FedBizOpps (http://www.fedbizopps.gov/) is designated as the single source for Federal government procurement opportunities that exceed $25,000. All Federal agencies use the FedBizOpps system to post any and all relevant procurement information on the Internet, including procurement notices, solicitations, drawings, and amendments. Eventually, vendors will be able to submit proposals to Government agencies electronically.
You may sign up to automatically receive procurement information, by solicitation number, selected organizations, and product service classification. Businesses should be able to react more quickly to procurement opportunities because they will be better informed. You can also search procurements by solicitation number, date, procurement classification code, and agency for active or archived solicitations.
For those who may be interested in searching specifically or only for Federal Grant Opportunities, go to http://fedgrants.gov -- a web site similar to FedBizOpps.
If you are new to Government contracting, particularly with NASA, we recommend you start at the NASA Headquarters Procurement homepage (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/index.html). There, you can learn about varying aspects of procurement, selling to NASA, viewing NASA forecasts, etc. In addition, there is also a wealth of information on the small business program. More complete information on the small business program, including doing business with NASA, the names of all NASA center small business specialists, identification of the major products or services each NASA center procures, conferences and outreach activities per the OSBP or Federal OSDBU calendars, etc., can be found at the site for the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP): (http://osbp.nasa.gov/)
NAIS (http://procurement.nasa.gov/) provides a wealth of information - particularly NASA-related -- at your computer fingertips. This Web site will link you to the procurement Web sites of each NASA buying activity. The NAIS also identifies solicitations over $25,000 and provides a host of other procurement-related information. Now, companies may not only get the electronic versions of solicitations they desire, but they can also download them immediately. This can save several days of document reproduction and mail time. You can view "active" business opportunities, i.e., open or planned procurements, for any and all the NASA centers you may wish to market to. You can do "searches" for opportunities posted by class of procurement. Or you can "search" using other criteria you may choose. Procurement opportunities displayed in the NAIS are also transmitted to and displayed in the FedBizOpps.
In the NAIS, you can also search the NASA Procurement Data View (NPDV) for active contracts by center, by contractor, or by geographical location -- an excellent way to find subcontracting opportunities or to plan for follow-on procurements where contracts are due to expire. NAIS can also link you to the annual forecasts (see below) for all the NASA centers; it can link you to the current regulations and official forms that you may need for Government procurement; and it can provide a myriad of other useful information that can help you market your capabilities to NASA. And, from this site as further described below, you can sign up to automatically receive procurement notices via E-Mail of upcoming business opportunities. This is a free service.
Acquisition Forecast:
In order to find out about future requirements, an Acquisition Forecast is published twice each fiscal year for each NASA center. It is available on NAIS. The first rendition is released at the beginning of October and an update is posted in early April. Some centers may update more often. The Acquisition Forecast is a listing of known or anticipated procurement opportunities over $100,000 that are expected to be released for the upcoming or subsequent fiscal years. All forecasted procurements are subject to revision or cancellation. Final decisions as to the extent of competition, set-aside restrictions, estimated value, etc. will not be made until each procurement is initiated. The data are for planning purposes only and, although copies of solicitations listed in the Forecast are not available until the procurement is formally announced, the Acquisition Forecast can be a useful tool for many companies. Again, keep in mind that these forecasts are not full-proof projections of what any NASA centers plan to procure. Because procurement needs continue to change, the Forecast may only represent the "tip of the iceberg." You are encouraged to contact the persons named on the Forecasts to gain a greater understanding of any upcoming, named procurement. More importantly, you should be monitoring "live" announcements posted under the NAIS’s "Business Opportunities" sites and/or distributed via the E-Mail Notification Service. You may access and view Acquisition Forecasts for all Centers via NAIS at http://procurement.nasa.gov/
No-Cost E-mail Notification Service:
NASA also has a no-cost E-Mail notification service that companies may subscribe to in order to learn about upcoming procurement opportunities as they happen. You may sign up for this service through the NAIS Web-site or go directly to: http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/nens/index.cgi
The advantage of this service is that companies may be selective in which potential business opportunities they may want to hear about. You no longer need to do a daily or weekly "surf" of the business opportunities Web sites to determine if an opportunity has been posted that may "fit" your firm’s interests and capabilities. By defining your search criteria, you will be notified of only those announcements that match your selection criteria. For instance, you can elect to receive announcements from any one (or more) specific NASA centers, or you may select to receive announcements for specific categories of goods and services, i.e., those that fall under specific product service classification (PSC) codes. Or, you may select any combination of the preceding. You may also select any one or more PSC’s and, at any time in the future, "unselect" any one or more PSC’s. These PSC’s are listed on the Web site. When procurement announcements are posted for these PSC’s, relevant information is sent directly to your E-Mail accounts. These announcements include advance procurement notices, solicitation releases, post-award notices, and other general procurement notices. This E-Mail also will tell companies where to look on the Web to obtain the full solicitation and any other information available.
In addition to doing business directly with NASA, as addressed above, it is important to remember that there are many opportunities for subcontracting work with many of NASA’s prime contractors. In fact, subcontracting may be a desirable business strategy, because by developing a business relationship with a NASA prime contractor on a NASA contract, a company may have further access to opportunities involving the prime contractor’s other Government or commercial business. In addition, most of NASA’s large contracts require "large" prime contractors to develop subcontracting relationships with small businesses including those owned and controlled by women or disadvantaged entrepreneurs. NASA is also requiring its prime contractors to subcontract with HUB Zone small businesses, Veteran-owned small businesses and Service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses. It makes sense that all small businesses take advantage of this growing subcontract market. A list of NASA’s top prime contractors is available on line at: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codek/top_prime_contractors.pdf
In addition to the above prime contractor list, NASA also has many contracts with many small businesses. Even though they may be considered "small", many of our small contractors also seek potential business partners and suppliers either for existing NASA contracts or other contracts they may currently have or hope to have with Government or commercial customers. You can obtain a listing of all of NASA's contractors -- both large and small -- by accessing our NASA Procurement Data View (NPDV) On-line Query (http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/npms/npms.cgi). This is a component of the NAIS discussed above.
The above listings describe each contractor’s products or services being provided to NASA. By reviewing them and matching them to your company’s products, services, and capabilities, you may find a whole new “pool” of business opportunities that may extend beyond the life of any single NASA contract.
Some opportunities may exist for you even when NASA may not have a published, contracted, or known requirement. This is particularly true in the R&D arena. NASA depends upon the private sector -- industry, educational institutions and other nonprofit organizations -- for the greater part of its research needs. Therefore, NASA encourages the submission of unique and innovative unsolicited proposals which will further the Agency's mission. For more information on this including how to submit proposals and the R&D areas of interest for each of the NASA centers, visit NASA Research Areas and Addresses (http://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/hq/library/unSol-Prop.html#NASA_RESEARCH_AREAS_AND_ADDRESSES_FOR_SU). At this site, you will see many diverse areas of R&D interests, including those of GRC. However, additional areas of GRC interests which include some ongoing projects worked at GRC can be found at http://www.grc.nasa.gov/Doc/projects.htm These may provide you a broader listing of research areas, should you want to submit an unsolicited proposal to GRC. In addition, each year GRC publishes much of its research in a booklet entitled “R & T – Research and Technology.” It’s another excellent resource to learn and understand some of the R & D efforts going on at GRC and it may help you better position yourself for business and collaborative partnering with the Center. This booklet is also available on line at http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT/.