Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF DECEMBER 13, 2009 FBO #2941
SOLICITATION NOTICE

R -- Insight Toolkit

Notice Date

12/11/2009
 

Notice Type

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 105, Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States
 

ZIP Code

20894
 

Solicitation Number

NLM-10-029-CYC
 

Archive Date

2/4/2010
 

Point of Contact

Cara Y Calimano, Phone: 301 496-6127, Karen D Riggs, Phone: 301 496-6546
 

E-Mail Address

CalimaC@mail.nlm.nih.gov, kr33v@nih.gov
(CalimaC@mail.nlm.nih.gov, kr33v@nih.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

This project is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and is subject to the reporting requirements of the act. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation. This acquisition will be conducted under the procedures for acquiring commercial items authorized in FAR Part 12 and under the authority to use simplified acquisition procedures for commercial requirements provided in FAR 13.5. This announcement constitutes the formal Request for Quotation (RFQ) and a separate written solicitation WILL NOT be issued. The solicitation number is RFQ No. NLM-10-029-CYC. This acquisition is not a small business set-aside and the NAICS Code is 541990. Background In 1999, the NLM Office of High Performance Computing and Communications awarded multiple contracts for the formation of a software development consortium to create and develop an application programmer interface (API) and first implementation of a segmentation and registration toolkit, subsequently named the Insight Toolkit (ITK). The original awards included six contractors: GE Global Research, Insightful, Inc., Kitware, Inc., the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Tennessee. The six contractors were partnered with five subcontractors: Harvard University Medical School, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University, and the University of Utah. The period of performance for the original ITK awards began in 1999 and ended in 2003. The resulting system was originally intended for computer-assisted exploration of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Visible Human (VHP) Male and Female data sets. The final deliverable for this group was an open-source software library concentrating on segmentation and registration algorithms, directly inserted into the public domain that now helps support research worldwide in image analysis and in other domains. Open-source initiatives such as ITK help to lower the barriers to entry in complex research fields by providing the foundations of the software infrastructure necessary to conduct advanced investigations. Revising ITK is considered a contribution to the nation's infrastructure through software. Careful thought has been placed on the cultivation and maintenance of this software, assuring developers that the software will remain supported with new releases, bug fixes, and continuing growth. A maintenance contract, ITK Systems Technologies, was awarded after an open competition in 2004 to Kitware, Inc. The period of performance for the maintenance contract ends September 2009. Scope of Work The Insight Toolkit (ITK) is currently available with the release, ITK version 3.16, announced in September 2009 (see the URL: http://www.itk.org). Despite continued support through systems technology contracts, NLM wishes to revisit the underlying design and software architecture for ITK at this time. The initial design meeting for ITK was held in early November 1999, and while the design decisions for this software were targeted for the anticipated technology of 2004, those decisions are now showing their age. The purpose of this procurement is to obtain contract development services in support of the Insight Toolkit (ITK), the image processing tools initiative of the Visible Human Project. The goal is to revise ITK to attempt to allow it to perform for the research community for another ten years. All deliverables will be released under the existing ITK license as public, open-source software, and so all deliverables must be free from encumbering licenses or restrictions. The funding for this requirement will be made available under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) and all qualification criteria that arise from the use of ARRA funding apply to this requirement. NLM intends to assemble a team of contractors to address these issues, with the emphasis on experienced ITK programming talent either from a systems development perspective or from the application developer point of view. NLM expects the final team to incorporate between ten (10) to twenty (20) programmers and development staff from among four (4) to eight (8) separate contractors. Required Tasks The contractor will be required to participate in the following tasks or prepare the following deliverables: 1. Attend all contractor meetings (at NIH or some other mutually acceptable designated location). The contract PI is required to attend and may bring such support staff as needed to participate in a technical software engineering and development discussion. These meetings will be held quarterly. 2. Participate with the contractor team to meet the goals for ITK. The expected level of participation includes regular attendance at weekly teleconferences, videoconferences, or virtual conferences.. 