UPDATE July 6, 2021: A seperate Special Notice was issued today entitled "Acquisition Strategy for NASA LaRC Research, Science, and Engineering Services." Please review the notice for the latest updates. This notice is issued by NASA Langley Research (LaRC) to solicit information from interested parties. The notice is for information and planning purposes, to request feedback, and to promote competition. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in response. NASA may not respond to questions/concerns submitted; however, NASA will consider information provided when determining its strategy. NASA is currently undergoing a major initiative pursuant to Procurement’s Transformation Initiative to transform how it will strategically procure research, science, and engineering services to meet the Agency’s evolving mission needs in the decades to come. Critical elements of the initiative are to: (1) establish clearly defined enterprise requirements/deliverables; (2) streamline acquisition practices and business processes; (3) reduce redundant and duplicative contracts and other instruments across the Agency. Additionally, in support of the Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, NASA is also looking to advance equity or remove barriers for members of underserved communities to access procurement opportunities. Underserved Communities include Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, Transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. NASA intends to issue multiple notices to industry as the strategic approach to procuring research, science, and engineering services within and across the Centers evolves. Hence, while the instant notice focuses on Langley pursuant to their ongoing initiative as discussed below, NASA will issue additional notices to address engineering services needs more broadly across the NASA enterprise. The purpose of this notice it to: (1) provide an update on LaRC’s activities, (2) invite industry and academia to join our bidders list and attend a forum on May 5, 2021, and (3) seek input to the market research questions included herein. Starting in 2019, LaRC established a center-wide consolidated Procurement Development Team (PDT) to perform a grass roots assessment of these major on-site contracts to find synergies of the requirements across its major on-site research contracts. A number of LaRC's long-term onsite engineering, science, and research services contracts are coming to completion in 2021 and 2022, which presents an opportunity for change, with an aim to eliminate duplicative work among Source Evaluation Boards, eliminate overlapping contract vehicles, and ensure that we have the optimal strategy for future acquisitions. The PDT completed a detailed assessment of existing and changing missions and mission requirements across the enterprise, and developed recommendations to transform how LaRC partners with industry and academia and how it will procure these vital services and deliver on the agency’s plan for Moon to Mars; along with its other vital Science, Aeronautics and Exploration efforts for 2021 and beyond. In late 2020, LaRC established a follow-on Acquisition Strategy Team (AST) to expand on the PDT assessment and create a definitive acquisition strategy considering previous recommendations and new findings. The scope of the assessment involves, but is not limited to, requirements associated with the following contracts and agreements: the Technology, Engineering and Aerospace Mission Support (TEAMS) contract (80LARC17C0003); the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) 20-year Cooperative Agreement (NCC-1-02043/ NNL09AA00A/80LARC17C0004 – same agreement with different contract writing system numbers); the NIA Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract (NNL13AA08B); and the Science, Technology and Research Services (STARSS) contract (NNL16AA05C). The AST is also assessing portions of the Langley IT Enhanced Services (LITES) contract (NNL15AA03B) that are not slated to be strategically sourced on other Agency contracts. LITES related requirements included in the assessment include but are not limited to; research related software development and research software and related support for the Air Traffic Operation Lab (ATOL) and Airspace and Traffic Operations Simulation (ATOS) system located at LaRC. To assist in your review, attached to the notice you will find Statements of Work for the contracts, a listing of job categories, and a technical services skill taxonomy generated by the PDT and AST that will apply to future procurements. The AST is conducting its assessment in two phases. Phase I focuses on how LaRC procures engineering, science, and research services provided under the contracts mentioned above and is scheduled for completion this summer. The AST will present its complete assessment and strategy recommendations to the LaRC Office of Director and appropriate stakeholders at LaRC and the Agency. As strategy decisions are made, LaRC will notify industry of key decisions via an FBO notice; and Requirements Development Team(s), Source Evaluation Board(s) or other procurement activity will commence aligned with the Strategy. Phase II will focus on optimizing how LaRC collaborates with industry and academia, utilizing other than FAR based acquisitions (e.g. Space Act Agreements). Phase II is scheduled for completion in 2022. With this notice, LaRC is also inviting industry and academia to participate in a virtual AST forum scheduled for May 5, 2021. The forum will include an update on AST activities, overview of identified opportunities, challenges and risks, and Q&A session. If you have questions you would like answered at the forum, please send them to
[email protected] no later than May 3, 2021. LaRC intends to utilize Microsoft Teams to conduct the forum and at this time are scheduling the forum from 11:00 am - 1:30 pm EST. If you would like to participate, please email each attendee name, title, company, and email address to
[email protected] by May 3, 2021. Please limit attendance to 4 people per company to ensure adequate bandwidth for the forum. In addition, LaRC is requesting industry feedback in the areas below. Contractors are encouraged to answer as many questions as you can: 1. If you interested in being placed on a Bidders List to be published on the AST beta.sam site, please provide POC information including name, title, company, and email. There is no requirement to be on the bidders list to participate in the future. 2. Considering the cumulative scope of the requirements in the contracts the AST is assessing, what Small Business challenges and opportunities should be considered? Are there limits to the scope of work a small business can accommodate? For reference, previous procurement have been competed under The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 541712, “Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)” with a NAICS of 1,000 Employees. 3. Are there specific requirements and associated skills more effectively procured separately from remaining requirements (e.g. stand-alone contract, GSA, other Strategy Sourcing opportunity)? 4. Due to the research-oriented nature of the services, and changing mission needs, the contracts within the AST assessment have historically been cost-plus contract types. Are other contract types feasible considering the nature of these services? 5. AST objectives and the Agency Transformational Initiatives are to streamline acquisition practices and reduce redundant and duplicative contracts. What opportunities and/or challenges exist with respect to meeting these objectives (Refer to AST’s scope and the updated technical service classifications)? 6. What other novel contract strategies should the AST consider streamlining with preaward/SEB or post award activities or requirements? 7. LaRC has required on-site contract support to accomplish most of the requirements in the contracts the AST is assessing. The COVID pandemic has demonstrated that offsite or remote work can be as productive in many cases. Considering the requirements, what barriers and opportunities exist to transition work off-site? What are the pros and cons to moving work offsite? Are there specific requirements and associated skills that are more suitable to being off-site? What Federal and NASA IT and data protection requirements should be considered when moving work off-site? 8. To support cutting-edge research in aeronautics, space exploration, science, and related areas, what barriers or opportunities exist to engage subject matter experts from industry and academia and how can those barriers be overcome? How can HBCUs and MSIs be leveraged? 9. What other recommendations to enhance diversity and inclusion should be considered to encourage full participation, belonging, and contribution of organizations and individuals (e.g. outreach efforts, innovative partnerships, etc)? 10. Based on your experience describe ideal cultural changes NASA should embrace to enable doing business in the future with all businesses including the diverse populations stated in EO 13985. 11. What other activities do you recommend that NASA explore to advance equity or remove barriers for members of underserved communities to access procurement opportunities? 12. What additional risks should the AST consider during each phase of strategy implementation and execution (e.g., pre- and post-award)? 13. The AST welcomes other feedback on the technical service classifications/taxonomy that LaRC intends to use in the future. Please limit responses to 8-pages and provide responses not later than May 7, 2021 by email to
[email protected]. If additional information is released it will be available on www.beta.sam.gov. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this website for the release of information. Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of all information.