Attachment 02 - Task Order 1 - SOW.pdf

CISNET CONSORTIUM FOR CANCER SURVEILLANCE MODELING SUPPORT

TASK ORDER 1 – CORE INFRASTRUCTURE

STATEMENT OF WORK

dated November 23, 2020

YEAR 1 / BASE PERIOD

Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government as needed to perform this Statement of Work.

Scope:

The Contractor shall work with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) to provide technical and logistical support to facilitate collaborative efforts of the CISNET Consortium in cancer surveillance, including cancer simulation modeling using a multicohort approach, flexible broad-based natural history models of cancer, and comparative modeling managed through a web-based Knowledge Management System with adaptable data structures. If the awardee of this contract is not the incumbent, it is the intention of the government to include an option year for the incumbent contractor through 2021 to maintain the current systems until they are operational by the new contractor and facilitate the orderly transfer and understanding of the current structure, content, and logistics of the current support provided.

In addition to the technical requirements detailed below, the Contractor shall participate in approximately 2-5 conference calls per month at the discretion of the Government. These conference calls may include the CISNET consortium. Contractor attendance on the calls may include a mixture of senior or junior personnel, depending on the nature of topics to be discussed. Contractor personnel are expected to keep abreast of relevant projects, determine documents or files that need to be managed properly, and recommend to the Government possible modifications to the various systems supported. At least one call per month shall be with the Government only. The Contractor may be required to travel approximately two times per calendar year to attend Mid-Year CISNET Cancer Site Meeting and to attend the Annual CISNET meeting.

1. Knowledge Management System

The Contractor shall provide logistical support to facilitate collaborations for projects in cancer surveillance supported by NCI via a web-based knowledge management system. The current knowledge management system, known as the FlexKB, is a Wiki built in Visual Foxpro and runs on Windows 2019 with West Wind Web Connect app pool. Tables are in dbf format with Custom/early Markup syntax with ability to render Latex. It generates thumbnails and extracts text for uploaded documents (e.g. docx, pdf, ppt, etc.). Although modified over the years, this system is reaching the end of its usable life and is due to be retired in 2021. In 2021 the contractor shall propose and build a new system (or systems) that supports the functions of the FlexKB, and will accept historical content from the current system. Although it is up to the contractor to propose a technical solution, some potential tools to build this could include (but should not be limited to Github, Slack/MS Teams, Zoom, and/or Github’s own wiki platform (https://help.github.com/en/github/building-a-strong-community/about-wikis and https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki), and then customizing tools such as these to meet the stated functional requirements. In future years (2022 and after) the contractor shall adapt and modify the system(s) to meet the developing needs of the NCI and CISNET members. While the current format of pages will be a starting point for development of the system, the contractor will have the opportunity to discuss modifications with current members and make appropriate modifications. Note that although the private sites for developing Model Profiles are currently part of the Knowledge Management System, the Model Profile Documentation System is considered separately under item 2 below.

This system shall include the capability to create and maintain email lists and contact information; post and track manuscripts and post data resources; manage shared files, specifications, and templated output spreadsheets; facilitate the changing affiliations of collaborators; and add new collaborators.

The Contractor shall support a variety of data structures that are easily adapted to the needs of different types of projects in cancer surveillance. These data structures can include both fixed choices (e.g. using drop down menus), to the least-structured end of the spectrum using free-form topics in which notes and various ad-hoc artifacts are stored. As common patterns are identified, the Contractor shall add structure to support specific functions such as manuscript workflow, meeting logistics, presentation storage, citation storage, etc. This system shall also support access controls by groups to allow ad-hoc subgroups to share documents securely in cases where results are confidential. Finally, the Contractor shall support manuscript controls including stamping and locking PDFs to the specific user that downloads them.

