Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) Contract Recompete

AMENDMENT 1 POSTING: August 12, 2024

Vendor Question: Regarding PWS Draft, Section 9. Performance Requirements Summary (PRS), Page 10 of 16: Will the EPIC vendor be responsible for maintaining and managing the AWS infrastructure, or act as a user? 

Government Answer: Please see the first column of PWS Draft Section 9 PRS, Page 10 of 16. As stated in the first column, the EPIC vendor is responsible for developing, maintaining, and managing the cloud infrastructure.

ORIGINAL POSTING: August 1, 2024

Department of Commerce

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Sources Sought

Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) Contract Recompete

INTRODUCTION

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ONLY.

This Sources Sought is issued solely for information and market research planning purposes; it does not constitute a solicitation or a promise to issue a solicitation. This notice does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is not seeking proposals at this time. Respondents are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay any costs incurred in response to this notice. All costs associated with responding to this notice will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future solicitation.

The information provided in this notice is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government, and will not be returned. Any information that the vendor considers proprietary should be clearly marked as such.

REQUIREMENT

The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (WRFIA, Public Law 115-25) directs NOAA to prioritize improving weather data, modeling, computing, forecasting, and warnings to protect life and property and enhance the enhancement of the national economy. The authorizing language for EPIC, in the National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2018 (NIDISRA, Public Law 115- 423), calls for NOAA to accelerate community-developed scientific and technological enhancements into the operational applications for NWP, which requires “advancing weather modeling skills, reclaiming and maintaining international leadership in the area of numerical weather prediction, and improving the transition of research into operations.”

EPIC’s vision is to enable the most accurate and reliable operational numerical forecast model in the world. EPIC’s mission is to be the catalyst for community research and modeling advances that continually inform and accelerate advances in our nation’s operational forecast modeling systems. In the near term, this means enhancing NWP skill of Earth system models, applications and components used in NOAA’s weather forecasting suite, including the UFS. In the long-term, this means expansion to other operational model applications such as high-resolution convective-allowing models and fully coupled sub-seasonal-to-seasonal, water, and ocean forecast systems.

This EPIC contract shall provide all scientific and technical support services supporting activities outlined in this PWS. The contract will be managed by NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO) within NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR or NOAA research) line office.

PURPOSE

To identify sources, including small and socioeconomic small business concerns, capable of performing the following:

The objective of this contract is to make continuous progress building upon the strategic outcomes achieved in past performance from activities associated with the EPIC Program, and to develop a new strategic implementation plan for defining success of the EPIC, including:

1. Maintenance and expansion of EPIC.
2. Enabling strong collaboration with the Earth Sciences community to nurture a highly inclusive and diverse modeling community of practice across the Weather Enterprise.
3. Maintenance and expansion of a publicly accessible end-to-end testing and development environment on the cloud, from pre- to post-processing, for core Earth system model applications.
4. Demonstrate EPIC success by bringing in innovations to improve Weather and Climate model performance.

The scope for maintaining EPIC includes but is not limited to the following activities:

• Project management,
• Infrastructure and software engineering,
• Codebase support,
• Code management,
• Systems integration,
• Data management,
• Tracking NWP performance and skill improvement,
• Advanced user support,
• Community and continuous stakeholder engagement.

Based on the established framework, the general scope is to maintain and expand the foundational aspect of EPIC following and improving existing procedures and protocols to deliver products that are key to realize EPIC's vision and mission as part of a new strategic implementation plan, extending the existing EPIC strategic implementation plan. Therefore, recommendations for new approaches, products and services in addition to the currently-suggested objectives and scope are sought that can further realize EPIC’s vision and mission as detailed in the EPIC Strategic Plan.

Please see the Draft Performance Work Statement, attached, for more information.

RESPONSE DEADLINE AND REQUESTED INFORMATION

Respondents are encouraged to prepare a capabilities statement that addresses the capabilities identified in the Purpose section. Responses to this notice should be submitted in the form of Microsoft Word and/or PDF (searchable format) documents via email received no later than 3:00 p.m. MST, August 16, 2024. Responses shall be submitted to:

• Contracting Officer, Angel Royster, at angela.royster@noaa.gov
• Contract Specialist, Julia Hamilton, at julia.l.hamilton@noaa.gov

The statement of capability shall also include the information listed below:

1. Company Name/Division, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone, and website address (if available).
2. Single point-of-contact name, title, telephone, and email address.
3. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Please note that offerors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at SAM.gov at the time an offer or quotation is submitted in order to comply with the annual representations and certifications requirements.
4. Indicate if your firm qualifies as a small business under NAICS Code 541512 - Computer Systems Design Services, and socio-economic status, if qualified as one or more of the following:
   1. 8(a) firm (must be certified by SBA)
   2. Small Disadvantaged Business
   3. Woman-Owned Small Business (must be certified by SBA)
   4. HUBZone firm (must be certified by SBA)
   5. Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business
5. Vendors may provide any other information determined to be important and relevant to the purposes of this Sources Sought.

INDUSTRY DISCUSSIONS

Some respondents may be asked to provide additional information regarding the matters addressed in this notice. Those respondents will be contacted directly if there is a need for further information.

QUESTIONS

Respondents may submit questions regarding this notice to the contact(s) listed below. Responses to questions may be posted on SAM.gov. Please send any questions you may have to Contracting Officer, Angel Royster, at angela.royster@noaa.gov and Contract Specialist, Julia Hamilton, at julia.l.hamilton@noaa.gov.