Attachment 1 Performance Work Statement 4-26-21.pdf

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Training Program’s Disaster

Response Contract

Background

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), located in Research Triangle

Park, North Carolina, is one (1) of 27 research institutes and centers that comprise the National

Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The mission of the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP) is to support the development of a network of non-profit organizations that are committed to protecting workers and their communities by delivering high-quality, peer-reviewed safety and health training curricula to target populations of hazardous waste workers and emergency responders. Through the NIH extramural grants process, the WTP awards cooperative agreements to: 1) establish new national benchmarks for quality worker safety and health training; 2) create a major prevention education activity for NIEHS as technical scientific and translated research information is delivered to target populations with high risk toxic exposures; and 3) develop model occupational safety and health training for workers and their supervisors that perform dangerous jobs in the nation's hazardous waste management and remediation programs, as well as for emergency responders to uncontrolled hazardous materials releases and natural and man-made disasters.

The National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training for Hazardous Materials, Waste Operations, and Emergency Response functions as the national resource for the dissemination of program related information, technical reports, resource materials, and other materials that have been developed by the grantees of the NIEHS Worker Training Program

(WTP), as specified by Section 126 (g) of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) to the general public.

NIEHS WTP awardees develop safety and health training for workers engaged in activities related to hazardous materials and waste generation, removal, containment, transportation, and emergency response. The WTP HAZMAT Disaster Preparedness Training Program (HDPTP), established in 2005 in response to lessons learned from national disasters (including the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks), supports the development and delivery of disaster-specific training to prepare workers to respond to man-made and natural disasters and possible future terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. This training augments prevention and preparedness efforts in a wide variety of high-risk settings, enhances the safety and health training of hazardous materials workers, emergency responders, and skilled support personnel, and ensures responders are aware of site-specific hazards and mitigation techniques prior to and during response activities.

https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/index.cfm https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/index.cfm https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/awardees/index.cfm https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/training_program_areas/hdpt/index.cfm

In the past, the WTP has also been asked to respond to the National Response Framework

(NRF), National Disaster Recovery Frame Work, and the National Contingency Plan, which guides the nation on how to respond to all types of disasters and emergencies. Once activated, the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP) may provide:

• Training technical assistance, such as instructional staff, curriculum development experts, subject matter experts, and professional staff.

• Health and safety training specific to the hazard, nature, and environmental conditions of the response. Assistance and support in the development and delivery of site-specific health and safety training through appropriately qualified WTP awardee instructional staff.

• Assistance such as respirator fit testing and distribution of personal protective equipment.

• Health and safety outreach to workers and communities who will be performing response and recovery activities taking into consideration cultural, literacy, and language needs.

Scope

There is an immediate need to acquire assistance in preparation for the delivery of disaster specific training and response to man-made and natural disasters and emergency response activities. In the past, the WTP has responded to hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, oil spills, the opioids response, responder and community resilience during disasters, terrorist attacks, wildfires, and infectious diseases such as Ebola and COVID-19. Response activities may include, but not be limited to, preparing program materials, conducting information assessments and gap analyses, data analyses, providing subject matter expertise (health and safety training, industrial hygiene, disaster response, infectious disease, HAZMAT training, chemical exposure response training, radiation response training, etc.) providing expert review, developing training curricula, conducting pilot testing of developed curricula, evaluation of developed curricula, stakeholder and partnership identification and support, safety and health training guideline reviews, meeting support, awardee training activity coordination, reports and white papers, logistical support for materials and equipment, developing/updating/printing disaster booklets and other emergency response training activities that may arise.