Development and transfer historical content, i.e. (a) and (b) below of the Knowledge Management System must be completed prior to Sept. 1, 2021 to allow for the onboarding of new CISNET Incubator Program members (c).

a. Knowledge Management System: Development

The contractor shall build a knowledge management system (or systems) with the following functionality:

i. Provide access control (passwords, sign in page, user agreement page) according to grant dates (i.e. grant-based access).

ii. Provide logistical support for conference calls (call in numbers, screenshare links for each meeting, e-mail reminders including reminders that populate e-mail calendar clients such as Outlook, documents - e.g. agenda, presentation files, minutes, and historical archives of past conference calls). See Figures 4 and 5.

iii. Provide logistical support for midyear and annual meetings (call-in numbers and screenshare web-connect links for each meeting, agendas, archive of presentations and presenters with search capability by presenter).

iv. Provide cancer site-specific home pages (including manuscripts pages, project pages, links to projects inventories-these are spreadsheets submitted every 6 months by PIs summarizing both CISNET and CISNET related work, the technical section of their https://help.github.com/en/github/building-a-strong-community/about-wikis https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki grant proposal (optional to post), people-who is coordinating center PI, coordinating center administrator, etc., links to modeling group home pages, upcoming and past conference call links, listservs, uploaded files). See Figure 6 (sample cancer site home page) and Figure 7 (sample publication page).

v. Provide individual modeling group home pages (including model profile pages - see section 2, staff and other related links, active projects, and working manuscripts). See Figure 8 (sample modeling group page)

vi. Provide platform to communicate CISNET policies (Communications and publication policies, affiliate member policies).

vii. Provide listservs, and listserv member lists (see Figure 9).

viii. Provide a repository of files related to projects (including support of access controls by groups to allow ad-hoc subgroups to share documents securely in cases where results are confidential, support manuscript controls including stamping and locking PDFs to the specific user that downloads them).

ix. Provide a repository for CISNET logos and PowerPoint background slide templates.

b. Knowledge Management System: Transfer of Historical Content

Once the new system or systems is completed (replacing the FlexKB) the new contractor will accept historical content from the incumbent contractor, which will include past meeting presentations, publications, communications and publication policies, affiliate member policies, listserv members, member contact information, member login credentials, logos and PowerPoint background slide templates, meeting planners and past posted content.

At the direction of the COR, the incumbent Contractor shall assist the successor Contractor in the latter’s efforts to transition users of the main CISNET FlexKB to a new system or systems. The COR, in consultation with the current and successor contractor will determine which contents of the FlexKB can be deleted, archived (i.e. need to be transitioned over to be part of the new system in a static format by members of CISNET --e.g. content will not searchable, cannot be modified, or added to), or available for live use – i.e. maintained as searchable, modifiable, and/or added to.

The incumbent contractor shall archive the content of the system and retire the IT infrastructure used to support it. The incumbent contractor will provide a basic static archived version of the website to provide a historical reference of the system before it was retired. This version will be browsable via a modern web browser but will not include any user authentication or server-side functionality including searches. The successor Contractor could potentially embed the static version as-is into the new system behind its own authentication. The static archived version will provide access to all the presentations, documents, and images in the system except for thumbnails. At the direction of the COR, and if time and budget allow enhancements to the basic static archived version of the website could be discussed and implemented by the incumbent contractor.

The incumbent contractor will provide the successor Contractor with all user accounts, and details of the current onboarding system, so the user accounts can be transitioned over to the new system.

Note: The following non-essential systems are will not be included in the transfer plan. If needed, they could be developed by the successor Contractor:• Thumbnailing system

• PDF security features (encryption, stamping etc.)

Note: The flexkb.cornerstonenw.com domain name will not be transferred to the successor Contractor. The transfer of historical content shall be completed by Sept. 1, 2021, to allow new members funded under the CISNET incubator program to be onboarded.

Data transfer policy logistics The successor contractor will work with NCI and incumbent to follow proper procedures for transferring any personally identifiable information (PII).

Proposal Instruction (delete prior to award):

The incumbent Offeror shall propose costs for the support and maintenance of the systems for the relevant portions of the year for existing systems, proposed new systems, including overlap during the transition between older and new systems to make sure all older content and functionality are in place before retiring the older systems. Systems that are not retired would be supported and maintained for the entire 12 months. For budgeting purposes assume that retiring systems is completed at 9 months, and new systems are in place at 6-8 months, providing several months of overlap.

