Research, academic, and infrastructure/DARPA support

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JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL
FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION
Army Research Laboratory Human Research & Engineering Directorate
Simulation Training & Technology Center (ARL-HRED-STTC)
1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACCAPG),
Research Triangle Park Division, Orlando Branch, P. O. Box 12211, Research Triangle
Park, NC 27709-2211
2. Description of Action: ACC-APG-Orlando proposes to issue a new contract for four (4)
years, (Base Year is twenty (24) months with two (2), one year options), with the University of
Central Florida Institute for Simulation and Training (UCF-IST). The contract will be a Firm-
Fixed Price type contract funded with Fiscal Year (FY) 15 through FY19 (when appropriate
funding becomes available) Research Development Test and Evaluation Budget Activity 1, 2,
and 3 (formally known as 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 Science and Technology [S&T] funds), as well as
funding from other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies seeking to leverage ARL-HREDSTTC's
research and development capabilities.
Name of Proposed Contractor: University of Central Florida
Street Address: 4000 Central Florida Blvd.
City, State, Zip: Phone: Orlando, FL 32816
The total estimated value of the proposed action is $ 9,300,000.00
3. Description of Services: This proposed contract will maintain essential infrastructure
capabilities for Modeling, Simulation, and Training (MS&T) initiatives in which the ARLHRED-
STTC resides. ARL-HRED-STTC mission is to addresses critical Army emerging needs
and ARL Campaign Plan requirements in MS&T which include: adaptive training, virtual
humans, advanced distributed simulation, medical technologies, augmented reality, and 3-D
immersive environments. Via this proposed contract, UCF-IST will maintain essential core
MS&T infrastructure capabilities and engineering support identified in this document. The
current partnership with UCF-IST enables the ARL-HRED-STTC to focus its limited personnel
on research project execution and laboratory work while the contractor is required to supplement
professional, technical and administrative support related to aspects of laboratory operations.
This support addresses the operational needs within the primary ARL-HRED-STTC facility and
also satellite research laboratories located in other areas of the Central Florida Research Park.
Support under this proposed effort shall include the following services:
(a) Operation Coordination: Provide support for operations, facility coordination, tasker
management, public affairs coordination, budgeting (mission and customer), ARL's
unique time keeping processes, DoD force protection and security. This includes unique
requirements for the medical simulation studies, human experimentation, large virtual
multiplayer experimentation with Soldiers, Cadets and civilians and Joint Service Anti-
Terrorism Exercises (ATX).
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(b) Technical/Administrative Support: Provide property management, unique budget
processing requirements and all technical support tasks such as prepare reports, provide
briefings, attend meetings, in support of MS&T areas of research and development to
include non-mission funded customer work.
(c) Operation and Strategic Planning: Provide personnel to support the strategic planning
focused on the operation and facility efforts in support the MS&T unique initiatives.
(d) Provide personnel to support the coordination of various sponsored activities within
the ARL-HRED-STTC, PEO STRI, Major General Maddux events, and other unique
requirements in the Orlando area to include; Team Orlando visitors, meetings, workshops
and conferences:
(e) Additionally, ARL's Director, Dr. Thomas Russell's has instituted the DARPA
Enterprise Strategy. ARL-HRED-STTC is partnering with DARPA as a model for the
DARPA Enterprise Strategy. UCF-IST has been working with DARPA for ten (10) years
and has won several awards for their project management and acquisition excellence
expertise with DARPA. UCF-IST stands alone in their holistic approach to providing
engineering support and management support services required to maintain deep
partnerships across DARPA Divisions. This support includes RM, IRB support and a
nominal (10% to 13%) for engineering support.
(1) Engineering Support: DARPA engineering services will constitute a nominal
effort of 10 to 13 percent of the total annual labor for this contract. UCF-IST has
assembled a unique team to work DARPA programs as well as dozens of DARPA
SBIR efforts. Today, the ARL-HRED-STTC is one of the largest SBIR support
offices to DARPA. The unique blend of engineering support provided by UCFIST
constitutes a novel approach to providing engineering support services to
include; design efforts and decision support in areas such as: cognitive
neuroscience, robotics, advanced physics, team and individual training,
information processing, material science, hardware and software development.
