Division of Independent Review, Objective Review Process

The purpose of this Amendment is to A) provide responses to questions received from the Request for Proposal (RFP) on March 31, 2014 and B) to make amendments to the RFP.

Please see the attachment.

The request for Proposal is attached.  The due date for questions is March 31, 2013 and the proposals are due April 22.

THIS IS A PRESOLICIATAION NOTICE ONLY - The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Office of Financial Assistance Management (OFAM), Division of Independent Review (DIR), is planning to issue a solicitation to provide Administrative, Technical and Logistical support services for the objective review process. The solicitation will be issued as a total small business set-aside with a period of performance for one Base Year and four Option Years. The Government intends to issue a solicitation on or about March 17, 2014. The required services will be procured in accordance with FAR Part 15 - Contracting by Negotiation.

The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 561920 - Conventions and Trade Show Organizers and the size standard is $10M.

Description:
This requirement is for the planning, direction, and execution of the independent review for applications for HRSA grants and cooperative agreements. The objective review process is designed to ensure an ethical, unbiased and competent evaluation of each application. Reviews must be conducted in a timely manner, without conflicts of interest, and be conducted in a professional manner even in unforeseen situations. Review results must be substantively and editorially accurate. DIR conducts objective reviews using the Application Review Module (ARM), a web-based application review tool. It is a user friendly system designed specifically to meet the peer review requirements of HRSA Grant programs and provide a cost effective and efficient system to review grant applications. Reviewers will use this tool when evaluating and scoring assigned applications. Reviews shall be conducted as either web-assisted teleconferences (WTC), as field reader reviews, and in rare cases as face-to-face meetings (FTF) as described in the Request for Services (RFS).

All future information regarding this acquisition, including the solicitation and any amendments, will be distributed solely through FedBizOpps website (www.fbo.gov).

Copies of the solicitation document and its related documents, as appropriate, will be posted at this website. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the FedBizOpps website to assure that they have the most up-to-date information regarding this acquisition. The Government will not reimburse interested parties for any costs associated with responding to this notice.