Non-incumbent Offerors shall propose costs for the support and maintenance of the systems for approximately the last 6 months of the year. This will allow some overlap between the time that the systems are turned over to successor contractor and are operational at approximately 6-8 months, and the incumbent stops maintaining the old system.

c. Onboarding of New CISNET Incubator Program Members

The new CISNET incubator program in CISNET will include members beyond the 6 already included in the current CISNET program. These new cancer site groups will have a smaller number of modeling groups, with 2 to 3 models per cancer site. The program will tentatively start on Sept. 1, 2021, with up to 4 new cancer sites. These new members will onboarded with similar credentialing system to the current members, and trained in the capabilities and use of the Knowledge Management System. More specifically, for each new cancer site group, the contractor shall update the following:

● Mailing lists

● Knowledge management system accounts

● Grantee group agreements (required for login)

● Training materials

● Conference and screen-sharing accounts

● Model profile accounts

● Publication processes The Contractor will provide the necessary training and support to ensure a smooth transition.

2. Model Profile and Documentation System

The Model Profile and Documentation System is the most detailed level of technical documentation. Model profiles are standardized templated descriptions that facilitate the comparison of models and their results. Users can read complete documentation about a single model or read descriptions that contrast how models address different components of the process (i.e. (Crosslinking intra-model and intra-model to facilitate model comparisons).

Journal articles seldom contain extensive model descriptions; links from publications to model profiles provide a more complete model description.

Historically each CISNET team was given a private model profile Web site on which to maintain their model profile information and control what parts of their profile are shared with the rest of the consortium, and ultimately posted to the public website as PDFs (https://cisnet.cancer.gov/resources/profiles.html). Since the core documentation format is the same for each group, the published profile information is readily comparable among models. Historically, the CISNET support contractor guided users to make sure they have the same level as technical specificity Profiles are uploaded to a group collaborative site (i.e.

a site open to selected NCI staff and all appropriate users) and finally the public website.

Model Profile and Documentation System – Development and Transfer of Historical Content The contractor shall develop a system to receive the historical content, and allow users to make edits to update and/or enhance content. The same prior functionality should allow users to work on a private site, to share with other members of CISNET, and finally to a public site. The incumbent contractor will provide a basic static archived version of the website to provide a historical reference of the system before it was retired. This version will be browsable via a modern web browser but will not include any user authentication or server-side functionality including searches. The PDF profile generation system will not be transitioned. The successor Contractor could potentially embed the static version as-is into the new system behind its own authentication. The static archived version will provide access to PDF images and the source profile text in markdown format including the original latex formulas as snippets. Each modeling group shall be surveyed to understand any short-term needs in terms of historical content in the Model Profile system (e.g. any immediate needs for modification, etc.). Note that the public version of the Model Profiles are hosted on the IMS CISNET site (https://cisnet.cancer.gov/resources/profiles.html), and therefore do not need to be transferred. In this first phase, minimal changes will be made to the templated structure of the content, but rather the focus will be on accepting the historical content, creating a modifiable private site for each modeling group which allows versioning. Note that the current system does not have model versioning, so this will be a new feature. The ability to view cross-model comparisons for each section of the documentation should be maintained.

systems for the relevant portions of the year for existing systems, proposed new systems, https://cisnet.cancer.gov/resources/profiles.html https://cisnet.cancer.gov/resources/profiles.html including overlap during the transition between older and new systems to make sure all older content and functionality are in place before retiring the older systems. Systems that are not retired would be supported and maintained for the entire 12 months. For budgeting purposes assume that retiring systems is completed at 9 months, and new systems are in place at 6-8 months, providing several months of overlap.

Non-incumbent Offerors shall propose costs for the support and maintenance of the systems for approximately the last 6 months of the year. This will allow some overlap between the time that the systems are turned over to successor contractor and are system

3. CISNET Model Registry System

The Contractor shall work with modeling teams to maintain and enhance the public-facing CISNET Model Registry (https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/registry) that is a searchable registry of projects in which users briefly describe their projects using a number of generalized project attributes as well as brief free-form descriptions of the projects’ purpose, relevant domain, and development team specifics. In contrast to the Model Profile and Documentation System, which provides a detailed description of the project, the CISNET Model Registry provides a high-level view of the models and is searchable across models. The technical specifications of the CISNET Model Registry includes: Ubuntu 18.04, a basic docker-compose config: python:stretch (+django==2.2.x), postgres:11.5-alpine, nginx:latest; basic bootstrap layout.

a. The contractor shall accept the Model Registration Website from the incumbent contractor, and make it functional in their environment, learn how to modify content as well as enhance structure and format, and learn how the process works to synchronize model specific publications on this site and the master list of publications accessed from the CISNET home page (https://cisnet.cancer.gov/publications/). Note: This task shall only be performed if a new contractor succeeds the incumbent contractor.

systems for the relevant portions of the year for existing systems, proposed new systems, including overlap during the transition between older and new systems to make sure all older content and functionality are in place before retiring the older systems. Systems that are not retired would be supported and maintained for the entire 12 months. For budgeting purposes assume that retiring systems is completed at 9 months, and new systems are in place at 6-8 months, providing several months of overlap.

