THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) has been charged to lead the nation in utilizing existing and emerging information technology (IT) to meet national priorities that reflect the country's broad based social, economic, and political values and goals. Its extended charge continues under the Federal Information Security Management Act to develop cyber security standards, guidelines, and associated methods and techniques. Revised OMB CircularA-119 establishes policies on Federal use and development of voluntary consensus standards and on conformity assessment activities.

Public Law 104-113, the "National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995," codified existing policies in A-119, established reporting requirements, and authorized NIST to coordinate conformity assessment activities of the agencies. In order to ensure that the USG has a source of technically sound, consensus international biometric standards to meet the USG's priority needs for biometric-based recognition of individuals, NIST championed the formation of ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 37, Biometrics. NIST determined the best method for ensuring first-rate secretariat services for SC 37 was to contract for such services. These SC 37 secretariat services are for the direct benefit of NIST and the USG, ensuring the rapid development of critically needed voluntary consensus biometric standards developed in an environment that offers openness and due process as required by OMB CircularA-119.

By providing these services, NIST ITL supports the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy/National Science and Technology Council's goals as delineated under its Policy for Enabling the Development, Adoption and Use of Biometric Standards, which is to enable biometric system interoperability and support Federal agency biometrics needs. This policy states that "Continued development of voluntary consensus standards for biometrics is vital to the security of our Nation and the stability of the US-based biometrics community."

NIST is contemplating a procurement to acquire Secretariat services for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) / International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology, Subcommittee 37 on Biometrics (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC37) and SC 37 Working Group 4 on Biometric Functional Architecture and Related Profiles (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC37 WG 4.
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NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 541990, as those domestic sources having annual receipts of $14.0 million or less. Please include your company's size classification in any response to this notice.

To complete the contemplated services, potential offerors must have knowledge, expertise and experience in all of the following areas:

(a)Knowledge of current policies and procedures for the work of ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC JTC 1, and JTC 1/SC 37 including expert knowledge of the ISO/IEC Directives Part 1, the Procedures for technical work of ISO/IEC; its Supplement, Procedures specific to JTC 1; and current versions of the JTC 1 and ISO/IEC JTC SC 37 Standing documents;

(b) Administration of the SC 37 and SC 37 WG 4 program of work according to those procedures and Standing documents; and the drafting of comprehensive SC 37 and SC 37 WG 4 meeting recommendations/resolutions during each meeting for approval by the membership;
(c) Interaction in a positive and efficient manner with the SC 37 Officers and members as well as ISO/IEC Management Boards and JTC 1.

Companies that maintain any or all of the capabilities above are requested to email a detailed report describing their abilities to [email protected] no later than the response date for this sources sought notice.

The report must include clear and concise documentation of the Contractor's knowledge, expertise and experience in areas a through c identified above, and any other information relevant to your capabilities. Also, the following information must be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:

1. Name and business size of the company;

2. Name of company(ies), including potential subcontractors, their addresses, and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address);

3. Do the required labor categories exist under one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts and, if so, the GSA FSS contract number(s);

5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research.

All documentation must be sent to Carol A. Wood, Contract Specialist, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1640. E-mail address: [email protected].

Submission must be received not later than 3:00 PM local time on May 11, 2012.