(2) Resource Management: Support for the DARPA resource management to the
maximum extent allowed by non-Government personnel. This includes fiscal
tracking, audit preparations, and the tracking of contract and in-house funding and
expenses on a per program basis.
(3) Independent Review Board (IRB). Preparation for protocol review and
approval: Provides support for work performed in the submission, approval and
monitoring of Independent (Institutional) Review Board. These specialized studies
include; animal studies in the specialize field of medical training as well as
specialized chemical and materiel studies.
4. Authority: FAR 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will
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satisfy agency requirements.
5. Reasons for Authority Cited:
a. Background
In 1992, with the establishment of the Army's Simulation Training and Instrumentation
Command (STRICOM) in Central Florida Research Park, Orlando, Florida, UCF-IST was
created to support collaboration among STRICOM, Other Government Agencies (OGAs), the
MS&T defense industry, and other academic institutions. Today, UCF is the only academic
center in the world supporting all members of Team Orlando's military complex located in the
Central Florida Research Park. As time passed Central Florida became the unquestioned leader
and hub to the world's largest MS&T community. Today it is home to more than 200 modeling,
simulation and training companies and the world's best theme parks all leveraging modeling and
simulation techniques. As part of the Team Orlando partnership between military organizations
(Army, Navy, Marine Corp & Air Force) and those 200 modeling and simulation companies,
UCF-IST continues to provide a national treasure of MS&T expertise.
As the simulation and training mission grew it took on dimensions hardly imagined - even in the
'90s. The discipline's horizons stretched far beyond mechanical engineering and computer
science to encompass psychology, cognitive science, robotics, human factors engineering,
mathematical analysis, philosophy, learning theory, culture studies, to name a few. With all these
multidisciplinary underpinnings, modeling and simulation became a discipline worthy of its own
advanced levels of scientific study.
As such the Army needed additional support and that expertise came from UCF-IST as a resident
partner with the establishment of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
(CRADA) to establish an Open Campus laboratory with STRICOM (ARL-HRED-STTC was
part of STRICOM until 2004 before it moved to RDECOM until 2010 and now resides as ARLHRED-
STTC). Today, UCF-IST partnership with ARL-HRED-STTC is on their third CRADA.
As part of the current CRADA ARL-HRED-STTC resides in a UCF owned building as well as
several shared labs across Central Florida Research Park in Orlando, Florida.
Today, ARL-HRED-STTC has several contract vehicles with UCF-IST awarded by ACC-RTP to
include a five (5) year, with two (2) one (1) year options IDIQ which is valued at $75,000,000
for research and development work. This IDIQ has awarded over 90 different task orders for
MS&T research and development that is used by all the military Services. The personnel under
this IDIQ (W91CRB-08-D-0015) understand Army systems, databases, contracting, personnel
initiatives and acquisition. As this IDIQ comes to a close other methods for Research and
Development are being used to continue the partnership with UCF. However, the infrastructure
support will not be covered under any of the other contract vehicles. Therefore, this J&A is
submitted to maintain essential infrastructure capabilities identified in section 3 through the
application of infrastructure services and nominal DARPA engineering support.
b. Alternatives
In developing the strategy to award a sole source contract to UCF-IST, there are three (3)
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alternatives that were addressed, none of which would satisfy the requirement to maintain the
essential infrastructure service capabilities for the ARL-HRED-STTC needs:
(1) Use In-House Resources: ARL-HRED-STTC does not have the depth or breadth
across infrastructure services within each discipline to maintain an MS&T facility that a
well-endowed research institution would provide.
(2) Suspend Services: Since there is a critical Army need to maintain current R&D
capabilities in MS&T, this alternative was not considered.