Non-incumbent Offerors shall propose costs for the support and maintenance of the systems for approximately the last 6 months of the year. This will allow some overlap between the time that the systems are turned over to successor contractor and are operational at approximately 6-8 months, and the incumbent stops maintaining the old system https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/registry https://cisnet.cancer.gov/publications/

4. CISNET Publication Support and Modeling Resources (PSMR) Website

The CISNET Publication Support and Modeling Resources (PSMR) website provides online interactive graphics to supplement fixed graphics available in member publications and other modeling resources (https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/).

The incumbent contractor shall provide for the transfer of the PSMR content and functionality, including the source code used to build the website, to the successor Contractor. The technical specifications of the PSMR includes: Static website: backbone, react, d3, bootstrap; gulp, babel, build and git-based deployment; supports typescript.

a. The contractor shall accept the CISNET Publication Support and Model Resources Page web (https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/ ) from the incumbent contractor, and learn how to modify pages and create new pages (interactive graphics that support publications). It is expected that the successor Contractor will have their own development preferences, best practices, and competencies. Due to the specialized nature of the visualizations it is possible that successor Contractor would prefer to build a new system rather than use the existing system. The incumbent Contractor will provide a complete overview of the codebase, give access to all required source code libraries, and assist the successor Contractor with getting the build and deploy process working. The incumbent Contractor will not responsible for training the successor Contractor further – specifically: how to add new publications, visualizations, or pages to the PSMR website. The records in the resources.cisnet.cancer.gov domain name will be transferred to the successor Contractor in collaboration with NCI. Note: This task shall only be performed if a new contractor succeeds the incumbent contractor.

b. The contractor shall maintain, enhance, and provide user support for the PSMR, with future enhancements guided by discussions with the government and CISNET members. This shall include working with consortium member to update content.

systems for the relevant portions of the year for existing systems, proposed new systems, including overlap during the transition between older and new systems to make sure all older content and functionality are in place before retiring the older systems. Systems that are not retired would be supported and maintained for the entire 12 months. For budgeting purposes assume that retiring systems is completed at 9 months, and new systems are in place at 6-8 months, providing several months of overlap.

Non-incumbent Offerors shall propose costs for the support and maintenance of the systems for approximately the last 6 months of the year. This will allow some overlap between the time that the systems are turned over to successor contractor and are https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/

5. Model Stress Tests Documentation

Model stress tests provide a unique type of model documentation in which a well-defined intervention or event (i.e. a stress) is imposed on a model, and the model’s response is captured as output. While other documentation focuses on describing model characteristics, assumptions, and inputs, stress tests focus on what can be revealed about a model’s inner workings based on how it reacts. Because the preclinical natural history of disease (i.e. the rate at which tumors are initiated and grow prior to causing symptoms) is not observed directly, stress tests are especially useful for examining this aspect of models. There is a home page and three distinct portions of the Model Stress test documentation: The Model Stress Test Tutorial; A Guide to Comparing Model Stress Test Across CISNET models, and an Interactive CISNET Model Stress Test Explorer. The home page is on the development site of the incumbent Contractor, but a screenshot of that page is available as Figure 10. The Model Stress Test Tutorial is currently part of the PSMR website (https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/#compare/tutorial/tutorial).

