NOAA NMFS Open Science Sources Sought.pdf

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Science and Technology (OST)

Open Science Work Flow Transformation and Training

PR: 143011-24-0040

1. Description:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Acquisition Division (WAD), on behalf of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Office of Science and Technology (OST) is seeking possible sources able to provide professional services in order to implement the Open Science Work Flow Transformation and Training project.

2. Background and Objective:

The White House Office of Science and Technology Science Advisory Board, in a December 2022 Report on Open Data/Open Science recommended the implementation of FAIR data principles, the championing of open source software, and the application of consistent Open Science principles across NOAA. These directives align with growing Federal mandates and the expectations of NOAA's user communities.

NMFS has already adopted Open Science to improve the efficiency and quality of scientific products for a few specific teams. Examples include the development of FIMS tools for stock assessments, ecosystem status reports for the New England Fishery Management Council, data products for Alaska groundfish surveys, and projects deployed on the Fisheries Integrated Toolbox. Despite these advancements, Open Science practices within NMFS are generally program-specific and maintained by one or a few team members. There is an urgent need to transition to Open Science practices across NMFS and upskill the existing NMFS workforce so the agency can be agile and resilient enough to tackle the challenges of the 21st century and to meet a variety of Open Data and Open Science mandates for federal agencies, such as Public Access to Research Results, Open Source software mandates, and Open Data mandates.

This Open Science project’s goal is to lead the training and community building necessary to modernize the way the NMFS scientific community works and collaborates around data-intensive science. The Open Science program will be modeled off the NASA implementation and directly supports NOAA’s long-term mission #1: Climate Adaptation and Mitigation and NOAA’s Open Science mandates. The integration of Open Science is intended to support culture change, a complex process that requires structure and flexibility, technical expertise, and empathy so that staff at different skill levels can successfully engage and change. The three program objectives are to 1) develop an NMFS mentor community across all the science centers and regional offices that is linked to the Open Science mentor communities in NASA and EPA (who are engaged in a similar upskilling effort), 2) empower NMFS researchers with modern Open Science skills, 3) amplify NMFS research and leadership in the global Climate and Open Science movements, and

4) facilitate the technical training for staff in modern data science tools.

3. Requirements:

Task 1: The Contractor shall plan, develop, and implement an Open Science community approach to mentoring across the NMFS centers/offices. The Contractor shall help the NMFS Open Science mentor team network with the Open Science teams at other federal agencies and coordinate co-working sessions to work on solutions to similar problems regarding upskilling staff in Open Science and Open Data. The Contractor shall act as the project manager for the NMFS OS mentor group and help these mentors learn and work together to develop training for staff and to co-create reusable resources for NMFS-specific scientific products. The project management tasks will include:

● 1.1. Organize and run bi-weekly meetings for NMFS Open Science mentors (40 staff distributed across NMFS science centers and regional offices).

● 1.2. Organize community-building activities with Open Science communities (rOpenSci, pyOpenSci, Posit, R-Ladies, etc.) and with Open Science efforts in other federal agencies (NASA, EPA) to help NMFS Open Science mentors collaborate with the wider Open Science community.

● 1.3. Provide meeting summaries and analysis to assist identification of barriers impeding progress on and areas of opportunity for Open Science goals

● 1.4. Act as the overall project manager for the activities planned by the NMFS OS mentor team.

Task 2: The Contractor shall conduct team-based 2-month workshops on Open Science and reproducible scientific workflows for cohorts of 40 staff each. Cohorts can include teams from the same or across centers/offices or be topic-specific to strengthen relationships and shared practices. These shall be focused on team’s current projects and concretely help teams implement more efficient workflows in the current projects.

● 2.1. Assist in developing the nomination and selection of teams and staff for participation

● 2.2. Organize 3 pre-training Q&As in the quarter before the workshops

● 2.3. Develop the strategic training plans for reproducible scientific workflows for the workshops. Content should reflect the needs identified by the mentor team (Task 1).

● 2.4. Develop all material for and run the 2-month workshops (five 1.5 hour meetings) for 2-3 cohorts (40 staff) per year.

