M04 JA Ceiling Increase ARLIS Final Redacted.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES

1155 DEFENSE PENTAGON

WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1155

Control No. 2021-WHS-0072

JUSTIFICATION FOR

OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

UNDER FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION FAR SUBPART 6.3

1. AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: The Requiring Agency is the Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (OUSD (I&S)). The Contracting Activity is the Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, (WHS), Acquisition Directorate (AD), Enterprise Security and Services Division.

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: The purpose of this Justification is to increase the ceiling of the University of Maryland (UMD), University-Affiliated Research Center (UARC) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract by .

Contract HQ0034-18-D-0005 was awarded non-competitively to UMD UARC on November 29, 2017 with a period of performance of December 31, 2017 to December 30, 2022 under J&A Control Number 2018-WHS-0004 approved on November 12, 2017.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: The Applied Research Laboratory for

Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) is a unique partnership between the UMD, the DoD, and the Intelligence Community (IC), and it has made significant contributions to the IC's language efforts. ARLIS shall provide valuable expertise to the IC and DoD in linguistics, language acquisition, cognitive neuroscience, decision science, and computer science to help solve some of the Nation's most difficult problems, OUSD (I&S) is the sponsor of the ARLIS

UARC.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

Performance Period Performance Period Dates

Base Period 31 December 2017 – 30 December 2018 Option Period I 31 December 2018 – 30 December 2019 Option Period II 31 December 2019 – 30 December 2020 Option Period III 31 December 2020 – 30 December 2021 Option Period IV 31 December 2021 – 30 December 2022

UMD/ARLIS shall provide essential and critical research and development capabilities and services for DOD and civilian agencies intelligence community components. UMD/ARLIS research topics include but are not limited to:

• Human language, communication, and culture;

• How to enhance acquisition and maintenance of language skills;

• Use of language skills in analysis tasks;

• How to develop and assess analysis methods and enhance analysts’ job performance;

• Methods to leverage technology to assist with tasks such as collaboration and information sharing in the service of intelligence analysis;

• Development and use of Human Language Technology (HLT); and

• Evaluation: Provide independent technical evaluation, verification, and guidance on language, information, culture, cognition, and behavior issues, practices or policies applicable to IC personnel.

4. AUTHORITY CITED: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this effort is 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(3) as implemented in FAR 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii):

“To establish or maintain an essential engineering, research or developmental capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a federally funded research and development center.”

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED: There are 14 UARCs that exist. Each individual

UARC specializes in something different and there cannot be more than one UARC that specializes in the same field of study. UMD is the only UARC that specializes in linguistics, language acquisition, cognitive neuroscience, decision science, and computer science to solve problems for DoD and the IC. There is no other UARC that specializes in these areas other than UMD. Therefore, award of a new contract to another UARC other than UMD would cause unacceptable delays in schedule and significant duplication of cost to the Government not recovered through competition.

The need to increase UMD IDIQ contract by additional is because of the intelligence and security community’s demand for applied research in the human domain that has surpassed expectations and supports requirements for a broader audience than anticipated.

The total orders expended against the current IDIQ contract ceiling is . The current IDIQ contract ceiling of $92M will surpass, given an additional will be expended over the remaining contract’s ordering period to December 31, 2022. If this Justification is not approved, there is a negative impact to ensure continuity of research and development that is integral to the intelligence and security community.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION: On February 01, 2021, a notice of intent for this action was posted on Beta.Sam.gov with a February 16, 2021 response date. No vendors submitted a response to the notice of intent. The approved justification will be made publicly available on Beta.SAM.gov within 14 days after contract award.

7. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION: I hereby determine that the anticipated price for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. The techniques identified at FAR 15.404-1 will be used to ensure fair and reasonable prices. Certified Cost and Pricing Data will not be obtained.

8. MARKET RESEARCH: Market research and analysis was not conducted because this IDIQ contract will be awarded non-competitively. The authority for this proposed award is not based on a determination that UMD/ARLIS is the only responsible source, rather that the Government desires to maintain an essential research, development, and scientific and engineering expertise in core competencies areas important to the DOD with a nonprofit institution as authorized by 10 U.S.C 2304(c)(3) and implemented by FAR 6.302-3.

9. OTHER FACTS: N/A

10. INTERESTED SOURCES: N/A

11. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION: There are no plans at this time to compete future requirements as UMD is the only source that can meet the requirements set forth by the ARLIS IDIQ. If another potential source does emerge, OUSD (I&S) will assess whether the competition for future requirements is more advantageous and would be in the best interest to the Government.

12. Is this acquisition for a non-competitive follow-on acquisition previously awarded on a non-competitive basis?

☒Yes. A copy of the previous justification is attached. The actions to remove any barriers to competition cited on the previous justification ☐ were ☒ were not completed.

This justification request is to increase the ceiling price on an established single award IDIQ to UMD.

☐No. The original acquisition was conducted on a competitive basis.

CERTIFICATION

I hereby certify that the supporting data under my cognizance included in this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Contracting Officer Representative/Program Office Date

Contracting Officer Date

CONCURRENCE

Base on the foregoing, I hereby concur with this justification and recommend for approval.

Date

APPROVAL

This justification is approved.