NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy Support Services (CAPSS) - Official Solicitation

The purpose of this amendment is to provide responses to questions received and to revise the solicitation accordingly.  The following solicitation sections and attachments have been updated:

1. CAPSS IDIQ PWS
2. Section L - Instruction to Offerors
3. Section M - Evaluation Factors for Award
4. Attachment 1 - Mock TO1 PWS - International Standards Support

Please see the attachments for more details.  All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

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This is the Official Request for Proposals (RFP) for an anticipated multiple award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity and Privacy Support Services (CAPSS).  This solicitation is a total Small Business Set-Aside under NAICS 541519-Other Computer Related Services. The small business size standard is $34 million.

Related Previous Notices:

Sources Sought Notice No. AMDTC-21-0002 was posted to www.beta.sam.gov as part of the market research effort for this acquisition.

Draft RFP No. 1333ND23QNB770030 was posted to www.sam.gov on December 13, 2022 to provide interested parties with draft information on this forthcoming acquisition and provide an opportunity for parties to provide feedback. 

Pre-solicitation notice No. 1333ND23QNB770030 was posted to www.sam.gov on February 08, 2023 to notify interested parties of the upcoming official solicitation.

Anticipated Contract Information:

This solicitation is being issued using FAR Parts 12 and 15 procedures.  The anticipated contract(s) will be issued for a base ordering period of five years with a maximum cumulative value of $125,000,000.00 across all IDIQ contract holders.  See the attached SF-33 and its attachments for the official solicitation details.

Description 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) develops cybersecurity standards, guidelines, best practices, and other resources to meet the needs of U.S. industry, federal agencies, and the broader public. Our work ranges from specific information that can be put into practice immediately to longer-term research that anticipates advances in technologies and future challenges.

As part of NIST’s efforts to cultivate trust in information, systems, and technologies and to help organizations measure and manage risk, we carry out cybersecurity assignments defined by federal statutes, executive orders, and policies, including developing cybersecurity standards and guidelines for federal agencies.

NIST’s cybersecurity activities are driven by the needs of U.S. industry, government agencies, and the broader public, and they are undertaken only if our expertise is appropriate for NIST, which is a non-regulatory agency, and can make a difference. We manage very few operational cybersecurity programs, recognizing that other agencies and organizations focus on those aspects of cybersecurity, often using NIST-developed resources to inform their work.

The purpose of this contract is to gain technical expertise and consultation in multiple specified areas of cyber and information security and privacy to ensure that the NIST mission can be met to "provide standards, technology, tools, and practices to protect our nation's information and information systems."  Operational cybersecurity services are not the focus of this acquisition and will make up only a small portion of this IDIQ.

Logistical/Administrative Information:

All offerors are advised that this solicitation may be delayed, cancelled or revised at any time during the solicitation, selection, evaluation, negotiation and/or final award process.  The solicitation and all amendments for this RFP will be posted on www.sam.gov.

It is the responsibility of the contractor to check www.sam.gov frequently for any amendments or changes to the solicitation. The Government is not responsible for any loss of internet connectivity or for an offeror’s inability to access the documents posted at the referenced website. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with the submission of a technical/business proposal or if an award cannot be made.

All interested vendors must be registered in SAM (www.sam.gov) to be eligible for award and shall have their Representations and Certifications completed.

Questions

All questions shall be submitted by 11:00 am EST, March 8, 2023 using Attachment 8, Questions Submission Spreadsheet, and must include the following references:

Attachment: Attachment Title

Page #: XX

Section: XXXX

Question/Comment: XXXXXX

The Government might not consider questions not submitted using the required Questions Submission Spreadsheet.

Proposal Due Date

Proposals shall be submitted via email to the solicitation Point of Contact so that they are received by or before March 24, 2023 at 11:00 AM ET. To be considered for award, the Offeror must be an “active” registrant in the U.S. System for Award Management (SAM) at time of solicitation close.

The contract specialist for this solicitation is Hing Pan Wong.  All questions/comments/proposal submissions must be submitted in writing by e-mail to hingpan.wong@nist.gov and copy Keith Bubar, Contracting Officer, at Keith.Bubar@nist.gov.

Protection and Encryption of Sensitive Data: To ensure secure, email communications, it is strongly recommended that all prospective offerors obtain email encryption capability. Use of unencrypted email by the submitter is done at the submitter’s own risk, but will be accepted by the Contracting Officer. Emails from the Contracting Officer may, at some point, be limited to prospective offerors with encryption capability.

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Attachments:

Solicitation 1333ND23QNB770030 (SF-33)

1. Mock Task Order 1 Performance Work Statement
2. Mock Task Order 2 Performance Work Statement
3. Mock Task Order 3 Performance Work Statement
4. Mock Task Order 4 Performance Work Statement
5. Mock Task Order 5 Performance Work Statement
6. Past Performance Questionnaire
7. Pricing Worksheet
8. Questions Submission Spreadsheet