Agnostic Simulator Support IDIQ

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE This notice is being published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 5.101 requiring dissemination of information for proposed contract actions. This is a notice of intent to award a sole source contract and is not a request for competitive quotes/proposals. The statutory authority for this sole source procurement is prescribed by 13.106-1(b).

The Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) intends to issue a five year (one 12-month base year; and four 12-month option years); firm fixed price; Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contact to HR Wallingford Limited, Wallingford OX10 8BA, United Kingdom.

However, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement demonstrating the ability to provide the requested services, which shall be considered by the agency before the intended award date.

Interested sources who submit data are responsible for appropriately marking information if it is proprietary in nature. The Government shall not reimburse interested sources for any information provided. No requests for capability briefings will be honored. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

Interested vendors must respond to this notice prior to 14 February 2024 at 5:00 pm Central Time by sending an email to william.t.rawe@usace.army.mil AND chl-ct-quotes@usace.army.mil.

NAICS Code: 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology).

Background: The mission of ERDC-CHL is to deliver solutions to our Nation’s most challenging coastal and hydraulics problems through research, development, and application of cutting-edge science, engineering, and technology.  CHL’s current simulator software suite utilizes the industry standard commercial off the shelf (COTS) software. The current solution is limited as a research tool as CHL has no access to the source code and must procure models, updates to models and manufacturers license agreement requirements from the COTS provider. The ERDC owns a copy of the HR Wallingford (HRW) base source code and maintains the rights to modify and customize the code. The transition to HR Wallingford (HRW) software allows unfettered access to the source code, enabling CHL’s experts to improve and customize the program and allows the ERDC the capability to ingest databases from a variety of other simulator company software manufacturers, making ERDC’s simulator capability truly agnostic.

Requirements: Typical projects that the government may require the Contractor to support or accomplish include the following tasks descriptions as they apply to the systems/products developed and maintained at ERDC-CHL. The following task descriptions are intended to provide a general understanding of the nature of the Research and Development (R&D) mission at ERDC. Each task order will provide more detailed requirements of the performance expectations and deliverables required.

• The contractor shall perform and/or provide research, development, training, support, and evaluation in tasks in civil and military arenas.  The Contractor shall perform research in all areas; be capable of readily participating in and understanding related activities; development of hydrodynamic models, system(s) updates, system(s) maintenance, system(s) agreements, system(s) support, model support, model validation, onsite and virtual support, software and hardware expansion and numerical modeling.
• Provide authoring, developing, and editing technical documentation in support of scoping projects, technical reports, development of tasks requirements, software and hardware requirements and services that provide support for the Ship/Tow Simulator operations.
• Develop and conduct programmatic scheduling, market research, administrative documentation, technical documentation transfer, and web-based documentation of simulation-related advancements and research.
• Develop multimedia materials, including videos, audio clips, webpages, and pamphlets, to communicate and convey aspects of the ship simulations' impact and return on investment (ROI).
• Perform onsite visits to assess the Ship/Tow Simulator system and operations.
• Develop, provide, and procure detailed simulator design, construction plans and supplies/materials.
• Create, modify, enhance, develop, deploy, and validate software and hardware.
• Provide technical support for the ERDC Ship/Tow Simulator(s) and simulator system(s).
• Develop and provide a database of best practices/ lessons learned via a web portal, technical document, multimedia, etc., to aid in conducting simulation studies.
• Provide training to the Government related to the services provided.