SOLICITATION NOTICE
Q -- Work with panel of experts in evaluating The Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR).
- Notice Date
- 5/1/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Administration, 6011 Executive Blvd, Rm 538, Rockville, MD, 20892-7663
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7663
- Solicitation Number
- 263-2006-Q-DR-0107
- Response Due
- 5/22/2006
- Archive Date
- 6/6/2006
- Description
- This is a notice of intent of the National Institute of Aging at the National Institutes of Health to procure research on a firm fixed price contract to Carlyn Consuting of Leesburg, Virginia. A. BACKGROUND The Behavioral and Social Research Program (BSR) at the National Institute on Aging intends to enter into a contract to conduct an evaluation of the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) program. RCMAR is an ongoing program of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and has been funded continuously for eight years. Two years remain on the current five year funding cycle; NIA needs to evaluate its overall effectiveness to determine what changes are warranted for the third funding cycle. While the RCMAR program conducts its own internal semi-annual progress reviews (the ?Emphases and Outcomes Report?) through its National Coordinating Center, it is desirable to have an external evaluation of the program to determine the RCMAR?s ability to achieve its short- and long-term goals. BSR was successful in being awarded an Evaluation Set-Aside grant for the purpose of evaluating the RCMARs. The independence of the evaluator of the RCMAR program is scientifically imperative. At the same time, it is necessary that the evaluator have a secure and in-depth understanding of the nature of NIH Center programs. The RCMAR program is NIA?s premier research infrastructure building activity for research on diverse populations. It is comprised of six Centers throughout the U.S. and a National Coordinating Center. Minority populations included in the funded RCMARs are rural and urban African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. The RCMARs are cofunded by NIH?s National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute for Nursing Research. Funded by the P30 mechanism, the combined budget is just over $4,000,000 per year. Each RCMAR is comprised of an Administrative Core and three closely interacting additional Cores. The Investigator Development Core is responsible for mentoring younger ?RCMAR Scholars? (all post-PhD or MD) who are either minority researchers or have an expressed interest in conducting research on older diverse populations. The Community Liaison Core establishes and maintains working relationships with diverse communities through outreach activities and conducts research on recruiting and retaining older diverse populations for research. The Measurement and Methods Core develops methods and techniques for research on diverse populations. The mentoring activity of the Investigator Development Core is central and uses the other two Cores to assure excellence of the mentoring function. A Coordinating Center handles trans-RCMAR activities and works closely with NIA staff. The RCMAR mission statement includes the following four goals relevant to this evaluation. 1. Decrease health disparities by increasing the number of researchers focusing on the health of minority elders. 2. Enhance diversity in the professional workforce by mentoring minority academic researchers for careers in minority elder health. 3. Improve recruitment and retention methods to enlist minority elders in studies so that research can accurately identify and work toward solutions to health disparities. 4. Create culturally sensitive health measures to assess the health status of minority elders with greater precision, reliability and validity. To accomplish the complex evaluation task of the RCMAR program, it is necessary to work closely with an independent contractor (1) with no ongoing ties to NIA, (2) who fully understands the NIH system, (3) has outstanding Evaluation Science skills, and (4) is committed to conducting this task quickly and thoroughly. The evaluator will work closely with a panel of experts in the area of diverse populations and research administration. Members of this panel, which is also to be funded by the Evaluation Set-Aside award, will have separate contracts which will be prepared subsequently. B. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROCUREMENT The purpose of this procurement is to work with BSR and a panel of experts in evaluating the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) program. It is imperative that a highly experienced Evaluation Scientist who is independent of NIA conduct this research. The Evaluation will help to determine the future direction of the RCMAR program as it goes into its third cycle of funding. BSR was successful in being awarded an Evaluation Set-Aside grant for the purpose of this independent evaluation. C. CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS The contractor must possess the following characteristics. be intimately knowledgeable about the functioning of NIH, preferably as a former NIH employee; have a secure and in-depth understanding of the nature of NIH Center programs; be an expert in Evaluation Science; be willing and able to undertake the direction of a panel of six experts; be able to quickly and accurately analyze data from multiple sources; have no ongoing ties to NIA; have a strong and lengthy history of doing evaluation research; have worked on evaluation projects previously within the NIH context; have worked with senior NIA staff in the past who can provide recommendations; be able to develop appropriate performance measures for the RCMAR program; have a strong history of evaluating minority/diversity programs; demonstrate experience in tracking career paths; have sufficient database management and statistical skills to analyze collected data; demonstrate evaluation experience with a wide variety of diseases; demonstrate evaluative experience in dealing with research in community settings; and possess an advanced degree in a field related to the evaluation effort. GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITIES NIA/BSR will supply the Contractor with all information requested that is germane to the project and will be available to answer additional questions about the project. It is in the very nature of an evaluation project that BSR/NIA not impose its own strong direction on the evaluation research but instead remain neutral and serve as a resource for the evaluator when needed. In addition, the RCMAR National Coordinating Center (funded by NIA as part of the RCMAR program) will cooperate with the Evaluation Scientist in providing the necessary data to undertake this activity. The purchase order will benefit NIA by providing necessary and timely scientific evaluation services by an experienced and outstanding expert in the field. The resulting evaluation will serve to direct the next interaction of the RCMAR program (RCMAR III) at a time when funding needs to