Exhibit 13 - RTO 2.pdf

11/5/19

Representative Task Order Number Two: NASA HRP TRISH Support and Announcements

Period of Performance:

01 October 2021 – 31 January 2022

Background and Summary of the Requirements:

NASA's Human Research Program (HRP), under the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD), has begun its annual solicitation and selection cycle for its Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) program. TRISH’s mission is to provide funding for early as well as late stage cutting-edge research that can be translated into validated human health and performance solutions for deep space exploration missions. The institute recognizes the importance of inspiring, educating, and advancing space health research of skilled researchers and especially the next generation of space life scientists. Founded on October 1, 2016, TRISH works in partnership with HRP through Cooperative Agreement NNX16AO69A.

Proposers who receive awards under these announcements conduct innovative research at their respective NASA center, university campus, other US government agency, or other non- or for-profit U.S.

institution. The opportunities are attractive to a broad spectrum of researchers and the program receives many competitive proposals during each selection cycle. TRISH is a set of large competitions (see below) and multiple program officers (PO) at both NASA Headquarters and Johnson Space Center (JSC) will require support for the following activities, as summarized below and as defined more explicitly in the NRESS SOW and activity descriptions:

1. Solicitation planning, development, and announcement; proposal receipt and collection; proposal evaluation and review event planning; pre- and post-evaluation communication and administration with proposers; proposal workflow tracking and reporting; and reporting statistics and other specific information about the proposal pool.

2. Organizing, scheduling, and staging proposal reviews through multiple review panels that include both face-to-face meetings and virtual or teleconference participation, as well as mail-in reviews, and a proposal selection meeting for NASA program managers and selection officials; administering and facilitating these activities, including providing panel document access and collaboration tools, documentation and transcription services, and arranging panel venue and travel, and mail review access; facilitating and solving problems during the panel events and the selection meeting; and for delivering data analytics before and after these activities, especially compiling and reporting panel summaries-a document written by the panel about the proposal summarizing their deliberations, panelists' individual proposal scores and panel overall scores after activities end.

3. Task close-out, including working with the POs to send final selection decisions to proposers and to support post-selection de-briefs; providing summary information and statistics about selection decisions; and archiving proposal artifacts.

Activities

Activity 1: Overall Management of Task Elements

The contractor shall provide overall management of the peer review activities and other related activities specific to TRISH, including:

• Management oversight in support of all task work. This includes meeting with TRISH staff to investigate ways to continuously improve the solicitation and peer review business process.

• Receive final Task Plan approval, establish and authorize labor and expense charge numbers, assign appropriate staff to the task, and initiate task activities in accordance with the approved plan.

• Monitor processes to ensure that solicitations and announcements are posted accurately, proposals are received, processed and reviewed completely, efficiently, on schedule and that all documentation is in order and properly retained and ultimately archived in accordance with NASA policy for the retention of records.

• Provide monthly budget forecasts and gather information and prepare responses that respond to Government reporting requirements and inquiries (urgent and routine), in a timely manner as requested by TRISH.

Activity 2: TRISH Science Discipline Support

The contractor shall facilitate on-going programmatic support of TRISH, including but are not limited to:

• Travel to Galveston, TX in January 2022 to represent TRISH at the annual Human Research Program’s Investigators’ Workshop.

• Analyze TRISH portfolio content, and support understanding of the TRISH mission, to identify research program gaps where research needs to be solicited. Prepare results of research content analyses;

• Analyze what other programs within NASA are funding and are not funding and provide opportunities to fill gaps for TRISH;

• Analyze funding mechanisms utilized by other funding agencies and provide recommendations on new strategies that could be utilized by TRISH;

• Maintain a peer-reviewer database for TRISH;

• Identify and recruit new to TRISH reviewers with expertise that could be leveraged as peer reviewers and as future proposers;

• Establish and maintain firewalls and COI tracking where needed between TRISH staff, consortium members, advisory boards, peer review panels and procedures, selecting officials, etc.;

• During contractor-administered peer-review panels, serve as a TRISH program representative in the room to field questions from the panel on TRISH and TRISH goals;

• Support logistics of preparing solicitation selection recommendations (i.e., preparation of draft summary charts and presentations, organizing draft responses to management questions about peer review process, schedules, results, etc. in this area);

• Assist TRISH in planning research acquisition strategies;

• Assist TRISH in tracking publications and patents resulting from funded work.

