36C24E20Q0084-000.docx

Contract Opportunity Special Notice

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* = Required Field Contract Opportunity Special Notice R408 Service contract for external evaluation of APT Center Research Projects 15212-5319 36C24E20Q0084 N 541611 US Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Regional Procurement Office (RPO) East 323 North Shore Drive, Suite 500 Pittsburgh PA 15212-5319 Ms. Millicent Covert millicent.covert@va.gov Regional Procurement Office (RPO) - East intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with BioEnterprise, 11000 Cedar Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, to obtain specialist services to for external evaluation of APT Center Research Projects for the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. The services will include conducting market assessments and analyses of the business opportunities for APT Center projects funded by VA RR&D. The following will be purchased:

ITEM INFORMATION

Base Year Period of Performance (POP):

03/23/2020 through 03/22/2021

Option Year 1, Period of Performance (POP):

03/23/2021 through 03/22/2022

Option Year 2, Period of Performance (POP):

03/23/2022 through 03/22/2023

STATEMENT OF WORK

Contract for external evaluation of APT Center Research Projects BioEnterprise will work with the APT Center to conduct market assessments and analyses of the business opportunities for APT Center projects funded by VA RR&D. The intended relationship will be both advisory in which BioEnterprise evaluates and provides external validation and recommendations, and active in which they help raise awareness and showcase our technologies to potential investors or industrial partners.

Background BioEnterprise is a business formation, recruitment, and acceleration initiative designed to grow healthcare companies and commercialize bioscience technologies. BioEnterprise provides clients with experienced market analyses and management guidance, privileged relationships with world-class research and clinical institutions, access to bioscience venture capital and private equity firms, as well as expert knowledge of grant funding opportunities, business development and alliance support for strategic partnerships. It also maintains a network of regional business capabilities, including technical services, equipment, professional service providers and flexible development space.

Objectives The APT Center will take advantage of this valuable local resource to provide its Investigators with objective, external evaluation of the potential impact of their projects and potential products. An Executive in Residence and the Vice Presidents for Medical Devices will supervise an entrepreneur-in-training intern dedicated to conducting market assessments and analyses of the business opportunities for APT Center projects funded by VA RR&D. The intended relationship will be both advisory in which BioEnterprise evaluates and provides external validation and recommendations, and active in which they help raise awareness and showcase our technologies to potential investors or industrial partners.

Investigators will provide BioEnterprise with the Abstract, Specific Aims, Impact and Significance sections of new grants in preparation, ongoing projects mid-term, or competing continuations of existing projects prior to submission for analysis and objective external guidance on the marketability of their innovations and intended directions. Written materials will be complemented by extensive face-to-face interactions and opportunities to engage the professionals at BioEnterprise. BioEnterprise will then issue an “Impact Score” for each project consisting of a written and oral report that summarize the translational potential of each Investigator’s discoveries or intended line of research and device development. This could include referrals to potential industrial partners or other valuable external resources for translation such as the Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, State programs such as Jumpstart, the Technology Validation Fund, and Ohio Third Frontier.

We anticipate contracting these services from BioEnterprise for two projects in each of our four Application Areas per year by underwriting the costs of an intern/entrepreneur-in-training. At a total eight external evaluations annually, each of the Center’s 15 projects funded by VA RR&D could be reviewed twice during the five-year Center renewal period. While preference will be given to new or competing continuation applications prior to submission to maximize their translational potential and competitiveness for funding, ongoing projects for repeated external evaluation by BioEnterprise will be prioritized by the respective Program Manager of each Application Area in conjunction with the APT Center’s Director of Translational Affairs.

BioEnterprise is the only vendor that has established commercialization agreements with Case Western Reserve University Office of Technology Transfer, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, and University Hospitals Case Medical Center for Clinical Research. This is agreement is vital since many VA funded studies and projects involve investigators and collaborations at these affiliate institutions. By having these agreements in place, BioEnterprise can openly and quickly discuss critical strategies for technology development with all investigators and institutions involved with a project. BioEnterprise is also unique in that it is experienced in helping assess and commercialize academic biomedical research projects. The staff that will be assisting in providing our market assessments have themselves worked to transition academic biomedical research projects to licensed / commercialized technologies via industry partners. While other companies may provide parts of what we need, BioEnterprise can provide the full continuum of services that we will need as our research technologies moves toward commercialization.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Any responsible sources that wish to identify their interest and capability must notify this Contracting Specialist at Millicent.Covert@va.gov NLT Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 11:59 AM EST. Telephone responses will not be accepted. Upon receipt of the interested parties' notification, the Contracting Officer will determine whether to conduct a competitive procurement or proceed with sole source negotiations.