Secure Platforms Support for the N3C Data Enclave

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations.

The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition.  

Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition.  It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract.  Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes.  No award will be made as a result of this notice.  The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice.  This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only.

Background:  The mission of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is to transform the translational science process in order to get more treatments to more patients more rapidly. Critical to this mission is the ability to manage data, generate insights, and foster collaboration across National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes and Centers and with external partners such as research hospitals, academic institutions, other government agencies, and industry stakeholders. NIH, NCATS, and NCATS collaborators are among the world's leading researchers, and they have access to large, cutting-edge data sources. An increasingly complex challenge is to translate these disparate, ever-evolving data sets into actionable insights that accelerate the pace of science and clinical development. Tools are needed to enable teams to ask complex, multi-faceted questions and to collaborate more seamlessly and securely across various teams.

NCATS has established the NCATS Secure Scientific Platform Environment, a specialized cloud-based data aggregation and analytics enclave that can integrate, manage, secure, and analyze any kind of scientific data, and provide secure, controlled access to internal and external collaborators.

Within the Environment, multiple NIH ICs, Federal agencies, and Federal task forces integrate, manage, secure, and analyze all types of scientific data using dedicated platforms, and, equally importantly, make that data available in specific and controlled collaborations with each other and with external collaborators.

Purpose and Objectives: The objective of this contract is to provide support for the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Data Enclave.

The N3C Data Enclave is a secure platform through which harmonized clinical data provided by contributing members is stored. The data itself can only be accessed through a secure cloud portal hosted by NCATS and cannot be downloaded or removed. Detailed information about the Enclave can be found on the N3C website, https://covid.cd2h.org/.

Please refer to the attached Sources Sought Notice for additional information.