RFI_Qualitative Analysis Software (Nvivo or eqaul).pdf

Request for Information:

U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources and Environment

Forest Service

Nvivo software or equal

April 29th, 2024

Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought Notice (SSN)

This RFI is issued in accordance with FAR Part 10, Market Research. It is for information, planning, and market research purposes only and shall not be construed as either a solicitation or obligation on the part of the USDA FS.

Acknowledgment of receipt of responses beyond a system generated submission notification will not be made, nor will respondents be notified of the outcome of the review of the information received. However, USDA FS reserves the right to contact one or more the respondents if additional information is required. This notice is not to be constructed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred to interested parties for responses to this notification.

1. Introduction

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service is in the pre-solicitation phase for Nvivo software or equivalent. The software must be a qualitative data analysis software capable of supporting the scientific research of the Forest Service

2. Background The USFS is a federal agency and subcomponent of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Established in 1905, the USFS is a federal agency that manages public lands in national forests and grasslands under a founding principle, "To provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run". The agency’s mission is to “sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations”. The USFS has the responsibility for stewardship of more than 193 million acres of the nation’s forests and grasslands; for developing and communicating scientific knowledge through research and development that leads to informed natural resource decision-making; for delivering technical assistance through state and private forestry programs; and for sharing knowledge and experience with others in the global community through international forestry. Performing this mission requires a strong and effective network of operational and administrative support.

3. Purpose and Objective(s)

The Forest Service wants to procure a qualitative data analysis computer software package that can be widely used by researchers across a range of fields in the social sciences, including sociology, geography, psychology, communication, and others. The qualitative analysis software shall be able to be used widely in both academic and applied research settings.

Key capabilities of the qualitative data analysis software required to meet the Governments needs shall be:

• Seamless integration with other widely-used software applications, including EndNote and Qualtrics (the latter is widely used by participants for implementation of survey-based data collection). This will allow participants to import online survey results from Qualtrics and collaboratively analyze our survey results in conjunction with other text and transcripts.

• Ability to import and work with very large data sets or coding hierarchies with no limit to the size of the hierarchy of data storage or coding structures. Allowing for greater flexibility and capacity in analysis of large and complex data sets. Unlimited codes allow researchers to design a coding scheme where all relationships between topics can be diagrammed, including adding multiple sibling or child nodes to create hierarchies of concepts and to convert these into nodes in a project.

• Ability to save project files in a that allows access and collaboration to these project files by USFS employees and our university and nonprofit collaborators using the same software. Al

• Built-in tools for data visualization including a Matrix Query that allow visualization of multiple searches at one time and accessing qualitative and quantitative results concurrently.

• Built-in tools for memoing (that is, organizing notes related to the meanings, relationships, and interpretation of codes), including the ability to directly code memos themselves.

• The ability to visually interrogate overlaps in coding without building more complex queries.

4. Response Guidelines Companies/organizations who wish to respond to this RFI should submit responses electronically, via the link below no later than 5:00 PM EST on May 2, 2024.

https://forms.office.com/g/rqzMSZqk0z

If there are any questions related to this RFI, they can be directed to the following:

Brandn Newland, Contract Specialist brandon.newlandl@usda.gov

Katherine Pasini, Contract Specialist Katherine.pasini@usda.gov

Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received that is marked proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

5. Provisions FAR 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997)

(a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

(b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" may be used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It will not be used as a proposal.

https://forms.office.com/g/rqzMSZqk0z mailto:brandon.newlandl@usda.gov mailto:Katherine.pasini@usda.gov

(c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of Market Research and planning to support solicitation preparation.

(End of provision)