities that the offeror team possesses that may reduce project risk or duration or may improve project financial performance. Describe these capabilities within the context of the research priority area and the proposed project’s scope of work.

4.4 Schedule and Cost Estimate

Provide milestones for the proposed project that include start, finish, and major activity completion times.

Express milestone dates as the number of weeks or months from project start.

Provide a rough order of magnitude cost estimate. Provide a breakdown of these costs (percentage) for each institution in the project team.

Provide a funding plan for the project. Identify each funding source and their contribution to the whole, expressed as a percentage. Include all anticipated sources, including offeror internal sources, government funds, and other offeror institution.

5 Project Proposals

Following review, evaluation and discussion of the concept paper, NSF may invite the offeror to submit a formal proposal for the project. The project proposal builds upon the contents of the concept paper, as modified through discussions between the offeror and NSF. Additional content and more detailed information are required in the proposal document, as described in the sections that follow.

Proposal documents are produced to the same formatting requirements as the concept papers, except for a 10-page limit. This 10-page limit is for Volume I only (not including the cover page). Proposals shall be no less than 11- point font, 1” margins, and 1.15-spacing; single-sided US-letter size pages.

Submissions that are incomplete, materially lacking, or not responsive to the technical requirements of this BAA, may be returned unevaluated, or evaluated as is, without further opportunity for revision, at the discretion of the NSF’s evaluation committee.

The proposal shall contain a Cover Page and relevant data organized into 3 Volumes:

Volume I: Technical Proposal Volume II: Cost Price/Budget Volume III: Supplemental Information

Offerors are advised that the NSF’s technical evaluation of a project for possible award is based solely on the contents of the offeror’s project proposal document, and the offeror’s answers to any technical clarification questions, as transmitted through the Contracting Officer.

It is the policy of NSF to treat all proposals as competitive source selection information.

Please note that prior to an award, the Government reserves the right to perform a review of past performance.

Sources for past performance may include the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), the Federal Award Performance and Integrity System (FAPIIS), and Government program managers and contracting officers who are familiar with the offeror’s relevant past performance may also be contacted.

5.1 Cover Page

Project proposals shall include a cover page containing the following information:

• Working title of the proposed project

• “Project Proposal” written below the project title

• BAA Research Priority Area (Section 1.2)

• Names, phone numbers, mailing address and e-mail addresses for the principal technical and contractual points of contact (person or persons authorized to negotiate on the behave of the offeror and who can contractually obligate the offeror organization)

• Secondary offeror organization addresses (project partners) if any

• Date of submission

• Proprietary data restrictions, if any (See Section 3.9.2)

5.2 Volume 1: Technical Proposal

The Technical Proposal shall contain the following sections, subject to the 10-page limit:

1. Abstract

2. Statement of Work

3. Project Management Plan

4. Capabilities and Experience

5.2.1 Abstract

Summary statement - Provide a succinct statement of the aim of the project (i.e., the problem being addressed) and the expected final product. In most cases, the summary statement will be two or three sentences.

Context – Briefly describe the current state of research in the area and the specific issue intended to be solved or improved. Proposals shall include references to relevant research and significant accomplishments in the area. A selective bibliography of (no more than 10) relevant peer reviewed and working papers that support the technical concepts and innovative ideas described in this proposal, may be included in an appendix for technical reference. This appendix does not count towards the 10-page limit.

Proposed approach – Describe the proposed research. Offerors shall explain how the proposed methodological plan enhances the ability to meet the research priority goals; how it could be incorporated into the existing data collections or operations of NCSES or other federal statistical agencies; how the application of the results will bring about an improvement to NCSES’ work, the federal data system, or the field of survey methodology and data analytics. For some projects, it may be relevant to explain the impact on the science and engineering enterprise as a whole.

5.2.2 Statement of Work

There shall be no company-sensitive or proprietary data included in the Statement of Work.

This statement of work shall contain the following information:

Work Scope: Describe the work to be accomplished as part of the research project, organized as it is expected to be performed. Separate the work effort into major tasks and subtasks as numbered paragraphs, or in a table.

Include the objectives and goals of the task, methodology and techniques that will be used and developed, analysis plan, field work, requirements in order to move to the next task, major milestones, and the expected outcomes.

Deliverables: All project deliverables should be clearly listed and described. Proposals designating NCSES-Awardee co-authored presentations and manuscripts for peer review are important to this BAA program. Virtual mid-term and final presentations to NCSES and/ or its federal agency partner are expected.

Future phase(s): Proposals are encouraged to include a short discussion of optional, future phases of work.

The original phase of work shall in no way depend on work described under future phases to meet the program criteria. Provide either a rough total cost estimate in this section for the future phase(s) proposed or a more detailed cost estimate as a separate page in Volume II.

5.2.3 Project Management Plan

The proposal shall contain a detailed management plan for the project based upon the following minimum requirements.

Tasks and Resources – Using the tasks (and relevant subtasks) in the Work Scope, in the same chronological order listed in the Work Scope, specify the following:

• Task or subtask title

• resources, facilities and equipment required

• data used or generated

• the expected completion date

• any deliverables or output associated with the task to signal its completion

In this section, designate a kick-off meeting and periods of pre-kick off preparation, field work (if applicable), testing/evaluation, and preparation of deliverables and manuscripts. If these items are integrated as part of a task that was listed in the Work Scope, please separate them, and note the specifications requested (e.g., resources, data, etc.). It is acceptable to present this in table format.

We request bi-weekly check-ins between the awardee’s point of contact and the collaborators at NCSES throughout the project, but these do not need to be explicitly represented in the Work Scope or Task and Resources sections.

