ALL_QA_11516.pdf

Technical, Analytical and Logistics Support for the Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations (OEREP)

AHRQ-16-10003

Proposal Questions

Thank you for your interest in this Request for Proposal (RFP). Below is a key to the responses to the questions found on the following pages:

“No solicitation amendment necessary” – This response is given when 1) the requirements are clearly articulated in the solicitation to the maximum extent possible,

2) the information is not available or 3) dependent on approach.

“Please see solicitation amendment” – This response is given if the response to the question affects a revision to the RFP. Please see the amended RFP posted to Federal Business Opportunities.

A response to the question is provided - A response/answer is given if clarification is necessary, but the response does not require an amendment to the RFP.

Q&A for RFP AHRQ-16-10003

1.) How many total IRG/SEC meetings have been held in each of the last 3 contract years?

Answ: Approximately 18

2.) How many total CPR meetings have been held in each of the last 3 contract years?

Answ: Approximately 3

3.) How many grant applications have been received for review by AHRQ in each of the last 3 contract years?

Answ: Approximately 600 each year

4.) How many total reviewers have been utilized by AHRQ in each of the last 3 contract years?

Answ: 375 reviewers per year for study section and 75 reviewers per year.

5.) Will AHRQ issue a separate work order for each meeting?

Answ: No Solicitation Amendment necessary

6.) Task 1 – How many total IRG /SEG meetings should be included in the budget?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment/ Budget assumptions

7.) Task 1 – How many total participants will be involved in each IRG/SEG Meeting?

8.) Task 1 – For the IRG/SEG meetings, how many sleeping room nights will the contractor be responsible for with each meeting?

9.) Task 1 – 1 How many total meeting rooms are required for each IRG/SEG Meeting

a. Plenary Room

b. Breakout Rooms

10.) Task 1 – What Audio Visual Equipment is required for each meeting room?

a. Plenary A/V –

b. Breakout room A/V –

11.) Task 1 – How many total reviewers will the contractor be responsible for travel and transportation?

12.) Task 1.5 indicates the Contractor is responsible for facilitating conference calls.

13.) Approximately how many of these calls should we budget for?

14.) Task 1 – How many sets of review materials should be included in the budget for each IRG meeting?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment.

15.) Task 1 – How many total pages of materials will each reviewer receive?

16.) Task 1 – How many total site visits should be included in the budget?

17.) What is the duration of each site visit (how many nights of lodging are typically required)?

18.) Will Contractor staff be part of the team traveling to each site visit?

19.) Task 1 – For budgeting purposes which cities should be assumed for the site visits?

20.) Should bidders budget costs for meeting room space, A/V, or other possibly related costs for the orientation meetings?

21.) Should bidders budget costs for travel to the orientation meetings for new study section members?

22.) Under Task 1.6, which location should the offeror assume the site-visits will take place for budget purposes?

23.) For comparison’s sake, how many orientation meetings should bidders include costs for in estimated budgets for 2017 and 2019?

24.) Under Task 1.6, will the contractor cover travel/reservation expenses if a meeting must be rescheduled due to weather or other unpredicted circumstances?

Answ: Yes

25.) Under Task 1.7, which location should the offeror assume the annual orientation meetings will take place outside of AHRQ for budget purposes?

26.) Besides high speed internet, should bidders anticipate and budget for tabletop microphones and other types of A/V?

27.) Task 1 – For meetings held at AHRQ, will the contractor be responsible for providing audio visual equipment?

28.) Task 2 – how many pages are estimated for each Summary Statement?

29.) Task 4 – Please confirm that the offeror should budget for 5 CPR meetings with 5 participants for each contract year.

30.) Task 4 – For budgeting purposes, what amount will each non-federal reviewer receive as an honorarium payment?

31.) What should be budgeted as a daily honorarium payment for each non- Federal grant reviewer? Is an honorarium paid only for each meeting day, or also for pre-meeting preparation time?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment/budget assumptions.

32.) Task 4 – How many non-federal reviewers should be estimated for each

CPR meeting?

33.) Under Task 4.1, how many non-federal reviewers will be out of town?

34.) Please specify the types of contracts covered by Task 4.