The final two portions of the model stress test documentation are also currently on development sites, but are expected to be available as live sites before the end of 2020.

a. The contractor shall accept all portions of the model the Model Stress Test

Documentation from the incumbent contractor, and learn how to modify and enhance the content and format. The technical specifications of the Model Stress Tests Documentation are the same as for the PSMR) and includes: Static website:

backbone, react, d3, bootstrap; gulp, babel, build and git-based deployment;

supports typescript. The initial goal shall be to host this site as is without any updates (2021 only). Note: Note: This task shall only be performed if a new contractor succeeds the incumbent Contractor.

b. The contractor shall maintain, modify, and enhance both the content and structure of the Model Stress Documentation in consultation with the COR and members of CISNET consortium. The new contractor, with consultation with the COR and members of the CISNET consortium, may want to rewrite the app and potentially combine it with the Model Registry, and with links to the Model Profiles to create a unified model documentation website.

systems for the relevant portions of the year for existing systems, proposed new systems, including overlap during the transition between older and new systems to make sure all older content and functionality are in place before retiring the older systems. Systems that are not retired would be supported and maintained for the entire 12 months. For budgeting purposes assume that retiring systems is completed at 9 months, and new systems are in place at 6-8 months, providing several months of overlap.

Non-incumbent Offerors shall propose costs for the support and maintenance of the systems for approximately the last 6 months of the year. This will allow some overlap between the time that the systems are turned over to successor contractor and are https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/#compare/tutorial/tutorial

6. Support of the CISNET Programmers/Model Accessibility Workgroup

The contractor shall engage CISNET members with the Programmers/ /Model Accessibility Workgroup to advance the ongoing discussion on model accessibility, Open Science, model documentation and versioning. Activities shall include:

a) Regular calls with the Programmers Group co-leads

b) Appropriate technology research and evaluation (e.g. GitHub, publishing services, technology for model documentation and versioning)

c) Working with groups that want to improve their publication process

d) Improving model documentation on the CISNET registry (ex. for groups that have public Github repositories with versions/releases)

e) e) Facilitate discussions of both the technical aspects of model accessibility, as well as broader issues such: as intellectual property; licensing; time and resources needed to support model interfaces and open source code so it can be readily understood; dealing with incorrect usage of model interfaces, model code, or model parameter sets;

incremental approaches to model accessibility. etc.

f) CISNET Mid-year and Annual-meeting break-out meeting planning

g) Providing logistical support for potential webinars (by members of the group, other

CISNET members, or outsiders)

h) Online chat group for questions

7. Meeting Support, Call Support, Onboarding of New Members and General Consortium

Participation

a) Conference Call and On-Line Meeting Support

The Contractor shall also provide support for use of an NCI-supplied web-based unified meeting system to be used across CISNET. This system currently in use is Zoom. The system should provide voice conference calls (including international conference calls) and on-line screen share videoconferencing. The Contractor shall manage those accounts and provide CISNET group members with credentials to set up and participate in meetings. The contractor shall provide support and assist with specific features and implementation.

b) In-Person Meeting Support The contractor shall provide meeting support for the annual and mid-year CISNET meetings. More specifically, the contractor shall:

i) participate in meeting planning including making contact with the local AV support teams for each meeting and learning about the AV capabilities of meeting sites, and participating in conference calls to gather logistical information for the meetings and to discuss ideas and agendas for any special session topics

ii) Send three participants to both the annual and mid-year meetings for both meeting support and general meeting participation.

iii) Provide secondary back-up support to the CISNET coordinating center administrators and local AV staff in the use of the support of web-connect systems, collecting and posting presentations, and general AV support.

iv) Create links for posting of meeting agendas to link to in the meeting registration site

v) Give presentations relevant to inform CISNET consortium members features of the knowledge management system and other contractor projects relevant to specific groups

c) Onboarding of New Individual Consortium Members The contractor shall onboard individual new CISNET regular and affiliate members as the join the consortium, including:

i) Adding to mailing listservs

ii) Knowledge management system accounts The Contractor will provide the necessary training and support to ensure a smooth transition.

d) General Consortium Participation The contractor shall participate in a range of consortium activities as determined in consultation with the COR and consortium members. These activities shall include (but will not be limited to) presentations and discussions relevant to inform CISNET consortium members about contractor projects on conference calls, webinars, etc.

8. Limited Model Interface Systems The Contractor shall provide support for developing web-based interactive public Project Interface Systems for specific projects. These interfaces shall help the general research community to better understand a project and allow users to explore the responses to inputs. In most cases, these shall be limited scenario-based interfaces and shall include only those parameters most likely to be changed (and understood) by the reader interested in learning more about the project. In consultation with the COR, the Contractor shall enhance existing, and develop new, working interface systems. Note that in some cases funding for the development of these limited model interfaces has been supported by the grantees themselves, rather than by the NCI support contract. In general, these limited model interfaces would not be hosted on the government site and thus the long-term support, maintenance, and hosting of these sites would not be supported by this contract.

