SSJ_AVB_Signed.pdf

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

(Simplified Acquisition Procedures under FAR Part 13 Not Exceeding $250K)

1. Agency/Contracting Activity: International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF)

2. Description of Action:

Nature: New Requirement Follow-On Requirement

Mod to Existing Purchase Order/Contract Number

Pricing: Firm-Fixed Price Other: __________

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

a. The total estimated dollar value of the proposed action (including options) $89,474.11

A contract for service that includes work as a research scientist with the R&D Unit located at the USDA FS International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico to provide peer reviewed publications based on analyses of hurricane recovery response of land-atmospheric interactions.

4. Authority: Action using Simplified Acquisition Procedures

FAR 13.106-1(b) (1): For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT), contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g. urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand name, or industrial mobilization).

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

The offeror has worked with the IITF as a scientist for the last five years developing the datasets and computer codebases that will be used in this research, and since 2010 in collaboration with IITF in developing and delivering research on Puerto Rican ecosystems. The scientist has unique insights into the data and code development process and has initiated work on the three publications listed as deliverables -and so is uniquely qualified to continue and complete this work. The datasets and codebase have taken significant time to develop, and only by starting with these things are analyses and publication tractable in a year-long contract.

6. Actions to Increase Competition:

As one of the leading research organizations in Puerto Rico, we are acutely aware of the scientific expertise, available data, and history of published work in our area of work. We receive solicited and unsolicited inquiries for providing a variety of services in this arena. This has given us an understanding of the capacity and expertise available. For this task, we are interested in analyzing IITF data jointly with data from NASA and other publicly available (unprocessed) sources. The scientist has led the efforts to analyze these data sets, with three previously published papers on the IITF datasets that will be used, as well as two published papers using the NASA data in Puerto Rico. That experience greatly informs her ability to conduct the needed analyses and publications of the information we have acquired. We are fortunate to have that capacity available, as no other individual has that experience and expertise. It would be very difficult for another individual to step in and complete this work without considerable time and effort to build that capacity. Based on our awareness of this available capacity, no other source is practical.

7. Market Research:

The applicable market includes scientists with the capacity and experience to analyze and publish relevant datasets in high-impact scientific journals in order to further our research and outreach mission as related to the Tropics. In addition, the scientist would need to be knowledgeable in remote sensing, atmospheric physics, modeling, code development, statistical analyses, and local ecology. As such the market is limited, and as a leading research Institute for the Tropics, we are generally aware of the available capacity. In this instance we are interested in analyzing and publishing a specific complex data set of local and regional physical information, and she is uniquely qualified to conduct these analyses and publish these data. The source offered a reasonable proposal at a fair price and has the unique qualifications required.

8. Procurement History:

Previous Purchase Orders(s) or Contract(s): Yes No

Purchase order or contract number: _ 12F43019C0020_ Was action competed? Yes No If action was not competed, state the cited authority, summarize rationale: FAR 6.302-3 (b)(1)(ii) Full & open competition not needed to maintain a service in case of national emergency and prevent the loss of a supplier’s ability/employee’s skills, maintain active engineering research or development work.

9. Additional information to support the justification:

The anticipated costs are equal to comparable work by a researcher or technician involving information gathering, synthesis and writing. The costs are considerably less than bringing in a person without the contractor's specialized knowledge in remote sensing, atmospheric physics, modeling, code writing, statistical analyses, and local ecology. The contractor has a Ph.D. in Geophysics from University of California San Diego with emphasis on statistics, mathematics, and computer science, as well as 2 years of postdoctoral research at North Carolina State University and 4 years at the US FS International Institute of Tropical Forestry, as well as 4 years as a contractor for IITF. The work requires a knowledge of compiler codes such as Fortran to quality control and statistically analyze the large amounts of data collected at a sub-minute frequency. Knowledge of high-level Python is needed to process over 10 kinds of satellite data which is only available in high density format with bit-wise quality flags. Studying the land-atmospheric interaction requires knowledge of tropical meteorology as well as land-cover effects on the hydrological system. Studying the field data of the post-hurricane ecosystem changes requires knowledge of physics behind the different instrumental collection methods in order to compare the different kinds of data. Bringing in a new person to that level would entail 6-9 additional months of startup time. In the case of this contractor he may begin immediately - saving the government approximately $27,600 to $41,400.

10. Technical/Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which is included in this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Submitted By: Dr. Grizelle González Position Title: Ecologist Email Address: grizelle.gonzalez@usda.gov

Signature:

Date: April 1, 2020 mailto:grizelle.gonzalez@usda.gov

11. Fair and Reasonable Price Determination: As Contracting Officer, I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. Basis for the determination: price analysis techniques.

12. Contracting Officer’s Approval: I hereby certify that this Justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Based on the foregoing, I approve this sole source justification subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and supplies herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Signature:

Typed Name: Amelia Davila Title: Contracting Specialist/Officer Date: May 23, 2020