RSES Final Request for Proposal (RFP) Cover Letter_26MAY22.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center 100 NASA Road Hampton, VA 23681-2199

TO: All Prospective Offerors

SUBJECT: Request for Proposal (RFP), Solicitation No. 80LARC22R0003, for Research, Science, and Engineering Services (RSES)

You are invited to submit a proposal in response to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center’s (LaRC’s) Research, Science, and Engineering Services (RSES) solicitation. The principal purpose of this requirement is to provide specialized research, science, and engineering services supporting the 15 technical discipline areas as described in Exhibit A – Performance Work Statement (PWS). The work encompasses the full range of Technology Readiness Level from fundamental research through flight rated hardware design/development. The requirements may depend on specialized skills of a single individual or multi-disciplinary team of individuals; or close integration with tasks performed by NASA personnel, other contractor staff, academia, and/or other Government agency personnel.

NASA will conduct this acquisition as a total small business set-aside competition. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541715 and the small business size standard is 1,500.

This competitive acquisition will result in one contract award consisting of Cost-Plus Award Fee Contract Line Items Numbers (CLINS) for the core mission services, with the ability to convert to Cost-Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF). The resulting award will also include a CPFF Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) CLIN for non-core support. The contract will have up to an 8-year period of performance (3-year base period, one 2-year option period, and three 1-year option periods).

The anticipated contract award date is February 28, 2023, with a June 1, 2023 contract effective date. The core mission support will be performed primarily at NASA LaRC, contractor/subcontractor offices and facilities, or via telework/remote work at contractor employee homes aligned with NASA and LaRC’s Future of Work (FoW) initiatives (reference clause F.4). Additional locations may be identified in Task Orders or TDNs, including at other NASA Centers.

Potential offerors should pay close attention to all solicitation instructions; however, the following requirements list is summarized to assist in proposal development. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and the solicitation terms and conditions and provisions in sections L and M take precedence:

1. A 90-day Phase-in period will be conducted. The phase-in has a separate firm fixed-priced CLIN.

2. The Government will make available existing Installation-Accountable Government Property (IAGP) for onsite contract performance and Government Furnished Property (GFP) for offsite use as described in the RFP.

3. Pre-Proposal Conference: A pre-proposal conference will be held on June 7, 2022, at

1:00PM EST, via Microsoft Teams. Further instructions can be found in the RFP at L.7.

4. NASA has determined that this acquisition may give rise to a potential organizational conflict of interest (OCI). Offerors should refer to NFS clause 1852.209-71 Limitation of Future Contracting and LaRC clause 52.227-96 Organizational Conflicts of Interest, for a description of the potential conflict(s) and any restrictions on future contracting. The offeror’s current and potential OCIs and its OCI plan will be assessed as part of each offeror’s responsibility determination (see DRFP L.24(d)(4)).

5. Please note the following items are required for this acquisition and will be assessed as part of each offeror’s responsibility determination pursuant to FAR Part 9, Contractor Qualifications (see DRFP L.24(d)):

a. OCI – see paragraph 4 above.

b. Top Secret Facilities Clearance: Required for this acquisition in accordance with the DD Form 254, Contract Security Classification Specification included in the DRFP. For proposals submitted as Joint Ventures, refer to DRFP L.24(d)(3).

c. Accounting System: System shall meet the requirements set forth on the reverse side of the Standard Form 1408 (see Attachment 5) and is in compliance with FAR 52.216-7, Allowable Cost and Payment, and is capable of accurately collecting, segregating and recording costs by contract and by individual task order.

d. ISO 9001 Certified/Registered: Quality system shall be certified/registered to the current International Standard ISO 9001, Quality Management Systems Requirements, upon proposal receipt.

e. CMMI: The contractor (including subcontractors) performing software engineering shall have non-expired rating at Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Development (CMMI-DEV) Maturity Level 3 or higher for Class A software.

f. Phase-in Plan: The offeror shall submit a Phase-In Plan in accordance with Exhibit B, Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL), DRD RSES 33, Phase-In Plan. This plan will be included in any resulting contract.

6. NASA Langley Research Center appreciates the comments received in response to the release of the Draft RFP. These comments resulted in improvements to the quality and content of the overall RFP. Offerors should review the RFP in its entirety, as its content has changed from the Draft RFP version. The following list identifies some areas where significant changes or clarifications have been made from the Draft RFP to this final

RFP. Note that the Government’s responses to questions/comments received to date have already been posted to sam.gov at https://sam.gov/opp/ceec000c26eb4036bccbb4dcffedbcc8/view.

a. F.2 Period of Performance: Anticipated period of performance (including phase-in period) has been pushed back by approximately one month.

b. F.4 Worksite Locations: Language added to address on-site space available and parameters for off-site/near-site/remote personnel.

c. H.5 Key Personnel and Facilities: Updated language to clarify that Key Facilities will not be evaluated as part of the Technical Volume.

d. H.7 NASA Security Program/Foreign National Employee Access Requirements and Identification: The title and language of this clause has been revised.