The scope of the contract will necessitate a variety of staff to provide for the possible areas of work listed above. Staff to be considered may include Program Manager, Subject Matter

Experts (Industrial Hygienist, Curricula Development Specialist, Disaster Response Specialist, Infectious Disease Specialist, HAZMAT specialist, Nuclear specialist, etc.), Research Analyst, Research Associate, Meeting Planner, Logistics Coordinator, IT specialist, IT support staff, Graphics Designer, and Administrative. All developed materials will be posted on the WTP

National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training webpage. For integration, the https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/117791 https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/117791 https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/frameworks/recovery https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response/national-contingency-plan-subpart-j

Contractor is expected to coordinate with the National Clearinghouse Contractor to ensure proper posting of materials and must operate within the current IT requirements of NIEHS

(PHP, MySql, Percussion, Cold Fusion, Thunderstone, HTML Standards, etc.) All website(s), functionalities and content created by the Contractor shall adhere to existing HHS, NIH, and

NIEHS IT systems security, web policies, style guidelines, operational environment, meet

Section 508 compliance requirements, specified user requirements, and all material shall be housed on the government’s server and shall not adversely affect system performance.

Requirements

The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform the services.

Non-Personal Services

The Government shall neither supervise contractor employees nor control the method by which the contractor performs the required tasks. Under no circumstances shall the Government assign tasks to, or prepare work schedules for, individual contractor employees. It shall be the responsibility of the contractor to manage its employees and to guard against any actions that are of the nature of personal services or give the perception of personal services. If the contractor believes that any actions constitute, or are perceived to constitute personal services, it shall be the contractor's responsibility to notify the Contracting Officer (CO) immediately.

Project Management

The project will be awarded on an as needed basis with a minimum of $5,000 to be awarded each year.

For those months that the project is active, the Contractor shall prepare a monthly progress report by the 15th of each month, to include a description of the time spent by contractor employee(s) on certain subtasks for that month and provide a timeline of activities that clearly states the deadlines for each month’s deliverables. The contractor shall provide planned activities and next steps for the upcoming month and identify any potential challenges or significant delays. The contractor shall suggest solutions or outline plans to address identified challenges and delays.

At the end of each month the contractor will also provide an invoice that includes the item description (e.g. task, materials, travel), the amount billed for the current period, the funded amount for each category, and the amount remaining for the year, and a breakdown of travel for each contractor employee for that month.

Travel will only occur on a preapproved basis. Prior to incurring any travel expenses, the contractor must obtain written authorization from the Contracting Officer’s Representative

(COR) that the travel has been preapproved. All travel must meet current government per diem rates. Contractor expense reports shall be prepared and processed in accordance with the

Federal Travel Regulation (FTR).

Delivery, Inspection and Acceptance

Item Submission Format Dissemin ation/ Delivery Schedule

Quantity/ Frequency

Work plans/requirements documents

Electronic Submit to COR within 10 days of award of task order.

Upon award of task order.

Monthly Progress Reports

Electronic. Reports are high quality, fully edited, accurate, due by the 15th of each month for the prior month. Provide monthly projection of activities to include any needed preapproval.

Submit to COR.

Monthly for active task orders. Emailed to the COR by the 15th of each month.

Reports are accurate and timely 98% of the time.

Monthly for active task orders.

Emailed to the COR by the 15th of each month.

Annual Progress Reports

Electronic. Presented in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

Submit to COR and Contracting Officer 30 days after the end of the contract year. Report is accurate and timely 98% of the time.

Yearly

Final Contract Report Electronic. Presented in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

Submit to COR and Contracting Officer 30 days after the end of the contract.

Reports are accurate and timely 98% of the time.

Once at the end of the five-year contract

Disaster data analysis, situation reports, disaster communication outreach, disaster training request coordination, and collaboration with federal, state, and

Electronic. Submits program materials in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to professional and lay audiences. Demonstrates professional conduct when dealing with WTP partners.

As requested for task order. Report to the COR monthly on the status.

Provide the resources within twelve months of task order award or sooner if directed

As requested for task order.

Deliverable.

Emailed to the COR local disaster response and recovery partners.

by the COR.

Information is both reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

Disaster response materials/health and safety materials

Electronic. Must use approved subject matter experts. Submits materials in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to professional and lay audiences.

As requested for task order. Report to the COR monthly on the status. Provide the resources as directed by the COR.

May require less than 24-hour turnaround in the event of a major disaster.

Information is both reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable.

Emailed to the COR

Safety and health training guideline reviews

Electronic. Must use approved subject matter experts. Submits materials in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to professional and lay audiences.