9. Hardware and Software Support The Contractor shall provide all hosting and technical support required to accomplish the scope of work for this project. The contractor shall maintain the proper certifications for hosting Government web sites. In addition, they shall maintain internet connections, hardware, and software licenses, security certificates, security patches, backups, new user accounts, and monitoring for the collaborative knowledge base. All web-hosting infrastructures shall be implemented using NCI and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards included in Section H of Base contract. The web-server environment shall include both an active hardware-based firewall and a warm backup server shall be provided to recover from possible primary server failure and provide continued server availability. All websites shall be developed and updated as needed to support versions of Google Chrome, Microsoft Explorer, Mozilla, and Safari to stay consistent with versions supported by NCI. The contractor shall perform all activities and testing to maintain FISMA compliance.

10. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended: IT Accessibility Requirements

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use information and communication technology (ICT), it shall be accessible to people with disabilities. Federal employees and members of the public who have disabilities must have access to, and use of, information and data that is comparable to people without disabilities.

1. Products, platforms and services delivered as part of this work statement that are ICT, or contain ICT, must conform to the Revised 508 Standards, which are located at 36 C.F.R. §

1194.1 & Apps. A, C & D, and available at https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards- and-guidelines

2. The specific Section 508 technical standards or ‘success criteria’ are found in the attachment, ICT Accessibility Requirements Statement per the Revised Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Web Based Collaboration Tools (“Web Based Collaboration Tools.pdf”)

Item that contains ICT:

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) deliverables:

1) The technical name for the site is the CISNET FLexKB, although the fuller name is the

CISNET Private Interactive Website. The SOW generically calls this the Knowledge Management System

a) https://cisnet.flexkb.net/wc.dll?cisnet~HomeTopic

b) It is a password protected website for use by CISNET members only (i.e. CISNET grantees, associated NCI staff, and Cornerstone – the current contractor).

2) Internet sites:

a) CISNET Model Registry (https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/registry)

b) CISNET Publication Support and Modeling Resources

(https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/)

Applicable Functional Performance Criteria: All functional performance criteria apply when using an alternative design or technology that achieves substantially equivalent or greater accessibility and usability by individuals with disabilities, than would be provided by conformance to one or more of the requirements in Chapters 4-6 of the Revised 508 Standards, or when Chapters 4-6 do not address one or more functions of ICT.

Applicable requirements for software features and components: All WCAG Level AA Success Criteria, 502 Interoperability with Assistive Technology, 503 Application.

Applicable requirements for hardware features and components: All requirements apply Applicable support services and documentation: All requirements apply Acceptance Criteria https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2009/02/18/508law.pdf https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2009/02/18/508law.pdf https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://cisnet.flexkb.net/wc.dll?cisnet%7EHomeTopic

Prior to acceptance, the government reserves the right to perform testing on required ICT items to validate the offeror’s Section 508 conformance claims. If the government determines that Section 508 conformance claims provided by the offeror represent a higher level of conformance than what is actually provided to the agency, the government shall, at its option, require the offeror to remediate the item to align with the offeror’s original Section 508 conformance claims prior to acceptance.

STATEMENT OF WORK

YEARS 2-5 (Option Periods 1 – 4)

Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government as needed to perform this Statement of Work.

1. Knowledge Management System

a. Knowledge Management System: Maintenance, Enhancement and User Support (2022 and after) The Contractor shall provide continued support for the knowledge management system, including providing content maintenance, archiving or removing outdated materials, maintaining linkages between documents, and adapting the page layouts to meet the needs of collaborators.

The Contractor, in consultation with the COR, shall provide system enhancements of the knowledge management system to facilitate collaborator communications, which include enhanced features for file management, email and conference call planning and organization tools, searchable listserv communications, and listserv archiving services. The Contractor shall also provide training on an as-needed basis for coordinating center administrators and other CISNET members.

