PRESOLICITATION: Management of the Primate Aging Database (PAD)

INTRODUCTION

PURSUANT TO FAR Subpart 5.2—Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions, THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE OF A PROPOSED CONTRACT ACTION.   

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-NAME). 

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Office of Acquisition, on behalf of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) intends to negotiate and award a modification to the Management of the Primate Aging Database (PAD) (HHSN271201800025C). The period of performance for the contract ends on December 31, 2024. This modification would extend the period of performance by twelve (12) months, through December 31, 2025. There are no other changes to the contract.

NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE

The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 541990 – All other Professional, Scientific and Technical Services with a Size Standard of $19.5 million.

REGULATORY AUTHORITY

The resultant modification will include all applicable provisions and clauses of the Federal Acquisition Requlation (FAR) in effect through the current Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC).

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

This acquisition is conducted as non-competitive under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 3304(a) under provisions of the statutory authority of FAR Subpart 6.302-1 -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

Project Description

Project Title: Management of the Primate Aging Database (PAD)

General Requirements

The objectives of this modification are to continue hosting and maintaining the PAD on the Contractor’s server and make it accessible to investigators in the research community, provide technical assistance with its use, and continue to add data biological measurements in non-human primates.

The Contractor shall:

• Provide the PAD to investigators in the research community via the password protected website. All costs associated with distribution of the PAD to investigators shall be borne by the contract. As liaison with the research community, the Contractor shall be responsible for evaluating all applications for a login and password to PAD to ensure the users are legitimate researchers and for informing investigators of the publication policy as communicated to the Contractor by the Contracting Officer Representative (COR).
• Provide technical assistance to investigators using PAD, through one-on-one consultations and refinements to the codebook. It is expected that requests for such assistance will occur irregularly and on an ad-hoc basis.
• Fix any reported problems with the PAD software and the hardware housing the database. Any significant problems affecting utilization of the database by investigators shall be reported to the COR immediately. The Contractor shall keep a log of all significant problems encountered by investigators attempting to access PAD and report these problems in the final report.
• Maintain viewer controls on access to data. Data in PAD is available to users as means, medians and graphs, but individual data points are not identified. Only submitters are allowed to see their own raw data. The COR will inform the Contractor of any changes in the policy on data access. The Contractor does not have the authority to make changes to data access without the authorization of the CO.
• Solicit new data from the research community as directed by the COR, enter the data into PAD, and perform quality control analyses of the data. Data will be solicited from institutions that have already contributed data to PAD, as updates and data on new animals becomes available, and from new sources identified by the COR or by the Contractor and approved by the COR. The Contractor shall be responsible for informing investigators of the data ownership policy, as provided by the COR.
  • The format in which the data will be submitted will vary from source to source. Some data will be submitted electronically in a format compatible with electronic transfer into the database; other data will be submitted as paper copies that need to be manually entered.
• Maintain a list of all recipients of the passwords to the database and all publications resulting from the use of the PAD.
• Maintain a back-up copy of the database, codebook and software to protect against accidental loss, at least once a week.
• Provide security for all computers that are used to do work on the database and for supporting information required by this statement of work, including locking down computers and using password protection for access to the computer files containing information relating to the database and investigators using the database.
• Advertise the PAD by in person and virtual demonstrations.

Period of Performance

The current period of performance for contract HHSN271201800025C is:

Base Year: August 20, 2018 – July 31, 2019

Option Year 1: August 1, 2019 – July 31, 2020

Option Year 2: August 1, 2020 – July 31, 2021

Option Year 3: August 1, 2021 – July 31, 2022

Option Year 4: August 1, 2022 – July 31, 2023

Additional Option Period: August 1, 2023 – April 30, 2024

Additional Option Period: May 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024

This proposed modification will add twelve (12) months, with a period of performance of January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025.

Contract Type

Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee

REASON FOR THE NON-COMPETITIVE ACTION

This modification will ensure continuing operations support for PAD for twelve (12) months while the NIA re-solicits a new five (5) year contract for the management of the PAD through the full and open competition process.

It will take significant amount of time to complete a procurement for a new research and development contract. If contract HHSN271201800025C is not extended, there will be a gap in PAD support. Therefore, it is imperative that NIA extend the current contract for twelve (12) months, in order to ensure uninterrupted support to the NIA mission.

CLOSING STATEMENT

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals.  However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. 

Responses to this notice must contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona fide capability of fulfilling the requirements described herein.  The statement must also include the contractor’s Unique Entity ID (UEID), Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and its certification of business size. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM), which can be accessed at www.sam.gov.

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract action based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement for this requirement. The determination whether to proceed with the proposed contract modification is solely within the discretion of the Government.

All responses must be received by Thursday, December 12th, 2024 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time and must reference number 75N95025R00022. 

Responses must be submitted electronically to Rashiid Cummins, Contract Specialist, at Rashiid.Cummins@nih.gov and Karen Mahon, Contracting Officer, at Karen.Mahon@nih.gov, and must reference the solicitation number 75N95025R00022, on your response.  FAX requests are not accepted.

All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency.