GAS PHASE KINETICS ABSTRACTING R1 8-6-12.doc

SOLICITATION NO.: SB1341-12-RQ-0616

TITLE: KINETICS ABSTRACTING SERVICES

THIS IS A RE-POST OF SOLICITATION NO.: SB1341-12-RQ-0398

THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL SERVICES PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6 – STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS-AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. FAR PART 13 SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES ARE UTILIZED IN THIS PROCUREMENT. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED. This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-60.***

*** The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541990 with a small business size standard of $14.0M. This acquisition is 100% set-aside for small business***

***The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking to acquire kinetics abstracting services for the Gas Phase Chemical Kinetics Database***

***All interested small businesses may provide a firm fixed-price quotation for the following:

BASE PERIOD

CLIN 0001: Contractor Performance of Requirements associated with Tasks 1-2 and Related Deliverable(s) in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

QTY: 1 JOB

OPTION YEAR 1

CLIN 0002: Contractor Performance of Requirements associated with Tasks 1-2 and Related Deliverable(s) in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

QTY: 1 JOB

OPTION YEAR 2

CLIN 0003: Contractor Performance of Requirements associated with Tasks 1-2 and Related Deliverable(s) in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

QTY: 1 JOB

OPTION YEAR 3

CLIN 0004: Contractor Performance of Requirements associated with Tasks 1-2 and Related Deliverable(s) in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

QTY: 1 JOB

OPTION YEAR 4

CLIN 0005: Contractor Performance of Requirements associated with Tasks 1-2 and Related Deliverable(s) in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

The following is the Performance Work Statement (PWS):

NIST Gas Phase Chemical Kinetics Database:

Abstracting Data from the Scientific Literature

I. BACKGROUND

The Chemical and Biochemical Reference Data Division (CBRDD) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has invested significant time and resources to address U.S. knowledge base needs regarding development of new technologies that require the input of chemical kinetic data. One component of this work is to make available to the nation archival sources of high quality kinetic information.

As part of this requirement NIST is entering kinetic data abstracted from the scientific literature into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database (www.kinetics.nist.gov).

The data in the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database has been used for decades and continues to be used by Evaluation Panels in the fields of Atmospheric Chemistry and Combustion Chemistry, including the NASA/JPL Data Evaluation -- Chemical Kinetics and Photochemical Data for Use in Atmospheric Studies (jpldataeval.jpl.nasa.gov) , the IUPAC Subcommittee for Gas Kinetic Data Evaluations (www.iupac-kinetic.ch.cam.ac.uk), the IUPAC Subcommittee for Evaluated Kinetic Data for Combustion Modeling (www.iupac.org/web/ins/2005-036-1-100), and the PrIMe (Process Informatics Model) project (primekinetics.org), and others.

Chemical kinetic data are necessary for the technological development in a wide variety of fields. The government has an interest in stimulating such development by making available the necessary information to technology developers and by stimulating new and better methods of making such information available to the scientific community.

II. SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall read articles from the scientific literature in the field of chemical kinetics and computational chemistry, abstract the relevant numerical and chemical data and associated metadata, and enter this information into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database using the NIST Database Entry Software. The primary objective is for the Contractor to update the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database with new information from the scientific literature as it becomes available.

At least twice a year, a bibliographic list of articles to be abstracted will be provided to the Contractor by the NIST Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). NIST will also provide this information by uploading the bibliographic data into the Chemical Kinetics Database. In addition, PDF files of each of the articles will be made available to the Contractor online through the Chemical Kinetics Database system.

The expected primary outcome is the entry of relevant kinetic data from the recent scientific literature into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database. It is expected that this will involve abstracting of information of up to 100 articles every 3 months and 400 articles per year. This will include articles where numerical and metadata could be abstracted into the database, as well as articles where information could not be abstracted (and reasons provided in the reports).

III. SPECIFIC TASKS

The Contractor shall provide all support for project oversight, equipment, administration and technical execution of this effort.

The Contractor is responsible for maintaining accurate records of project activities.

1. The Contractor shall abstract kinetic data and auxiliary information from the requested articles and provide the abstracted data and information as electronic entries into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database. NIST-developed data entry software will be provided by the COR and shall be used to enter the requisite data. This will require secure electronic access to computer systems behind the NIST firewall. Data to be entered will include detailed information on chemical reactions, chemical structures, computational methods, and uncertainties.