(3) Award a new contract through competition: Peer industry and universities engaged in
MS&T typically do not mix infrastructure support, top quality R&D services as well as
administrative support. Therefore, substantial duplication of cost to the Government
would be expected and not recovered through competition at this time.
c. Impact
It is in the best interest of the Government to award a new contract to UCF-IST. Failure to do so
will negatively impact the ARL-HRED-STTC's mission and result in substantial duplication of
cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. Since ARLHRED-
STTC does not have the breadth and depth of personnel to meet the current demand on
requirements of an Army lab this new contract is required for two reasons; (1) the duplication of
costs and time concerns if the ARL-HRED-STTC Government personnel would vacate and try to
move to a different facility, and (2) a substantial duplication of cost to the Government in order
to ramp up a new contractor. By awarding this new contract substantial duplication of cost can
be saved by the Government with no time delays or loss of mission. Below are some examples of
areas of cost savings:
(1) Cost of Moving to a New Facility: The Army has been located at its current facility
since the early 2000's during that time several other agencies have been supported by the
infrastructure personnel hired by the Army. The impact of moving spreads across Army
agencies and partnerships in Team Orlando as other agencies seek to leverage MS&T
work. Additionally, the Army has invested many millions of dollars in this facility to
build out the infrastructure capability and upgrades to meet DOD requirements that
cannot be found in typical commercial real estate space. Therefore a substantial
duplication of cost to the Government would be expected and not recovered through
moving to a new building. As an example of this, in Figure 1 shows costs of a typical
Central Florida Commercial Property that the Army could move into if the decision was
to vacate the current facility. This would result in is substantial costs to the Government.
Using data acquired in the last 12 months during the Government Market Research and
leveraging the Central Florida Office Research Report from the Colliers International
Group who surveys sales and leasing activity in six (6) surrounding areas of Central
Florida. Based on the potential four (4) year contract proposed, Figure 1 estimates that
the cost to the Government for a comparable building would be $5,366,400 over four (4)
years. Under our current approach the Army would only be expected to pay $647,720 for
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all the current building space. That would be a savings of $4,718,680 over the life of this
four (4) year contract. This analysis demonstrates the substantial increase in cost to the
Government; this cost would have to be taken from S&T funds which would impact our
mission.
Figure 1 ‐ Market Research Labor Justification
Additionally, since the early 2000's the Army has invested over $5M in major facility
renovations, security, classified facilities, and upgrades. These costs would most likely
be required again if ARL-HRED-STTC moved to a new facility. This would not include
the major loss of hours for the move as well as the mission loss from the use of mission
funds to pay for the expenses.
(2) Duplication of Cost Ramping Up a New Contractor: During the life of the
partnership with UCF-IST the infrastructure personnel and DARPA engineers have
established an extensive network of close and significant working relationships and
collaborations with ARL, Army Research Institute, DARPA and other key Army
laboratories. Additionally, the training, certification, travel for certification and expertise
associated with these positions is voluminous and leads to the synergy created between
labs. There would be substantial duplication of costs that would not be recovered in
ramping up another contractor at this time. In figure 2 an estimate of the costs to ramping
up a new contractor is documented. It is estimated that the cost in the first year would be
$1,125,826 to the Government. Additionally, three (3) examples of these unique
requirements are also documented below:
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Figure 2 - Estimated Ramp of Cost for New Contractor
(1) Security Personnel. ARL-HRED-STTC has extremely unique electronic
gates, security system and badge control. All of these systems have extensive training
that needs to be undertaken for operation, safety and to meet the ARL-HRED-STTC
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The gates alone are tens of thousands of dollars
and have complex control systems. UCF-IST not only understands this but they
supplement the Government by controlling the systems. UCF-IST security personnel are
trained and certified through Army and state classes. Their job includes opening and
closing the facility and working the gate procedures and entrance and exits for our
buildings.
