SOW_Consultant_Services_FINAL.pdf

Statement of Work (SOW)

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

a. Title: Consultant services for research on anxiety and attention bias

b. Background Information:

The Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN) is a laboratory designed to conduct brain imaging studies in children and adolescents. Such research requires diverse expertise in cognitive neuroscience techniques. SDAN requires collaborative efforts to enhance the impact of research performed on site at the NIMH. In the past, work with Dr. Yair Bar-Haim has facilitated the impact of research at SDAN by developing new ideas for novel treatments, by creating new techniques, and by implementing studies in unique contexts. For example, the contractor has worked extensively in settings where individuals are exposed to stress. In other ways, there are similarities between the two group. In particular, both SDAN and Dr. Yair Bar-Haim are interested in clinically significant alterations in brain function in specific mood and anxiety disorders. SDAN requires a leading authority on how behavioral and electrophysiological correlate to cognitive biases in anxiety. SDAN requires that the consultant has developed well-validated procedures for evaluating processing biases in children and adolescents that are highly congruent with the research question and data acquired by Dr. Pine. These are questions that examine relationships between attention and anxiety.

c. Purpose or Objective of the Requirement:

The overall goal of collaboration with the contractor is to delineate aspects of brain function that relate to both normal and pathological processing of emotionally salient stimuli. SDAN and the contractor’s group have used similar protocols in research with anxious and behaviorally inhibited children, in both brain imaging and behavioral studies; SDAN seeks a consultant to provide the following: (a) the development and wide-spread implementation of attention training protocols for anxious children to be incorporated in a study on efficacy of cognitive treatments; and (b) an implementation of a novel attention shifting tasks for fMRI research in anxious and non-anxious children and adolescents. The contractor has a leading role in all these projects including oversee the technical work of research fellows, data analysis, and writing of scientific reports. The purpose of this acquisition is to acquire a contractor to oversee the dissemination of these methods to other collaborating laboratories.

d. Period of Performance:

The period of performance shall be for a base period of 12-month with one (1) optional successive 12-month option periods.

2. CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS (SCOPE OF WORK)

The contractor shall assess and analyze data from the aforementioned projects and shall assist in manuscript preparation and publication. The contractor also will provide materials to collaborators so that they might complete studies of attention bias modification therapy. The contractor will perform these duties in collaboration with existing members of the Intramural Research Program. The contractor will also oversee training of NIMH-

IRP staff on the newly implemented research procedures. The contractor will also work with the NIMH preparing manuscripts that present the results from this work; the contactor will perform these duties by applying a range of tools with which the contractor possesses expertise. The contractor should have expertise in structured psychiatric interviews, such as the SCID and the KSADS. The contractor should understand data analytic procedures, using statistical packages, such as SPSS. The contractor should understand how to use ePrime to interpret results from experiments and design studies that extend these results. These duties will be performed over a one- year period.

3. GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

These duties will be performed in collaboration with the personnel of the Section on Development and Affective

Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Pine. Prior to publishing any materials related to the research conducted at SDAN, the contractor shall seek approval from SDAN.

4. DELIVERY OR DELIVERABLES

a. Description of Tasks and Associated Deliverables:

A progress report shall be submitted six months into the contract. This will outline the nature of data collected by the contractor as well as the nature of outreach efforts to expand research on attention bias.

Finally, the contractor shall publish at least 2 peer-reviewed manuscripts on these data during this period of performance.

b. Reporting Requirements:

The contractor shall submit one progress report to Dr. Daniel Pine and 2 publications.

5. CONTRACTOR EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS – KEY PERSONNEL

The following individual(s) is/are considered to be essential to the work being performed hereunder:

Name Title

PhD

Dr. Bar-Haim has been working in the field of psychology for more than a decade. After acquiring his PhD at Tel

Aviv University, he completed post-doctoral training at the University of Maryland. He is a leading authority on attention and its relationship to anxiety, having published a seminal paper in 2007 in Psychol Bull. Moreover, he has published other landmark studies in top tier journals, including Arch Gen Psychiatry and Am J Psychiatry.

He has been working with SDAN for 10 years.

6. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS:

Contractor personnel performing work under this contract shall satisfy all requirements for appropriate security eligibility as specified in the rules governing a Special Volunteer in the NIMH Intramural Research Program.

All costs associated with obtaining clearances for contractor-provided personnel will be the responsibility of the contractor. Further, the contractor will be responsible for the actions of all individuals provided to work under this contract. If damages arise from work performed by contractor-provided personnel under the auspices of this contract, the contractor will be responsible for all resources necessary to remedy the incident.

7. DATA RIGHTS

The NIMH shall have unlimited rights to and ownership of all deliverables provided under this contract, including reports, recommendations, briefings, work plans and all other deliverables. This includes the deliverables provided under the basic contract and any optional task deliverables exercised by the contracting officer. In addition, it includes any additional deliverables required by contract change. The definition of “unlimited rights” is contained in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 27.401, “Definitions.” FAR clause 52.227-14, “Rights in

Data-General,” is hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of this contract/order.

9. SECTION 508 – ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

The contractor shall comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d), as amended by the

Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220), August 7, 1998.