be carefully directed and mentored to achieve the maximum scientific benefit. E. TASK PLAN To evaluate the effectiveness of the RCMAR program in meeting the four Program Goals listed above, the Evaluator will undertake the following activities. For Goal 1, on increasing the number of researchers who focus on the health of minority elders, evaluation questions will include: Do the studies conducted by RCMAR Scholars relate to the RCMAR Mission by contributing to the field of aging research? Do publications and grants by RCMAR Scholars, once they have become independent, remain focused on aging research and reducing health disparities in aging populations? To what extent have the RCMAR Scholars achieved the following goals: publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals, applying for research grants, competing successfully for research grants? To what extent have RCMAR ?products? been disseminated adequately and to the appropriate public and scientific groups, as determined by baselining target audiences and their needs? For Goal 2, on enhancing the diversity in the professional workforce by mentoring minority academic researchers for careers in health research on minority elders, the evaluation team will ask: Is there a need for increasing mentoring flexibility -- e.g., mid-career mentoring or a longer period of mentoring? Can RCMAR Scholars with strong potential be identified from their baseline characteristics as determined by analysis of data about ?success? in the program? If so, should future RCMAR RFAs include recommended criteria for selecting Scholars? For Goal 3, on improving recruitment and retention (R & R) methods used to enlist minority elders in studies, the evaluation questions will include: Have findings in this area generated by the program been published? If so, is the publication record reasonable as compared to efforts in similar programs? Are R & R methods and science coming out of the program being recognized by others doing research on diverse elderly populations -- e.g., are there citations of RCMAR R & R research? Are there other means of further disseminating RCMAR R & R research results? For Goal 4, on creating culturally sensitive health measures [and methods] (M & M) that assess the health status of minority elders with greater precision, the evaluation team will ask: Have findings in this area coming out of the program been published? If so, is the publication record reasonable as compared to efforts in similar programs? Are M & M methods and science coming out of the program being recognized by others doing research on diverse elderly populations -- e.g., are there citations of RCMAR M & M research? Are there other means of further disseminating RCMAR M & M research results? We will also attempt to address several additional questions of importance to future planning for the program. Have there been spin-offs of the RCMAR program? For example, to what extent has the program been emulated by other Institutes and Centers at NIH? Are there additional (or fewer) areas of emphases, processes, or organization that need to be incorporated as goals for the next RCMAR iteration? How can NIA enhance the interaction among its various center programs (e.g., RCMARs and the Alzheimer?s Disease Research Centers)? Comparing the funded RCMAR institutions with a comparable group of institutions (e.g., RCMAR grant applicants that were not funded), were the RCMAR institutions more (or less) successful than the non-RCMAR institutions in competing for NIH grants involving minority aging research? Are there other ways to determine whether similar accomplishments could have occurred without the RCMAR program? Should the RCMARs be encouraged to become broad multidisciplinary centers funded by several NIH ICs, and/or should they be encouraged to emphasize broad NIA goals, and/or should they be encouraged to emphasize more targeted Behavioral and Social Research Program goals? To accomplish this activity, the activity will have the following research design. Given the relatively small sample size (n = 8 centers over two cycles), an explanatory case study approach will be used to answer the study questions, with most of the information gathered from secondary data sources. A consultant/evaluator will be selected and will work with the RCMAR Coordinating Center to assess the data that they collect semi-annually in the ?Emphasis and Outcomes? report prepared for NIA. Primary data will also be collected from PIs, Core Leaders, and/or other RCMAR participants (9 maximum). Information and data sources will include progress reports and CVs of scholars, confidential interviews with selected RCMAR scholars and mentors, RCMAR publications, and the RCMAR Web site. In addition, the Evaluator will assess data from secondary sources such as other NIH diversity programs. OMB clearance will not be required. In addition to the Evaluator, an interdisciplinary panel of six professionals will be selected to provide expertise in health-related issues experienced by older diverse populations and the research needed to address them. They will review goal-related data collated by the Evaluator and help to reach conclusions and recommendations about the RCMAR program. The Panel will hold two conference calls and prepare a report with a set of recommendations based on their review of the empirical evaluation and the Panel?s interpretation of those data. On points where consensus is not reached among Panel members, the nature of all opinions will be reported. NIA staff will work with the Evaluator to further clarify the tasks and provide access to required data. A report, estimated to be 10-20 pages will constitute the final deliverable. The Timeline, below, specifies steps to be taken to implement the study design. F. Project Timeline Month One: Finalize arrangements with Evaluator, Panel Chair, and Panel Members Early Month One: NIA staff and Coordinating Center (CC) provide evaluation team with RCMAR I and II documents and other materials Remainder of Month One: Evaluator finalizes study design, conducts initial analyses, and summarizes findings. Early Month Two: Conference Call #1 (Agenda: a. Discuss reason for evaluation and timeline; b. Review study design; c. Discuss initial findings; d. Decide if additional data should be collected and analyzed) Mid-Month Two: Evaluator and Coordinating Center (CC) collect and analyze additional information, as needed Late Month Two: Conference Call #2: (Agenda: a. Discuss study findings; b. Solicit verbal comments and recommendations; c. Solicit 1-2 page evaluation comments from each Panel member) Early Month Three: Evaluator collates written comments and integrates them with verbal comments from Conference calls #1 and #2 Mid-Month Three: Panel Chair and Evaluator write 10-20 page Evaluation Report for NIA
- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda, MD
- Zip Code: 20892
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20892
- Record
- SN01038256-W 20060503/060501220244 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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