Metadata_RFI_07302025_1.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION/SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT)

Metadata Development, Curation, Harmonization, and Program Support Services

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Interior (DOI) Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), on behalf of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT), is seeking information for market research purposes to determine the availability of qualified Contractors to provide Metadata Development, Curation, Harmonization, and Program Support Services (MDCHPSS).

This Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought Notice is for market research purposes only.

The information from this market research will assist the Government with acquisition planning.

BACKGROUND

The NCI CBIIT supports informatics, data, and information technology needs of our NCI programs, collaborators, and the cancer and cancer research community. The NCI CBIIT Metadata Content Development Team has supported the cancer research community in understanding, creating and registering metadata standards, content, forms and models for 24 years. This specialized team of experienced metadata content experts organizes metadata through centralized curation of research question and answer sets, creating Common Data Elements (CDEs) and Case Report Forms (CRFs) to make them available through the cancer Data Standards Registry and Repository (caDSR II) II, for wide distribution and use. The caDSR II is a publicly accessible metadata registry and repository where content can be viewed and downloaded by all. Creation of new content must be centrally curated by specially trained metadata curators who go through rigorous training and who adhere to established Business Rules, Best Practices, SOPs and Governance to manage and maintain content as a high quality, trusted resource for the larger public user community. These documents can be found in the Metadata Content Development Team Knowledge Base at https://service.cancer.gov/cadsr-curation?id=nci_ext_kb_homepage.

The caDSR II content is organized in collections by group, or Context, with Stewardship Organizations (SO) who oversee their content through interaction with our Metadata Content Development team. Each Context has collections of classifications and forms. Classifications are the sets of CDEs organized into similar collections. Forms are Case Report Forms (CRFs) or Data Collection Templates (DCTs). This team also assists in creating content through model annotation and loading for larger sets of data. For more information see: CBIIT Metadata Services at https://datascience.cancer.gov/resources/metadata.

The caDSR II adheres to ISO/IEC 11179 standard for metadata definition and registration. The semantic structure of all CDEs include the foundational controlled terminologies and ontologies provided by NCI CBIIT Semantic Team partners, the Enterprise Vocabulary Services (EVS):

NCI EVS Wiki. The EVS Terminology Team creates and manages content for the NCI

Thesaurus (NCIt), NCI Metathesaurus for cross-terminology mapping, and NCI’s terminology services infrastructure that is the source of the concepts for CDEs. NCI’s Metathesaurus is leveraged for cross-terminology mapping. The Metadata Content Development Team works closely with the EVS Team and together constitutes the Semantic Infrastructure (SI) Team.

The SI Team plays a crucial role in providing specialized semantic support to stakeholder communities by ensuring that data and metadata are semantically structured to enhance Big Data collection and analysis, Data Commons initiative operations, enables precise semantic annotation of large-scale biomedical datasets, supports AI-driven insights and advanced analytics for cancer research. Semantic structuring of clinical and pre-clinical research data facilitates harmonization and interoperability across diverse datasets and enhances data integration and sharing within cancer research and clinical care, ultimately driving better research outcomes, discovery, and innovation in precision medicine.

The NCI CBIIT Metadata Content Development Team serve as the registration authority for all content in the caDSR II. Metadata curation ensures data collected for NCI protocols are common and replicable, preserving data through time in a consistent, expected way that is machine readable and structured for aggregation and advanced analytics. Business Rules, Best Practices and Governance, and approaches to maintenance of content are harmonized at the registry level. The caDSR II SOs meet with the Metadata Content Team on at least a quarterly basis to exchange information and enhance data practices as part of the caDSR II User Group.

This approach has advanced and specialized the process of creating a unified, shared set of best practices for maintaining CDEs and metadata development in the caDSR II. It provides a community driven process for eliminating redundancy, provide updates on content and new projects, while eliciting input and giving them the opportunity to ask questions and pose suggestions.

The NCI CBIIT Metadata Content Program Manager leads the contractor Metadata Content Development Team and serves to provide leadership and oversight for the team as they create, manage, and maintain metadata content, CDEs, associated metadata and peripherals supporting materials describing operations. Operational support for metadata services is a key function of this Metadata Content Team who serve as consultants to our community and assist with training and collaborative standards work.

caDSR II Metadata Community Training is a specialized training curriculum supported by the Metadata Content Team to ensure the community has the skills and capability to utilize caDSR II, search and browse content, and build Case Report Forms (CRFs). The Metadata Content Development Team provides a multi-dimensional training program developed to support the different training needs of the community. The team provides live, instructor led group training, annotated PowerPoint (PPT) training slides, and training videos to support the varied learning needs of the community. These courses are led by the contractor Metadata Curation Team that shall be responsible for producing additional materials on behalf of the government to support evolving needs of the scientific community including the evolution of the model annotation and model loading requirements. Training is moving entirely to a self-driven learning model that will be available 24/7 in the coming years.

The NCI cancer Data Standards Registry and Repository (caDSR II) consists of a database, APIs, and web-based tools for creating and using data standards for cancer research. The infrastructure supports the official registration and management of NCI standards for CDEs, CRFs, and data models used in NCI Clinical Trials and other cancer and healthcare studies.

BUSINESS NEED

The primary objective of this acquisition is to ensure that cancer research metadata and semantic standards remain robust, interoperable, and adaptable to emerging scientific and technological advancements. The contractor shall supply specialized metadata development support for curation, harmonization, form/template building, model annotation and loading services, and operational program support on behalf of NCI CBIIT. The contractor shall provide support and staff a Metadata Content Development Team and provide additional cancer pre-clinical, clinical and clinical research expertise as detailed in Table 7.1 in section 7.1.1 of the Statement of Work (SOW) to support metadata development work. This team shall serve to support daily operations and stakeholder management and support.

