Performance Work Statement.docx

Performance Work Statement ONR Commercial Data Acquisition & Analytic Support Services

1. INTRODUCTION

This Request for Proposals (RFP) seeks the acquisition of commercial digital scientific and technology data sources along with analytic support to: 1) support evidence-based decision-making during the implementation of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Science and Technology (S&T) portfolio, and, 2) monitor global investments and advances in science and technology.

2. BACKGROUND

For more than six decades, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been a world leader in science and technology (S&T); however, it currently faces a range of challenges to maintaining that leadership. Cutting-edge research and development (R&D) is increasingly dispersed internationally. It has also expanded beyond the domain of established universities and large, longstanding corporations, and DoD does not have the same depth of relationships with newer technology companies, start-ups, and even community laboratories where exciting breakthroughs are occurring today. Meanwhile, the raw number of participants, amount of technical information, and sources of relevant data are all growing rapidly, creating major challenges to finding relevant information. Competitors are challenging DoD’s technical advantage, and budget pressures are limiting DoD’s ability to expand what it funds. Thus, DoD has multiple challenges to staying informed of cutting-edge work and guiding its investments appropriately, all while the importance of doing so is increasing.

As these challenges mount, the data analytics field has grown rapidly, producing more sophisticated algorithms which run more quickly using more powerful, less expensive computing resources. Combined with the explosion in S&T data, this has created interest in the potential for data analytics to enable new and effective approaches to managing the DoD’s research portfolio.

In response to this challenge, in 2018, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) stood up the Data and Analytics Division (DAD) with similar efforts now standing up in other commands within the Army, Navy and Air Force. Within the DAD charter was the call to acquire S&T data to support analytics to support evidence-based decision making at ONR and throughout DoD. Furthermore, in 2019 ONR awarded a pilot contract for three types of data for a limited number of users: S&T Publications, Domestic and International Grant activities (public and private), and Patents & patent transactions. That pilot contract is still ongoing and will expire in March 2021 if all Options are exercised.

3. SCOPE

The scope of this effort is to provide Science & Technology Award Data plus Venture Capital Data (as described in the below Requirements Section) on a non-user based subscription means and to provide technical support for that data.

4. REQUIREMENTS

Types of data of interest Data-informed analytics is supporting a wide range of decisions, including strategic portfolio management, funding allocation, partner engagement, and technology scouting. There is a variety of data that provide unique insights to support these decisions. Below are the high priority data that are of interest:

· S&T Publications

· Domestic and International Grant activities (public and private)

· Patents, and patent transactions

· Startup Investment Activities for public and private markets - including companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people.

· Company Details (for example: status, location, industry, corporate structure)

· Business’s Internal Research and Development Budgets

· Mergers and Acquisitions

· Informal S&T Literature (for example: scientific weblogs, pre-print articles, white papers, grey literature) Types of access ONR recognizes there are many factors for consideration on pricing data. Therefore, to help with defining proposals there are three main factors to consider on how this data will be used:

· Users of the data will be employees of all DoD S&T organizations to include, but not limited to, the Office of Naval Research, Air Force Research Lab, and the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command. Users may also be support contractors to these DoD S&T organizations, but their use of the data will be confined to projects directly supporting these organizations. The vast majority of users will access the data on a very sporadic basis (monthly), but a small cadre of S&T analysts (10-20 power users) will be heavy (daily) users of the system.

· While some of the analyses may require querying large amounts of data to calculate derived fields such as total investment in a technology area or to perform quarterly or annual global horizon scans, the majority of the analyses will require much smaller amounts of data such as looking at 10s to 1,000s of entities scoped by a specific technology area or geographical region.

· The primary interest is in current data (within the past 5 years) but there will be occasional need for historical trend analysis for up to 20 years.

To support this, ONR is looking for solutions that provide access to data via multiple mechanisms:

1) API Access – this is envisioned as the primary interface to data as ONR is seeking to blend commercially acquired data with our own data to support master data management (MDM) projects utilizing our internal databases to support real-time analysis. ONR recognizes that APIs allow our internal system to maintain the most current data possible to support a single, comprehensive view. ONR is looking for solutions that allow for unlimited access from our internal MDM server with either flexible pricing based on data usage vs a flat access fee.

2) Vendor-supported Boolean-enabled, search-based user interface with modest data export capabilities (i.e., 10k-50k records via a browser-based portal) – While API access allows for blending with internal data, there is also the need for a mechanism for data exploration to rapidly identify relevant data to support analytics. The ability for a limited subset of analysts to have access to this data will be valuable and ONR expects this number to grow over time. ONR is interested in IP-restricted access based on usage or number of concurrent users.

3) Bulk data download – There is a very small cadre of data scientists that are utilizing machine-learning and text-analytic algorithms to support statistical analyses that require access to very large datasets to train their models. The primary usage of this data is to support users conducting research and development activities to develop new analytics to support S&T decision-making and to conduct annual horizon scans. It is not critical that this bulk download be kept current on a daily or even weekly basis, but can be updated either quarterly or yearly. The anticipated usage of the bulk download is that this will be stored in a secure government enclave with access restricted to a small cadre of data scientists. (maximum of 10 named users in year 1) Any derived work from the analyzed data must be shareable with users across the DoD S&T organizations to support the reproducibility and reliability of analytics.

