Sole Source Justification for Posting_1.pdf

WEB OF SCIENCE SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION FOR ONR-GLOBAL

Upon the basis of the following justification, I hereby approve the issuance of the contractual action described below:

JUSTIFICATION

1. Identification of Agency and Contracting Activity

Department of the Navy Office of Naval Research (ONR) 875 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203

2a. Background

The Office of Naval Research Global (ONR-Global) mission, in alignment with the National Security Strategy, is to serve as the enduring Navy and Marine Corps global presence in technical and operational communities, investing in trusted partnerships to discover and connect science and technology leaders for sustained maritime security. Their international science technical staff consists of a Technical Director, located in London U.K., 24 Science Directors, and 2 Military Regional Directors. Science Directors act as a technical broker linking the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and the Naval Research Enterprise (NRE) with International Science and Technology (S&T). Professional attributes include having doctorate degrees in relevant fields, experience with the NRE, foreign language skills, and international S&T experience. Their Global on-site locations are in London (includes Technical Director and Regional Director), Prague, Tokyo (includes Regional Director), Santiago, Singapore, and Sao Paulo. International science tools utilized by the Science Directors include the following:

• *Digital search (publications, citations etc.) – emphasis of this sole source justification

• Liaison visits (site visits)

• Collaborative Science workshops and conferences

• Research Grants (fundamental and early applied research)

Additionally, the Science Directors currently cover (mission footprint) but are not limited to the following countries: of Argentina, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle East, Netherlands, North Africa, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

2b. Nature/Description of Action

This acquisition is to award a sole source contract to Clarivate Analytics (Clarivate) for 5 years of support services (digital search tool) providing tailored ONR-Global platform access of Web of Science databases.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

The purpose of this acquisition is to provide an international science digital search tool that covers the mission footprint of ONR-Global. The vendor shall provide platform access to publications with citation indexes, scientific journals, conference proceedings, patent information, studies, scholarly books, and data repositories.

4. Identification of Statutory Authority.

The statutory authority permitting sole source procurement is:

41 U.S.C. § 1901, as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.501(a).

Pursuant to 41 U.S.C. § 1901, the procedures reflected in FAR Subpart 13.5 – Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items will be used for this procurement. As Subpart 13.5 requires, the Contracting Officer will make this justification publicly available within 14 days after contract award.

5. Demonstration of Contractor’s Unique Qualification.

Web of Science, owned and run by Clarivate, is used by 7,000 organizations around the world and is recognized as the leading provider of citation based research information. 100% of Top 50 & 96% (96/100) of Top 100 Ranked US Institutions, by US News and World Report, subscribe to the Web of Science.

To illustrate Clarivate Analytics value and use in benchmarking, “For forty years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has relied on Clarivate Analytics citation data to produce its Science and Engineering Indicators, a volume of records comprising the major high-quality, quantitative data on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise”.

Clarivate Analytics is the only provider of the “Web of Science” and ONR-Global has previously utilized this resource under task order number N00014-15-F-5037 from 12/31/14-12/30/2017.

Additionally, since ONR-Global’s last contract vehicle, Clarivate Analytics have added Emerging Sources and Chinese Science databases that are directly relevant to ONR-Global. Their main database covers “core science” where certain countries and regions covered by ONR-Global are not considered “core” yet, but are now part of the Emerging Sources. In addition, ONR-Global is starting to go back into China, creating presence (Global Tech Awareness) with our Science Directors, where OSD approves each travel instance. These two additional databases are unique and not provided by another vendor as a whole package maintaining data credibility.

6. Description of Efforts to Ensure Other Potential Sources Were Sought

Our globally dispersed Science Directors, coming from Naval Warfare Centers and U.S.

academia & Labs including the Naval Research Enterprise itself, have been exposed to numerous databases with their research and networking. They also interact with the Army Research Lab (ARL), Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), and DARPA researchers. The Program Officer has been in direct contact with them for the follow on international science digital search tool regarding potential sources along with receiving feedback. This included databases utilized within ONR itself.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost.

The Contracting Officer will determine that the contract price is fair and reasonable using price analysis techniques in accordance with FAR § 15.404-1(b). An Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) was prepared and provided by the Program Office. Furthermore, the pricing for the Web of Sciences tool was determined fair and reasonable on the previously awarded contract which will assist Contracting Officer in determining fair and reasonable pricing for this award.

The purchase order issued under this justification will be awarded at a fair and reasonable price based on the Government’s IGCE and the Contracting Officer’s price analysis to be performed once a quote is received from Clarivate Analytics.

8. Description of Market Research.

Our globally dispersed Science Directors have been exposed to other databases, but are limited both in breadth, covering the sciences, and in depth where only partial publications (just abstracts

vs. the whole publication) are available along with their citation indexes (not having full range) where data credibility is lacking. Other databases such as ProQuest are very good for dissertations and academic-educational research, but lacks the full range of research regarding the Sciences having data credibility.

Digital Science databases is contracted for ONR’s Data Analytics team under contract N00014- 19-C-4004 to access research grants, patents, and publications to support senior level initiatives and provide better information to manage ONR’s research portfolio. Support services provide data and analytics support to ONR to develop, recommend, and demonstrate an approach that can immediately implement fully productive analytical capabilities in support of funding and research decisions at ONR. Digital Science provides good research and portfolio analytical tools, but does not provide the breadth and depth required by ONR-Global including emerging non-core science and Chinese Science databases uniquely provided by Web of Science.

9. Any Other Supporting Facts.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 519130.

10. Listing of Interested Sources.

None.

11. Actions Taken to Remove Barriers to Competition.

The market will be periodically surveyed to determine who offers the required expertise in the field of science worldwide databases necessary for ONR-Global’s mission. Subsequent acquisitions will consider using full and open competition as the default approach, if appropriate.