Technology Research in Horizon scanning for strategic foresight

Statement of Work (SOW)

This Statement of Work supports the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's (ARMD) Innovative Concepts (IC) team in identifying transformative opportunities for NASA using strategic foresight to accelerate innovation and lead to positive futures.

The work involves data collection (human and digital) across PESTELE (Policy, economics, social science/society, technology, Environment, Legal, Ethics) domains, data validation, and data transfer compatible with NASA's internal knowledge management system (Madi). Specific activities include:

• Social listening across various platforms.
• Academic literature scraping.
• Scanning one-off and "weird" experiments.
• News gathering.
• Patent analysis.
• Conducting human interviews with diverse perspectives.
• Analyzing data for bias and veracity.
• Sentiment analysis.
• Integrating collected data into Madi for visualization and search.
• Preparing topic briefings based on expert interviews.
• Conducting belief systems impact analysis.

Contractors will scrape data from diverse sources (patents, companies, academic publications), tag data within PESTELE and specified capability domains, and align it with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. For specific tasks, contractors will interview experts, integrate data into Madi, identify weak signals from experiments, and ensure all data is traceable to its sources.

NASA will provide suggested problem areas, assign personnel as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for knowledge elicitation, and provide a virtual meeting environment.

The contract period is 12 months, starting immediately after task order award.

• Data for all tasks to be ingested into Madi in the specified format (existing data by 6/19/2026, new data monthly).
• Ten (10) briefings on special topics across PESTELE domains, including interviewee bios, key insights, and areas of convergence/disconnects.

Includes a detailed taxonomy of NASA Domains (Aeronautics, Space Technology, Science Instruments, Information/Computing, Human Exploration, Entry/Descent/Landing, Materials/Manufacturing, Environmental/Earth/Planetary, Crosscutting) and Non-NASA Domains (Core Information Technologies, Commercial/Industrial, Medical/Healthcare, Biological/Life Sciences, Energy, Financial/Economic, Urban/Civil/Infrastructure, Consumer-Facing, Legal/Ethical/Governance).

Solicitation / RFP / RFQ

This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for "Technology Research in Horizon scanning for strategic foresight." The procurement is set aside for small businesses.

• The Statement of Work (SOW) details the specific requirements for technology research in horizon scanning for strategic foresight. Full details are provided in attachments due to length.

• Offerors must include "Net 30" and "FOB Destination" in their quotes.

• Offerors must provide their Cage Code & UEI #.

• Offerors must provide ARO delivery time/Lead Time.

• If shipping is applicable, it must be provided.

• Any discounts must be applied to the quote.

• The contract type is not explicitly stated, but the RFQ structure suggests a firm-fixed-price contract.

• Payment will not be made via credit card.

• Quotes are due by 5/18/2026 at 5:00 p.m. CT to Laura Quave at laura.a.quave@nasa.gov.

• Contractual and technical questions must be submitted in writing (e-mail) to Laura Quave at laura.a.quave@nasa.gov no later than 5/14/2026 by 12:00 p.m. CT. Telephone questions will not be accepted.

• Quotes will remain valid for 30 days.

• Submitted quotes shall list two points of contact (name, phone number, email address).

• The Government will award a contract to the responsible Offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation is the lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA).

• Offers not deemed technically acceptable will be removed from further consideration.

• This procurement is set aside for small business.

• Offerors must be registered at www.sam.gov and have the NAICS code 541690.

• The solicitation incorporates numerous FAR and NFS provisions and clauses by reference. Offerors are cautioned that these may include blocks to be completed and submitted with the quotation.

• An ombudsman is available to facilitate the resolution of concerns.