DOC NIST - Content Evaluation, Development and Maintenance - MRAS

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), through the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to support the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in collaboration with The American Ceramic Society (ACerS). This project focuses on the development and maintenance of the NIST Standard Reference Database 31 (SRD31), known as "Phase Equilibria Diagrams" (PED). Originally initiated in 1933, this database provides essential thermochemical guidance for the technical utilization of ceramic materials and supports the optimization and development of new advanced materials. The database is a critical resource for an international base of approximately 400 customers, including major universities, industry leaders, government agencies, and academia.

The work requested involves a comprehensive range of scientific evaluation, content development, and software support services necessary to produce SRD31 for commercial release. Each entry in SRD31 consists of a PED Figure that includes a commentary summarizing original research with technical evaluations and one or more phase diagrams. Contractors are tasked with extracting new content from primary scientific literature, including foreign-language publications. Subject-matter experts will conduct systematic bimonthly searches to critically evaluate these entries based on their experience with thermodynamic properties specific to ceramic-type inorganic materials.

Further responsibilities include preparing critical commentaries and evaluated diagrams according to NIST guidelines, digitizing diagrams for interactive use, formatting new content within the PED Content Management System (CMS), ensuring conformity to NIST standards, releasing new content for publication, and producing customer products ready for commercial distribution. The CMS is a custom-developed web-based system utilizing Ubuntu Linux with Ruby programming language components such as Nginx web-server and SQLite database.

The contractor will be engaged for one base year with an option year contingent upon performance during the initial period. This role involves maintaining current content while adding approximately 1000 new diagrams biannually through updated PC and online versions. Software support includes creating customer products while maintaining CMS functionality throughout editing and publishing processes.