R702--Study for Department of Veterans Affairs Health Outcomes of Military Exposures Epidemiology

The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 5 seeks a contractor to conduct a longitudinal health survey of Post 9/11 Veterans and perform data analysis, with proposals due July 17, 2026. No set-aside applies; this is an open competition.

Place of performance is the contractor's facility, with weekly virtual meetings with the VA Health Outcomes of Military Exposures (HOME) program office. The study involves follow-up data collection from two prior cohorts—NewGen (approximately 60,000 participants surveyed 2009–2010) and CHAI (approximately 38,000 participants surveyed 2018)—plus a newly added cohort of service members with service after June 2015, for a total sample not to exceed 109,000 veterans. Survey administration will be conducted via web, computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI), and mailed paper questionnaires, with estimated response rates of 35–50% and up to 20 call attempts per record. Contractor will manage printing, mailing, data entry, scanning, incentive distribution, and contact information updates using address location algorithms. The contract period is three years (36 months base, August 3, 2026 through August 2, 2029) with a firm fixed-price structure across four monthly CLINs covering project management, data collection and reporting, simple and complex data analyses (descriptive and multiple regression studies), and educational and informational materials.

All contractor personnel require Personal Identity Verification cards and background investigations to access VA systems and veteran data. The study qualifies as VA Research exempt from OMB Paperwork Reduction Act review and is designated FIPS 199 Moderate security level. A Business Associate Agreement compliant with HIPAA is required. All educational and informational materials must be 508-compliant and available in English and Spanish. Data deliverables must be provided in SAS and CSV formats readable in R, with results deliverable as publishable manuscripts. The contractor must complete a Privacy Impact Assessment and Security Assessment & Authorization process; no current VA Authority to Operate is required at award.

Evaluation uses comparative assessment under FAR 12.203(c)(2), with past performance requiring a minimum of three years of relevant experience demonstrated through CPARS records or a completed past performance questionnaire. Past performance is assessed on quality of performance (project management and progress reporting, data collection and reporting, simple and complex data analyses, educational materials), and cost control ability. Technical capability submissions must document methods for performing work outlined in the statement of work; no page limits apply. The NAICS code is 541720 (Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities) and PSC is R702 (Support—Management: Data Collection).

Amendment 0001 (July 7) corrected the deliverable table to specify 109,000 for the location algorithm effort. Amendment 0002 (July 13) extended the deadline to July 17 at 11:00 AM EDT and provided responses to offeror questions. Offerors must acknowledge both amendments in their submissions. Contracting officer is Jameel Gordon; quotes must be submitted by email to jameel.gordon@va.gov.