3. Develop or modify ITK software in order to accomplish one or more of the following: • Assist with the reorganization and redesign of the ITK software architecture. • Develop or modify ITK software for participation or incorporation with high-performance computing environments • Ease the use of ITK through the establishment of new frameworks, scripting languages or bindings to make ITK more accessible to the non-expert-C++ programmer, or create a revised version of applications that incorporate ITK to accommodate the newly revised and reorganized toolkt. • Execute a DICOM implementation for digital communications in medicine data transfer to and from ITK. ITK requires the use of the most recent DICOM tools or toolkits conforming to the latest releases of the imaging standard. In addition, facilities for the de-identification and anonymization of patient data for collaborative research are essential tools desired for the new revision of ITK. 4. Contribute documentation, tutorial materials, and courseware. 5. Develop examples of proposed algorithms in ITK or provide renderings of all contributed data. 6. Perform all software and documentation development under the style guidelines and architectural rules of the Insight Toolkit. Performance Period The period of performance for these awards is one (1) year. Because of ARRA restrictions this contract may not exceed 2 years and may be terminated with 30 days written notice by the government or the contractor. Reporting/Deliverables All principal investigators are required to attend quarterly design meetings. Oral presentations and progress reports will be requested at those meetings, and electronic copies of slides, handouts, or documentation will serve as quarterly reports. Weekly teleconferences, videoconferences, or virtual conferences will be held to providing continuing communication among the project team. Attendance at these weekly meetings is highly recommended. Deliverables will be checked-in to a source code repository and testing of deliverables will be covered in an automatic build and regression testing environment. All deliverables will reside in the public domain (either through controlled Internet distribution from the NLM or through a third party electronic publisher), including all source code. The NLM will use the Visible Human Project rights and data clause with this requirement, claiming ownership of all data and software generated under this requirement, including all source code. NLM intends to place the ITK license on all software and release it in the public domain. The eventual software developers will be held to high software standards, and extensive documentation for the software tools (including tutorials, manuals, and examples) are required. All deliverables will be checked-in to a source code repository. Proposal Submission Technical Proposals should not exceed fifteen (15) pages, covering: (i) Technical details for: (a) refactoring and improving ITK processes and/or (b) establishing a development direction for ITK support for high performance computing (HPC) and/or (c) developing new techniques for simplifying ITK and/or (d) a more comprehensive approach for support of DICOM standards in ITK, (ii) Qualifications of key personnel to execute a major revision of ITK, (iii) The commitment and experience of the institution or offeror in building and releasing open-source software, especially in working with software under the ITK license or similar unrestricted copyrights. (iv) Proposed relevant facilities Beyond the 15 pages of technical proposal, resumes of key investigators, reprints of relevant technical papers, and other supplemental materials can be provided outside of the page limit. Reviewers are instructed that the 15-page technical proposal is required reading, and supplemental materials are available as part of the support documentation but not required. Evaluation Criteria 1. Understanding the Requirement and Technical Approach (scientific, technical, or analytical approach to achieve project objectives, including a demonstrated understanding of potential problems.) - 35 Points The proposal must demonstrate a thorough understanding of the requirements of the Statement of Work and describes approaches that will demonstrate the achievement of timely and acceptable performance. The proposal must maintain ITK as a software resource that is interoperable across Linux, Windows, and MacOSX computing environments. The proposal should present a comprehensive statement of the problems, scope, and purpose of each subproject to demonstrate an understanding of the requirements from a management and technical standpoint including a perspective of the strengths and needs of ITK and priorities for recreating the toolkit. The proposal will be evaluated with up to 35 points awarded in the category of "Understanding the Requirement and Technical Approach" for any of the following four (4) criteria (1-4). The MAXIMUM of the scores for the four following sub-criteria will be entered for the score for this section in order to determine whether the proposal is competitive. No penalty will be assessed for a proposal that does not answer all four sub-criteria; that is, an offeror should feel free to focus their effort on one or two areas of their expertise. In the event that overlapping proposals