Sources_Sought_MOMRP_DRAFT.doc

Request for Information (RFI)

1. RFI Number: W81XWH-15-R-0091

2. RFI Title: Support services for the Defense Health Program Enhancement (DHP) operational medical research program and Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP)

3. Agency: United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC)

4. Office: Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP)

5. Contracting Office: U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA), Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD

6. Location: Fort Detrick, MD

7. Synopsis: In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201 "Exchange with industry before receipt of proposals" and (FAR) 52.215-3, "Request for information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes" this RFI is for information and planning purposes only at this time and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. The information resulting from this RFI will determine if there are qualified non-personal service providers available in the marketplace otherwise it will become a Sole Source procurement. This RFI does not restrict the Government to an ultimate acquisition approach. No evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. At this time no solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of the solicitation. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps at https://www.fbo.gov. It is the responsibility of any potential Offeror to monitor this site for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

8. Background: The USAMRMC manages and executes research in seven basic areas: medical simulation, training and health information technology, military infectious diseases, combat casualty care, military operational medicine, chemical biological defense, and clinical and rehabilitative medicine. The command is also the research manager for the DoD Blast Injury Research Program Coordinating Office and the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

MOMRP, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), conducts biomedical research to deliver products and solutions to the Warrior that address health and fitness throughout the deployment cycle. MOMRP is centered on cutting-edge scientific research and bringing Science to the Soldier on the battlefield in a relevant, timely manner. MOMRP depends on a phenomenal cadre of dedicated scientists and engineers who continuously and tirelessly work to protect the nation's most valuable asset - the Warrior.

MOMRP is divided into four research focus areas: (1) Injury Prevention and Reduction; (2) Psychological Health and Resilience; (3) Physiological Health; (4) Environmental Health and Protection.

MOMRP Injury Prevention and Reduction research develops models to predict the degree of injury from known threats, develops design guidelines and performance specifications for protective equipment, and identifies countermeasures to prevent or mitigate injury to the Warrior. Key threats addressed by this research area include blast overpressure, blunt and penetrating trauma, musculoskeletal and training injuries, and neurosensory injury. This program addresses thoracic and pulmonary injury protection through modeling blast and blunt trauma, protection that prevents or reduces neurosensory injury, validated standards for performance to assess return to duty, and training doctrine based on physiological mechanisms that underlie musculosketal injury that identify and mitigate injury risks.

MOMRP Psychological Health and Resilience research is focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery of Soldiers - and families - behavioral health, which are critical to force health and readiness. Research is necessary to guide policy and ensure optimal delivery of behavioral health training and services across the continuum of care and deployment cycle. Threats addressed by this research component include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide, family separation, and family violence.

MOMRP Physiological Health research focuses on developing medical standards, predictive models, and countermeasures to prevent or mitigate the effects of physiological stressors on the performance and fitness of Warriors. These stressors include inappropriate nutrition, poor physical fitness, sleep loss, sleep deprivation, fatigue, and burnout. The focus is on threats and stressors in both the garrison and operational environments. Current research addresses advanced biomedical modeling and networked physiological status monitoring capabilities, a comprehensive sleep and performance management system based on effects of chronic sleep restriction and acute total sleep deprivation, individual physiological differences in sleep loss resilience, nutritional health surveillance and dietary supplement use, and interventions to mitigate threats to operational health.

MOMRP Environmental Health and Protection research develops medical standards, predictive models, and countermeasures to prevent or mitigate the effects of extreme environments and toxic material exposure in the military. Threats addressed by this program include extremes of heat/cold and hydration, high altitude, and toxic industrial chemicals and materials. Current research projects focus on methods that sustain operational performance in extreme heat and cold and at high altitudes to prevent and manage heat, cold, altitude sickness, and hydration-related injuries. This research also includes detecting, monitoring, and assessing the risk of the Warrior's exposure to toxic chemicals and materials during operations

9. Scope and Purposes: The Government is seeking specialized expertise for support services to provide efficient and cost-effective acquisition to support Concussion and Dosimetry Research under Task Areas and for Physical Performance Efforts of Behind Body Armor Blunt Trauma.

9.1 Pathophysilogical Response to Blast and Blunt Trauma Research – Research under this contract will be conducted in the areas of pathophysiological response to blast and blunt trauma, with the primary objective being development of a quantitative, predictive model of the brain injury consequences from violent head motion that can be used to set safety standards, guide protective equipment development, and interpret body worn sensor systems relating exposure (impact and/or blast overpressure) for risk of concussion. The individual areas of research are to be integrated into an overall understanding of human injury and impairment from a wide range of individual and combined threats. The work will result in software applications, specialized test instrumentation, and real time monitoring devices that will be transitioned to end users responsible for health hazard assessment.