Security personnel sit on the ARL-HRED-STTC quarterly security meeting and play an
instrumental role in our ATX exercises and documenting our security procedures. Their
one-on-one relationships with Team Orlando community and working across ARL are an
example of this collaboration. As stated in recent ARL findings for the Anti-Terrorism
Exercise's After Action Review and showcased in the 2013 ARL Annual Awards. UCFIST
was commended with the aid of the State of Florida on the ARL-HRED-STTC
facility to meet DOD Anti-Terrorism Standards for Buildings in accordance with
regulation UFC 4-010-01 signed 1 October 2013 per DOD Instruction 2000.12 and 10
USC 2859. This regulation instructs all DOD components to fully comply with these
regulations with no exceptions authorized. This was a result of the upgrade made to the
ARL-HRED-STTC facility costing $800,000 which was funded through UCF by the
State of Florida to comply with the extremely unique requirements and led by the
expertise of the UCF-IST security team. Any new source for this contract would result in
a substantial duplication of cost to the Government and would not be expected to be
recovered through that competition, as stated in FAR 6.302.
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(2) Public Affairs Officer (PAO). Our PAO must understand ARL, RDECOM
and Army procedures and is our interface for all VIP visits and messaging going in and
out of the building. The PAO also is the main interface to PEO STRI PAO as PEO STRI
is the ARL-HRED-STTC main transition partner who recently moved under Command
of a two-star general, MG Maddox. This brings unique requirements when interfacing
with PEO STRI and their Command Group. Our existing PAO has over 20 years
experience in the Army with Public Affairs and these added responsibilities since moving
under ARL in 2010 creates a vital responsibility and significant uniqueness to the job.
(3) Tasker and Budget Personnel. Most organizations have Government
personnel doing this work. Because of the complexity of the tasker and budget systems in
ARL, the Government has spent tens of thousands of dollars training UCF-IST personnel
to support these efforts. UCF-IST personnel work side by side in partnership with
Government personnel. They understand GFEBS, ATAAPs, MIPRs, WBS and all the
unique characteristics of Army budgeting systems and databases. In 2014, ARL-HREDSTTC
had over 300 taskers from various agencies. To accomplish this, the incumbent
has unique expertise about the originations and mission of the ARL-HRED-STTC,
interface to Team Orlando and historical databases to rely on. He also documents and
manages all the ARL-HRED-STTC SOPs which are unique to the ARL-HRED-STTC.
Taking collectively the unique training and certification requirements for each of the personnel
from UCF-IST in order for them to work in their current infrastructure and service jobs would
not be economically feasible as a whole to ramp up another contractor at this time. Losing the
services as a whole will be detrimental to ARL-HRED-STTC resulting substantial duplication of
cost to the Government.
6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:
A notice of this requirement was publicized in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2 on the
Army's Single Face to Industry Registry from 3 March 2015 through 17 April 2015.
There were no responses to this notice.
7. Actions to Increase Competition: DOD's Better Buying Power initiative guidance
emphasizes the importance of removing obstacles from competition.
ARL-HRED-STTC is committed to establishing best practices to increase Full and Open
Competition. As such it is anticipated that three (3) actions will be taken:
(a) Any follow-on contract would separate the requirements for infrastructure and
engineering support for DARPA. Since the engineering support is nominal (10% - 13%)
it was anticipated that this method of placing the two (2) different contracts: one (1) for
infrastructure and the other for engineering support services may increase competition in
the future. This is in line with the latest Better Buying Power initiative guidance just
released in DOD Instruction 5000.02.
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(b) An industry day explaining the type of work ARL is doing with DARPA and their
needed support will be held.
(c) Additionally, ARL will utilize the Army's Single Face to Industry Registry for the
engineering support to DARPA. This announcement will be placed online for an
extended period of time.
These actions may result in increasing the competition for this support in the future.
