PreSol-10 Memo for Record_Sole Source_ORCID.pdf

MEMO FOR RECORD

Sole Source Determination

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) plans to contract by means other than full and open competition. This Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) establishes the justification and approval for the use of one of the exceptions to full and open competition allowed by 41 U.S.C. 3304 as promulgated by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6.302, FAR 13.501, and 15 U.S.C. 637(m) as promulgated by FAR 19.1506.

The proposed action is a follow‐on contract to renew membership with Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) for the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), DOE laboratories, and other federal agency partners. The membership period is 4/1/22 – 3/31/23. The 2022 membership category remains the same ‐ Premium Consortium Membership API (Application Programming Interface.) Members receive access to the Member API, which facilitates registration, and information exchange with ORCID records. This API can also be used to request access from a record holder to their trusted party record data. Members receive personalized implementation support and integrated application user acceptance testing. Benefits included with the Premium Consortium Membership are:

• Update Notifications (webhooks) API‐based notifications when changes are made to ORCID records for iDs embedded in your system(s)

• Email support for API usage and general questions for each set of credentials used (priority queue)

• Webinar‐style orientation meeting / support call to aid in integration and development up to 2 per month vs 1 per month with basic

• Integrated user acceptance testing in preparation for launches and releases Unlimited vs up to 4x/yr with basic

• Analytics Reports Monthly (personalized including email domain stats) vs 2x annually (general) with basic

ORCID is the only vendor that can provide digital identifiers (ORCID iDs) so that researchers can benefit from being uniquely identified and reliably connected with their professional information (affiliations, awards, publications, and more), thereby precluding consideration of other digital identifiers by other companies and market research indicates other companies’ similar products, or products lack the particular required iDs, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, our needs.

The award of a firm‐fixed price contract is anticipated to a single source under the authority of FAR 6.302‐1(a)(2)(i)(ii), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements, to ORCID.

The estimated total contract cost is $104,520.00.

The applicable NAICS Code is 541990 ‐ All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services with a size standard of $16.5M.

Market research was conducted in accordance with FAR Part 10 and included Internet and GSA eLibrary searches for vendors that could provide access to the ORCID database for purpose of adding and retrieving author records and integrating ORCID data, linkage, and tools into our information systems.

The only vendor located was ORCID.

Since a determination has been made that there is no expectation of competition for this order and in accordance with FAR Part 6.302‐1 ‐‐ Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements ‐‐ (b)(1)(i) “unique supplies or services available from only one source or only one supplier with unique capabilities” ‐‐ it is determined to be in the best interest of the Government to award a purchase order to Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) in the amount of $104,520.00. A Notice of Intent to issue a sole‐source award was posted on Sam.gov from 3/8/22‐ 3/23/22. No inquiries or responses were received. Per FAR Part 13.106‐1(b) ‐ The ORCID membership fee does not exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold. The Contracting Officer determined only one reasonable source was available for this procurement.

Mary C. Halterman, Contracting Officer Date