Approximately how many reviewers are anticipated to be non-Federal CPR board members requiring out-of-town travel reimbursement and honoraria?

35.) Task 5 – What web platform does AHRQ currently use to support these meetings?

Answ: AHRQ does not use web platform

36.) Task 5 – Are the virtual meetings an extension of the existing IRG/SEG and CPR meetings already noted in the SOW?

37.) Task 5 – How many meetings are anticipated to be held virtually each year?

38.) Section C, Task 1.5, page 10 of Part 1 - Do written guidelines and procedures for handling conference call requests from OEREP staff currently exist?

a. If such written guidelines and procedures exist, will they be made available to all Offerors prior to the proposal submission deadline?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amdendment.

39.) Section C, Task 5, page 14 of Part 1 - Do written guidelines and procedures for using VAM technology currently exist?

a. If such written guidelines and procedures exist, will they be made available to all Offerors prior to the proposal submission deadline?

40.) Have conference calls been used for IRG/SEP meetings? Yes

a. If yes, how many meetings per year have been conference calls in each of the last 3 contract years?

Answ: Estimate 24 within last 3 years.

41.) Please confirm that the Contractor is not responsible for recruiting IRG and SEP reviewers.

Answ: Confirmed

42.) What is the approximate number of IRG/SEP, Site Visit, and Orientation

Meetings per fiscal year?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment/Budget assumptions.

43.) Of those meetings held locally, how many took place at 5600 Fishers Lane

vs. those held at other facilities?

Answ: None

44.) On average, approximately how many attendees are Federal and how many non-Federal (total for all meetings)?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment/budget assumptions.

45.) Approximately how many days will the meetings last (IRG/SEP, Site Visits, Orientation?)

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment/budget assumptions

46.) Can you estimate a minimum number of Science Writers and Technical

Writers required for the contract?

47.) Are the Science Writers required to provide actual samples of past work, as opposed to listing the past projects in the resume?

Answ: No Solicitation Amendment necessary.

48.) How many applications are generally reviewed at each IRG/SEP meeting?

49.) Does AHRQ prefer to use the VAM system available at 5600 Fishers Lane or should we propose and budget for a different system?

50.) If SEPs meet concurrently with IRGs, would the same attendees participate in both types of meetings at the same location and time?

51.) Would SEPs ever call for additional experts to be convened, other than those already at the IRG meeting?

52.) Are recording devices for meetings provided by the contractor or by the

Technical or Science Writers?

Answ: No

53.) How many IRG/SEP meetings are expected each year?

54.) Is the Contractor responsible for shredding discarded grant review materials?

55.) We understand that grant applications in response to AHRQ FOAs are submitted to NIH for initial screening. What role, if any, will the Contractor have in handling grant applications pre, during-and-post review? For example, will the Contractor be responsible for distributing grant applications to IRG or SEP reviewers?

56.) How many IRG/SEP meetings are expected to require VAM support? How many contract technical meetings are expected to require VAM support?

57.) How many federal vs. non-federal IRG/SEP members are anticipated for each meeting?

58.) Please confirm that writers will not travel for IRG/SEP meetings.

59.) Does AHRQ want to see resumes and writing samples from all potential scientific writers in the proposal, or is that a requirement after award?

60.) How many site visits are expected each year?

61.) For budgeting purposes, should we assume 1, 2, or 3 annual orientation meetings per year?

62.) For budgeting purposes, should we assume 5 contract meetings per year with 5 reviewers each?

63.) Will the orientation meeting for writers be done remotely or in-person?

64.) Will a list of previously used writers be provided?

Answ: Yes it can be provided.

65.) What are the estimated number of people/hours anticipated for onsite support of contract meetings?

66.) Approximately how any contracts review meetings will be held each year?

Answ: Please see Solicitation Amendment/ budget assumptions

67.) Will the Contractor be making photocopies of the proposals received? If yes, what should be the budget assumption regarding the number of pages to be copied?

68.) Should bidders include meeting room rental costs for contract reviews in their budgets?

69.) For staffing purposes, should the Contractor expect the majority of the Contract Review meetings to take place between June and the beginning of September?

