Amendment Three.pdf

RFP-75N93021R00009 Page 1 of 3 Amendment Three (3)

75N93021R00009

CENTERS FOR RESEARCH ON STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

AMENDMENT THREE (3)

OFFICE OF ACQUISITIONS

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

5601 Fishers Lane, Room 3D38, MSC 9821

Bethesda, MD 20892-9821

Solicitation Number: 75N93021R00009

Date of Solicitation Issuance: June 17, 2021

Date of Amendment Three (3) Issuance: August 12, 2021

Proposal Due Date and Time: September 16, 2021, 3:00pm EDT (UNCHANGED)

Number of Pages: 3

Point of Contact:

Swee L. Teo, Contracting Officer

Email: teosl@niaid.nih.gov

Phone: 240-669-5173

The purpose of Amendment Three is to:

1. Respond to questions received regarding this solicitation.

Offerors MUST acknowledge receipt of the amendment by Amendment number (s) and date of the amendment. Failure to receive your acknowledgment of this amendment may result in the rejection of your proposal.

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the solicitation remain unchanged and in full force and effect.

The Government’s responses to questions received regarding this solicitation are as follows:

1. Question: Can leased equipment be added as a contract expense?

Response: No, leased equipment cannot be proposed as direct cost for this solicitation. It is HHS policy that contractors are expected to furnish all property and equipment necessary to perform the activities as outlined in the Statement of Work. See Section 3 – Uniform Cost Assumptions of

Attachment 7 – Additional Business Proposal Instructions and Uniform Cost Assumptions.

mailto:teosl@niaid.nih.gov

RFP-75N93021R00009 Page 2 of 3

2. Question: Are small business subcontracting plans needed for subcontractors for the proposal?

Response: If a subcontractor is other than small business and its total estimated cost exceeds

$700,000, they must submit a Small Business Subcontracting Plan to the prime offeror; however, the prime offeror is not required to include the subcontractor’s Small Business Subcontracting Plan in its proposal. Nonetheless, in accordance with item 2.c.6 of Section L of the solicitation, if the prime offeror is other than small business and the total estimated cost exceeds $700,000, it must submit a

Small Business Subcontracting Plan with its Business Proposal.

3. Question: The proposal does not request offering of capacity for software development for improved structural analysis. However, deposition of source code and public access for software developed under the contract is required in the Statement of Work under clause 3.G.2. suggesting that this is an element of the RFP. Is software development for analysis of structures a component of the RFP, an optional component of the RFP, or, not allowed under the new RFP although if prior code is modified it should be made public?

Response: As stated in Section 3.G.2. of Attachment 3 - Statement of Work, the contractor shall make publicly available source codes and executables of all software applications and algorithms newly developed or enhanced under the contract. An offeror shall use its professional judgement in proposing the type of infrastructure to meet this requirement.

4. Question: There are conflicting requests regarding the privacy of data, specifically for community requests. In Attachment 3 Section 2F requires that information about community targets shall be treated as confidential while Section 2G1c requires delivery of all data into the public domain. This indicates that data (including potentially working on a target at request of collaborator at all) is confidential until the project is either complete or interrupted. Only then is data to made public. Is this correct?

Response: As stated in Section 3.e.2.a. of Attachment 3 - Statement of Work, it is anticipated that some reagents and data about the targets provided to the Contractor will be proprietary in nature.

In order to safeguard the proprietary materials, data, and other information of the third-party suppliers, the Contractor shall establish Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), if requested by the third-party supplier or by the Government. All such MTAs will allow the Contractor to deliver data and other deliverables specified under the contract and will not conflict with the contract requirements.

5. Question: Attachment 3 Section 2G1a requires targets to be registered to a database, such as Biosync. Biosync is not a target registry database but a site that describes the global usage of synchotron beamlines. Is there an error in the RFP and another site was intended? Can we assume that compliance with “at the request of the COR” is a sufficient response?

Response: As stated in Section 3.G.1.a of Attachment 3 – Statement of Work, the Contractor shall register the CRSTAL-ID’s targets at public database resources that provide information on the

RFP-75N93021R00009 Page 3 of 3 experimental progress and status of targets selected for structure determination, such as at the

BioSync or as directed by the COR. BioSync was provided as an example. An offeror shall use its professional judgement in proposing a database resource to meet this requirement.

PLEASE NOTE: In the questions/responses above, specific organizational names have been removed or replaced where possible as well as other minor adjustments.