Reference Attachment 1 – NCI Metadata Draft SOW for additional details pertaining to this requirement.

PURPOSE

This Request for Information (RFI) is seeking responses from vendors to address the questions outlined in the Section titled “Information Requested.” The Government is looking for a contract source to provide the services and tasks contained in the attached draft Statement of Work.

INFORMATION REQUESTED

1. Identify if your company is one or more of the following business types: Other than small business, small business, small disadvantaged business, 8(a) concern, women-owned small business, economically disadvantaged women-owned small business (EDWOSB) concern, HUBZone, veteran-owned, or service-disabled veteran-owned small business based on the NAICS identified herein.

2. The Government has identified the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code(s) of 541512 “Computer Systems Design Services” for this requirement with a size standard of $34 Million. Please identify any other applicable NAICS codes to this requirement.

3. Provide details on your company’s subject matter expertise and experience within the last three years in developing ISO 11179 – compliant Common Data Elements (CDEs) annotated with concepts from a controlled terminology or ontology.

4. Provide details on your company’s subject matter expertise and experience within the last three years in mapping data models, data dictionaries, and / or forms to ISO 11179 – compliant CDEs and then harmonizing instance data.

5. Provide details on your company’s expertise and experience within the last three years supporting metadata lifecycle management, governance, business rules, and best practices to maintain the quality of ISO 11179 compliant CDEs.

6. Provide details on your company’s expertise in managing Big Data, Data Commons, large biorepository stakeholders in mapping, harmonizing, and developing content for curation.

7. Provide details on how your company would support the adult learning style approach to training users on metadata, standards, and the caDSR.

8. Describe how your company would support user requirements and use cases based on utilization of caDSR and caDSR tooling for development of tooling enhancements and incorporation of automation and AI.

9. Describe how your company would handle operational support for metadata content development, identifying new standards to be considered, and community support to drive the future direction for content management.

10. Provide examples of how your company dealt with difficult customers and difficult timelines and how your company navigated them to successfully complete the work on time and on budget.

11. Provide examples of past projects where your company successfully met or exceeded client expectations by completing similar requirements within a compressed timeline.

12. Describe issues faced in the past in working with metadata standards development as described in this SOW and how these challenges were overcome.

13. Identify any technical and/or programmatic risks you foresee in executing these requirements. Define risk reduction measures you would employ to address these risks.

14. Identify any potential Organizational Conflicts of Interest that may arise in the future.

Outline your organization’s strategies for mitigating any OCI. Clarify how you ensure confidentiality and prevent the misuse of sensitive project information

15. Identify any information you feel is missing in the draft SOW that would be beneficial to accurately defining and developing your staffing model and costs.

16. Provide available commercial services brochures and/or information providing a description, capabilities, and features of your commercially available services that meet the government’s requirements.

17. Provide the name, telephone number, mailing address, and email address of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives.

QUESTIONS

Please submit all questions/comments via one email directly to Victoria Seelhoefer at victoria_seelhoefer@ibc.doi.gov no later than 10:00 AM ET, August 1, 2025. Vendor questions and Government responses will be distributed to all vendors. No questions will be addressed via oral communication.

Should any request for clarification be received after the date and time stated above, the Government reserves the right not to provide an answer. If, however, in the Government’s opinion, the request for clarification cites an issue of significant importance, the Government may provide written responses to all potential providers. Please note, questions and comments will not be protected by the Government as proprietary.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION

Firms with the capability to provide the requirements referenced herein are invited to submit, in writing, information in accordance with the instructions below. This information should be responsive to the request for information identified above as well as any technical questions, as indicated herein. Submissions for the information must be organized and identifiable per the information in this RFI, e.g. responses to questions are numbered by question and follow the same sequence.

Responses are limited to twelve (12) pages or less. Submissions should be in a Microsoft Office compatible format (i.e., Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or Adobe Acrobat

A page is defined as an 8.5 inch by 11 inch sheet of paper with no less than one-inch margins on all four sides; All pages shall be single-spaced, single-sided, with a font no less than 10 points for text, tables, and graphics; Spacing before and after the line shall be no less than 3 point; the following page types do NOT count towards the page limitations:

• Section dividers

• Blank pages, which must be marked “This page intentionally left blank”

• Fold-outs shall be counted as the appropriate number of pages based upon an 8.5 inch by

11 inch sheet of paper; partial pages shall be rounded up (e.g., 1.5 pages will be treated as 2 pages.);

Responses are due no later than 10:00 AM ET, August 8, 2025. Submissions shall be submitted via email to Victoria Seelhoefer at victoria_seelhoefer@ibc.doi.gov. Paper copies will not be accepted. The responses must include the business size of the vendor under NAICS code 541512 including any applicable small business subcategory (Service Disabled-Veteran Owned Small Business, Veteran-Owned Small Business, Women-Owned Small Business, HUBZone Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Small Business, Historically Black College and University/Minority Institution, Small Business Joint Venture, Consortium, Team Partnering, or

Other than Small Business). Offerors should indicate if they would need to subcontract and, if so, for which tasks.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This RFI is being issued solely for market research information and acquisition planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to a contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Furthermore, the Government is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Responders are advised that the Government will not reimburse for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested parties’ expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in a future RFQ, if one is issued. However, interested parties are encouraged to participate in this RFI.

Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. All Government and contractor personnel reviewing RFI responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements and understand their responsibility for proper use and protection from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information as described in 41 U.S.C. 423. The Government shall not be held liable for any damages incurred if proprietary information is not properly identified.

No telephone calls will be accepted requesting a bid package or solicitation. There is no bid package or solicitation. In order to protect the procurement integrity of any future procurement, if any, that may arise from this announcement, information regarding technical point of contact will not be given and no appointments for presentations will be made.