Simplified Sole Source_Signed.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 Strategic Fire Research Initiative Roadmap.

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 $141,900, 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

The NSF Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) has recently received increased interest in wildfire research from a broad spectrum of academic researchers and other federal agencies. To help DEB understand priorities in the area of wildfire and biological systems, a research roadmap is needed. Further, DEB would like to know about new avenues that might catalyze research and cooperation between the nation’s many sectors engaged in wildfire research. A convergent and strategic research approach is needed to understand how wildfires and living systems interact and to forecast these dynamics in a future world.

In May 2021, NSF will hold a two-day workshop that will be facilitated through an expert external contractor (funding requested through this sole-source request) that will bring together diverse research communities to generate creative strategies and new research collaborations aimed at improving understanding and prediction of the causes and consequences of future fires. This workshop will develop a coordinated priority document describing the direction of this research area: The Strategic Fire Research Initiative Roadmap.

Further, the workshop will lead to formation of interdisciplinary teams poised to advance scientific questions.

The design of this workshop will borrow from the highly successful structure of facilitated workshops that have previously been used to develop new and novel solutions to challenging research problems such as Reintegrating Biology (https://reintegratingbiology.org)

1. The selected vendor has unique capabilities as demonstrated in past performance. Knowinnovation has been the exclusive provider of development and support services for the facilitation of NSF’s past IdeasLabs. A key element of the planned workshop (as was also true with NSF’s past IdeasLabs) is the careful planning of workshop activities through collaboration meetings between NSF Program Officers and other scientists together with Knowinnovation’s activity managers.

2. Several compatibility reasons (quality) have also been identified. No other comparable contractor has been identified through market research that is able to provide the type of facilitation of the activity that is required. 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 has developed software such as KIStorm that enables the type of required activities during the workshop.

3. Given the importance of the Strategic Fire Research Initiative Roadmap, several post-workshop activities will need to be conducted by the selected vendor, which has demonstrated unique capability in past performance. Several white papers and scientific publications were produced during the Reintegrating Biology process conducted by KnowInnovation. Similar mechanisms will be used to develop the collaborative and innovative process of producing the research roadmap.

[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 Deputy Division Director Division of Environmental Biology/BIO

(Added by Contracting Officer after synopsis) (Insert the following if over $25K)

Pursuant to FAR 5.201, the proposed contract action was synopsized. No other firms requested consideration under this procurement.

[ OR ]

(Contracting Officer explain other results of synopsis)

01/04/2021

I hereby accept the above stated recommendation and determine that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available.

Contracting Officer Date

01/05/2021