FYI, please see below for a communication from ICANN concerning the NCAP work and the associated RFP. The RFP deadline is set to be extended and ICANN is looking for interested/qualified respondents. Best, Keith From: Matt Larson <matt.larson@icann.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2019 8:13 PM To: Drazek, Keith <kdrazek@verisign.com>; Donna.Austin@neustar.biz Subject: [EXTERNAL] Notification of ICANN RFP to select a contractor to perform a study as part of the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Hi, Keith, Donna. David Conrad suggested I reach out to you in your roles as GNSO Council Chair and RySG Chair, respectively. You are probably aware of the SSAC Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP), undertaken at the request of the Board in late 2017. Briefly, SSAC designed three large studies to answer the Board's questions related to name collisions, but being an all-volunteer group, they are not well suited to do the work. The ICANN org, specifically OCTO, has been tasked to do the studies, but we don't have sufficient resources, either, so we are outsourcing the work. Just this week we just started an RFP process to select a contractor to perform the first of the three studies. It is conceivable that this work on name collisions might somehow affect the next round of new gTLDs (though I must stress that I do not have any direct knowledge to that effect). To the extent that might be the case, it is reasonable to presume that your constituencies would have an interest that the work be done well and in a timely fashion. So far the response to the RFP has been disappointing in terms of the number of firms expressing an intention to bid, despite our letting several organizations we believe might be interested or qualified know about the RFP as soon as it opened. I'm writing to ask if you would be willing to please publicize the RFP to your constituencies. The greater the awareness of the RFP, hopefully the more qualified bids we will receive. More information is available at https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2019-07-09-en, including a link to a project overview document (https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/rfp-ncap-study-1-09jul19-en.pdf) that explains the requirements of the study. As explained in the announcement linked to above, anyone interested in bidding should email NCAP-Study1-RFP@icann.org<mailto:NCAP-Study1-RFP@icann.org> to express interest and receive further instructions. Finally, I should add that we intend to extend the RFP timeline to allow more time for responses, so no one should be dissuaded by the apparent lack of time to respond. I would be grateful for your passing on this information, as appropriate, and I would also be happy to receive any names of potential bidders you think might be interested and qualified to do the work so I could give them more information about the RFP. Thanks, Matt -- Matt Larson, VP of Research ICANN Office of the CTO