answering multiple objectives are considered, NLM may choose among the offerors for the most promising combination of approaches to achieve the overall objectives. Offerors may choose to respond to more than one of the following objectives: (1) The proposal should describe the outlines for a plan to restructure and revise ITK, indicating clearly what elements of ITK could be deprecated and removed, what elements must be kept in a future version of ITK, and how the code could be gainfully improved through reorganization, reimplementation, or other revision (up to 35 points); AND/OR (2) The proposal should describe how high performance computing (HPC) elements could be successfully implemented and incorporated into ITK through multi-core/many-core computing, general purpose GPU programming, or cluster/grid/cloud computing. The proposal should delineate how the HPC mechanisms would interact within the current ITK pipeline and how the code would need to be modified to accommodate the HPC elements. If a particular HPC approach is advocated, the proposal should include clear arguments why the approach is recommended over other possible methods. Any such proposal must be interoperable across multiple computing platforms. (up to 35 points); AND/OR (3) The proposal should outline an approach for simplifying ITK programming, enabling its use among research teams without expert C++ programmers. Suggestions for lowering the learning curve for ITK that ease its use while maintaining the strength of its versatility and capabilities will be highly valued (up to 35 points); AND/OR (4) ITK requires the use of the most recent DICOM tools or toolkits conforming to the latest releases of the imaging standard. In addition, facilities for the de-identification and anonymization of patient data for collaborative research are essential tools desired for the new revision of ITK. The proposal should provide a plan for DICOM support for ITK. The proposal should describe in detail which elements of the DICOM standard will be enabled and which elements would be omitted, justifying the choices as well as describing how the DICOM implementation will interact with the current ITK pipeline. (up to 35 points); Reviewers will record scores for as many of the four objectives as are stated in the proposal. However, the maximum of the four scores for sub-criteria 1-4 will be entered for this section for the purpose of selecting competitive proposals. Specifically the proposal must articulate: (a) The demonstrated level of understanding of the image understanding issues and problems related to the processing of biomedical images. (b) The demonstrated level of understanding of the software development issues and problems associated with distributed code development among a consortium of programming teams; OR if addressing the question of DICOM support, a demonstrated level of understanding of the data distribution issues and problems associated with the dissemination of medical data including privacy protection, licensing, copyright protection, and patient consent. 2. Qualifications and Availability of Proposed Personnel (demonstrated evidence of the qualifications, experience, and availability of professional and technical personnel comprising the necessary project staff.) 40 Points The proposal must demonstrate and document the relevant expertise, education, availability, and experience of the proposed personnel to be assigned and available for work under the project. Specifically, the proposal must demonstrate and document: (a) Background expertise - the extent to which the key personnel and the project team as a whole have access to the range of educational backgrounds in software engineering for revising open source software, especially background experience in programming ITK, a necessary element when considering a revision of the software library and its API. (b) Experience - the extent to which the key personnel and the project team include significant experience and expertise in the design and implementation of C++ object oriented programming, specifically ITK and its programming approach including the processes and requirements for "extreme programming," cross-platform portability, templated/generic programming, and pipeline software architectures. Qualifications may include: 1) Demonstrated and documented experience with ITK in the form of software contributions, bug fixes, examples, tutorials, testing, or other to ITK. 2) Published papers in the Insight Journal 3) Documented experience in advanced applications incorporating ITK. 4) Other published materials documenting research projects that demonstrate in-depth experience using and programming ITK. (c) Knowledge of Application Domains - Implementing ITK requires more than just programming expertise, but also knowledge of key scientific or biomedical user domains necessary to meet the objectives of this requirement. Proposals may be evaluated on the extent to which the key personnel and the project team include significant experience and expertise in the specific fields required for the applications area proposed. Qualifications may include: 1) Experience in High Performance Computing for routine volume data analysis, including methods such as: general purpose GPU programming, multi-core/many-core computing, or cluster/grid/cloud computing, especially using C++, with an emphasis on ITK programming. 