SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- Sources Sought
- Notice Date
- 12/7/2010
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- Contracting Office
- Environmental Protection Agency, National Procurement Contract Service Center, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Nw 3803r, Washington, DC 20460
- ZIP Code
- 20460
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-DC-11-00028
- Response Due
- 12/14/2010
- Archive Date
- 1/14/2011
- Point of Contact
- Point of Contact, Martina Gillis-Massey, Purchasing Agent, Phone (202) 564-0000
- E-Mail Address
-
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(Gillis-Massey.Martina@epamail.epa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NAICS Code: 511120 Special Scientific Journal Issue on Using Ecosystem Services in Environmental Decision-Making NAICS: 511120 The US Environmental Protection Agency intends to issue an RFQ on or after December 20, 2010. The purpose is development of a Special Scientific Journal Issue on Using Ecosystem Services in Environmental Decision-Making. Any small business that feels they have the expertise to fulfill the requirements should submit a statement of capability to Martina Gillis-Massey at gillis-massey.martina@epa.gov on or before December 14, 2010. Please see the following Statement of Work: Statement of Work: Background: According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005, p.v): "Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food, water, timber, and fiber; regulating services that affect climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality; cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling." Several more recent classification schemes define ecosystem services more specifically as ecological phenomena (Boyd and Banzhaf 2007; Fisher et al. 2008, 2009), distinct from the human benefits obtained from them. These services are, nonetheless, closely related to the constituents of well-being, including security (e.g., freedom from environmental disasters), the basic materials of a good life (e.g., food, shelter), health (e.g., clean air and water), good social relations, and freedom of choice and action (MEA 2005, p. vi). The goal of the EPA's Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP) is to transform the way decision-makers understand and respond to environmental issues by making clear how their policy and management choices affect the type, quality, quantity and sustainability of the goods and services ecosystems provide to sustain human well-being. Five years have passed since the publication of the MEA, and three years since the creation of the ESRP, and EPA believes that the time is ripe for a special issue of a scientific journal to focus on some of the most important problems and potential solutions to the problem of translating the vision on the MEA into the practice of environmental management, especially as it relates to EPA's mission, statutes, programs, and policies. Requirements: Publish a special journal issue, on line and in hard copy, that focuses on problems and real integrative solutions related to translating the vision of the MEA into the practice of environmental management, especially as it relates to EPA's mission, statutes, programs, and policies (See example topic areas listed below). All manuscripts included in the special journal issue must receive peer scientific review by at least two recognized experts in the subject area. It must be readily available to, and understandable by, professional and lay environmental managers and the general public. The special issue shall be published on-line and in hard copy no later than 18 months from the award date of the contract. Two interim progress reports will be required. The first, no later than 6 months after award and the second and final interim progress report due no later than 12 months from the date of award. Two corresponding payments of 33% each will be paid, upon Program Office approval of progress, with a final payment made upon delivery of the final product. The following statement shall be placed in a prominent location in the special journal issue: "Although the information in this document has been funded (wholly) or (in part) by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under contract number (insert number) to (insert journal name), it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred." The quotes must provide information in support of the six (6) technical evaluation criteria that will be used to select the most responsive quote and competent offeror. Topic areas: The following topic areas are of particular interest (in all cases, the emphasis is on examples of actual applications of ecosystem services to decision-making at scales ranging from global to regional to personal): 1. How is the concept of ecosystem services changing environmental decision-making beyond the classic risk paradigm? 2. How are ecosystem services being applied to rulemaking and other large-scale top-down environmental decisions? 3. How are ecosystem services being translated quantitatively into benefits (monetized or otherwise)? 4. How are ecosystem services and their uncertainties being incorporated into markets and offset programs? 5. How are trade-offs among ecosystem services being considered in decision making? 6. What are the advantages and difficulties of stacking or bundling ecosystem services in markets, offset programs, policy decisions, and other environmental management applications? 7. What are the challenges to quantifying ecosystem services (including quantification of uncertainty) in order to support environmental decisions? 8. How is the concept of ecosystem services changing monitoring and performance standards related to environmental management? 9.How do ecosystem services scale to hierarchies of environmental decision-making? 10. What are the threshold levels at which overuse of services or damage to the systems providing them result in a sharp drop-off of those benefits? Evaluation Criteria: The Government will make an award to the responsible offeror whose offer conforms to the solicitation and is most advantageous to the Government, cost and other factors considered. For this Request for Quotation, all evaluation factors other than cost or price when combined are significantly more important than cost or price. The evaluation factors are listed in descending order of importance. This procurement will be awarded on a best value basis per the evaluation criteria: TECHNICAL QUOTE INSTRUCTIONS1. Proposals shall include a list of descriptive titles and authors of manuscripts proposed for the special issue, a brief description of the relevance of each manuscript to one or more of the ten topic area(s), and a time-line of activities and interim progress reports, leading to the final publication. 2. The offeror must describe a sound strategy for informing a broad audience, including federal, state, and private land managers and the public, of the availability and accessibility to the special issue. 3. The offeror shall describe the breadth of its subscriber base, including federal, state, private land managers and the general public. The offeror shall include a discussion of its subscription costs and how such costs compare to industry averages, to determine its accessibility to the public and other parties and organizations. The offeror shall discuss its experience in publishing complex scientific issues so they are understandable by the general public. 4. The reader base must, in addition to being broad (as described above), include at least 10,000 readers. The offeror must provide an estimate of the reader base, including supporting data and information. 5. The offeror shall discuss its demonstrated knowledge of ecosystem services. Previous ecosystem services publications, knowledge and experience of the editorial board, etc. may serve as evidence. 6. All manuscripts included in the special issue must receive scientific peer review by a minimum of 2 scientists who are experts in the area of the publications. The offeror must demonstrate knowledge in ecosystem expertise by proposing a review panel, by name and expertise, for the special issue.EVALUATION CRITERIA CRITERIA1. The offeror will be evaluated on its knowledge about the practical applications of ecosystem service concepts to environmental management decisions. The government will also evaluate the relevance of manuscripts proposed for the special issue to one or more of the ten topic area(s), and the comprehensiveness of the time-line of activities and interim products, if any, leading to the final publication. 2. The offeror will be evaluated on the soundness of its proposed strategy for informing a broad audience, including federal, state, and private land managers and the public, of the availability and accessibility to the special issue. 3. The offeror will be evaluated on (1) the breadth of its subscriber base, including federal, state, private land managers and the general public, (2) a comparison of its subscription costs to industry averages and (3) its experience in publishing complex scientific issues so they are understandable by the general public. 4. The offeror will be evaluated on the size of its reader base. At a minimum, the offeror's reader base must include at least 10,000 readers. Offering a reader base of less than 10,000 will render the quote unacceptable. 5. The offeror will be evaluated on its demonstrated knowledge of ecosystem services. 6. The offeror's propose review panel will be evaluated on its demonstrated knowledge in ecosystem expertise.
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