Active

Contract Opportunity

Modification 1 - February 29, 2024

This is modification 1 to the RFI entitled NASA Open Innovation Services 3 (NOIS3), 80JSC025NOIS3, which was posted on February 16, 2024. You are notified that the following changes are made:

Adding DRD titled “Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) Plan” into the “Attachments/Links” section of this RFI. Also changing the response date time from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

The due date for responses is not extended.

Offerors are responsible for monitoring this site for the release of the solicitation and any amendments. Potential offerors are responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any).

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for the NASA Open Innovation Services 3 (NOIS3) Contract. This notice serves to seek capability statements from interested parties, solicit feedback relative to the Draft Statement of Work (DSOW), and request information from industry regarding potential organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) arising from the NOIS3 acquisition.

The NASA JSC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the NOIS3 acquisition. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received.

The scope of the NOIS3 contract includes the ability to solicit crowd-based solutions via contracts with multiple awardees using their commercial approaches to satisfy the SOW. The contractors shall use one or more of the following methodologies to meet the requirements of specific task orders: Crowd-Based Challenges and Prize Competitions, Crowd-Based Freelance Projects, Crowd-Based Micro-Task Projects, and Other Crowd-Based Methods.

The elements of the Statement of Work (SOW) may include but not be limited to those described in the appendix titled, Draft SOW.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments, if any.

Interested firms having the required capabilities necessary to meet the above requirement described herein should submit a capability statement of no more than 5 pages indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort.

Instructions for Responding to this Sources Sought Synopsis:

Submission shall include the following:

1. 
   

   Company Information: organization name, address, email address, website address, telephone number, unique entity IDs, and size and type of the organization (e.g., Large Business, Small Business, Women-owned, Service- Disabled Veteran Owned, HUBZone, Small Disadvantaged Business, etc.).

   
   


2. 
   

   Capability to perform the SOW: Identify in your response the one or more deliverable elements of the SOW (identified in SOW Sections 3.1-3.6) that your company qualifies to perform. Discuss your experience performing the work and your experience as it relates to the deliverable elements. If subcontractors which may be used are known, please provide information on what functions the prime contractor will be responsible for and their experience in those areas as well as any subcontractors. If subcontractors are known, please provide their names, unique entity IDs, and work they will be performing.

   
   


3. 
   

   Any feedback on the requirements.

   
   


4. 
   

   Industry terms and conditions relevant to the performance of the requirements.

   
   


5. 
   

   If the Government decides to accept oral proposals instead of written proposals, what is the time allotment that would be acceptable to adequately provide an overview of your capabilities?

   
   

The requirement is considered to be a commercial product. A commercial item is defined in FAR 2.101.

Additionally, this notice serves to post a Draft SOW to solicit responses from interested parties. This Draft SOW, provided as the appendix to this posting, is for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to verify reasonableness and feasibility of the requirement, as well as promote competition.

NASA JSC is also requesting information from industry regarding potential organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) arising from the NOIS3 acquisition.

The nature of the work anticipated under the NOIS3 contract may create the potential for OCI(s) as currently described in FAR Subpart 9.5. Each interested party should review FAR Subpart 9.5 in light of NASA’s anticipation of OCI issues and consider carefully the extent to which an OCI may arise before making the decision to compete for the NOIS3 contract.

Specifically, NASA anticipates that the effort under the NOIS3 contract will include the following types of tasks which could lead to potential OCI issues. Due to the nature of this contract where potential government customers can ask for a wide range of end product or services (refer to draft SOW part 3.2.1), it is possible that any potential contractors will have an OCI. Additional details can be found in the Data Requirements Description (DRD) titled, “Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) Plan”, found in the “Attachments/Links” section of this Request for Information (RFI).

You are requested to provide electronic responses via e-mail to the Contracting Officer listed at the end of this synopsis. Interested parties are requested to address the following questions:

1. What type(s) of OCI issues would your company or potential team identify, if any, should you choose to propose on the NOIS3 contract?

2. What strategies would you anticipate proposing to mitigate the OCI issues that you identified (if any)? Please provide strategy details, previous examples/experience with other contracts with NASA or other agencies, etc.

3. Are there any other types of potential OCI issues with the proposed NOIS3 contract that were not identified in this RFI?

4. Does your company foresee any OCI issues associated with the NOIS3 contract that would cause you to decide not to propose on the potential NOIS3 RFP?

NASA will review any responses received regarding potential OCI and each offeror’s feedback on ideas for an OCI mitigation strategy. NASA may contact offerors who submits ideas on a potential OCI mitigation strategy. NASA’s response is not intended to serve as a confirmation that, in fact, all potential OCI have been identified, an OCI will ultimately exist, or that an interested party is capable of successfully eliminating or mitigating an identified OCI. NASA’s response is also not intended to encourage or discourage any interested party from responding to an RFP issued for the NOIS3 effort in the future. Furthermore, NASA’s response in no way alters or interprets FAR 9.5 as it applies to a final statement of work or a final proposal submission, should an interest party elect to submit a proposal to a RFP for NOIS3. After each offeror’s OCI feedback submission and NASA’s response, NASA will not consider further information as it relates to this RFI.

The documents on the NASA NOIS3 acquisition website are for information and planning purposes, to allow industry the opportunity to comment, and to promote competition only. NASA will not affirmatively release any information received in response to this RFI to the public, but, may use information received in developing the best approach for a contract strategy, and therefore such information may be recognizable to the interested party who submitted it. Any information submitted in response to this RFI that is marked as “Confidential Commercial or Financial Information” will be considered as voluntarily submitted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.

All responses, comments, and questions shall be submitted electronically via email to Damian Gillette (damian.p.gillette@nasa.gov) no later than March 18, 2024, at 5PM Central time. Please reference 80JSC025NOIS3 in any response.

In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by NASA to form a binding contract. NASA is under no obligation to issue a solicitation or to award any contract on the basis of this RFI. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.

NASA intends to publicize a listing of respondents in order to facilitate teaming arrangements. Should your firm desire not to be included in this listing, clearly indicate this desire in your response.

NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/regs/Procurement-Ombuds-Comp-Advocate-Listing.pdf

Attachments/Links