Simplified Sole Source.pdf

SOLE SOURCE - SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITIONS

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

RECOMMENDATION AND DETERMINATION TO SOLICIT FROM ONE SOURCE

I recommend that NSF negotiate with Knowinnovation only for the Understanding Rules of Life (URoL) workshop series.

I have reviewed other products/services to identify other vendors which might meet NSF’s requirements through one of the following methods:

GSA Schedule

Open Market Price Lists

X Previous requirements

X Other __Market Research____________________

FAR 19.502-2 requires award to Small Business for supplies or services with an anticipated dollar value exceeding $3,000. If applicable specify why award is being recommended to other than a Small Business.

X No other Small Company can supply the equipment or service

The Company does not have a small business distributor that can supply the equipment or service

GSA schedule does not provide the equipment or service from small business

Other ______________________________________

The total estimated cost, including shipping and handling (if applicable), of this effort is about $204,600, and the period of performance is 6 months to ensure adequate preparation time of this multi-phase process and completion of tasks.

This recommendation is made pursuant to FAR 13.106, for the acquisition of supplies or services determined to be reasonably available from only one source. Competition is impractical for the following reasons:

Justification

In anticipation of releasing a new solicitation for the terminal year of the NSF Understanding the Rules of

Life (URoL) Big Idea, the URoL Steering Committee seeks to solicit input from the research community.

The focus of the FY23 solicitation would be to transition from Understanding the Rules of Life that control genotype-environment-phenotype relationships to “Using” these Rules of Life to address societal challenges. This goal is congruent with the new direction to be taken by NSF’s new directorate for

Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships via use-inspired research. Community input will be important to help NSF hear what researchers perceive as the opportunities for and barriers to using genotype-environment-phonotype ‘rules’ via convergent, multidisciplinary research to address grand societal challenges, such as climate change, feeding the planet sustainably, or clean energy.

In March through May, 2022, NSF will hold a Town Hall and a series of four workshops facilitated by professionals with expertise in bringing together diverse members of the research community to discuss creative strategies and build new research collaborations aimed at exploring how rules governing genotype-environment-phenotype relationships might be used to address grand challenges facing our society. Each of the four workshops will focus on a specific societal challenge—two pre-selected by NSF and two derived from discussions at the Town Hall meeting. Expected outcomes are: identification of concrete ideas to inform the FY23 URoL solicitation based on Using the Rules of Life to Address Societal Challenges;

formation of interdisciplinary teams poised to advance these scientific questions; and insights into the readiness of the broader research community to engage in use-inspired research. The design of the facilitated Town Hall and workshops will borrow from the highly successful structure of the facilitated activities previously used to develop new solutions to challenging research problems such as Reintegrating

Biology (funded by NSF Award # 1940791; https://reintegratingbiology.org).

1. Uniqueness: Knowinnovation provides a unique combination of expert personnel and proven mechanisms to facilitate productive engagement and cross-disciplinary scientific brainstorming and collaboration. No other comparable contractor has been identified through market research that is able to provide the type of facilitation of the required activities outlined above. Specifically, Knowinnovation specializes in facilitating workshops for two segments of the research community: program officers in funding agencies and research development professionals in academic institutions. Other organizations--spawned by Knowinnovation--provide similar services, but for different communities, e.g., Inclusive Innovations serves science communities in developing countries and Innovation Bound provides services for the corporate world. Thus, for the purposes required by NSF, Knowinnovation is uniquely suited.

2. Comprehensive: Knowinnovation is dedicated to accelerating scientific innovation; specializing in the design and facilitation of in-person and virtual events that create cross-disciplinary collaborations and build scientific communities. Their service includes use of a specially designed web-based platform (called KI Storm) for facilitating virtual meetings, like the ones NSF envisions, to aid in facilitation by serving as a communication conduit for collaboration during and after the workshops.

3. Proven Effectiveness: The need to catalyze novel ideas and new productive relationships between researchers who previously have not worked together is a great challenge and requires careful social engagement management. Knowinnovation’s effectiveness in this regard is evident from its past service as exclusive provider for NSF’s Ideas Labs and by the service provided during the

Reintegrating Biology workshop and the Strategic Fire Initiative workshop (Contract No.

49100421P0014) processes. Key elements of these service activities included extensive collaboration meetings between NSF Program Officers and other scientists together with

Knowinnovation’s activity managers and production of tangible outcomes (white papers leading to proposals from the Ideas Labs and vision papers produced in association with the Reintegrating

Biology process). Such concrete scientific products will be essential to the process of identifying topics and research directions as resources for the FY23 solicitation, which is an important phase of NSF’s transition in FY23 from Understanding the Rules of Life to Using the Rules of Life.

[OR]

Pursuant to FAR 5.201, this proposed contract action will be synopsized in FedBizOps. The results received in writing will be added to this document by addendum.

Simon Malcomber Date

Acting Deputy Assistant Director

Directorate for Biological Sciences https://reintegratingbiology.org/ https://knowinnovation.com/ http://inclusiveinnovation.org/ https://www.innovationbound.com/