White Paper Contract Ops.docx

NFFKA0002101829AG2

***NOAA’s Acquisition & Grants Office, Western Acquisition Division-Boulder, National Marine Fisheries Service, intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with Manta Consulting, to prepare a white paper that briefly summarizes the current status of seafood price and supply data available in the US seafood market and identifies options for improving the transparency, timeliness, and completeness of available price and supply data with the aim of improving investment flows and other financial products available to the US seafood industry. Recommendations and prioritization of those recommendations will be presented in the report. An outline of the white paper will be provided to NOAA Fisheries mid-way through the project. This program is 100% virtual.

***The sole source determination is based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requirement that Manta Consulting has an establish research collaboration with National Marine Fisheries Service. NMFS and Manta Consulting assembled a roundtable of seafood leaders and investors in 2020 who offered insights into constraints to growth in the sector and voiced a need for change in several key areas. Among those insights, NOAA determined that the agency would like to better understand seafood price and supply data issues in the US seafood market and how greater data transparency might foster improvements in the sector. The work will build on the interviews and discussions with the people who were interviewed by Manta Consulting prior to or who participated in the seafood business roundtable on September 2, 2020 – engaging them to go deeper into ideas for moving forward – and also engage other experts who might be able to help develop these pathways. Limitations on the quality and completeness of seafood production data limit the ability of economists and others to analyze trends, project future scenarios, and inform policy. This information is critical when NMFS is called into action by Congress when there is a market failure or federal fisheries landings data is necessary for the federal government to manage and to end overfishing of federal waters fisheries. The project will launch with a meeting between Manta Consulting and NOAA fishery economists, so that the Manta team can understand and agree on the key questions that the NOAA economists would like answered in the course of this work, and also the data that is already available to NOAA. The project start date is May 10th, 2021 and the period of performance is 8 months from contract award. All work is to be completed within the Period of Performance.

***THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS AND NO SOLICITATION PACKAGE IS AVAILABLE. HOWEVER, FIRMS THAT BELIEVE THEY CAN FULLY MEET THE GOVERNMENT'S REQUIREMENTS MAY SUBMIT SUBSTANTIATING DOCUMENTATION IN WRITING TO THE IDENTIFIED POINT OF CONTACT WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION OF THIS SYNOPSIS. SUCH DOCUMENTATION WILL BE EVALUATED SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING WHETHER OR NOT TO CONDUCT THIS PROCUREMENT ON A COMPETITIVE BASIS. A DETERMINATION BY THE GOVERNMENT NOT TO CONDUCT A COMPETITIVE PROCUREMENT, BASED UPON RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE, IS SOLELY WITHIN THE DISCRETION OF THE GOVERNMENT. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.