2. The Contractor shall also provide a summary report of all articles, numerical data and metadata abstracted, molecular information entered into the database, and a list of any problems encountered with the articles or the database.

IV. DELIVERABLES AND DUE DATES

1. For each article, detailed information on chemical reactions, chemical structures, computational methods, uncertainties, relevant metadata, and auxiliary information contained in the article shall be entered into the Chemical Kinetics Database.

2. A written electronic report, formatted as both a PDF or Microsoft Word file, containing the following:

a. A bibliographic list of the abstracted articles

b. A list of any articles where numerical data and/or metadata could not be abstracted and the reasons for such. For every article, whether data and metadata is abstracted or not, some entry in the electronic database shall be provided – for example, “this article is a discussion of mechanisms, and provides no rate constants that can be abstracted” or “this article contains rates of expression under Supercritical Water conditions, and hence are not Gas Phase rate expressions” or “this article contains 50-80 rate expressions, but most of the reactions are negligible, and only data for relevant reactions have been abstracted” or “no rate expression is provided for this reaction, but a barrier of 45 kJ/mol was computed”.

c. A list of any bugs or errors noted in the database or data entry software

d. A list of molecules entered into the database together with their systematic names (and trivial names), molecular formulas, structures (both hand-drawn and MDL mol files), database identification numbers, and CAS Registry Numbers, where available.

Due no later than 180 days after Contractor is supplied with list of articles to be abstracted.

3. Gas phase kinetic data abstracted from the scientific literature and electronically entered into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database.

Due no later than 180 days after Contractor is supplied with list of articles to be abstracted..

4. Progress Reports: The Contractor shall provide quarterly progress reports that document the following for the previous 3-mo. period, to include: activities accomplished, any problems encountered, planned activities for the next quarter, and any issues, risks, and recommendations that were brought to the attention of the COR.

Due no later than the 10th day of the next quarter.

Standards for Acceptance of Deliverables: The COR will provide comments on each deliverable within 14 calendar days from receipt. The Contractor shall make any needed changes to the deliverables within 14 calendar days from receipt of electronic or written comments from the COR.

V. PERIOD AND PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

The base period of performance shall be September 1, 2012 through August 31, 2013. The Government may exercise up to four 1-year option periods. Each option will be a continuation of the work described in Sections III and IV. For each option period, the number of articles to be abstracted will be unchanged from the base period, as will the deliverables and deliverable due dates.

Option Period 1: September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2014

Option Period 2: September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2015

Option Period 3: September 1, 2015 through August 31, 2016

Option Period 4: September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017

Performance shall be provided either on site at the NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD campus, or offsite with secure electronic access to the Database. Normal duty hours at NIST are Monday through Friday 7AM-7PM with the exception of Federal holidays or other official closures - http://www.opm.gov/operating_status_schedules/fedhol/2012.asp

VI. GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED PROPERTY, DATA AND/OR INFORMATION

Upon award of this requirement, NIST will provide the Contractor with office space, equipment, email and internet access, and NIST library access. The Contractor will have an access to all scientific data relevant to the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database.

Any property, data and/or information provided by the Government during performance of this project remains the property of the Government and shall be surrendered to the Government upon completion or termination of this requirement. Likewise, any deliverables generated under this project remain the property of the Government.

VII. RISK ASSESSMENT

The HSPD-12 Security Risk Level assigned to this project is low risk.

VIII. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

DESIRED OUTPUT: Gas phase kinetic data abstracted from the scientific literature and electronically entered into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database.

REQUIRED SERVICE: The Contractor shall abstract kinetic information from the scientific literature and electronically enter it into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database using the NIST Data Entry Software.

PERFORMANCE STANDARD: Articles must be abstracted into the database within 180 days of request. The Contractor must provide a written report detailing their activities as described under Deliverables (Section IV). These reports, together with monitoring of the data entry for errors, will be used to measure performance.

Numerical data entries shall be at least 97% correct. Written notice will be provided to the Contractor of any errors noted and the Contractor shall have 14 days from that time to correct any such errors.

MONITORING METHOD: Performance will be monitored by the COR through review of the written reports provided by the Contractor and by monitoring the correctness of data entered into the NIST Chemical Kinetics Database.

IX. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The Contractor may invoice the Government quarterly in arrears upon acceptance by the COR that the required deliverables are of acceptable quality and that all other on-going tasks are up-to- date.

