SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- Marine Mammal Behavioral Psychophysics-Adaptive Behavioral Techniques for Obtaining Hearing Data
- Notice Date
- 7/31/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office, SSMC4 - Room 7601/OFA61 1305 East West Highway, 7th Floor, Silver Spring, MD, 20910
- ZIP Code
- 20910
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-NFFK-6-377
- Response Due
- 8/11/2006
- Archive Date
- 8/26/2006
- Description
- The NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service has the need to study marine mammal behavioral psychophysics. These services will be acquired using simplified acquisition procedures, FAR Parts 12 and 13, as supplemented with additional information in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a separate written solicitation will not be issued. The statement of work is as follows: Statement of Work: Marine Mammal Behavioral Psychophysics: Adaptive Behavioral Techniques for Obtaining Hearing Data : Background : How marine animals hear and are affected by human noise sources are critical and largely unanswered questions relevant to NOAA?s ability to manage protected species under federal statutes (MMPA and ESA). Hearing measurements have been obtained from captive animals trained to respond to sounds with various behavioral responses. These procedures can provide highly accurate measurements of hearing capabilities, but are unfortunately limited because of the extensive time required for training and testing individual subjects. A needed advancement in understanding and managing the effects of noise on protected species is enhancing behavioral procedures to allow more rapid assessments of hearing. Adaptive techniques involving continual tracking of hearing, as opposed to discrete responses, hold significant promise and are relatively commonly used with people and other terrestrial mammals but have never been used with marine mammals. Such procedures could provide critical comparative data and increase testing capabilities by orders of magnitude. Behavioral methods in which subjects are trained to rapidly modulate responses to changing acoustic stimuli may further prove optimal in carefully assessing frequency weighting functions and the recovery of hearing following controlled noise exposure in studies of temporary hearing loss. Tasks: This statement of work calls for the development of novel behavioral techniques with marine mammal subjects trained to participate in adaptive response procedures and the application of such techniques to address basic and applied questions of importance to NOAA?s management capabilities. Researchers supported by this contract will: 1) Develop hardware and software for obtaining behavioral hearing data from marine mammals using adaptive behavioral procedures (e.g., behavioral method of adjustment (MOA)). 2) Train marine mammal subjects to perform adaptive procedures. 3) Obtain ?absolute? hearing thresholds and compare results with existing behavioral and electrophysiological data. 4) Develop and implement advanced applications of adaptive procedures, such as the recovery of hearing sensitivity following noise exposure and subjective measures such as loudness. Deliverable: A report of the results of the study will be provided to NMFS upon completion of the work.. Period of Performance: Twelve(12) months Your quotation shall include a firm fixed price for the services to be provided. Payment shall be made at completion. The solicitation document and incorporated clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular Number 2005-11. The provisions and clauses may be downloaded at http://www.acqnet.gov/far. The following provisions and clauses shall apply to this solicitation: FAR 52.212-l, Instructions to Offerors - Commercial, applies to this acquisition and there is no addenda to this provision; FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation - Commercial Items. The Government shall award a purchase order resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror conforming to the solicitation that will be most advantageous (best value) to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: (i) approach, (ii) past performance, (iii) price; FAR 52-212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and there is no addenda to this provision; FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and there is no addenda to this provision; FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders - Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. All interested contractors must be actively registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) at the CCR website (www.ccr.gov). All responsible sources may respond to this combined synopsis/solicitation with a quotation addressed to Robin Prather, NOAA Acquisition Division, 1305 East West Highway, Room 7146, Silver Spring MD 20910, to be received no later than 1:00 p.m., August 11, 2006. Responses may be faxed to 301-713-0806 or emailed to Robin.Prather@noaa.gov. The Government reserves the right to make a single award, multiple awards, or no award as a result of this RFQ. It is the responsibility of the contractor to confirm NOAA's receipt of quote.
- Record
- SN01101899-W 20060802/060731220231 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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