• Assist TRISH in defining and organizing researcher workshops for research planning purposes;

• Represent TRISH staff at planning meetings and outreach activities as needed;

• Facilitate communication between TRISH and the Task Book;

• Assist in drafting TRISH research solicitations released through TRISH’s internal grant management system and other mechanisms

• Answer technical questions for proposers applying through TRISH’s internal grant management system during proposal submission process

• Perform compliance checks for proposals submitted through TRISH’s internal grant management system and other mechanisms

• Track conflict of interest and maintain firewalls for TRISH for solicitations released through TRISH’s internal grant management system

• Pre-panel, panel, and post-panel support services for solicitations released through TRISH’s internal grant management system

• Perform travel to TRISH headquarters on a quarterly basis for in-person planning meetings (4 times a year)

• Perform other programmatic duties supporting TRISH as requested.

• Facilitate communication between TRISH staff and contractor peer review administrators on solicitation cycle planning and gathering of task plan requirements; Work with contractor to examine options of streamlining the solicitation lifecycle where possible;

• Assist in drafting TRISH research solicitations released through NSPIRES and as a primary resource for the NASA FAR, FAR supplement, Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook, and other requirements documents;

• Work with contractor staff on resolution of proposal compliance issues

• Travel to Houston, TX to meet with TRISH staff in April 2022 and July 2022 to plan FY23 activities.

Activity 3: FY20 TRISH Announcement Soliciting Postdoctoral Applications

The contractor shall provide support for the solicitation and proposal process, including but not limited to:

• Contractor Support Scientists will be assigned as peer review administrators (PRAs). One Contractor Support Scientist will be assigned as activity lead and primary point of contact for the TRISH Postdoctoral Solicitation.

• Contractor will participate in procedural and timeline planning for the appendix solicitation cycle.

• Contractor will support the preparation of the appendix and prepare the appendix for publication on the NSPIRES System.

• The planned release for the appendix is November 2020. An estimated 35 proposals will be received in January 2022.

• A contractor PRA and a Meeting Planner will be assigned to each panel. One to face-to-face panel is planned.

• Contractor PRAs will identify, contact and recruit Subject Matter Experts to serve on the panels.

Approximately 15 non-civil servant panel reviewers. Mail reviewers will be recruited as necessary.

• Contractor PRAs will prepare evaluation forms in accordance with the format established by the solicitations and instructions to reviewers and a site for NSPIRES submission of reviews; all users will need to be registered in NSPIRES.

• Pre-panel, panel, and post-panel support services (including travel support, arrangement of hotel accommodations, distribution of proposals and other documents, phone calls, copying, and laptops) will be provided for all US on-site panel reviewers.

• In conjunction with panel chairs, contractor PRAs will administer the peer review panels. Panels will be completed by April 2022 at the contractor facilities. Honorariums for non-civil servant panel reviewers will be provided ($1,000 for chairs / $750 for reviewers). The panel is estimated to take 2 days.

• Scoring will be done using the TRISH score criteria; panel reviews will be prepared in accordance with the format established by the solicitation; contractor PRAs will provide populated panel review templates for each proposal.

• At the request of TRISH, contractor will prepare PI notification packages and distribute notification letters and enclosures through NSPIRES; prepare a draft Congressional Notification report for TRISH approval; prepare selection summary information as requested by TRISH; coordinate selection notifications with relevant NASA/TRISH offices, as necessary.

• Contractor will assist the program with post-selection activities, lessons-learned, planning activities for next solicitation cycle, outreach activities, and other support activities as requested.

Activity 4: FY21 TRISH Space Radiation and Human Tissue Analogs Solicitation

The contractor shall provide solicitation and proposal support, including but not limited to:

• Contractor Support Scientists will be assigned as peer review administrators (PRAs). One Contractor Support Scientist will be assigned as activity lead and primary point of contact for this TRISH Space Radiation and Human Tissue Analogs Solicitation.

• Contractor will participate in procedural and timeline planning for the solicitation cycle.

• Contractor will support the preparation of the solicitation for publication on the NSPIRES System.

• The solicitation is schedule for release in January 2022.

• An estimated 15 proposals will be received in April 2022.

• A Contractor PRA and a Meeting Planner will be assigned to each panel. One face-to-face is planned.

• Contractor PRAs will identify, contact and recruit Subject Matter Experts to serve on the panel.

Approximately 10 non-civil servant science merit and statistician panel reviewers will be recruited. Mail reviewers will be recruited as necessary.

• Contractor PRAs will prepare evaluation forms in accordance with the format established by the solicitations and instructions to reviewers and a site for NSPIRES submission of reviews; all users will need to be registered in NSPIRES.

• Pre-panel, panel, and post-panel support services (including travel support, arrangement of hotel accommodations, distribution of proposals and other documents, phone calls, copying, and laptops) will be provided for all US on-site panel reviewers.