As requested for task order. Provide the resources as requested by the COR. Information is both reader friendly and highly informative. Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable.

Emailed to the COR

Training Curricula Development

Electronic. Hard copy as requested. Must use approved subject matter experts. Submits program training materials in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to professional and lay audiences.

As requested for task order. Report to the COR monthly on the status. Provide the resources within twelve months of task order award or sooner if directed by the COR.

Information is both

As requested for task order.

Deliverable.

Emailed to the COR reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

Evaluation Electronic. Must use approved subject matter experts. Submits program training materials in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to professional and lay audiences.

As requested for task order. Report to the COR monthly on the status. Provide the resources within twelve months of task order award or sooner if directed by the COR.

Information is both reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable.

Emailed to the COR

Partnerships and Representation

Facilitate partnership among other agencies and non-governmental organizations;

Contractor assists the WTP at worker safety and health conferences and meetings.

As requested for task order. Values to be determined by the WTP’s requirements on a case-by-case basis of required in the task order.

As requested for task order.

Monitoring and direct feedback from those involved.

Replenishment of the current WTP Disaster Response Booklets in multiple languages

Submits program materials in an attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to professional and lay audiences.

As requested for task order. Provide as directed by the COR for the task order. Information is both reader friendly and highly informative. Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable.

Electronic and hard copy.

Website content submission

Electronic. Clearinghouse and NIEHS website/content management system.

Content must be attractive, readable, As requested for task order. Monthly updates on content created for the website. Content to be

At a minimum, monthly updates.

highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

reviewed by the COR prior to submission.

Information is accurate and timely 98% of the time.

Brochure/Material Various formats, both hard copy and electronic.

Materials presented in attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

As requested for task order. Submit final to COR.

Material is both reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable. COR monitoring and direct feedback from those involved.

Research Reports/ White papers

Electronic. Must use approved subject matter experts. Materials presented in attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

As requested for task order. Submit final to COR.

Material is both reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable. COR monitoring and direct feedback from those involved.

Technical meeting facilitation

Facilitate technical assistance activities; assist with the development of agendas and supply technical speakers.

As requested for task order. Meeting materials are relevant, high quality, and facilitate the accomplishment of meeting goals 98% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Monitoring and feedback from meeting participants.

Advanced and On- Site logistics for meetings

Quality of meeting facility, lodging, and preparatory materials. Guest speakers and other guest participants’ satisfaction with travel arrangements. Contractor takes lead and maintains high level of accuracy, quality assurances, and responsiveness in the meeting logistics

As requested for task order. Positive evaluation by 40% of the attendees.

As requested for task order.

Monitoring and feedback from meeting participants.

coordination.

Post Workshop and Meeting Reports

Electronic. Materials presented in attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

As requested for task order. Submit to COR 30 days following the technical meeting or workshop. Report is both reader friendly and highly informative. Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable. COR monitoring and direct feedback from those involved.

Post Workshop Reports for Webinar or Conference Calls and Webinar recordings

Electronic. Materials presented in attractive, readable, highly informative format readily accessible to the general public adhering to Federal and NIH Plain Language guidance.

As requested for task order. Submit to COR 15 days following the event.

Report is both reader friendly and highly informative.

Only minor edits required 10% of the time.

As requested for task order.

Deliverable. COR monitoring and direct feedback from those involved.

IT Security Plan Electronic Submit to COR Within 30 days following contract award

Post Award Administration and Monitoring

Within 20 business days after award-date the contractor shall meet with the Contracting Officer and the COR for a kick-off meeting at NIEHS. Throughout the life of the contract, the COR will monitor the progress of the work being performed and will proactively seek prompt resolution of any issues or problems.

Place of Performance

The contractor shall possess appropriate office space with the technical capabilities to perform all tasks; in particular, the ability to use CISCO VPN clients and CITRIX terminal services clients to communicate with the NIHnet and to interface with NIEHS IT systems. This will require proximity to NIH or NIEHS facilities to acquire access to government furnished laptops through the VPN with appropriate security clearances and badging.