70.) Under Task 5.1, Will the contractor be using AHRQ’s existing VAM Technology or will the contractor be required to provide and budget for its own VAM Technology? If so, how many virtual meetings and how many participants per virtual meeting?

71.) Is the Contractor responsible for ensuring the non-attendee has the equipment necessary to participate virtually?

72.) Are the Virtual Assisted Meetings (VAM) meant to be a total alternative to the face-to-face meetings of reviewers, or primarily a way to include one or more reviewers who are unable to attend a meeting in person?

73.) The Draft Work Plan and the Final Work Plan are due within 10 working days after award. Please confirm that both are due on the same day.

74.) Section C, Task 4.9, page 14 pf Part 1 provides that packages are “to be sent out via UPS to the reviewers.” - Is Contractor required to use UPS, or may any comparable delivery service (e.g. FedEx or USPS Priority Overnight) be substituted when better service or lower price is available for a given delivery location?

Answ: Yes

75.) Task 4 requires the contractor to provide peer review meetings for contract proposals received in response to AHRQ RFP’s. Can you confirm if by providing this service there would be a conflict of interest that would preclude the awardee of this contract from bidding on future AHRQ opportunities during the period of performance?

76.) Who is the incumbent contractor?

Answ: National Capitol Contracting

77.) Is the incumbent contractor eligible to bid?

78.) What is the level of effort for the existing contract?

79.) What is the estimated level of effort per year for the 2016 award?

80.) Is the offeror to provide an estimate to include labor and ODCs for each

Task listed in the SOW?

82.) I wanted to confirm that it is still an 8(a) set aside as currently on FBO it shows that it was originally an 8(a) and now it's N/A for set aside. Can you please confirm?

Answ: This is an 8(a) set-aside.

83.) Will you allow proposals to be submitted via email?

84.) Are we mandated to use the provided pricing template or can we use an existing template that covers the same requested information?

85.) Please confirm that Section C, Task 3.1, provides the Contracting

Officer’s written authorization to provide the necessary exceptions to Section B.4.a. (12) and (13) in order to make the required travel and per diem costs (and the associated meals and incidental expenses) reimbursable and allowable under the proposed contract.

86.) The solicitation refers to OEREP in various places as the “Office of

Intramural Research, Education and Priority Populations” (e.g., on pages 1, 5, Attachment A) and also as the “Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations” (e.g., on page 8). Please confirm that OEREP is referring to the latter in all cases and we should reflect this name in our proposal.

87.) Important: RFP Page 20, Section G.1, Key Personnel: This is still listed as "To Be Determined." Will this information be provided or is bidder to propose key personnel?"

Answ: This will information will be updated at contract award.

88.) Past Performance information – Should the prime contractor and each subcontractor submit 5 past performance references, or should we submit 5 contract references that reflect a mixture of each entities experience?

89.) Can the government please provide additional context on how the fixed fee referenced below should be broken out in the pricing details.

a. The Estimated Cost (exclusive of fees) for performance of the work under the base period of this contract, including direct and indirect costs is $ To Be Determined (TBD).

b. The Fixed Fee for the base period of this contract is $TBD. The fixed fee shall be paid in installments based on the percentage of completion of work, as determined by the Contracting Officer. Payment shall be subject to the withholding provisions of the Clause ALLOWABLE COST AND PAYMENT and FIXED FEE incorporated herein.

c. The total contract value, represented by the sum of the estimated cost plus the fixed fee for the base period is $TBD.

Answ: No solicitation amendment necessary.

90.) Please confirm that the cover page, table of contents, resumes/CVs, and 25 page preliminary work plan are excluded from the 50-page limit for the technical volume.

91.) Please confirm that we are to discuss our ability to provide a VPAT (also known as Section 508 Product Evaluation Template) and are not required to complete at this time a Section 508 Product Evaluation Template as part of our proposal. If a Section 508 Product Evaluation Template is required as part of our proposal, please confirm that this is excluded from the 50-page limit for the technical volume.

92.) Past Performance information – Should the prime contractor and each subcontractor submit 5 past performance references, or should we submit 5 contract references that reflect a mixture of each entities experience?

Answ: Please see response to Q #88.