2. Model Profile and Documentation System

Model Profile and Documentation System –Enhancement, Maintenance, and User Support The contractor will work jointly with the government and consortium members (especially the Model Accessibility team) to solicit feedback for ideas to substantially enhance the capabilities of the system. Possible enhancements could include reconsideration of the format of the basic templated model descriptions, a robust versioning system, a repository of parameter sets for each version of the model, and a system linking model versions and parameter sets to specific model runs and publications. Example solutions might include modeling groups building a repository of versioned source code, documentation, parameter sets, and even potentially source code in GitHub, allowing users to make certain portions accessible to other members of CISNET, or release portions publicly or under specified licensing arrangements.

One desired feature is to allow multiple people to propose changes and get reviews, then push to public website all without any extra infrastructure/servers. MS Teams is highly integrated with GitHub, and is one possible solution, although Word or GDocs could be used as well. All solutions must be FISMA compliant. The contractor shall maintain the system, train and guide users in understanding how to update and maintain their model profile documentation. The contractor shall also assist in curating content for each modeling group as needed to make sure they are organizing and sharing the best and most relevant online content, and have a technical level of specificity similar to other groups (to assist in viewing cross-model comparisons).

3. CISNET Model Registry System

The contractor shall maintain, enhance, and provide user support for the CISNET Model Registry, with future enhancements guided by discussions with the government and CISNET members. This shall include working with consortium member to update content, and synchronization of publications in the model registry with the CISNET master list (found at https://cisnet.cancer.gov/publications/).

4. CISNET Publication Support and Modeling Resources (PSMR) Website

The contractor shall maintain, enhance, and provide user support for the PSMR, with future enhancements guided by discussions with the government and CISNET members. This shall include working with consortium member to update content (every year)

5. Model Stress Tests Documentation

The contractor shall maintain, modify, and enhance both the content and structure of the Model Stress Documentation in consultation with the COR and members of CISNET consortium. The new contractor, with consultation with the COR and members of the CISNET consortium, may want to rewrite the app and potentially combine it with the Model Registry, and with links to the Model Profiles to create a unified model documentation website.

6. Support of the CISNET Programmers/Model Accessibility Workgroup

The contractor shall engage CISNET members with the Programmers/Model Accessibility Workgroup to advance the ongoing discussion on model accessibility, Open Science, model documentation and versioning. Activities shall include:

a) Regular calls with the Programmers Group co-leads

b) Appropriate technology research and evaluation (e.g. GitHub, publishing services, technology for model documentation and versioning)

c) Working with groups that want to improve their publication process

d) Improving model documentation on the CISNET registry (ex. for groups that have public Github repositories with versions/releases)

e) Facilitate discussions of both the technical aspects of model accessibility, as well as broader issues such: as intellectual property; licensing; time and resources needed to support model interfaces and open source code so it can be readily understood; dealing https://cisnet.cancer.gov/publications/ with incorrect usage of model interfaces, model code, or model parameter sets;

incremental approaches to model accessibility. etc.

f) CISNET Mid-year and Annual-meeting break-out meeting planning

g) Providing logistical support for potential webinars (by members of the group, other

CISNET members, or outsiders)

h) Online chat group for questions

7. Meeting Support, Call Support, Onboarding of New Members and General Consortium

Participation

a) Conference Call and On-Line Meeting Support

The Contractor shall also provide support for use of an NCI-supplied web-based unified meeting system to be used across CISNET. This system currently in use is Zoom. The system should provide voice conference calls (including international conference calls) and on-line screen share videoconferencing. The Contractor shall manage those accounts and provide CISNET group members with credentials to set up and participate in meetings. The contractor shall provide support and assist with specific features and implementation.

b) In-Person Meeting Support The contractor shall provide meeting support for the annual and mid-year CISNET meetings. More specifically, the contractor shall:

i) participate in meeting planning including making contact with the local AV support teams for each meeting and learning about the AV capabilities of meeting sites, and participating in conference calls to gather logistical information for the meetings and to discuss ideas and agendas for any special session topics

ii) Send three participants to both the annual and mid-year meetings for both meeting support and general meeting participation.

iii) Provide secondary back-up support to the CISNET coordinating center administrators and local AV staff in the use of the support of web-connect systems, collecting and posting presentations, and general AV support.

iv) Create links for posting of meeting agendas to link to in the meeting registration site

v) Give presentations relevant to inform CISNET consortium members features of the knowledge management system and other contractor projects relevant to specific groups

c) Onboarding of New Individual Consortium Members The contractor shall onboard individual new CISNET regular and affiliate members as the join the consortium, including:

i) Adding to mailing listservs

ii) Knowledge management system accounts

The Contractor will provide the necessary training and support to ensure a smooth transition.

d) General Consortium Participation The contractor shall participate in a range of consortium activities as determined in consultation with the COR and consortium members. These activities shall include

(but will not be limited to) presentations and discussions relevant to inform CISNET consortium members about contractor projects on conference calls, webinars, etc.

