NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE AWARD.docx

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE AWARD

Project Title: Global Conflicts Events Data Announcement No.: ACLED

The Department of State (DoS) is issuing this notice to inform of its intent to award a sole source, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to ACLED Analysis Incorporated for the continuation of data collection services, maintaining uniformity with the $6,430,605.32 data inventory established under grant SLMAQM17CA2014, and a license to maintain State Department access to the full data inventory (which includes investment from other entities). The period of performance for this effort will be a one (1) year base period with four, one (1) year option periods. The total estimated value, including the base and all options, will not exceed $14,000,000.00.

DoS, Conflict and Stabilization Office (CSO), requires reliable, systematic, and timely data on conflict to meet its bureau strategic goal of harnessing data analytics. ACLED Analysis Inc owns the intellectual property for an inventory of data containing more than one million incidents of political violence and protest covering 194 countries and is updated on a weekly basis using a proprietary methodology. CSO currently uses ACLED’s data in more than 90 percent of its data analytics products. CSO partially funded the establishment of ACLED’s data inventory under grant SLMAQM17CA2014 but requires access to the complete repository. CSO currently maintains access to the full repository through a license granted by ACLED Analysis Inc. While this repository is publicly accessible, there are legal terms and conditions to its use and limitations to how it can be used. To maintain uniformity, functionality, and integrity of CSO’s data analytics products, CSO requires access to ACLED’s full data inventory updated on a weekly basis.

The sole source award is pursuant to the following statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition: FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. ACLED Analysis Inc owns the intellectual property rights to a unique inventory of conflict data that meets CSO’s data requirements. CSO and USG invested $7,990,094 from July 2017 – June 2021 to create an inventory of conflict data collected and owned by ACLED Analysis Inc, and internal support tools to access and analyze the data. While the data collected under the State Department grant was available to the public, there are restrictions on how it can be used, and users are required to accept in order to access the data. ACLED Analysis Inc maintained the intellectual property rights to the data collected. Award to any other source would result in the substantial duplication of the $7,990,094 of Government investment that could not be recovered through competition. It would also result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling CSO’s requirement.

The determination not to compete this proposed contract action is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by responding to this notice.

This is NOT a request for quotes or proposals.

Questions or comments regarding this Notice of Intent should be directed to Contracting Officer, Felicia Goudy, at GoudyFD@state.gov via e-mail only (no phone calls/voice mail messages regarding questions will not be accepted and will not receive a response). Please indicate in the subject of your email: Notice of Intent Question Submission – Global Conflicts Events Data.