Standard Interactive Data Management and Informational Retrieval System & Services

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. This notice is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. This procurement will be processed pursuant to FAR part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR part 13.5, Simplified Acquisition Procedures. No solicitation will be issued.
Potential sources who believe they can provide the services listed are invited to submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact. Information received will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. A determination by the Government to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. Responses are to be received within 10 days of this notice. No telephone calls are being accepted.
The United States Department Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) intends to negotiate and award on a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) basis. Contract type will be a Firm Fixed price with a base year and two (2) one year option periods. This will be awarded to ChalkLabs, LLC. This is for limited commercial software license for ChalkLabs PushGraph®. NAICS Code is 511210. Annual period of performance is estimated to be July 30 - July 29.
Award is In accordance with both 41 U.S.C 3304(a)(1), and FAR 13.106-1(b) and 13.501(a)
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NIFA requires a standard interactive data management and informational retrieval system that can intelligently analyze and organize NIFA data into objectively defined and synthetic topics. The system:

• Will provide a web-based, data analysis platform for visualizing, analyzing, reporting, retrieving, and communicating information about that data.
• Will use a web-based format that provides a context in which projects are categorized and clustered based on the language used by researchers.
• Will discover meaningful categories from unstructured text, independent of keywords or preconceived categorical designations
• Will visualize measures of key research output, outcomes, and impacts from investments, and provide the foundation for portfolio evaluation
• Will be able to export data from sources in various formats
• The system shall provide an internal license for up to 20 internal Users.
• The system/vendor shall provide End User Support - through the platform - which will include Tier I, II, and III services - between the hours of 9AM and 6PM EST.
• The web based system shall be hosted by a FedRAMP approved cloud provider.
• The vendor will harvest, clean, and correlate NIFA Data Sets and Map Updates on an annual basis. The government's Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) will provide access to this data. Data Updates will originate from the Plan of Work (POW) and CRIS-REEport Project Based Systems.
• The vendor will provide System log file Reports - on a monthly basis - of Usage
Demonstration of Contractor's Unique Qualifications and/or Product's Unique Features
The contractor is the only business that can provide a BigData analysis platform, specifically geared to science programs that address science inputs and impacts with large-scale information retrieval, network science, and integration of information visualization. ChalkLabs specialty is the management of science-related data (i.e., data relating to the granting of science, identification of scientific disciplines from complex data, and facilitating the management and analysis of science portfolios).

PushGraph®, the modeling software/platform provided by ChalkLabs is unique and different from other research program information retrieval and reporting platforms.

ChalkLabs not only provided the necessary topic modeling and data visualization expertise, but also is the only company experienced in delivering interactive topic modeling products to federal agencies for science program management and grant making

Minimum Requirements of the Acquisition:
Functional Requirements
NIFA requires a standard interactive data management and informational retrieval system that can intelligently analyze and organize NIFA data into objectively defined and synthetic topics. The system:
• Will provide a web-based, data analysis platform for visualizing, analyzing, reporting, retrieving, and communicating information about that data.
• Will use a web-based format that provides a context in which projects are categorized and clustered based on the language used by researchers.
• Will discover meaningful categories from unstructured text, independent of keywords or preconceived categorical designations
• Will visualize measures of key research output, outcomes, and impacts from investments, and provide the foundation for portfolio evaluation
• Will be able to export data from sources in various formats

Technical- Reporting Requirements
• The system shall provide an internal license for up to 20 internal Users.
• The system/vendor shall provide End User Support - through the platform - which will include Tier I, II, and III services - between the hours of 9AM and 6PM EST.
• The web based system shall be hosted by a FedRAMP approved cloud provider.
• The vendor will harvest, clean, and correlate NIFA Data Sets and Map Updates on an annual basis. The government's Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) will provide access to this data. Data Updates will originate from the Plan of Work (POW) and CRIS-REEport Project Based Systems.
• The vendor will provide System log file Reports - on a monthly basis - of Usage

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