Safe Healthcare, Epidemiology, and Prevention Research Development Program (SHEPheRD)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through its Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC Pittsburgh, awarded the Safe Healthcare, Epidemiology, and Prevention Research Development (SHEPheRD) Program, a full-and-open, multiple-award Master IDIQ for scientific, technical, and management expertise in healthcare epidemiology research, with ordering open through March 29, 2027. Four months and four weeks of ordering authority remain. The vehicle was awarded September 30, 2021, and order activity has slowed sharply: 14 orders in 2022, 4 in 2023, and 2 in 2024, with the most recent award on September 30, 2024. Twenty orders have been placed, with $65.7 million obligated against $69.9 million in combined potential value (94%). The vehicle carries a $99 million shared ceiling over a 60-month base period, with a $1,000 minimum guarantee per contract awarded. The solicitation originally advertised a $90 million ceiling.

Recent orders cover serological and influenza assessments, wastewater surveillance, healthcare-associated infection surveillance, EHR-based antibiotic stewardship, nursing home response networks, and studies of multidrug-resistant organism transmission and chlorhexidine bathing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Several orders are scoped to worldwide regions (WW Western and WW Central). Recent orders are firm fixed price, although the solicitation advertised time-and-materials, labor-hour, and cost-reimbursement structures.

Fourteen distinct primes hold awards. Washington University leads by count with 3 orders ($7.6 million), and University of Maryland, Baltimore, University of Utah, ABT Global LLC, and Duke University each hold 2. Those five primes account for 55% of orders. By value, ABT Global LLC ($24.6 million), Westat, Inc. ($20.3 million), Washington University ($7.6 million), University of Wisconsin System ($4 million), and University of Utah ($3 million) hold 85% of combined potential value, with the remaining nine primes sharing the balance.

CDC Pittsburgh is the sole customer agency and accounts for all 20 orders. All 20 orders carry the No Set-Aside Used designation.

The largest recent orders are the 2022 D1-A009 Nursing Home Public Health Response Network order, with $21,673,515.00 obligated against a $24,301,359.00 ceiling, and the SHEPHERD 2023 Domain 10-A004 Vision 2.0 order at $20,348,779.00. Other recent orders range from $95,867.65 to $3,999,995.00, with completion dates running roughly one to three years after award. One order (Social Determinants Domain 5-E003, $1,202,131.37) carries an EOI termination for convenience agreement tied to the DOGE cost efficiency initiative.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) awarded this IDIQ for scientific and technical services in support of the division's public health programs. The Safe Healthcare, Epidemiology, and Prevention Research Development (SHEPheRD) Program provides the CDC with scientific, technical, and management expertise, and related services as they relate to healthcare epidemiology research.