9.2 Concussion Mechanism and Dosimetry Research. This research is guided by in-depth literature reviews, called Source Books, that provide a starting point for developing the mathematical framework of each physiological process to be modeled, identifying the current understanding of mechanisms, mathematical models that have been proposed previously, and experimental data available for validating models. These reviews are used to identify shortcomings in previous work and guide new model development and testing. The areas that will be reviewed include: cardiac, circulatory, and metabolic processes; cerebral blood flow regulation; and neurological mechanical and functional characteristics.

Previous dosimeter prototypes will be extended to address concussion-causing trauma modes and to incorporate risk assessment models developed from the mechanism studies. Laboratory and field tests of candidate dosimeters will be conducted to evaluate devices and collaborative studies with other research projects will be supported. As a result of this work a validated functional dosimeter is the outcome that is expected.

9.3 Head Supported Mass Research - Research will be conducted on head supported mass injury modeling to support USAARL. As a result of this work, a numerical model or look-up tables will be developed to related head supported mass variables (e.g. head supported mass magnitude, center of gravity location, etc.) to performance decrements and injury risk using information from published literature, an existing body of Government-sponsored data, and state of the art data from ongoing Government research. An application will be developed to deploy these models into a computer environment to assess HSM injury risk.

10. Draft Performance Work Statement (PWS): A Draft PWS dated 23 October 2015; Version 1 (Attachment A) is included with this RFI for informational purposes and identifies the scope of work.

11. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: The NAICS code for this requirement is 541712 (Research and Development in Biotechnology) with a Size Standard of 500.

12. Capability Statement: The Government encourages all qualified business firms to submit a comprehensive and fully integrated Capability Statement that addresses the scope of work in the PWS. The Capability Statement should demonstrate the Offeror’s experience, knowledge of, and participation of support services required in the Draft PWS. The Offeror shall state the need to subcontract and approach. The Offeror shall include with the Capability Statement relevant experience from three (3) contracts within the last five (5) years that demonstrate relevant past experience in similar size, scope and complexity.

13. Anticipated period of performance: January 2016 through January 2019

14. Response Due Date: Qualified business firms should submit the Capability Statement in response to this RFI electronically by 3:00 pm (EST) on 30 November 2015 via e-mail to Brandon Roebuck at brandon.m.roebuck.civ@mail.mil. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.

15. Instructions to Responders:

15.1 The Government appreciates responses from all capable and qualified business sources.

15.2 The Government welcomes input and will accept questions pertaining to this RFI; however, the Government reserves the right to answer all questions related to this RFI. Questions pertaining to the RFI are due by 1:00 pm (EST) on 20 November 2015. Only one set of questions per vendor will be accepted. Telephone requests will not be entertained.

15.3 The subject header of the e-mail for submission of questions and the RFI response shall be: MOMRP Support Services.

15.4 Interested firms should submit a response (Capability Statement) that demonstrates the Offeror’s ability to perform the scope of work in the Draft PWS. The Capability Statement shall not exceed ten (10) typed pages; additional sheets for cover page, table of contents, tables and charts will not be counted toward page limitation.

15.4.1 The Capability Statement should adhere to the following formatting and outline instructions:

15.4.1.1. Format specifications include 12 point font, single spaced, single sided, 8.5 by 11 inches paper with 1 inch margins. All submissions must be made electronically (as described above) and in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF. Electronic submissions may not exceed 10 MB.

a. Cover Page (1 page) i.

Title ii.

Organization iii.

Responders technical and administrative points of contact (names, addresses, phone, fax number and email addresses) iv.

Topic area(s) addressed

b. Current Technical Expertise, Knowledge and Management Capability i.

Executive Summary ii.

Discussion of capabilities/challenges/approach iii.

Technical Expertise response, the breadth of disciplines and experience, relevance of Offeror’s expertise that demonstrates a full understanding of the specialized and unique nature of all functional technical requirements to be performed as applied to the mission of MOMRP.

iv.

Management Capability response, the basis of the processes and methodologies required to manage an effort of this size, techniques and managerial skills to perform the scope of the wok,

c. Brief summary of relevant experience from three (3) contracts within the last five (5) years pertaining to the requirement, could be Government or commercial.

15.5. Fill in the below table when respond to this RFI / Sources Sought.

Solicitation Number

Company Name

Company Address

Point of Contact

Telephone Number

E-mail Address

Tax Identification Number (TIN)

DUNS

Company Web Page

Company Location(s)

Company is / is not registered in SAM

Company is / is not a Small Business

Other Classifications (e.g. 8(a), HubZone, Woman-Owned, Veteran-Owned, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned)

If 8(a), date that the company graduates from the program.

16. Disclaimer and Important Notes: The purpose of this RFI notice is to gain market knowledge. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's solution and qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, the Government anticipates releasing a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in FedBizOpps at https://www.fbo.gov; however, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

17. Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).