2) Experience in improving user accessibility of complex computing environments, multiple language binding, or technical writing including tutorials, primers, or other user-level documentation. 3) Experience in data-intensive image processing fields such as high-resolution 3D microscopy or DICOM programming. The staffing plan must map named personnel to technical objectives or tasks described in criterion 1 of this technical evaluation plan. To resolve questions of overlapping proposals between contractors, evaluators may be asked to provide separate scores for the staffing plan and qualifications of key personnel for each of the objectives in criterion 1. If reviewers record separate scores for the staffing plans of as many of the four objectives as are stated in the proposal, only the maximum of the four scores for sub-criteria 1-4 will be entered for this section for the purpose of selecting competitive proposals. 3. Institutional Experience/Commitment 15 Points (Commitment to open-source software and open science: a clear understanding and support from the institution that all deliverables will be part of the Insight Toolkit, that all deliverables will be released in the public domain as open source software, that no limitations will be placed on the intellectual property associated with any deliverables, and that the final deliverables will be released under the ITK license) The proposal must demonstrate and document the degree of commitment of the various entities involved in the proposed software development process and the commitment to distributing the product code and related deliverables in source-code form under the ITK license. Support of this experience and commitment should be expressed through (a) documentation of previous releases of ITK software, (b) a letter of support from the offeror's Dean or Chief Operating Officer or similar official stating the offeror's commitment to releasing patent privileges and copyrights of work performed under this requirement to the public domain, and/or (c) the text of the copyright or license, documented or clearly cited for its source, used by the offeror in previous releases of open source software and/or public domain data. 4. Proposed Facilities and Equipment (availability and proposed utilization.) 10 Points The contractor should have a demonstrated ongoing active research interest and an in-house program in clinical or biomedical information processing or the use of medical computing in health services research. This requirement is necessary to ensure the contractor has the established background and knowledge required to make practical advances in these complex areas of research. NLM wishes to establish relationships with institutions or organizations that have independent/complementary research interests to ensure continued development towards the eventual goal of comprehensive algorithm coverage in ITK. The contractor should also have access to members of the principal user groups for which ITK is intended (i.e., computer software designers and toolbuilders for health sciences practitioners, educators, health services researchers, biomedical researchers) who can be used to test the effectiveness of the structures and models developed. The proposal must describe the availability and proposed utilization of appropriate facilities and equipment required to successfully perform work in the proposed application area. This includes access to source data and validation instrumentation. 5. Past Performance Past performance - a past performance evaluation will be performed as part of the review (by the Project Officer/Contracting Officer's Technical Representative, NOT by the technical evaluation committee, so no points are indicated in the technical evaluation). The evaluation will be based on information obtained from references provided by the offeror as well as other relevant past performance information obtained from other sources known to the government. Evaluation of Past Performance should include previous experience with Grants and other assistance vehicles as well as with previous contracts. Grants and contracts arising from other agencies such as DARPA and NSF will likely be part of the histories and should be evaluated without prejudice. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) Unique Reporting Requirements: FAR Clause 52.204-11, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--Reporting Requirements (March 2009) (a) Definitions. As used in this clause- Contract, as defined in FAR 2.101, means a mutually binding legal relationship obligating the seller to furnish the supplies or services (including construction) and the buyer to pay for them. It includes all types of commitments that obligate the Government to an expenditure of appropriated funds and that, except as otherwise authorized, are in writing. In addition to bilateral instruments, contracts include (but are not limited to) awards and notices of awards; job orders or task letters issued under basic ordering agreements; letter contracts; orders, such as purchase orders, under which the contract becomes effective by written acceptance or performance; and bilateral contract modifications. Contracts do not include grants and cooperative agreements covered by 31 U.S.C. 6301, et seq. For discussion of various types