8. Market Research: Infrastructure Support & DARPA Engineering Support
FAR 10.002, (b.1) states that the extent of market research will vary, depending on such factors
as urgency, estimated dollar value, complexity, and past experience. In conducting the Market
Research over the past twelve (12) months the ARL-HRED-STTC personnel Dr. Neal
Finkelstein, Ms. Thao Pham, Mr. Jose Rentas, Mr. Joe Traugott and Mr. Jim Nelson got involved
with leadership and discuss the requirements for this contract. Identifying and understanding the
characteristics of the service requirements was the key to the Market Research. ARL Subject
Matter Experts (SMEs) have extensive knowledge in working with support contractors. They are
continually reading trade journals, contact knowledgeable people (Government, industry and
academia) concerning support that other organizations received. In Team Orlando, we are
surrounded by the other Services, all who work with support contractors for various acquisition
needs. Although our S&T support is uniquely different as well as our lab security needs, having
additional eyes and ears go over these requirements in terms of how the other Services receive
this help aided with the market research.
Contacting specialists and other SMEs all are part of this process. In the past twelve (12)
months, taking advantage of the lessons learned with previous infrastructure support personnel
was collected. These SMEs evaluate White Papers, review market surveys prepared by
companies, conduct site visits and attend trade shows, conferences, and symposia. All of this
information obtained and surveyed over the last twelve (12) months aided in the Market
Research.
Additionally, in the past twelve (12) months SMEs used Internet tools, to perform Web searches,
review results of recent market research on support requirements and visited the Better Buying
Power Initiative Web Portal all providing valuable information when looking for similar
requirements. Obtaining source lists from other contracting activities such as PEO STRI was
also helpful.
Furthermore, in preparation for the past IDIQ awarded to UCF-IST in 2007 which contained
infrastructure support, ARL-HRED-STTC assessed other potential candidates. Universities that
had both strong technical as well as administrative skills were evaluated. In an effort to
determine the feasibility of competition, ARL-HRED-STTC's Principal Investigators conducted
telephone interviews, attended various trade shows, conducted web searches, reviewed White
Papers, reviewed engineering publications and participated in the Inter-service/Industry Training
Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) to see if any other universities had the desired
qualifications. In reviewing the possible candidates, it was considered essential that the
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candidates have an established and extensive link to the Central Florida military Services and
MS&T community. It was also necessary that laboratory space be available to conduct
numerous MS&T experiments and perform research within the ARL-HRED-STTC core
competencies.
The results from this Market Research analysis indicated that individually, a few institutions had
some level of capabilities and knowledge needed to meet the ARL-HRED-STTC mandated
support. However, each of the comparison institutions had strengths in certain areas over some
but none of the institutions compared with UCF-IST's overall strengths. The Market Research
indicates UCF-IST is the only institution that has the depth and breadth of capabilities, expertise
and experience to address all core capabilities with a focus that is directed to specific ARLHRED-
STTC laboratory needs.
Furthermore, Figure 2 continues the Market Research which shows a comparison of labor rates
under contract number W91CRB-08-D-0015 comparing them to the Government Services
Administration (GSA) rates. The main labor category rates from GSA are compared to the
current cost rates from UCF-IST. The rates for the labor for each category range from -86% to
+39% with an average of -13% lower overall.
Figure 2 - Market Research Budget Justification Cost Comparison
9. Procurement History: Contract number W91CRB-08-D-0015 awarded on 24 March 2008
by the U.S. Army RDECOM Acquisition Contracting Center was a sole source IDIQ named
Research, Academic and Operations Support (RAOS) in the amount of $75,000,000. Task
Order 0087 under that IDIQ was awarded 26 Sept 2013 to the UCF-IST for infrastructure
support. The value of that task order was $1,500,897.
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10. Additional Information to support the justification:
a. Acquisition Data Availability: This requirement is for essential infrastructure support for the
ARL-HRED-STTC consequently since this is an infrastructure support contract there are no
acquisition packages, technical data packages, or specifications under this effort.
b. Unusual and Compelling Urgency: Not applicable since FAR 6.302-2 - Unusual and
Compelling Urgency, is not the authority cited for this proposed action.
c. Competition in Subcontracting: FAR 52.244-5, Competition in Subcontracting, will be
included in the solicitation and resulting contract. It is not anticipated that any major subcontracting
will result under this proposed contract. However, the PCO will encourage the
maximum use of subcontracting competition for supplies, materials, and non-technical services.