Unlimited Access to Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Databases through SciFinder® web-based interface

This is a “Sources Sought Notice”. It is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts or quotations. The purpose of this notice is for market research purposes and will be used to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform the potential requirement described herein in the statement of work.

STATEMENT OF WORK

Project Title

Unlimited Access to Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Databases through SciFinder® web-based interface

Background Information

The Division of Library Services (DLS) currently facilitates access by NIH researchers to SciFinder, a critical information source for NIH researchers, through a contract that allows interested NIH Institutes and Centers to obtain unlimited access to the resource for a flat annual fee.

This umbrella contract provides staff across all participating institutes with unlimited access to the databases. The NIH Library would like to continue to provide this service.

SciFinder is a web-based interface that provides desk-top access to the proprietary chemical information contained in Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) databases. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). SciFinder is a research discovery application that provides unlimited access to the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative source of references, substances and reactions in chemistry and related sciences produced, compiled, and updated daily by CAS scientists around the world.  SciFinder integrates substances, reactions, references, regulatory and commercial availability information into a single, powerful tool that is indispensable to biomedical scientists and chemists engaged in new product and patent development as well as basic research. CAS editorial analysts index scientific and chemical articles from more than 50,000 journals, patents from 109 patent authorities, conference proceedings and meeting abstracts, technical reports, books, dissertations, reviews, electronic-only journals and web preprints. The CAS reference database contains more than 48 million abstracted and indexed records.  English language summaries are translated from publications in more than 50 different languages from more than 180 different countries.  Publications date back to the early 1800s, with continuous coverage since 1907.  Content is updated daily, with many records being added within 5-30 days of publication, dependent on source.
The CAS Registry® is the authoritative collection of disclosed chemical substance information with more than 200 million organic and inorganic substances and more than 70 million sequences.

Over 500 CAS scientists collect and analyze published scientific literature from around the globe, indexing with standardized CAS Lexicon terminology for enhanced retrieval and search precision.  Records are enhanced with cited and citing references, legal status, and direct links to the full-text publications (where available).

The CAS reaction collection covers approximately 110 million reactions from 1840 to present including organometallics, total syntheses of natural products and biotransformation reactions.  The reaction database provides a current and reliable source of synthetic details sourced from journals, patents, dissertations, and seminal reference works to drive synthesis planning and process optimization.  Records are enhanced with yield data, detailed reaction conditions, and experimental procedures.

Objectives

The specific objective of this requirement is to provide the NIH community with cost­ effective unlimited access to a gateway to search the proprietary and comprehensive databases of chemical information. This action provides a centralized license agreement that shall consolidate unlimited accounts from NIH participating institutes. With a centralized licensing agreement, the NIH will be able to reduce the cost of obtaining access for each registered user. This also will save the NIH individual scientists or groups who need the service the time and effort to prepare and negotiate separate contracts.

Services to be performed

A.         General Requirements

1. Independently, and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all necessary labor, materials, supplies, equipment and services (except as otherwise specified herein) and perform the work set forth below.
2. The Project Officer shall monitor all activities occurring with this contract to assure that such activities fall within stipulations set forth in this contract.

B.        Specific Requirements

• The Contractor shall provide web-based access to CAS databases through SciFinder or similar interface.  The contractor shall provide an unlimited number of personal accounts to participating NIH ICs.
• Without limit, NIH personal account holders will be able to scan and search the databases and print or download the results of their searches for their personal and work-related use. These unlimited searches may either be repetitive scanning of all or portions of the database for current awareness (profiles), or they may be one-time, non-repetitive, interactive searches of all or part of the databases.
• The database must include access to the CAS registry of 144+ million organic and inorganic substances. 
• The database must allow searches by specifying structures, chemical properties, nomenclature, document types, keywords, authors and companies or organizations.
• The database must include the capability to enter structure searches by drawing, using a template, copying and pasting chemical structures from standard tools including ChemDraw and ISISDraw or convert from CAS Registry Number, SMILES or InChI.
• The search capability must include the unlimited ability to search substances using chemical property value, molecular formula, CAS Registry Number, or chemical name (including trade name).
• The database must include searchable fulltext US and international chemical patents that link to an interactive chemistry viewer.
• Structure search options must include exact, substructure, similarity and Markush.
• The database must utilize tautomers (including keto-enol), coordination compounds, charged compounds, isotopes, free ions, resonance and aromatic systems (acyclic/cyclic).
• The database must allow sorting, analyzing refining, exporting and management of retrieval sets, as well as designing a synthesis plan.
• The contractor should include the option to add NIH wide-access to STN during the base or any of the option years of the contract.
• The contractor should provide the option for a one year trial to Biofinder.
• The contractor should provide proposals for a base year + 4 option years and a base year + 2 option years.

Government Responsibilities

The Government shall provide all computer hardware for authorized users to access the databases and interface on its secure network.

Deliverables

1. The Contractor shall provide NIH with an unlimited, blanket, site-wide agreement that will provide a personal account to any user in a participating IC, with access via user name and password.
2. The Contractor will manage individual personal accounts of NIH staff remotely, allowing them to add or discontinue accounts as they find necessary to their work.
3. As part of the base price for the databases and the interface, the Contractor shall provide maintenance service in the form of periodic software updates and technical support. Technical support must be available Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm Eastern Time. The contractor shall also provide NIH researchers with training upon request.
4. The contractor shall provide the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) with usage statistics at least once every 6 months. The usage statistics shall be reported by IC and a breakdown of activity by personal account shall be included.

Anticipated Period of Performance:

The period of performance is expected to be for one 12 months base period and four twelve-month option periods. The contract is anticipated to be from June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2025.

Other Important Considerations:

Submission of Capability Statements and Delivery Instructions:

In 15 pages or less any interested business organization should submit a capability statement of their organization which demonstrates their ability to supply the services described above or provide a capability statement that demonstrate how other potential databases can meet the requirement described above.

Respondents should also include any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisitions requirements. The NAICS Code for this requirement is 519290.

Responses must reference the sources sought number 75N98024R00016 and include the following: (1) Name and Address of the organization (2) Size and Type of business, pursuant to the applicable NAICS code 519290 (3) Point of Contact with name, title, phone, fax and email (4) UEI number (5) Contractors capability statement should address the deliverables in the statement of work and the important consideration mentioned above (6) List of organizations to whom similar types of services have been previously provided to include contract number, dollar value, name and phone number of contracting officer.

ALL INFORMATION SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUCEMENT MUST BE RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE OF: April 3, 2024 at 10 A.M. EST.

Emailed responses are the only authorized responses (either in Microsoft word or PDF), but it is up to the vendor to ensure that the email is received by the government. All questions and/or comments must be in writing and may be emailed to O. Joy Ajao at ajaooj@mail.nih.gov.

Disclaimer and Important Notes:

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response to this announcement. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality:

No proprietary, classified, confidential or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).