of contracts, see FAR Part 16. First-tier subcontract means a subcontract awarded directly by a Federal Government prime contractor whose contract is funded by the Recovery Act. Jobs created means an estimate of those new positions created and filled, or previously existing unfilled positions that are filled, as a result of funding by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). This definition covers only prime contractor positions established in the United States and outlying areas (see definition in FAR 2.101). The number shall be expressed as "full-time equivalent" (FTE), calculated cumulatively as all hours worked divided by the total number of hours in a full-time schedule, as defined by the contractor. For instance, two full-time employees and one part-time employee working half days would be reported as 2.5 FTE in each calendar quarter. Jobs retained means an estimate of those previously existing filled positions that are retained as a result of funding by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). This definition covers only prime contractor positions established in the United States and outlying areas (see definition in FAR 2.101). The number shall be expressed as "full-time equivalent" (FTE), calculated cumulatively as all hours worked divided by the total number of hours in a full-time schedule, as defined by the contractor. For instance, two full-time employees and one part-time employee working half days would be reported as 2.5 FTE in each calendar quarter. Total compensation means the cash and noncash dollar value earned by the executive during the contractor's past fiscal year of the following (for more information see 17 CFR 229.402(c)(2)): (1) Salary and bonus. (2) Awards of stock, stock options, and stock appreciation rights. Use the dollar amount recognized for financial statement reporting purposes with respect to the fiscal year in accordance with the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (Revised 2004) (FAS 123R), Shared Based Payments. (3) Earnings for services under non-equity incentive plans. Does not include group life, health, hospitalization or medical reimbursement plans that do not discriminate in favor of executives, and are available generally to all salaried employees. (4) Change in pension value. This is the change in present value of defined benefit and actuarial pension plans. (5) Above-market earnings on deferred compensation which is not tax-qualified. (6) Other compensation. For example, severance, termination payments, value of life insurance paid on behalf of the employee, perquisites or property if the value for the executive exceeds $10,000. (b) This contract requires the contractor to provide products and/or services that are funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Section 1512(c) of the Recovery Act requires each contractor to report on its use of Recovery Act funds under this contract. These reports will be made available to the public. (c) Reports from contractors for all work funded, in whole or in part, by the Recovery Act, and for which an invoice is submitted prior to June 30, 2009, are due no later than July 10, 2009. Thereafter, reports shall be submitted no later than the 10th day after the end of each calendar quarter. (d) The Contractor shall report the following information, using the online reporting tool available at http://www.FederalReporting.gov. (1) The Government contract and order number, as applicable. (2) The amount of Recovery Act funds invoiced by the contractor for the reporting period. A cumulative amount from all the reports submitted for this action will be maintained by the government's on-line reporting tool. (3) A list of all significant services performed or supplies delivered, including construction, for which the contractor invoiced in this calendar quarter. (4) Program or project title, if any. (5) A description of the overall purpose and expected outcomes or results of the contract, including significant deliverables and, if appropriate, associated units of measure. (6) An assessment of the contractor's progress towards the completion of the overall purpose and expected outcomes or results of the contract (i.e., not started, less than 50 percent completed, completed 50 percent or more, or fully completed). This covers the contract (or portion thereof) funded by the Recovery Act. (7) A narrative description of the employment impact of work funded by the Recovery Act. This narrative should be cumulative for each calendar quarter and only address the impact on the contractor's workforce. At a minimum, the contractor shall provide- (i) A brief description of the types of jobs created and jobs retained in the United States and outlying areas (see definition in FAR 2.101). This description may rely on job titles, broader labor categories, or the contractor's existing practice for describing jobs as long as the terms used are widely understood and describe the general nature of the work; and (ii) An estimate of the number of jobs created and jobs retained by the prime contractor, in the United States and outlying areas. A job cannot be reported as both created and retained. (8) Names and total compensation of each of the five most highly compensated officers of the Contractor for the calendar year in which the contract is awarded if-- (i) In the Contractor's