• In conjunction with panel chairs, Contractor PRAs will administer the peer review panels. Panels will be completed by June 2022 at the contractor facility. Honorariums for non-civil servant panel reviewers will be provided ($1,000 for chairs / $750 for reviewers). The panel is estimated to take 2 days.

• Scoring will be done using the TRISH score criteria; panel reviews will be prepared in accordance with the format established by the solicitation; Contractor PRAs will provide populated panel review templates for each proposal.

• At the request of TRISH, contractor will prepare PI notification packages and distribute notification letters and enclosures through NSPIRES; prepare a draft Congressional Notification report for TRI approval; prepare selection summary information as requested by TRISH; coordinate selection notifications with relevant NASA/TRISH offices, as necessary.

• Contractor will assist the program with post-selection activities, lessons-learned, planning activities for next solicitation cycle, outreach activities, and other support activities as requested.

Additional Requirements:

The announcements shall be advertised via grants.gov and electronic peer-review support systems, e.g., NSPIRES, operated by the contractor.

The contractor shall document and maintain the evaluation criteria, prepare evaluation forms and instructions for peer-reviewers and panelists, and orient reviewers and panelists to proposal evaluation standards, deadlines, and performance expectations.

The contractor shall support the recruitment of peer-reviewers to rate proposals and panelists to participate on a recommendations panel.

The contractor shall operate a Help Desk to assist proposers and reviewers with solicitation, proposal submission, and/or electronic system navigation questions.

Assumptions:

The offeror’s approach shall be consistent with the following directly-related SOW elements: 1.1-1.8, all of 2.0, 3.1-3.21, and all of 4.0.

This task will yield approximately ~50 proposals. All proposals must be submitted via electronic peer-review support information technology systems (such as NSPIRES) operated by the contractor.

Proposers may permissibly edit proposal documents until the proposal deadline.

The proposals will be divided among the reviewers at the discretion of the POs, generally based on the sub-elements of the solicitation. Each panel will have 10-15 panelists. Each proposal will be reviewed by four separate panelists; each reviewer will prepare and submit their reviews through a contractor maintained and support electronic system and the PO may see their reviews before and during the panel meeting. Proposals may also be sent to one or more mail reviewers, and the PO and panel will need access to those.

During the panel, all panelists will require access to all reviews. Some panelists will be participating via teleconference or other virtual participation supplied by the contractor.

The panel will collaboratively develop a panel summary.

The panels will require up to three days to complete their work. This does not include travel time or preparation time. The contractor will organize the panel meeting, including venue and review panelist travel. Panelists may participate by teleconference or other virtual system at the discretion of the PO.

After the panels are completed, there will be multiple proposal review and selection meetings at JSC and TRISH facilities. Selection meeting participants will consist of civil servants and TRISH personnel. The contractor will supply the data for the POs and support these meetings in other ways, such as taking minutes. Data required will consist of spreadsheets and other documents summarizing the proposal and review information, as well as presentation files on the overall solicitation and review process.

After selections are made, the contractor will 1) prepare notification letters, 2) announce selections via NSPIRES and other methods; 3) prepare technical evaluation and other documents for awards; and 4) supply appropriate panel review information to all proposers.

Key Dates:

Activity 1: Overall Management of Task Elements

01 October 2021 Initiate support of activity

Continuous Management of the peer review activities 31 January 2023 Activity Complete

Activity 2: TRISH Science Discipline Support

01 October 2021 Initiate support of activity Continuous Programmatic support of TRISH activities 31 January 2023 Activity Complete

Activity 3: FY20 TRISH Announcement Soliciting Postdoctoral Fellowship Applications

01 October 2021 Initiate support of activity 01 November 2021 Release solicitation 31 January 2022 Proposal Due Date 30 April 2022 Panel reviews complete 30 June 2022 Notification Letters distributed 30 September 2022 Activity Complete

Activity 4: FY20 TRISH Space Radiation and Human Tissue Analogs Solicitation

01 October 2021 Initiate support of activity 01 November 2021 Release solicitation 31 January 2022 Proposal Due Date 30 April 2022 Panel reviews complete 30 June 2022 Notification Letters distributed 30 September 2022 Activity Complete

Additional Key Deliverables:

1. Proposal evaluation forms and instructions for reviewers and panelists.

2. Plan for review, including both venue and panel mechanisms for in person and virtual participants

3. Tracking documents for proposal assignments and review status

4. Summary statistics of evaluation and selection.

5. Decision support documents, presentations, and minutes for HQ selection meeting.

6. Decision letters

7. Congressional Notification report.

8. Announcement of selections

9. Procurement packages for use by NASA grants office.

10. Expenditure reports.