● 2.5. Coordinate with organizations working with the Open Science Community for DEIA

Early Career marine scientists to develop outreach activities with the NMFS OS cohorts during workshops

● 2.6. Develop performance metrics for the workshops and report on recommended new training activities based on feedback from the workshops

Task 3: The Contractor shall coordinate the delivery of data science courses and workshops. One shall be virtual courses focused on data science skills to include R, Python, Git, GitHub, Open Science workflows or any other identified skills gaps. The Contractor may subcontract, to online course platforms, for content delivery but the Contractor shall oversee the program, monitor progress, and adapt offerings as necessary. In addition, the Contractor shall coordinate one workshop on geospatial data analysis in R and/or Python focusing on cloud-native workflows for big data. Training science staff in cloud-native workflows for big data is essential for meeting NOAA’s mission for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation.

● 3.1. Manage the communications, sign-ups and progress of NMFS staff in the online training program

● 3.2. Evaluate the online training program

● 3.3. Develop the workshop agenda for big data geospatial analysis and coordinate tutorial content for the workshop

● 3.4. Provide and manage a cloud development platform for participants as part of training program and workshop.

● 3.5. Coordinate the geospatial workshop. Content delivery is expected to be a mix of

Contractor-organized and NOAA staff delivered

Task 4: The Contractor shall amplify the work by NOAA Fisheries Open Data and Open Science leaders across science centers and regional offices by helping create opportunities to showcase their work in existing channels (e.g. professional conferences, oNOAA events such as EDM workshops) and by communicating this work directly with NOAA Fisheries leadership. Further, the Contractor will help connect NOAA Fisheries Open Science leaders beyond NOAA and increase visibility of NOAA to global Open Science communities (e.g. NASEM, NASA, EPA, NCEAS, RStudio, Mozilla, Turing Way, rOpenSci, Pangeo, Posit, and PyOpenSci open source communities).

● 4.1. Develop a community engagement strategy and organize webinars to showcase the work of NOAA Fisheries Open Science for the wider NOAA Fisheries community. Examples include arranging talks and developing content for the NOAA Science Seminar Series and for individual science centers and regional offices.

● 4.2. Conduct short monthly tag-up meetings with NMFS leadership to share updates, opportunities, needs, and successes from the Open Science mentor training program and activities, and to help tie it into other ongoing efforts at NOAA and beyond.

4. Requested Information:

Interested parties are requested to respond to this notice with a capability statement demonstrating how the firm will meet the service requirements as listed in this notice and address experience with similar services.

Responses shall be limited to ten (10) pages (single-spaced, no less than 10 point font) and be submitted in Microsoft Word for Office 2016 or higher compatible format or searchable Adobe PDF format. These formats are the only acceptable methods of submitting a response electronically.

Zip Files, Cloud storage providers, google docs, web based drop boxes, OneNote/OneDrive, URLs, web-based format, or any other virtual/web-based memory service are NOT acceptable methods of submitting a response electronically. Standard brochures will not be considered a sufficient response to this notice.

The submitted capability statement shall include the following:

a. Company Overview

b. Company Name and Address

c. A brief description of your company

d. Social-economic status, business size, and size standard/applicable NAICS codes.

e. Dun & Bradstreet (DUNS) number/ Unique Entity Identifier (UEI/SAM) number.

f. Website address.

g. Narrative addressing the following items:

• Expertise and experience in cloud optimized geospatial computing and data.

• Experience with teaching teams Open Science workflows and tooling within large organizations, specifically developing and teaching tutorials on Git, GitHub, R, Python, Quarto, JupyterHubs, RStudio, and cloud-native computing for science teams.

• Experience working with and providing similar services to the U.S. Open Science community.

• Knowledge and expertise of NOAA Fisheries policies and programs, as well as experience with planning, and Federal financial management and operations.

h. Any additional information addressing the requirements listed in this notice.

5. Summary:

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY to identify sources that can meet the requirements detailed above. The information provided in this notice is subject to change and is not binding to NOAA. NOAA has not made a commitment to procure any of the services discussed, and release of this notice should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. Further, NOAA is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals.

Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this notice; all costs associated with responding to this notice will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if any is issued. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

Responses must be submitted in writing no later than March 8, 2024 by 6:00 P.M. Mountain Time, sent via email to monica.cowdrey@noaa.gov and hannah.montoya@noaa.gov.

Documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining an acquisition strategy. A determination by the Government, based upon response to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.

mailto:monica.cowdrey@noaa.gov mailto:hannah.montoya@noaa.gov