Analytic Support For analytic services, it is recognized that some of the analysis is complex and may require additional help from data providers to access data and assist in the analysis. Types of analytic support will include but are not limited to:

ONR also requires personnel to support analytics, not to exceed 2.0 FTEs. It is expected that at least 50% of this will include a dedicated Senior Data Scientist who will be considered key personnel. The remaining personnel support should provide a blend of Program Manager and Senior / Intermediate Data Science Subject Matter Experts (SME) to support the Senior Data Scientist as needed for additional tasking and will be offsite.

6.0 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The period of performance will consist of a twelve (12) month base period, beginning from the effective date of award, followed by four (4) twelve (12) month option periods that shall run sequentially for both data subscriptions and support services.

7.0 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

The majority of the work is expected to be performed offsite with an expectation that there may be two to three (2 to 3) site visits per week to ONR Headquarters (HQ) for meetings with the D&A team and with ONR HQ personnel.

8.0 REPORTS, DATA, AND OTHER DELIVERABLES

· Monthly Status Report (MSR) (CDRL A001): Provide MSR monthly provide which outlines significant events and progress towards the deliverables. This report is due within 10 business days after the end of each calendar month. The report shall include the following information:

· Contractor’s name and address

· Contract and subcontract number (if applicable)

· Work accomplished

· Monthly Financial Status Report (CDRL A002): Provide Monthly Financial Status Reports that outlines financial information. This report is due within 15 business days after the end of each calendar month The report shall include the following information:

· Costs incurred to date

· Estimate at Completion

· Labor Hours worked per labor category

· Identify any financial or billing issues

· Yearly Overview and Implementation Plan: At the end of each Period of Performance (PoP), the Contractor will deliver an Overview and Implementation Plan addressing the implementation of fully productive analytical capabilities in support of funding and research decisions at ONR. (Exhibit A, CDRL No. A003).

· Yearly Program Review: At the end of each PoP, the Contractor will conduct a Program Review with ONR PIIM leadership, with an overview of the research effort and the Overview and Implementation Plan, and a discussion about a possible way ahead to continue this research (Exhibit A, CDRL No. A004).

· Quality Control Plan (CDRL A005): The contractor shall develop and maintain an effective quality control program to ensure services are performed in accordance with the PWS. The contractor shall develop and implement procedures to identify, prevent, and ensure non-recurrence of defective services. The contractor’s quality control program is a means by which the contractor assures that work complies with the requirements of the contract. The Quality Control Plan (QCP) shall detail the plan the contractor will employ during task order performance. The Government will monitor the QCP during contract performance to ensure that the contractor is performing in accordance with the QCP. The contractor shall provide a QCP within ten (10) business days of contract award (Exhibit A, CDRL Data Item No. A005). After acceptance of the initial QCP, the contractor shall obtain the Contracting Officer’s approval in writing of any proposed change to the QCP. When changes are made to the QCP, the contractor shall submit the revised QCP to the Contracting Officer and COR within five (5) business days of the changes (Exhibit A, CDRL Data Item No. A005).

· Quality Assurance: The Government shall evaluate the contractor’s performance under this task order in accordance with the contractor’s QCP and the Governments Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP). The QASP is a Government developed and applied document used to ensure systematic quality assurance methods are used in the administration of the Performance Based Service Contract (PBSC) standards included in this PWS. The intent is to ensure that the contractor performs in accordance with the performance metrics and the Government receives the quality of services called for in the PWS. The QASP details how the performance standards identified in the PWS are measured, who will perform the measurement, the frequency of the surveillance, and the acceptable defect rate(s). The QASP may be updated from time to time by the Government.

· Enterprise Wide Contractor Manpower Reporting Application (ECMRA) Reports: The contractor shall report ALL contractor labor hours (including subcontractor labor hours) required for the performance of the services provided under this contract via a secure data collection site. The contractor is required to completely fill in all required data fields using the following web address: https://doncmra.nmci.navy.mil. Reporting inputs will be for the labor executed during the period of performance during each Government fiscal year (FY), which runs October 1st through September 30th. While inputs may be reported any time during the FY, all data shall be reported no later than October 31st of each calendar year. Contractors may direct questions to the help desk, linked at https://doncmra.nmci.navy.mil.

9.0 SECURITY

A secret clearance is not required for this effort. However, any personnel visiting ONR Headquarter’s or any other Department of Defense facility in the performance of this effort must be able to pass a normal background check to gain access.

11.0 POST AWARD PLANNING, EXECUTION, AND KICK-OFF MEETING

Upon request by the government, the Contractor shall participate in a Contract Kick-Off Meeting with ONR personnel and other Government representatives within twenty (20) business days after award to review and discuss contract administrative matters, security requirements, the milestone schedule, invoicing, and other applicable matters. This meeting can take place via, phone, or videoconference. The government will not do an in-person kick-off meeting.