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Attachment 2 – Question & Answers
FDA-RFP-1226927 – Amendment # 1 Juices and Beverages Industry Profile and Olive Oil Industry Profile
Questions & Answers
| Q 1. | There are some areas of the proposal regarding the time limitations on past performance and experience, which appear to be in conflict as shown below: |
| Page 25: |
Factor 2: Relevant Experience Instructions: The Offeror shall provide a narrative describing any ongoing projects or projects completed within the last five (5) years that are most similar to market research on juices and beverages industry profile and olive oil industry profile requirements in terms of size, scope, complexity, and type.
Page 28:
Relevant Past Performance The Government will assess offerors ability to successfully perform this requirement by considering their successful performance on similar requirements in terms of size, scope, duration, complexity, and price to the work described in this solicitation that have been performed within the last three (3) years.
A1. Page 28, Relevant Past Performance will be changed from three (3) years to five (5) years.
| Q2. | We respectfully request extending the submission due date to July 30, 2020 to ensure there is adequate time to deliberate and provide the Government with sufficient information and our best terms from a technical, past performance, and price standpoint. |
| A2. | Response date will be extended to July 30, 2020. |
| Q3. | Please confirm that the NTE 15 pages is only applicable to Vol 1: Technical Proposal. |
| A3. | Yes, Not to Exceed (NTE) 15 pages for Vol 1: Technical Proposal. |
| Q4. | Please confirm that the Vol 1: Technical Proposal can be single-spaced. |
| A4. | Yes, Vol 1 Technical Proposal can be single spaced. |
| Q5. | Are works cited/bibliographies exempted from the NTE page limit for Vol I: Technical Proposal? |
| A5. | “Work cited/bibliographies” should not exceed and be part of the NTE 15-page limit. |
| Q6. | What is the anticipated start date for the contract? |
| A6. | Start date of this contact will be last week of September 2020. |
| Q7. | What is the anticipated level of effort for the contract? |
| A7. | 50/50 – half for Beverages and half for Olive Oils. |
| Q8. | Section 3.3 mentions “experience conducting expert elicitations.” Does FDA anticipate that expert elicitation is the preferred method to address the information needs for the study? |
| A8. | Yes, it’s “preferred,” but not mandatory. |
| Q9. | Page 4, under “Project Planning” and page 6, under “Execute the Study”, the RFP says that FDA may share its own data. Could FDA provide a list of its available data applicable to this study, particularly as it relates to product characteristics, sales, and label information? |
| A9. | Depending on the direction of the study, if we have data to support a particular direction, we would be willing to share it if we determine that it would be helpful. But we do not want to send any advance data to influence the contractor’s direction or findings. |
| Q10. | Page 4, under “Project Planning” and page 6, under “Execute the Study”, How soon after award would FDA be able to make its data available to the contractor for use in the study? |
| A10. | We may provide data as we move forward but we have no intention of providing any supporting or background data in advance. We should not infer this expectation. |
| Q11. | Page 4, under “Project Planning” and page 6, under “Execute the Study”, If FDA does not have access to data on product characteristics, sales, and label information, can contractors propose to purchase commercial data as part of the contract? |
| A11. | Yes, we prefer this approach |
| Q12. | Page 4, under “Project Planning” the RFP says the “Contractor shall coordinate and prepare correspondence articulately for a broad audience of FDA stakeholders.” Does correspondence refer to the study report, or does FDA anticipate that other types correspondence will be necessary? |
| A12. | Correspondence refers to internal meeting notes/communications, draft reports, etc. Broad audience is code for plain language. |
| Q13. | Page 6, under summarize findings, does the final report need to be 508 compliant? |
| A13. | No, we have not current intention of electronic web publication, etc. – internal use only for now. |
| Q14. | Page 5, Task 2, items 9 and 10, the RFP refers to a “survey.” Does FDA intend for the contractor to conduct a consumer survey or base the analysis on a review of published literature or other reports? |
| A14. | No – consumer survey data is one area data collection that the contractor should explore/consider if there’s any existing consumer data available. |
| Q15. | Page 26, Section 7.1, is FDA willing to accept CPARS reports in place of past performance questionnaires? |
| A15. | Yes |
| Q16. | Is there an incumbent for this work? |
| A16. | There is no incumbent contractor. We have a team of staff including an economist overseeing the market aspects and food technologist to oversee the program aspects. |
| Q17. | What is the approximate budget or level of effort expected for the project, based on past budgets and expected requirements? |
| A17. | Currently we don’t have this information available. |
End of Question & Answers
