Amendment 1 RFP 2008092 Biosafety Outreach Program.pdf

NIHOD2008092

Amendment 1 Question 1: What are the locations of the 65 required site visits?

Answer: The visits will occur at a variety of institutions selected to ensure for geographic diversity, among other criteria (institutional type, nature and size of research program, etc.). Thus, institutions in the western, eastern, southern, and mid-western regions of the United States will be visited. Educational conferences similarly will occur in geographically varied locations.

Question 2: (Reference Attachment 1-Statement of Work, p. 2, third bullet) “Oversee the development of educational materials such as a web page for IBCs, to convey key compliance information and aid in the understanding and interpretation of the NIH Guidelines.” Does “oversee the development” actually mean just “oversight” with the actual development done by the government (or other government contractor) or does it mean we should include the development as a line item responsibility in our proposal and include it in our pricing?

Answer: The contractor is being hired largely for substantive expertise in biosafety and experience in communications, and thus would develop the substantive content and creative concepts for these educational materials. There may be production aspects, however, that then would be handled by other parties. For example, other parties (e.g., NIH CIT) are already involved in the technical aspects of moving material onto the NIH Web site. The contractor would thus oversee this process to ensure what is posted is consistent with the original concept and educational goals of the Web-based materials.

Another example would be the preparation of printed educational materials. The contractor would develop content and creative concepts, but the NIH print shop would likely be used for production. The contractor would have to oversee that printing process to ensure the output was of appropriate quality and consistent with the concepts developed by the contractor.

Question 3: For the following 3 items, we assume these will be planned by the contractor and funded by NIH separately from the cost of this contract. If not, could we have a general idea of how many of these will be needed so we can propose some options with budget/pricing?

• (Reference Attachment 1-Statement of Work, p.2, first bullet) Develop and implement strategies to stimulate enhanced communication….Such strategies include conducting meetings and seminars…to disseminate information.

• (Reference Attachment 1-Statement of Work, p.2, fifth bullet) Conduct workshops and presentations at national and regional meetings, seminars and conferences to convey information about the NIH Guidelines and other OBA activities.

• (Reference Attachment 1-Statement of Work, p.2, fifth bullet) Organize and conduct focus groups to determine public information needs for the purpose of designing, re-designing and/or enhancing OBA databases and informational products.

NIHOD2008092

Amendment 1 Answer: For activities involving meetings, seminars, focus groups, and similar activities, the contractor (subject to OBA review and approval) would develop original goals for the activity, develop an agenda, consider key stakeholders and participants, extend invitations, manage the event on site, and develop subsequent reports. The funding for these activities (for speaker travel, meeting space, and similar logistic considerations) would come from the OBA budget separate from the cost of this contract.

The closing date is extended to September 8, 2008, 11:00 a.m. local time.