Research Technical Assistance Center (RTAC)

Amendment 01 was posted February 16, 2018 and includes changes to solicitation text; revision/clarification of select tasks and subtasks; questions and answers January 30, 2018 - February 9, 2018 at 12:00:00 pm ET.

USAID's LAB/CDR team seeks to develop a Research Technical Assistance Center to support scientific and research-based technical assistance (TA) needs for the Agency by leveraging the technical and research expertise of the higher education community. Anticipated activities include: creation of evidence-to-action policy briefs, technical reports, strategic research agenda setting and research activity consultations, coordination of university-based researchers for expert panels or convenings, sector-focused trainings, and other short-term technical assistance (STTA) or related TA.

Of note, this Contract will be a sister-activity to the Long-term Assistance and SErvices for Research (LASER), which will likely be a Cooperative Agreement focused on providing long-term TA and research support for the Agency. RTAC will be expected to coordinate with LASER as needed and be available to publish products from LASER work on a proposed RTAC information-sharing platform.

Research Technical Assistance Center (RTAC) - RTAC will provide timely research-based technical assistance that facilitates USAID's capability to make quick, evidence-based programming decisions by leveraging the technical expertise of the higher education community. Anticipated activities include: creation of evidence-to-action policy briefs and technical reports; strategic research agenda setting and research activity consultations; coordination of university-based researchers for expert panels or convenings and sector-focused trainings; and provision of additional technical assistance support. CDR anticipates that the successful RTAC Prime will establish and maintain a network of individual graduate students, faculty, and researchers with current academic affiliations, who would apply directly to the RTAC Prime to participate as a part of the RTAC Partner Pool. These individuals would then be available to serve as individual technical advisors, via subcontract agreements, upon whom USAID can call on for support across a wide variety of technical sectors as needed.

*Please note that this is the 2nd iteration of this Solicitation. The original post released on January 29, 2018 is no longer active or valid. The solicitation in its entirety is now located here. All documents and attachments included supersede previous copies that may have been downloaded. This action was taken due to corruption within original files. No significant changes have occurred outside of the issuance date and verification of functional links within the documents.