75N95022R00102 Vendor Questions and Answers UPDATED 09-19-2022.pdf

Vendor Questions and Answers

RFQ: 75N95022R00102

1. As per our conversation, NC A&T has two high schools on its campus, thus we would like to include

High School Seniors and NC A&T Freshmen in our participant cohorts.

This is acceptable.

2. The SOW indicated "the program is designed for rising freshman and sophomore undergraduates..."

It is preferred for rising frosh & soph, but if the curriculum content is made appropriate to this student level it will be acceptable.

3. Can undergraduates and graduate students receive payment for working in the program support roles?

Yes, if grad students are teaching assistants or onsite mentors they can be paid.

4. Can funds be used to support research staff (laboratory and clinical mentors) and research supplies for the program operations?

Yes, as long as staff is directly working with students in program. Yes, also for research supplies.

This is firm/fixed price contract. Many programs will have a category of “materials”.

5. Can funds be used to support the Work-Study of program participants?

No, participants cannot be paid with government funds

6. Can funds be used for participants' travel expenses (including air/ground, room, and board) on program field trips?

Travel, as in public transport can be paid for with funds. but as students are expected to be mostly local, we would not expect air travel. Room and Board cannot be paid for using contract funds, and food costs in general are not covered.

7. States that Food is not allowed as part of the budget. Please confirm we would be allowed to provide meals, and other related beverages, as part of the Event activities, since they will be day long

Government cannot provide funds for food.

8. A verbal comment was made during the online Q&A session with interested vendors, that student stipends were not allowed as part of the budget. Many of our students come from under-served communities and can only attend if they receive a stipend, as part of the training experience. Can you please confirm that a student stipend, for hours they attend the training, and Event activities is allowable under current regulations.

This contract per gov’t regs cannot cover stipends.

9. Intended release data is Sept 15,2022 with an intended close date of Sept 19, 2022. In order to allow government time to respond to all questions submitted, and in order to allow all vendors to incorporate responses to questions into their current responses and be prepared for final issuance:

will the government please consider to extend the anticipated due to Thursday Sept 22,2022, in order to allow vendors enough time to prepare and submit a professional and detailed response.

Responses to this requirement will be due on 09/20/2022 at 10:00 AM EST

10. The RFP key personnel requires an active graduate student in biomedical research to function as mentors to participants. We do not have a medical/biomedical graduate program to recruit persons for these roles or a neighboring medical research hospital. Is this component of key personnel a requirement or a suggested structure?

It is suggested that the peer mentors be grad students, but not required, but mentors have to be identified. They can be professors or science/biomed professionals. And a mentor could have more than one mentee.