X. CONTRACTOR’S MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

The Contractor shall have at least a MS degree or higher in the Physical Sciences or Engineering. The Contractor shall also have at least 5 years experience in the field of Gas Phase and Chemical Kinetics with a demonstrated expertise through publications in the open literature and presentations at scientific conferences. It is expected that the successful candidate will need to have a strong technical understanding of gas phase chemical kinetics, chemical nomenclature, experimental methods in gas phase kinetics, and computational chemistry methods.

XI. GENERAL INFORMATION

This work does not involve confidential or proprietary data.

Misconduct or Disruption of Services: At any time during the performance period of this project, the COR or Operating Unit (OU) Director may request the Contractor employee be immediately removed from the premises if they determine, at their unilateral discretion, that any of the Contractor’s actions or impaired state to be a disruption to the workforce.

Safety: The Contractor shall be responsible for knowing and complying with all installation safety prevention regulations. Such regulations include, but are not limited to, general safety, fire prevention, and waste disposal.

Security: NIST is a restricted campus. An identification badge is required for access for entry into buildings and also is shown to the armed Security Police when entering the campus.

Absences Due to Emergency: The Contractor shall contact the COR within the first 2 hours of each duty day that he/she is unable to report to work.

Replacements: Absences, such as vacations, shall be coordinated and approved at least 30 days in advance and mutually agreed upon by the COR and the Contracting Officer. Scheduled absences will be limited to two (2) weeks. If requested by the COR, the Contractor shall provide replacements for all absences.

Contract employees working under this contract shall be paid only for hours actually worked at the hourly rates established in the contract. Payment to the Contractor will not be made for temporary work stoppage due to circumstances beyond the control of NIST, such as acts of god, inclement weather, power outages, or temporary closing of facilities.

Identification Badges: Contractor shall comply with NIST identification and access requirements. The Contractor is responsible for absences due to expired identification and access documents. Each Contractor shall wear a visible identification badge provided by the NIST Security Office. The badge must show the full name, title, and if required by NIST, the words “Contractor” in front. The Contractor shall turn in the NIST identification badge and vehicle pass to the COR or Contracting Officer (CO) upon termination of their services under this contract.

Vehicle Registration: The Contractor must register their vehicle with the NIST Security Office to gain access to the campus. A valid driver’s license, Government-furnished civilian ID, proof of insurance and current registration must be presented to the NIST Security Office, at which time a NIST vehicle pass will be issued. The pass shall be displayed on the vehicle’s rear view mirror in accordance with instructions. The Contractor shall follow NIST procedures for removal and turn-in of the vehicle pass upon termination of services under this contract.

Contractor shall not use Government facilities or other Government property in connection with conducting other research activities not associated with requirements under this Performance Work Statement.

Media Inquiries: The Contractor shall not respond to any media inquiries. Any inquiries from the media shall be immediately relayed to the COR and/or CO. There shall be no interviews, comments, or any other response without the knowledge and approval of the NIST Public Affairs Office.

Travel: None

***END OF PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT***

***INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS / EVALUATION FACTORS***

***All vendors shall submit the following:

Technical Quotation (Vol. I), Past Performance/References (Vol. II) and a Business/Pricing Quotation (Vol. III), as three (3) separate electronic files. Incomplete quotations may be considered non-responsive and removed from further consideration. Quotations shall be clearly and concisely written as well as being neat, indexed (cross-indexed as appropriate) and logically assembled. All pages of each part shall be appropriately numbered and identified with the name of the offeror, the date, and the solicitation number. A 1-page transmittal letter signed by an individual authorized to commit the organization shall be transmitted with the quotation to the Government. Each quotation shall be on 8.5” x 11” paper, in a commercially standard font, not smaller than 12 point font. Each page in the quotation shall be separately numbered. The quotation shall be limited to fifteen (15) single-sided, single-spaced pages (excluding the letter of transmittal, resumes, certifications, cover letter, letters of commitment, and past-performance information).

Overall Arrangement of Documents

Technical Quotation addressing all technical subfactors (Volume I) - No pricing information shall be included in the technical quotation

Past Performance/References (Volume II)

Business/Pricing Quotation (Volume III) ***This is an Open-Market Combined Synopsis/Solicitation for services as defined herein. The Government intends to award a Purchase Order as a result of this Combined Synopsis/Solicitation that will include the terms and conditions that are set forth herein. In order to facilitate the award process, ALL quotes shall include a statement regarding the terms and conditions herein as follows:

The Offeror shall state “The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document without modification, deletion, or addition.”

