Notice of Intent to Award Sole Source Contract: THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT, NOT A SOLICITATION. The U.S. Census Bureau intends to award a sole source Firm Fixed Price contract to the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC), a non-profit organization, located in 1700 N. Moore Street, Suite 2225, Arlington, VA, on the basis of other than full and open competition under the authority of FAR 6.302-3: Industrial mobilization; engineering, developmental, or research capability; or expert services. Specifically, FAR 6.302-3 (a) Authority. (1) Citations: 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(3) or 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(3); (2) Full and open competition need not be provided for when it is necessary to award the contract to a particular source or sources in order to (ii) To establish or maintain an essential engineering, research or developmental capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a federally funded research and development center; and FAR 6.302-3 (b) Application (2) Use of the authority in paragraph (a)(2)(ii) above may be appropriate when it is necessary to - (i) Establish or maintain an essential capability for theoretical analyses, exploratory studies, or experiments in any field or science or technology. Services would be provided for ten-months from date of award. Anticipated completion date is September 2012. Services would be delivered in the Washington DC metropolitan area. The U.S. Census Bureau is contemplating to procure the development and delivery of a series of customized data delivery training courses for data producers; to improve strategies for public dissemination of economic and statistical data; and to enhance data producers' understanding of how data users: 1) access publicly available data; 2) analyze these data; and 3) apply data to answer common policy questions faced by practitioners. The services acquired under this contract will also provide a mechanism for integrating participants' lessons learned into a different approach for economic data product development efforts; and serve as the foundation to build upon to ensure the incorporation of ongoing input from a variety of data users in future data product development and related access applications. It has been determined that the Government requirements for these services can only be met by the referenced nonprofit organization due to the organization's unique knowledge and qualifications to develop customized training for statistical data producers; and its coordination capabilities to engage and involve members from a broad network of national associations and affiliate organizations representing economic data users and economic researchers from across the nation. The CREC's combined data user networks represent approximately 1,000 active researchers from more than 400 policy and planning organizations across the U.S. making them uniquely qualified to provide the required training services for the U.S. Census Bureau. Through these organizations CREC represents, local regional and national data users and producers involved in demographic, economic, and workforce research at all levels allowing the CREC to have a unique understanding of diverse data user networks. The CREC will be able to provide the U.S. Census Bureau with exceptional training sessions as it has extensive training delivery experience. With over 10 years of experience, the CREC has conducted more than 50 training sessions for economic and workforce development research professionals and program practitioners. Also as data producers themselves, the CREC will draw upon it's more than 10 years of experience producing the C2ER Cost of Living Index (COLI) to better educate trainees on data delivery innovation. All responsible sources may submit their capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which will be considered by the agency. Any information submitted may be used to determine whether to conduct future competitive procurements. Any questions or comments pertaining to this notice should be issued to Randy W. Hart, Contracting Officer, by email to:
[email protected] ,or phone at 301-763-1522. All questions or comments shall be received no later than 12:00 Noon (EST) on January 9, 2012.