8. Limited Model Interface Systems

The Contractor shall provide support for developing web-based interactive public Project Interface Systems for specific projects. These interfaces shall help the general research community to better understand a project and allow users to explore the responses to inputs. In most cases, these shall be limited scenario-based interfaces and shall include only those parameters most likely to be changed (and understood) by the reader interested in learning more about the project. In consultation with the COR, the Contractor shall enhance existing, and develop new, working interface systems. Note that in some cases funding for the development of these limited model interfaces has been supported by the grantees themselves, rather than by the NCI support contract. In general, these limited model interfaces would not be hosted on the government site and thus the long-term support, maintenance, and hosting of these sites would not be supported by this contract.

9. Hardware and Software Support

The Contractor shall provide all hosting and technical support required to accomplish the scope of work for this project. The contractor shall maintain the proper certifications for hosting Government web sites. In addition, they shall maintain internet connections, hardware, and software licenses, security certificates, security patches, backups, new user accounts, and monitoring for the collaborative knowledge base. All web-hosting infrastructures shall be implemented using NCI and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards included in Section H of Base contract. The web-server environment shall include both an active hardware-based firewall and a warm backup server shall be provided to recover from possible primary server failure and provide continued server availability. All websites shall be developed and updated as needed to support versions of Google Chrome, Microsoft Explorer, Mozilla, and Safari to stay consistent with versions supported by NCI. The contractor shall perform all activities and testing to maintain FISMA compliance.

10. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended: IT Accessibility Requirements

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use information and communication technology (ICT), it shall be accessible to people with disabilities. Federal employees and members of the public who have disabilities must have access to, and use of, information and data that is comparable to people without disabilities.

3. Products, platforms and services delivered as part of this work statement that are ICT, or contain ICT, must conform to the Revised 508 Standards, which are located at 36 C.F.R. §

1194.1 & Apps. A, C & D, and available at https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards- and-guidelines https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2009/02/18/508law.pdf https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2009/02/18/508law.pdf https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines

4. The specific Section 508 technical standards or ‘success criteria’ are found in the attachment, ICT Accessibility Requirements Statement per the Revised Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Web Based Collaboration Tools (“Web Based Collaboration Tools.pdf”)

Item that contains ICT:

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) deliverables:

3) The technical name for the site is the CISNET FLexKB, although the fuller name is the

CISNET Private Interactive Website. The SOW generically calls this the Knowledge Management System

a) https://cisnet.flexkb.net/wc.dll?cisnet~HomeTopic

b) It is a password protected website for use by CISNET members only (i.e. CISNET grantees, associated NCI staff, and Cornerstone – the current contractor).

4) Internet sites:

a) CISNET Model Registry (https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/registry)

b) CISNET Publication Support and Modeling Resources

(https://resources.cisnet.cancer.gov/projects/)

Applicable Functional Performance Criteria: All functional performance criteria apply when using an alternative design or technology that achieves substantially equivalent or greater accessibility and usability by individuals with disabilities, than would be provided by conformance to one or more of the requirements in Chapters 4-6 of the Revised 508 Standards, or when Chapters 4-6 do not address one or more functions of ICT.

Applicable requirements for software features and components: All WCAG Level AA Success Criteria, 502 Interoperability with Assistive Technology, 503 Application.

Applicable requirements for hardware features and components: All requirements apply Applicable support services and documentation: All requirements apply Acceptance Criteria Prior to acceptance, the government reserves the right to perform testing on required ICT items to validate the offeror’s Section 508 conformance claims. If the government determines that Section 508 conformance claims provided by the offeror represent a higher level of conformance than what is actually provided to the agency, the government shall, at its option, require the offeror to remediate the item to align with the offeror’s original Section 508 conformance claims prior to acceptance.

https://cisnet.flexkb.net/wc.dll?cisnet%7EHomeTopic