NRSS_IDIQ_PRESOL_NOTICE_1.pdf

Solicitation Number:

140P2125R0009

Notice Type:

Presolicitation

Synopsis: NRSS Socioeconomic Research IDIQ

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE ONLY. The National Park Service (NPS), ConOps - National, in support of the Social Science Branch (SSB) within the Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate (NRSS), announces its intention to procure on a competitive basis, an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for a broad spectrum of socioeconomic research and analysis services.

The research, surveying and analysis required under this IDIQ will encompass the following task types:

• Type 1: In-Park/Management Unit Visitor Studies

Understanding in-park visitors allows land managers to make better decisions on visitor experiences and the protection of resources. These studies can include, yet is not limited to, survey research, focus groups and semi-structure interviews that seek to understand visitor values and attitudes of a variety of different resource and experiential conditions.

Notably but not exclusively, these studies include the VSP type studies that have been conducted historically under cooperative agreement by the NPS SSB (https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Collection/Profile/3738). Intercept methods could include road and pedestrian-based, web-hosted methods based on the details of the park travel system architecture and respondent universe.

• Type 2: Personnel and Partner Studies These studies are designed to investigate internal agency and department issues from Federal staff comprised within and with partners. These studies would provide valuable in-depth data on issues related but not limited to workforce management, empowerment and equity, management values and attitudes, personal values and attitudes, evaluations on agency culture and resource conditions, agency efficacy, etc.

• Type 3: Regional Economic Impact and Economic Welfare Studies

Numerous economic welfare studies are needed regularly by the NPS SSB and park units.

These analyses would include mostly existing data but may occasionally include primary data collection. Common studies would include Cost/Benefit and Regulatory Flexibility Analyses, but may also include choice studies, willingness to pay and visitor spending profile estimates. These analyses would relate to federal rulemaking, NEPA economic impact analysis, impacts from national parks for regional, agency, and department-wide compilation and reporting.

• Type 4: Recreation, Transportation and Carrying Capacity Studies

Recreation, transportation and carrying capacity issues are significant throughout the National Park System. As a result, many parks seek to better understand use conditions on the ground through socioeconomic research. These studies comprising of mainly primary data collections would include both evaluative, descriptive, or a combination of both types of data to understand how visitors feel about their experiences across a variety of hypothetical and real conditions. Studies could include visitor movement, travel pattern studies, and visitor use level estimation to compare to visitor evaluations of conditions and how they change over time and under various use levels. Additionally, a significant focus of research in conflict is expected between various activity groups that utilize the same areas and may impact experiences of others.

• Type 5: Non-Visitor Studies

These studies include displacement and awareness studies by respondent universes currently outside of the National Park System which could include but are not limited to gateway community and regional stakeholders, historic visitors that decide not to go to national parks, potential future visiting members of the public, and NPS program participants. Question types would focus largely on awareness, experience use/history, values and attitudes, visitor characteristics, motives or constraints to behaviors the NPS would like to instill and foster to engage, educate, and serve the public. An example of this type of work would be the NPS Comprehensive Survey of the American Public (https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Collection/Profile/3807).

• Type 6: Peer Review Management

Numerous studies, conducted by other vendors and investigators will require external peer review, as called upon by the NPS Peer Review Interim Guidelines (http://www.nps.gov/policy/Interimpeerreview.htm). This will include management of these processes and identification and payment of subject matter experts to provide reviews. These procedures will have to be well documented to show consolidation and appropriate response to peer reviewers’ comments. Peer review management would require acquisition of peer reviewers that meet the requirements for subject matters experts, outlining time lines of the reviews, author(s) response and documentation of the entire process leading to subsequent product refinement.

This resultant award will be a single award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The period of performance will be for a five-year ordering period with an option an option for an additional six-months.

The contract will be awarded on a best value tradeoff basis utilizing price and non-price factors.

The solicitation will be issued on an unrestricted basis as a request for proposal, using NAICS Code 541990 All Other Professional, Scientific, Technical Service (Size Standard $19.5M).

The solicitation documents will be issued on or about the week of March 17, 2025 and will be posted on System for Award Management (https://sam.gov).

This notice is for informational purposes only and is not a request for submission of offers. The Government is not obligated to issue a solicitation as a result of this notice. No other information is available until issuance of the solicitation. In order to be awarded a contract an offeror must have a UEI http://www.nps.gov/policy/Interimpeerreview.htm number, be registered and active in the System for Award Management (SAM), http://www.sam.gov, and have completed their Online Representations and Certifications.

Contracting Office:

National Park Service, ConOps National Contracting Office 7333 West Jefferson Avenue, Suite 100 Lakewood, CO 80235

Government Point of Contact:

Joyce Hongell, Contracting Officer, joyce_hongell@nps.gov Christina Gingras, Contract Specialist, christina_gingras@nps.gov mailto:joyce_hongell@nps.gov mailto:christina_gingras@nps.gov