Answers_Solicitation_SBAHQ-15-Q-0030_Questions.pdf

Solicitation SBAHQ-15-Q-0030

Research on Miscellaneous Small Business Topics Using Large Datasets

Questions and Answers

1.) Could you please provide the incumbent contract number? N/A

If not, is this a new requirement?

While the office has posted this solicitation before, it is considered a solicitation for new and independent proposals and is not a continuation of a prior product.

2.) Are vendors submitting a proposal response to this notification required to have a GSA Schedule?

Vendors are not required to have a GSA schedule.

3.) The solicitation states

“This is a partial small business set-aside where the Office of Advocacy and NWBC expect to award the majority of research contracts to 68% small businesses but recognize that in certain instances, university or other non-profit organizations may be in the best position to fulfill technical responsibilities in a cost-effective way that maximizes federal dollars.”

I assume this means that, unlike prior SBA solicitations, this one could be submitted through my university’s grants/research administration office, and that the funds would be awarded to the university. Is that correct?

A firm fixed price contract (award) will result from this solicitation. No grants will be issued from this solicitation. The winning contractor will receive submit invoices, and receive payment based on work performed.

4.) In the solicitation, the Government states that the solicitation is “a partial small business set-aside where the Office of Advocacy and NWBC expect to award the majority of research contracts to 68% small businesses.” Is the Government’s intent to also ensure that a certain percentage of awards are made to Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, HUBZone, 8 (a), and Women-Owned Small Business Concerns?

The Government’s intent is to ensure that at least 68% of the solicitations go to small businesses, with the remainder, able to go to other than small businesses. No other additional set-aside classifications (i.e. Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Hubzone, 8(a), etc) are being used at this time.

5.) Are Offeror’s limited to proposing only one single project for consideration in response to the Solicitation, or are they allowed to propose more than one project for consideration?

Yes. A vendor may submit multiple proposals for the same solicitation.

6.) If an Offeror is allowed to propose more than one project for consideration, does each topic need to be a complete separate proposal or are Offeror’s encouraged to propose more than one project in the same proposal (as long as the overall proposal meets the solicitation requirements)?

Offerors may propose variations on a project within a single proposal or separate proposals. This decision is left to the discretion of the Offeror.

7.) Under the first bullet in the Technical Approach, the SBA asks for Offeror’s to provide “[a] review of the literature” as part of its response. Can the SBA provide additional clarification on this requirement, including expected format, length, and sources to meet compliance for evaluation purposes?

The literature review should be similar to that of an article in an academic journal, such as an economics journal or other relevant field and should cite to academic literature germane to the subject matter of the solicitation. The length is left to the discretion of the Offeror, however it should be noted that the solicitation encourages proposals of no greater than 25 pp. in length.

8.) Under the first bullet in the Technical Approach, the SBA asks for Offeror’s to “demonstrate the policy relevance of the research” as part of its response. Could the SBA provide additional clarification on this requirement, including expected format, length, and sources to meet compliance for evaluation purposes?

The policy relevance discussion should be similar to that of an academic journal article. Length is left to the discretion of the Offeror, however it should be noted that the solicitation encourages proposals of no greater than 25 pp. in length.

9.) Is the Government’s intent for responses to provide an overall industry analysis on a topic and test hypothesis on factors that may be attributing to this industry trend as it relates to Small Businesses?

This issue of scope is left to the discretion of the Offeror.

10.) Is the Government’s intent for responses to provide a specific deep dive into challenges faced by Small Businesses and potential causes as it relates to a particular relevant topic to the Solicitation?

This issue of scope is left to the discretion of the Offeror.

11.) What is SBA’s overall objective for this Solicitation?

To solicit meritorious proposals relevant to small business economic research that may not be captured under the other more specifically named solicitations.

12.) Under Large Data Sets that may be used for performing under a contract, should Offeror’s assume that they will be able to access free of charge Federal Government Data Sources currently utilized by the SBA?

Offerors may assume they will have access to publicly available data sources. Any sources requiring additional cost must be considered in the costing of the proposal.

Offerors are expected to have technical and subject matter expertise with the data proposed.

13.) Under Large Data Sets that may be used for performing under a contract, should Offeror’s assume that any paid or syndicated data will be at Offeror’s expense? Should these expenses be detailed in the proposal or would these be outside of the scope of the initial response?

Yes. Yes.

14.) Would the Government view favorably an Offeror’s ability to provide quantitative measures for determining the impact on Small Businesses and GDP / employment of their proposed topic?

Unable to answer without full proposal.

15.) Are there currently any incumbents performing the same or similar work for the SBA, and if so could the Government provide the name of these firms and the relevant contract number being utilized for these services?

Advocacy has released products under this solicitation in the past. Examples of prior contracted research can be found on Advocacy’s research and statistics page:

https://www.sba.gov/category/advocacy-navigation-structure/research-and-statistics/other-topics .

https://www.sba.gov/category/advocacy-navigation-structure/research-and-statistics/other-topics https://www.sba.gov/category/advocacy-navigation-structure/research-and-statistics/other-topics