The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Office of the Undersecretary for Transportation Policy hereby gives notice of intent to award a Sole Source Firm Fixed Price contract under the authority of FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements" or is capable of providing the supplies/service required at the level of quality required because the supplies/services are unique or highly specialized to that of Jan Bruckener, 3223 Social Science Plaza B, University of California-Irvine, Irvine California 92697. The basis for restricting competition is for the following reasons: •1. The European Union Directorate General for Competition and the U.S. Department of Transportation used confidential data to create econometric models and approaches to monitor the impact of transatlantic alliances on competition. The Directorate General for Competition and the USDOT convened a panel of experts to evaluate these models and the efficacy of various restrictions placed on those alliances for the purpose of maintaining a policy of encouraging robust competition. The data necessary to evaluate these models are confidential, and there are no services available in the commercial marketplace to create a set of econometric tools and measurements to assess the effect that these policies have on competition in transatlantic markets. •2. One June 30, 2014 a Special Notice was published requesting Statements of Qualification from vendors capable of providing services to create analytical tools to use in alliance monitoring and research at a very HIGH level of quality which was indispensable to DOT. At the expiration of the Special Notice no vendor had replied to the Special Notice or provided a Statement of Qualifications. •3. The Department believes that Jan Brueckner has demonstrated a unique and innovative concept by his method of evaluating the use of carve-outs as a policy tool to remedy competitive concerns. The Department believes that Jan Brueckner is the only entity capable of developing a model based on this concept. This concept for creating an econometric model is otherwise unavailable to the government because Department is unable to re-create the circumstances by which this research was developed. Jan Brueckner's knowledge of the previous models and approaches was gained from having personally interacted with the Commission and the Department together in the course of evaluating the earlier internal, confidential study supported by the European Commission. Jan Bruckner's concept builds on the knowledge of that earlier cooperation between USDOT and the European Commission, using knowledge, data, and models developed collaboratively for that project. This work will assist the Department in fulfilling ist responsibilities under 49 USC 41309. Interested parties may identify their interest to this requirement by submitting a capabilities statement no later than 12:00 midnight on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 to Contract Specialist, Ms. Doris Evans-Gray at
[email protected] , and Contracting Officer, Mr. Ervin Spivey at
[email protected]. This notice of intent is NOT a request for competitive proposals. However, all responses received will be considered by the Government. A determination not to compete this requirement based on this notice is within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether conducting a competitive procurement is in the best interest of the Government.