SSJ Research Analysis 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: C8J New Requirement D Follow-On Requirement

D Mod to Existing Purchase Order/Contract Number

Pricing: C8J Firm-Fixed Price D Other:

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

a. The total estimated dollar value of the proposed action (including options) $240,000

A contract for service that includes work as a research scientist with the USDA Caribbean

Climate Hub located at the USDA FS International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico to:

1. Provide peer reviewed publications based on analyses extreme climate events and tropical agriculture and forestry in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

2. Assist with additional climate Hub communications, reporting, and scientific publications on an ad hoc basis.

4. Authority:

Action using Simplified Acquisition Procedures

C8J FAR 13.106-l(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 experience working as a scientist on related previous work developed in her role as a

Climate Fellow with the USDA Caribbean Climate Hub, and as such has unique expertise in the material we wish to analyze and publish. Analyses and publication are based on information gathered from surveys, interviews, and focus groups in a process designed by a team in which the scientist played a lead role. The data set includes social information, geospatial information, and will incorporate ecological and physical hurricane effect information in which the scientist is a published, leading expert.

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 and publishing a particular data set that was gathered by the Climate Hub through a process of identifying post-hurricane research needs, acquiring funding, building a research team, and gathering data. The scientist, working as the Hub Climate Fellow, was instrumental in all of these steps. 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