e. H.23 Travel Outside of the United States: The language of this clause has been revised.

f. Section J Updates: Added Exhibit M – Table B.4 Contracting Funding. Added Exhibit N – Table B.9 IDIQ Schedule of Rates. Added Attachment 2 - NASA Model Equal Employment Opportunity Program Status Report: FY 2020

g. L.19 Table L-1: The page limit for the Technical Proposal has increased from 35 pages to 45 pages. The page limit for the Past Performance Proposal has increased from 25 pages to 35 pages.

h. L.21: Removed language that described evaluation of Total Compensation Plan

(TCP).

i. L.22(c): Revised language addressing Contractor Team Arrangements.

j. L.22(d): Added requirement that, if the Offeror is a Mentor-Protégé Joint

Venture, at least one (1) of the Offeror’s contract references shall be from the Protégé partner.

k. L.22(d)(12):

i. Moved L.22(d)(12)1.a. and 1.c to L.22(d)(13), and deleted L.22(d)(12)1.b.

ii. Removed the paragraphs on “Size” and “Complexity,” and updated M.7(d) to include this information.

iii. Deleted L.12(d)(14) and moved this updated language and Table L-2, regarding Technical Performance Areas (TPAs) and PWS Technical Service Areas (TSC’s), to L.22(d)(12).

l. L.23:

i. Added language to address Program Management Office (PMO) costs, proposed off-site facility costs, and ODC plug number for Graduate Research Assistants.

ii. Clarified that the Proposed Fixed Fee amount shall be no greater than the proposed Award Fee Amount.

iii. Clarified that the IDIQ Schedule of Rates will be incorporated into the contract award as Exhibit N.

m. L.24(d)(7): If the offeror can provide the information required in L.13(b) along with its proposal submission in this volume, then the offeror may defer submission of the GPMP until 30 days after contract award.

https://sam.gov/opp/ceec000c26eb4036bccbb4dcffedbcc8/view

n. L.24(d)(10): Added requirement for offeror to include information on proposed off-site facility(ies).

o. L.24(e): Added requirement for Joint Ventures (JV) to submit the approved JV agreement.

p. M.6(d): Removed reference to evaluation of TCP. Marked as “Reserved.”

q. M.7(d): Significant updates to the verbiage. Updates were primarily moving language from L.22 to M.7.

r. M.8: clarified what is included in the Total Evaluated Price. Updated M.8(b)(2) to clarify potential impact of TCP evaluation on Mission Suitability.

This list is not intended to cover all changes nor describe all RFP requirements.

Offerors should carefully review the RFP in its entirety.

7. Offerors are required to have a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code that matches the corporate address submitted with its proposal.

Offerors are encouraged to refer to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision 52.215-1, INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS–COMPETITIVE ACQUISITION, in particular paragraph (f)(4) which discusses the Government’s right to award a contract without discussions.

Documents related to this acquisition, including this letter, the solicitation, attachments, exhibits, and any amendments will be available through the Government-wide point of entry website at www.SAM.gov. Potential Offerors are requested to periodically monitor the websites for updates.

NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clause 1852.215-84, OMBUDSMAN, is applicable. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Marvin Horne, (228) 364-2285, marvin.l.horne@nasa.gov.

This RFP does not commit NASA Langley Research Center to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA Langley Research Center to procure or contract for these services. This request is not an authorization to proceed, and does not authorize payment for any charges incurred by the offeror for performing any of the work called for in this solicitation.

Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation shall be due no later than July 14, 2022 2:00PM EST. Proposals for this solicitation are required to be submitted through NASA’s Enterprise File Sharing and Sync Box (EFSS Box), a FedRAMP Moderate certified platform.

Potential offerors, especially those that have not previously submitted a proposal utilizing NASA’s EFSS Box, are encouraged to review the solicitation instruction at L.20 which provides instructions related to the submission of proposal via EFSS Box. Offerors are encouraged to check with their corporate IT staff to determine if there are firewall restrictions that would need to be addressed prior to the submission of proposal files through NASA’s EFSS Box.

mailto:marvin.l.horne@nasa.gov

In accordance with NFS 1815.201(f), a “Blackout Notice” has been issued to NASA personnel.

All inquiries/communications pertaining to this acquisition shall be directed only to the Contracting Officer listed below.

All questions regarding this RFP shall be submitted in writing, electronically to Ryan Bradley, Contracting Officer, at LARC-RSES@mail.nasa.gov, with a Cc to ryan.d.bradley@nasa.gov on or before June 10, 2022 no later than 2:00PM EST. Offerors are encouraged to submit questions as soon as possible for consideration.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Ryan Bradley Contracting Officer

Enclosure:

RFP 80LARC22R0003_Sections A-M RFP 80LARC22R0003_Attachments (Zip File) RFP 80LARC22R0003_Exhibits (Zip File) mailto:LARC-RSES@mail.nasa.gov mailto:ryan.d.bradley@nasa.gov