This special notice is a Synopsis of a Proposed Contract Action in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 5.2 as the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available. Accordingly, the Government intends to solicit from a single source for a commercial service purchase not estimated to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold in accordance with the authority at FAR 13.106-1(b)(1). The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) / Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) / Preparedness Section on behalf of the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), located at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC), intends to contract on a sole source basis with the American Council on Education (ACE), located at One DuPont Circle, N.W., Washington, DC 20036. DHS / FEMA intends shortly after the expiration of this special notice to issue a non-competitive award with a period of performance that is estimated to be twelve (12) months from the date of award. The purpose of the contemplated award is for ACE to review and evaluate the content of numerous NETC / EMI offered courses and for the subsequent college credit equivalency recommendations of those courses for vocational, associate, baccalaureate, and graduate credit. As ACE publishes and maintains for students' reference The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training, the award shall also cover the maintenance and listing therein of all EMI courses that have ever received an ACE college credit equivalency recommendation. Market Research has determined that ACE is the only source reasonably available due to ACE being uniquely positioned to assist an EMI objective of furthering the professionalism of the emergency management field as the ACE College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT) College and University Network consists of approximately 2,000 higher educational institutions that consider ACE credit recommendations. As such, an ACE review and evaluation of NETC / EMI courses provides NETC / EMI students with the broadest opportunity to use EMI courses as credit toward their educational goals in emergency management related degrees and only serves to increase the number and quality of emergency management related personnel to respond to emergencies in their communities. This special notice is not a request for competitive quotes and no solicitation document yet exists for this requirement. All parties interested in receiving the subsequent solicitation, which will not be made available through the Governmentwide point of entry (GPE), shall respond to this notice and: 1) Include information on the proposed services that clearly supports the above described requirements; 2) Fully explain your capabilities and qualifications by submitting a detailed capability statement that at a minimum must demonstrate the following: A comparable United States nationwide College and University network base (i.e. approximately 2,000 higher education institutions) that currently considers the Contractor's credit recommendations for transfer to degree programs. A comparable existence of relationships with United States educational organizations and related associations (i.e. approximately 1,800) whereby the Contractor represents and is supported by them in aggregate concerning higher education policies and issues. The capability to publish and maintain an Online Guide that is publicly accessible and provides a current listing of all NETC courses that have received credit recommendations. This Guide must include course information for each course; i.e., course name, course code, length of course, course description, objective, learning outcome, credit recommendation. The capability to make award credit recommendations in various categories i.e. vocational, associate, baccalaureate, graduate and evidence these recommendations have been accepted by the Contractor's College and University network base. The capability to immediately provide an electronic transcript service as well as paper format transcripts, both of which can be sent to the NETC student's requested college or university. Acceptance of the credit recommendation given to NETC courses that were previously reviewed and recommended by another organization (ACE). Responses to this special notice must be made in writing and submitted via email (using PDF, MS Word, Excel Attachments) to Gregory Keller, Contract Specialist, at
[email protected]. Responses must be received no later than the response date and time specified in this notice, and any late responses will not be considered. All responses received by the closing date of this special notice will be considered by the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the Government to not conduct a competitive procurement based on responses to this special notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. All Contractors doing business with the Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database. Registration is free and can be found online at https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/.