Amendment_One_-_RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2016061.pdf

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Amendment One (1)

RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2016061

“STRUCTURAL GENOMICS CENTERS FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES”

AMENDMENT ONE (1)

OFFICE OF ACQUISITIONS

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

5601 Fishers Lane, Room 3D38, MSC 9821

Bethesda, MD 20892-9821

Solicitation Number: RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2016061

Date of Solicitation Issuance: May 25, 2016

Date of Amendment One (1) Issuance: June 9, 2016

Proposal Due Date and Time: Monday, August 15, 2016, 3:30 PM Eastern

(UNCHANGED)

Number of Pages: 4

Point of Contact:

Swee L. Teo, Contracting Officer

Email: teosl@niaid.nih.gov

Phone: 240-669-5173

The purpose of Amendment One is to:

1. Provide a cut-off date for submission of questions;

2. Respond to questions received regarding this solicitation.

Offerors MUST acknowledge receipt of the amendment by Amendment number (s) and date of the amendment. Failure to receive your acknowledgment of this amendment may result in the rejection of your proposal.

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the solicitation remain unchanged and in full force and effect.

I. Cut-off date to submit questions regarding this solicitation:

All questions regarding this solicitation must be submitted via email to the Point of Contact listed above by July 25, 2016.

mailto:teosl@niaid.nih.gov

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II. The Government’s responses to questions received regarding this solicitation are as follows:

A. General

1. Question: Can the Government provide some guidance and clarification on the upper limit of the budget that can assist an offeror with its proposal?

Response: Due to the competitive nature of this procurement, an offeror shall carefully review the content of the solicitation for information regarding the Statement of Work of this Request for Proposal (RFP), instructions regarding proposal submission, and a description of the evaluation and award process; and exercise its professional judgment in compiling its proposal including the budget. If an offeror has a specific question(s) that it would like addressed, it shall submit them in writing to the Point of Contact listed above. Please be aware that answers provided will also be included in an anonymous Q&A solicitation amendment posted to FedBizOpps.

2. Question: Is a non-US institution eligible to apply for this solicitation?

Response: Yes, a non-US institution is eligible to submit a proposal in response to this RFP. If successful, clearance by the State Department will be obtained prior to awarding a foreign contract, a foreign subcontract, or a domestic contract or subcontract with a foreign component.

3. Question: Does an offeror submit separate budgets for:

a. The main pipeline (both at prime and at subcontracting sites);

b. The six projects described under Section 4 (Functional Characterization of Targets and

Structure-guided Vaccine and Therapeutics Discovery);

c. The additional 6 FTEs in Section 8, under Option Quantities?

Response: An offeror shall:

a. Submit budgets for the Base and each Option Periods for the prime offeror and each proposed subcontractor to perform the Statement of Work. The level of effort for the work set forth in the Statement of Work of this RFP is 35,360 direct labor hours (17 FTEs) in each contract year. 1 FTE is defined as 2,080 labor hours.

b. Include the cost for the 6 projects as 6 separate line-items in the Base and each Option Periods with supporting spreadsheets/budget (separate/itemized) to fully explain the estimated costs. Section 3 of Attachment 7: Additional Business Proposal Instructions and Uniform Cost Assumptions of the RFP states that an offeror shall assume three experimental projects for functional characterization of targets and three experimental projects for structure-guided vaccine design and drug discovery per year.

c. Submit the Option Quantities as standalone spreadsheets/budgets. Each Option Quantity represents 1 FTE and may be exercised up to 6 times during each contract year.

B. PART I – Section H – Special Contract Requirements

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4. Question: In Article H.13. (page 23): The Federal Information and Information Systems (FIPS 199 Assessment) security level is marked as moderate. Why is the FIIS level moderate? If an offeror is not interfacing directly with a federal information system, would the level still be moderate?

Response: NIAID’s Information System Security Officer has determined the security categories and levels as moderate based on the RFP. A contractor is responsible for protecting Federal information and Federal information systems in order to ensure their integrity, confidentiality, and availability. While a contractor may not operate a Federal information system, it may have electronic access to Federal systems, such as the NIAID electronic Reports and Deliverables System (eRDS) for deliverables submission.

C. PART III - Section J – List of Attachments

5. Question: Can anyone with an eRA Commons account submit to this funding opportunity through the eCPS, or does it need the role of Administrative Official (AO) to be able to submit?

6. Response: An organization’s AO or employee with an eRA Commons account can submit the proposal in eCPS. See Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) at:

https://ecps.nih.gov/NIAID/home/howto.

7. Question: In Attachment 6, Section 7 is missing (page 6 of 6 of Attachment 6). Is it correct that there is no Section 7 to be addressed?

Response: Yes, there is no Section 7 to be addressed in Attachment 6. This is a numbering format error.

8. Question: Are the 6 FTEs of the Option Quantities (in Section 8) separate from the six projects described under Section 4 (Function Characterization of Targets and Structure Guided Vaccine and Therapeutics Discovery) and in the Statement of Work Attachment 3, page 6, or are the Option Quantities being offered to conduct the projects?

9. Response: The Option Quantities are separate from the 6 projects described under Section 4 of Attachment 6: Additional Technical Proposal Instructions, Format for Technical Proposal, and Table of Contents. The 6 projects are one of the tasks in the Statement of Work; the Option Quantities, if exercised, are to increase the level of effort to respond to the need for unanticipated additional capacity related to the research conducted in accordance with the Statement of Work.

D. PART IV – Section K – Representations, Certifications, and Other Statements of Offerors

10. Question: Would the Government be able to send an offeror the “Section K - Representations, Certifications, and Other Statements of Offerors” so that it can confirm that this information is provided on its SAM registration?

Response: The Representations and Certifications can be found at: www.sam.gov/. If an offeror intends to submit a proposal, it must complete the Representations and Certifications and include it as part of its Business Proposal.

https://ecps.nih.gov/NIAID/home/howto http://www.sam.gov/

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E. PART IV – Section L – Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors

11. Question: Can the Government confirm that the only approval that an offeror is required to give on the application is to sign off on the proposal?

Response: Yes, in accordance with Section L.2.a.2. Authorized Official and Submission of Proposal, an offeror’s proposal must be signed by an official authorized to bind its organization and must stipulate that it is predicated upon all the terms and conditions of this RFP.

12. Question: The RFP lists requirements for paper quality on page 45, but Attachment 1 requires electronic submission. Is the submission going to be electronic only? Or shall an offeror also send by Fedex paper copies? And if so, how many copies?

Response: While Section L.2.a.2. Authorized Official and Submission of Proposal provides some information on paper quality, an offeror’s proposal must be submitted in accordance with Attachment 1: Packaging and Delivery of Proposal. The Government requires proposals to be submitted electronically via its eCPS; submission of hard copy proposal is not acceptable.

13. Question: Does an offeror need to propose specific projects for the (up to) 6 FTEs (per year) of the Option Quantities? Or, does an offeror only need to “Discuss approaches for incrementally increasing the level of effort by 2,080 direct labor hours to respond to the need for unanticipated additional capacity related to the research conducted in accordance with the Statement of Work”?

Response: The Option Quantities are not for specific projects; each Option Quantity, if exercised, is to increase the level of effort for the Base and Option Periods. In its proposal, an offeror shall discuss approaches for incrementally increasing the level of effort by 2,080 direct labor hours to respond to the need for unanticipated additional capacity related to the research conducted in accordance with the Statement of Work.