Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Biological Research Repository (MID-BRR)

RFP-NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2015039 attached hereto..... 

PRESOLICITATION NOTICE
MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES BIOLOGICAL RESOURCE REPOSITORY (MID-BRR)
RFP NIAID-DMID-NIHAI2015039
Check as applicable

Type of Requirement: follow-on to Contract No. HHSN272201000027C
Place of performance: unknown at this time

Recompetition:
American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)
10801 University Blvd.
Manassas, VA 20110 USA
Tel #: (703) 365-2700

Contracting Office Address:
Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Office of Acquisitions
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Research Contracts Branch - B
Room 3B44, MSC 9821
5601 Fishers Lane, Bethesda, MD 20892-9821

For overnight express delivery use: 5601 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852
Duration of contract:
Base Period of one (1) year + Six (6) one-year options to extend the contract term for a maximum
period of performance of seven (7) years.

Four types of options will be included: severable term, severable quantity, non- severable, and the
Option to Extend Services under FAR 17.208(f). Term options-of which there will be six-will provide
NIAID with the right to extend the period of performance by one year, while quantity options-of
which there will be three for each contract year (with each of the three options capable of being
exercised multiple times during any contract year), will provide NIAID with the right to purchase
Levels of Effort of up to 24 FTEs above the base quantity of 46.75.00 FTEs per year (for a yearly
maximum of 70.75 FTEs). One non-severable option will account for the additional, short-term effort
that will be needed at the beginning of the contract to transition to
the new contractor should this contract not be awarded to the incumbent. Similarly, one
non-severable option will account for the additional, short-term effort that will be needed at the
end of the contract should a follow-on contract not be awarded to the successful offeror of the
current solicitation. Finally, the Government will, under FAR 17.208(f), reserve the right to
extend services-whether one time or on multiple occasions (whatever unexpected circumstances might
deem necessary)-for no more than a total of six additional months over the life of the contract.
(See FAR 17.208(f) and 52.217-8. This option provision may be exercised more than once, but the
total extension of performance shall not exceed 6 months.)

Anticipated award date: April 29, 2016

Presolicitation Notice Information

Introduction

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health
(NIH), of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) supports research related to the basic
understanding of microbiology and immunology leading to the development of vaccines, therapeutics,
and medical diagnostics for the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of infectious and
immune-mediated diseases. The NIAID, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases has a
requirement to establish a central repository that will provide one-stop shopping for research
materials for the broad community of microbiology and infectious diseases researchers. The
repository will receive, acquire, authenticate, produce, preserve, store and distribute most of the
approximately 15,000 unique organisms and reagents needed to comprise the comprehensive collection.
It will also distribute materials produced by other research service programs and Government-
supported research projects.

Description

Research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National
Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), strives to understand,
treat, and ultimately prevent the myriad infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases that
threaten millions of human lives. The NIAID Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID)
supports extramural research to control and prevent diseases caused by all infectious agents, other
than HIV. This includes basic and applied research to develop and evaluate therapeutics, vaccines,
and diagnostics that is funded through a variety of research grants and contracts.

Toward this aim, DMID supports an array of research services. Included are programs that make
preclinical and clinical translational research services, as well as organisms and state of the art
reagents, genomic technologies, data and analytic tools, and biocontainment and core facilities,
available to investigators (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/research/resources/dmid/). DMID has adopted
an integrated approach to the provision of services by creating unified, comprehensive, coordinated
programs. The strategy was employed to: advance science by promoting cross-fertilization across and
within disciplines and approaches; serve the research community more
conveniently; achieve efficient use of resources through economy of scale and avoidance of
duplication; and provide the flexibility needed to respond to changing priorities.

The Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Biological Research Resources Program (hereinafter called
the Biological Research Resources Program) serves as a central repository that provides one-stop
shopping for the broad community of microbiology and infectious diseases researchers; the purpose
of this solicitation is to re-compete this program. The Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Biological Resources Repository (MID-BRR) is a vital resource and central to NIAID's mission. The
MID-BRR receives, acquires, authenticates, produces, preserves, stores and distributes most of the
organisms and reagents needed to comprise the comprehensive resource. The MID-BRR may also serve as
a repository for research materials produced by other Government-supported research projects and
research service programs, at the discretion of NIAID. The MID-BRR Contractor is expected to
interact with these programs as well. Currently, there are 4,328 registered users with the
repository and over 13,300 unique items in the MID-BRR catalog.

Moreover, the Biological Research Resources Program is designed not only to meet the currently
defined needs of scientific communities, but also to meet emerging needs for research materials as
they are identified.

A separate and complementary Contract for the Animal Models of Infectious Diseases program
(http://www.niaid.nih.gov/labsandresources/resources/dmid/animalmodels/Pages/default.aspx)
provides the capacity to ensure a supply for the MID-BRR of organisms that must be grown in animals
as well as reagents integral to research on these organisms.

The MID-BRR may also serve as a repository for research materials produced by other
Government-supported research projects and research service programs, at the discretion of NIAID.
The MID-BRR Contractor is expected to interact with these programs as well.

Sharing research resources is fundamental to progress in science. The NIH is interested in ensuring
that research resources developed with NIH funding are made available to the research community for
further research, development, and application, in the expectation that this will further the
research enterprise and accelerate the development of products and knowledge of benefit to the
public. The NIH endorses the sharing of final research data and resources to expedite the
translation of research results into knowledge, products, and procedures to improve human health.
The Biological Research Resources Program has been designed to ensure that the research community
will have access to a myriad of research materials developed through numerous sources.

It is anticipated that one (1) Cost-Reimbursement, Level-of-Effort type contract will be awarded
for a one-year Base Period and six (6) Term Options with the period of performance beginning on or
about April 29, 2016. It is estimated that 46.75 Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs; based upon a
work year of 2,080 hours) including subcontractor and consultant personnel, will be required. If
the Offeror's work year is less than the 2,080 hours, the Offeror must understand that the
requirement is for the Contractor to provide the exact number of hours required per year for its
proposal to be considered responsive. This information is furnished to Offerors for information
purposes only and is not to be considered restrictive for proposal purposes.

Any responsible Offeror may submit a proposal which will be considered by the Agency. This RFP will
be available electronically on/about April 15, 2015, and may be accessed through FedBizOpps
http://www.fedbizopps.gov/. This notice does not commit the
Government to award a contract. No collect calls will be accepted. No facsimile
transmissions will be accepted.

For this solicitation, the NIAID requires proposals to be submitted via two methods: (1) Disc (CD
or DVD) and (2) Online via the NIAID electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website. The
content of the disc and online proposals must be identical. Submission of proposals by facsimile or
e-mail is not acceptable.

For directions on using eCPS, go to the website https://ecps.nih.gov and then click on "How to
Submit."

To submit online using eCPS, offerors must have a valid NIH electronic Research Administration
(eRA) Commons account, which provides authentication and serves as a vehicle for secure
transmission of documents and communication with the NIAID. The eRA Commons registration process
may take up to four (4) weeks. For more information, please see
http://era.nih.gov/applicants/how-to_steps.cfm#register."