OR

The Offeror shall state “The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document with the exception, deletion, or addition of the following:

Offeror shall list exception(s) and rationale for the exception(s).

Offerors that fail to furnish required representations or information, or reject the terms and conditions of the solicitation may be excluded from consideration.

***Please note that this procurement is not being conducted under the GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program or another Government-Wide Area Contract (GWAC). If an Offeror submits a quotation based upon an FSS or GWAC contract, the Government will accept the quoted price. However, the terms and conditions stated herein will be included in any resultant Purchase Order, not the terms and conditions of the Offeror’s FSS or GWAC contract, and the statement required above shall be included in the quotation.

***All questions regarding this solicitation shall be submitted in writing via e-mail to the Contract Specialist, Randy Schroyer, at randy.schroyer@nist.gov or Contracting Officer, Cheryl Rice, at cheryl.rice@nist.gov no later than August 10, 2012.

***The due date and time for receipt of quotations is August 17, 2012 no later than 5:00PM EST.

***Offerors shall e-mail their quotation to randy.schroyer@nist.gov so that it is received by the response date/time for this solicitation. It is the responsibility of the offeror to confirm NIST’s receipt of its quotation. Each quotation shall include sufficient data to allow the Government to determine the amount, realism and consistency of the quoted fixed price.

The Government will award a purchase order resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose quotation is the most highly rated, and conforming to the solicitation, results in the best value to the Government, non-price and price factors considered. NIST reserves the right to make award to other than the lowest-priced offeror or to the offeror ranked highest technically, if it determines that to do so would result in the best value to the Government.

The Government intends to make a single award but reserves the right to make multiple awards or make no award as a result of this RFQ.

The Government intends to evaluate quotations and award a purchase order without discussions with offerors. Therefore, the offeror's initial quotation should contain the offeror's best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct discussions if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary. The Government may reject any and or all quotations if such action is in the public interest; accept other than the lowest price quotation; and waive informalities and minor irregularities in quotation received.

Non-price factors are listed in descending order of importance. Technical and Past Performance, when combined, are more important than price. Subfactors 1-2 are of equal importance. The relative importance of price will increase with the degree of evaluated equality of the technical factors.

TECHNICAL

NIST will evaluate quotations, based on the information submitted in support of these factors/subfactors, using the following subfactors:

Technical SubFactor 1 Technical Approach The offeror shall provide sufficient information to demonstrate its understanding of the requirements, providing a concise, detailed, and thorough discussion of its abstracting/data entry approach, to successfully provide the services required.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

***Technical Approach – The Government will evaluate the offeror's approach based on the information contained in the technical quotation to determine the extent of its understanding of the requirements, including the soundness of the offeror's proposed methodology to effectively meet and comply with the tasks outlined in the PWS, to ensure successful performance of this procurement and any risks associated with the offeror's technical approach and capability.

Technical SubFactor 2 Key Personnel Qualifications The offeror shall describe its experience in the fields of chemical kinetics and computational chemistry and its ability with abstracting related services as outlined in the PWS AND demonstrate its key personnel have the qualifications noted in Section X of the PWS to perform the work described therein.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

***Key Personnel Qualifications - the Government will evaluate the offeror and key personnel experiences and the resume(s) of its proposed key personnel to determine the nature and extent of the offeror's successful completion of the same or similar services.

PAST PERFORMANCE/REFERENCES

The offeror shall provide at least three examples of past performance conducted within the last three years of contracts for relevant work of a similar type and scope as the current requirement with federal, state or local governments and/or commercial customers. If the offeror has no relevant past performance it should include a statement to that effect in its proposal. The government reserves the right to consider past performance data obtained from sources other than those provided by the offeror in its proposal.

The description of each reference described in this section shall not exceed a half page. For each of the contracts, the offeror shall provide the following information:

· Contract number

· Client’s name and address

· Dollar value

· Period of performance

· Narrative describing the requirement and its relevance to the current requirement

· Name of contracting officer or point of contact, telephone number and e-mail address

The offeror may include: a) past performance information regarding any problems encountered on the contracts described above and corrective actions taken to resolve those problems; and b)Any quality awards or certifications, letters of appreciation, commendations, industry recognition of excellence or special awards received with respect to performance of services. The offeror shall describe when the award, certification, etc. was received, and may provide as an attachment to this part.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

***Past Performance – the Government will evaluate the offeror's past performance information to determine its relevance to the current requirements and the extent to which it demonstrates that the offeror has successfully completed relevant contracts in the past three years. In assessing the offeror's past performance, NIST will evaluate the quality, timeliness, and ability to control cost and schedule of the past work. The Government will assign a neutral rating to offerors with no relevant past performance in the past three years

PRICE

1. Price - firm, fixed-price for the required technical services; the following tables shall be used for calculation purposes:

BASE PERIOD

PROPOSED LABOR CATEGORY(IES)

Task 1 – Abstract Data and Perform Electronic Entry into the Chemical Kinetics Database

1.