Organizations – Deliver a list of institutions and organizations involved in the project, illustrating resource roles, and reporting relationships. Include all offeror organizations. Clearly highlight organizations that are participating in cost sharing activities. Identify the type of business (large, small, disadvantaged, or educational) for each offeror organization.

Subcontracts/Teaming/Cost Sharing Management Plan – Identify and describe the offeror’s plans for subcontracting, teaming, and cost sharing. Clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of all organizations working within the project team, including technical and financial elements.

5.2.4 Capabilities and Experience

List all key personnel, including those from outside the prime offeror’s institution. Organize the team by institution name and briefly describe each person’s roles and responsibilities on the project. Identify and describe the capabilities and experience of key personnel and organizations as these elements relate to the proposed project.

Descriptions of experience should serve to demonstrate the key personnel’s ability to successfully conduct the proposed research or project, including access to critical resources for the project.

Designate any supervisory relationships and who will be the main point of contact for regular check-ins with the NCSES methodological team during the project. Provide condensed resumes (2-page maximum) for all key personnel on the project. Resumes shall be organized in an appendix to the proposal. Resumes do not count toward the 10-page limit for the proposal.

In additional to key personnel, designate any graduate students or postdoctoral fellows funded by the proposed research. If named, provide no more than a half-page biographical sketch of their background and research interests. The biographical sketch should be included as an appendix with the resumes and does not count against the page limit.

Describe any unique capabilities that the offeror team possesses that may reduce project risk, reduce project duration, and/or improve project financial performance. Describe these capabilities within the context of the objectives of the BAA and the proposed project’s scope of work.

5.3 Volume II: Cost Price/Budget

See Appendix A for specific requirements for cost and pricing information content and formatting requirements.

The Cost Price/Budget must conform to the requirements in Appendix A and below.

5.3.1 General Requirements

Identify each funding source and their contribution to the whole, expressed as a percentage. Include all anticipated sources, including offeror internal sources, government funds, and other offeror organizations.

The cost price/budget portion of the project proposal should contain a cost estimate for the proposed effort to allow for meaningful evaluation and determination of price reasonableness and cost realism. The cost estimate shall account for the entire cost of the project, inclusive of that portion of cost the applicant or other offerors would bear in any proposed cost sharing arrangement or other investment of resources, as a means of venture sharing, in lieu of a formal cost sharing arrangement. The cost estimate shall be broken down for each year of the proposed work, and by all years combined. At a minimum, the cost estimate shall include the following information:

Labor - A breakdown of direct labor and hourly rate, by WBS index number, identifying the labor categories or individuals and projected hours, and their associated subtotals.

Overhead and/or fringe - Labor overhead and/or fringe rate(s) and base(s), and cumulative effect on labor costs.

Materials, supplies, and equipment - Description and cost of materials, supplies, and equipment, to include the basis of the cost estimate (e.g., historical data, competitive market quotes, and in-house transfers). Specific mention should be made of any highly specialized or costly test equipment or supplies needed to accomplish the project.

Travel and transportation - Breakdown of travel and transportation costs.

Subcontracts - Breakdown of individual subcontracts. State the amounts of time of subcontractor/consulting services to be devoted to the project, including the cost to be charged to the proposed contract/agreement.

Other Direct Costs - Breakdown of other direct costs (reproduction, computer time, and consultants).

Miscellaneous - Identification of any other direct or indirect cost elements not identified elsewhere. For each indirect rate (identified here or elsewhere), indicate if the proposed indirect rate and allocation base have been approved by a government audit or cognizant agency for use in proposals and when the rate(s) was approved and the name of and telephone number of the cognizant auditor or approving official.

General and Administrative - G&A rate and base.

Profit or Fee - Profit or fee may be proposed, and if proposed, is subject to negotiations and applicable statutory limits.

Cost Sharing/Cost Participation - Identify extent of cost sharing/cost participation, if any (exclusive of the offeror’s prior investment), to include the actual dollars or the percentage of the cost share of the proposed research or technology project, to be provided by the applicant, or third party contributors or other Federal funding sources, if allowable; the type and extent of cost limitations (direct or indirect); or the specifics for and extent of similar concepts indicative of cost participation. (Note: The applicant may be required to certify that it has secured the appropriate cost share funding levels and identify the source of funding.

5.3.2 Recommended Procurement Instrument and Pricing Arrangement

Offerors shall include a summary of the recommended procurement instrument (e.g., contract or “other arrangement”) and pricing arrangements (e.g., firm-fixed-price, cost, cost-plus-fixed-fee, etc.) and include the rationale for their use. However, the NSF reserves the right to negotiate and award the types of instruments determined most appropriate under the circumstances. If warranted, portions of resulting awards may be segregated into pre-priced options. It should be noted that cost reimbursable type contractual arrangements are not permissible unless the awardee has an accounting system that has been approved by the Government as adequate to support the determination of costs applicable to the contract.

If the offeror is seeking an “other arrangement,” (similar in nature to an “Other Transaction”) it must explain to NSF the basis for seeking the other arrangement and the areas of regulatory relief requested by the offeror. The NSF will consider awarding an “other arrangement” only if it is in the best interests of NSF. NSF will not award grants or other types of financial assistance as a result of this BAA.

5.4 Volume III: Supplemental information

All proposals must respond to the following items.

5.4.1 System for Award Management (SAM) Registration

To be eligible for award of a contract resulting from this solicitation, offerors must be registered in the Federal Government’s SAM system. The registration can be accomplished by accessing the following website:

https://www.sam.gov/SAM/pages/public/index.jsf

NOTE: Contractor must ensure that the registration process has been completed in SAM as award may not be made until the contractor is registered in the system.

5.4.2 Administrative and Audit Offices

Offerors requesting cost reimbursement…