Procurement Office: U.S. EPA, Office of Mission Support (OMS), Headquarters Acquisition Division (HQAD), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20460

Response Due Date: September 07, 2023 at 16:30 PM EST

Proposed Vendor: North Carolina State University (NC State)

Synopsis: THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTES: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Research and Development (ORD) requires contractor support in evaluation of the agency’s requirement, MATHEMATIAL MODELING FORMULATION, OPTIMIZATION AND APPLICATION.

Nuisance and harmful algae blooms (HABs) caused by excessive nutrient from the landscape have been an on-going concern. These concerns are further enhanced by effects of climate change. USEPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) is in the process of developing, refining, and applying mathematical models to the Great Lakes to address these eutrophication concerns. The work is part of ORD’ Nutrient and Harmful Algal Bloom topic under Safe and Sustainable Water Research. As part of this research, ORD will develop Great Lakes models that link the ecological models with hydrodynamic models. Several mathematical models are currently in development or have been developed for the Great Lakes and we will apply these models to Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the other Great Lakes. This contact will provide personnel (hours) with the necessary modeling skills (mathematical formulation, coding, and model evaluation) to assist ORD modelers and scientists with the development and application of these models to address HABs and climate change impacts on the Great Lakes.

The work for the proposed vendor is to provide labor hours to assist ORD, Center for Computational Toxicology & Exposure, Great Lakes Toxicology & Ecology Division personnel with highly specialized mathematical modeling, model coding and optimization skills to develop new and improve existing models for the Great Lakes.

The requested services are only known to be available solely from North Carolina State University. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology.

Interested and capable parties may submit a brief capability statement demonstrating how their firm is technically capable of providing the services stated in this notice along with the requirements of the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) provided with this notice.

Please indicate the following information in your response, not to exceed 20 single-sided pages formatted with 1-inch margins and 12-point font:
1. A detailed technical approach to meeting all requirements of the draft PWS.
2. One primary and one alternate point of contact within your firm, including telephone numbers and email addresses.
3. Name of business, business size for the referenced NAICS code. Additionally, firms are allowed to propose additional NAICS codes should they believe they are more applicable to this requirement.
4. GSA Schedule contract number (if applicable).
5. Discussion of any potentially significant organizational conflicts of interest.

Feedback and/or evaluation information will not be provided to any firm regarding their individual capability statements. Telephone calls, facsimiles, and/or requests for a solicitation will not be accepted or acknowledged. Businesses shall submit electronic copies of their respective capability statements through FedConnect or via email to Daniel Fox at fox.daniel@epa.gov and Patrice Cunningham at Cunningham.patrice@epa.gov no later than 4:30 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) September 07, 2023.

As stated previously, North Carolina State is the only known source, at this time, that can provide the mathematical modeling services. Therefore, should no additional capable sources be found, the EPA will award a Sole Source purchase order pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13.106-1(b) to North Carolina State University.

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