2.

Total Hours=

FIRM FIXED PRICE FOR TASK 1: $_______________( CONTRACTOR FILL-IN

Task 2 – Prepare Summary Report

1.

2.

Total Hours=

FIRM FIXED PRICE FOR TASK 2: $_______________( CONTRACTOR FILL-IN

OPTION YEAR 1

Task 1 – Abstract Data and Perform Electronic Entry into the Chemical Kinetics Database

1.

2.

Total Hours=

1.

2.

Total Hours=

OPTION YEAR 2

Task 1 – Abstract Data and Perform Electronic Entry into the Chemical Kinetics Database

1.

2.

Total Hours=

1.

2.

Total Hours=

OPTION YEAR 3

Task 1 – Abstract Data and Perform Electronic Entry into the Chemical Kinetics Database

1.

2.

Total Hours=

1.

2.

Total Hours=

OPTION YEAR 4

Task 1 – Abstract Data and Perform Electronic Entry into the Chemical Kinetics Database

1.

2.

Total Hours=

1.

2.

Total Hours=

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

***Price - the Government will evaluate the offeror's proposed labor rates and levels of effort to determine whether the proposed cost complies with the instructions articulated above and are realistic, complete, and reasonable in relation to the solicitation requirements.

CLAUSES

The full text of a FAR provision or clause may be accessed electronically at http://acquisition.gov/far/index.html.

The following provisions apply to this acquisition:

52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items;

52.212-2 Evaluation—Commercial Items;

52.212-3 Offerors Representations and Certifications- Commercial Items;

52.217-5 Evaluation of Options.

All interested offerors must be actively registered in the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) at the CCR website www.ccr.gov and must complete annual representations and certifications on-line at http://orca.bpn.gov in accordance with FAR 52.212-3 Offerors Representations and Certifications- Commercial Items. If paragraph (j) of the provision is applicable, a written submission is required.

The following clauses apply to this acquisition:

52.204-9 Personal Identity Verification of Contractor Personnel;

52.217-8 Option to Extend Services;

52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract

52.223-5 Pollution Prevention and Right-to-Know Information;

52.227-14 Rights in Data—General;

52.232-18 Availability of Funds;

52.237-2 Protection of Government Buildings, Equipment, and Vegetation;

52.245-1 Government Property;

52.252-2 Clauses Incorporated by Reference;

52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions—Commercial Items;

52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders— Commercial Items including subparagraphs:

52.203-6 Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government;

52.204-10 Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards;

52.209-6 Protecting the Government’s Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment;

52.219-6 Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside;

52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting;

52.219-28 Post Award Small Business Program Re-representation;

52.222-3 Convict Labor;

52.222-21 Prohibition of Segregated Facilities;

52.222-26 Equal Opportunity;

52.222-35 Equal Opportunity for Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans;

52.222-36 Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities;

52.222-37 Employment Reports on Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans;

52.223-18 Contractor Policy to Ban Text Messaging While Driving;

52.225-13 Restriction on Certain Foreign Purchases; and 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central Contractor Registration The following Department of Commerce (CAR) clauses apply to this acquisition:

1352.201-70 Contracting Officer’s Authority;

1352.201-72 Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR);

1352.208-70 Restrictions on Printing and Duplicating;

1352.209-72 Restrictions Against Disclosure;

1352.209-73 Compliance with the Laws;

1352.209-74 Organizational Conflict of Interest;

1352.233-70 Agency Protests;

1352.237-71 Security Processing Requirements—Low Risk;

1352.237-75 Key Personnel;

1352.239-72 Security Requirements for Information Technology Resources;

1352.246-70 Place of Acceptance;

1352.270-70 Period of Performance; and

And other appropriate clauses as needed

Department of Commerce Agency-Level Protest Procedures Level above the Contracting Officer is also incorporated. It can be downloaded at www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/agency.htm.