HHSN263201000058B_HHSN26100007_Redacted_Limited_Source_JOFOC.pdf

Limited Source Justification

“Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104”

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

a. Federal agency and contracting activity. HHS. HHS, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

b. Sponsoring organization. National Cancer Institute, Office of Science Planning & Assessment

c. Project Officer information.

Project Officer name. James Corrigan, Ph.D

Mailing address. 9609 Medical Center Drive, RM 3W618 MSC 9714, Bethesda MD, 20892-9714

E-mail address. Corrigan@mail.nih.gov

Telephone number. 240.276.5734

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

a. Acquisition purpose and objectives. The purpose is to obtain contractor assistance to perform multiple portfolio analyses of cancer research over a one-year time span. Portfolio analyses are integral to making informed decisions about the funding and scope of the National Cancer Program. The National Cancer Act of 1971 broadened the responsibilities of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and created the National Cancer Program, coordinated by the NCI. The NCI conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to the cause, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, and the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer.

b. Project background.

The Office of Science Planning and Assessment (OSPA) supports the mission of the NCI by promoting and leading the Institute’s science planning and assessment efforts. The OSPA works with the NCI Director and the cancer research community to:

Facilitate the development of strategic plans and implementation strategies, and evaluating progress toward meeting the identified goals and objectives;

Assess NCI-supported research programs and use the results to help inform future research efforts; and, Serve as a liaison between NCI scientists and other federal entities conducting research on cancer in women.

In order to ascertain the scope and reach of NCI research, it is critically important to periodically conduct comprehensive analyses of the institute’s research portfolio. Portfolio analysis provides answers for these (among other) questions:

What are the characteristics of the NCI cancer research portfolio, such as statistics by disease topic, type of research, mechanism, and/or funding NCI division?

Are there gaps in the NCI research portfolio?

How do the gaps compare to cancer research sponsored by other agencies?

Where would new projects or initiatives fit in the NCI portfolio?

What are the characteristics of US and global cancer research portfolios, including research sponsor funding estimates?

What role has NCI-sponsored research played in: scientific advances, disease prevention, development of new diagnostics and therapies, and changes in disease statistics?

In addition, experimentation with and the development of easily-interpreted and useful visual data displays is a priority area. Data visualization resources that will be useful for both program management and evaluation are of particular interest.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

a. Project title. Portfolio Analyses Related to Cancer Research

b. Project description. The Contractor shall perform multiple portfolio analyses of cancer research. Potential components include: 1) Provocative Questions Initiative Analyses; 2) Usage Statistics and Alt Metrics; 3) FDA Product Impact Analysis; 4) Cancer Publication Analysis;

5) Patent Analyses; 6) Market Scan-Based Analysis; and 6) Ad-Hoc Analysis Requests. The following information provides the specific processes by which this work should be performed. See SOW for additional information.

Requirement type.

Support services (non-research & development) Supplies/equipment Information technology (IT) Other (specify): Professional Services (non IT)

Type of action.

New requirement Follow-on Other (specify): ______________________

Proposed contract/order type.

Firm-fixed-price Time and materials Indefinite delivery (specify whether indefinite quantity, definite quantity, or requirements): ___________ Other (specify): ___________

Acquisition identification number. Requisition #2987741

c. Total estimated dollar value and performance/delivery period.

Total dollar value: $200,000 Period of Performance: Twelve months from date of award

4. Identification of the justification rationale [see 8.405-6(a) and (b)] and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

a. Acquisition authority.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple

Award Schedule Program. Consideration of schedule contractors will be restricted to fewer than the number required by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a)(1) (i.e., fewer than three FSS contractors).

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple

Award Schedule Program. Consideration of schedule contractors will be restricted only to the item peculiar to one manufacturer as provided in FAR 8.405-6(a)(2).

b. Demonstration of the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

Name and address of the proposed contractor(s).

Discovery Logic 1455 Research Blvd., 2nd Floor Rockville, MD 20850

Nature of the acquisition and proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications. Discovery Logic’s extensive data analysis and visualization capabilities and access to proprietary data sources has led to the determination that it is the only vendor that can provide the range of high quality and timely portfolio analysis services required by the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Science Planning and Assessment. Discovery Logic, owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation, maintains an exclusive data mining service entitled ScienceWire™ which is an infrastructure of databases and algorithms containing information directly relevant to NIH and NCI research portfolio data. ScienceWire™ provides comprehensive access to data on projects, publications, patents, and the linkages among these. The Web of Science, a component of ScienceWire™, captures acknowledgements of grant and contract funding support from all sources, not just federal agencies. This provides a unique capability to do analyses of publications resulting from NCI/NIH-sponsored research within the broader context of sponsored biomedical research, including comparisons to those publications with funding from non-NIH sources. In addition, Discovery Logic has in-house access to unique Thomson Reuters science and technology products including:

ThemeScape, Integrity and MarketScan. Integrity, for example, contains extensive proprietary data based on expert tracking and classification of biomarkers, an area of great interest to NCI.

Discovery Logic’s unrestricted access to the data underlying a unique portfolio of data products relevant to analyses of scientific program performance puts it in a unique position to establish the highest quality linkages between NCI/NIH-related data available and also to develop innovative approaches and metrics useful for the challenging area of evaluating biomedical research program performance. Further, Discovery Logic’s analytic capabilities and data access allow it to maintain maximum flexibility in exploring new approaches to assessing the NCI research portfolio. It has extensive experience with databases relevant to NCI and NIH and the linkages among them, including those based at NIH (i.e., IMPAC II) as well as those based in other agencies (e.g., the International Cancer Research Partnership [ICRP] and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.)

5. Determination by the ordering activity Contracting Officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

The NCI Contract Specialist will consider the independent government estimate and previous purchase order prices as a determining factor for reasonableness.

In addition, the NCI contract specialist will also seek additional discounts before placing an order.

Based on the aforementioned, there is no reason to believe that price will not be fair and reasonable to the Government.

A final determination will be conducted prior to the award of this contract.

6. Description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

Given the integral role of Discovery Logic/Thomson Reuters proprietary data products and the unrestricted access to the data behind those products is needed to establish linkages between various data sets and innovative new metrics of scientific performance required for the high quality analyses used by OSPA, additional market research was not conducted.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

None

8. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

a. Removal of barriers to competition. No actions are planned to overcome barriers to competition for future acquisitions because NCI cannot foresee the nature of its portfolio analysis and data visualization needs. Changes in data sources, access to data, and NCI’s priorities are dependent on a variety of factors.

b. Listing of sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition. No other sources have expressed an interest, in writing, in the proposed acquisition.

9. Program office certification.

This is to certify that the portions of this justification that have been developed by the undersigned program office personnel, including supporting information and/or data verifying the Government’s minimum needs or requirements, or other rationale for limited sources, are accurate and complete.

Official Name & Title Signature Date

Project Officer James Corrigan

Project Officer’s

Immediate Supervisor

Margaret Ames

Head of the Sponsoring

Program Office

Margaret Ames

10. Contracting Officer certification.

This is to certify that the justification for the proposed acquisition has been reviewed and that to the best of my knowledge and belief the information and/or data provided to support the rationale and recommendation for approval is accurate and complete.

Official Name & Title Signature Date

Contracting Officer

Anita Hughes, Contracting Officer