preceding fiscal year, the Contractor received- (A) 80 percent or more of its annual gross revenues from Federal contracts (and subcontracts), loans, grants (and subgrants) and cooperative agreements; and (B) $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues from Federal contracts (and subcontracts), loans, grants (and subgrants) and cooperative agreements; and (ii) The public does not have access to information about the compensation of the senior executives through periodic reports filed under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m(a), 78o(d)) or section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. (9) For subcontracts valued at less than $25,000 or any subcontracts awarded to an individual, or subcontracts awarded to a subcontractor that in the previous tax year had gross income under $300,000, the Contractor shall only report the aggregate number of such first tier subcontracts awarded in the quarter and their aggregate total dollar amount. (10) For any first-tier subcontract funded in whole or in part under the Recovery Act, that is over $25,000 and not subject to reporting under paragraph 9, the contractor shall require the subcontractor to provide the information described in (i), (ix), (x), and (xi) below to the contractor for the purposes of the quarterly report. The contractor shall advise the subcontractor that the information will be made available to the public as required by section 1512 of the Recovery Act. The contractor shall provide detailed information on these first-tier subcontracts as follows: (i) Unique identifier (DUNS Number) for the subcontractor receiving the award and for the subcontractor's parent company, if the subcontractor has a parent company. (ii) Name of the subcontractor. (iii) Amount of the subcontract award. (iv) Date of the subcontract award. (v) The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. (vi) Funding agency. (vii) A description of the products or services (including construction) being provided under the subcontract, including the overall purpose and expected outcomes or results of the subcontract. (viii) Subcontract number (the contract number assigned by the prime contractor). (ix) Subcontractor's physical address including street address, city, state, and country. Also include the nine-digit zip code and congressional district if applicable. (x) Subcontract primary performance location including street address, city, state, and country. Also include the nine-digit zip code and congressional district if applicable. (xi) Names and total compensation of each of the subcontractor's five most highly compensated officers, for the calendar year in which the subcontract is awarded if-- (A) In the subcontractor's preceding fiscal year, the subcontractor received-- (1) 80 percent or more of its annual gross revenues in Federal contracts (and subcontracts), loans, grants (and subgrants), and cooperative agreements; and (2) $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues from Federal contracts (and subcontracts), loans, grants (and subgrants), and cooperative agreements; and (B) The public does not have access to information about the compensation of the senior executives through periodic reports filed under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m(a), 78o(d)) or section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. The following FAR provisions and clauses sited herein are also incorporated by reference into this solicitation. Full text of clauses and provisions are availableat Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR): http://ww.arnet.gov/far/. 52.203-15 Whistleblower Protections Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. All Contractors which are awarded ARRA funding must be in compliance with the reporting requirements of 52.204-11, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-Reporting Requirements. If the contractor fails to comply with the reporting requirements, the contracting officer shall exercise appropriate contractual remedies. The contracting officer shall make the contractor's failure to comply with the reporting requirements a part of the Contractor's performance information under Subpart 42.15. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS The Technical Proposal for each offer shall be limited to 15 pages, single-spaced, 12 point font with 1-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right). Beyond the 15 pages of technical proposal, resumes of key investigators, reprints of relevant technical papers, and other supplemental materials can be provided outside of the page limit. Reviewers are instructed that the 15-page technical proposal is required reading, and supplemental materials are available as part of the support documentation but not required. Details regarding the content and organization of the technical proposals are contained in the description of this requirement, included in the Statement of Work. Electronic copies of the technical proposal are due by the application deadline. In addition to the official electronic submission, two printed copies of the technical proposal are required. These printed hard copies should be printed, 3-hole punched, and submitted in binders. NLM anticipates an official deadline for electronic submission by noon (12:00 PM), Wednesday January 20, 2010, with an official deadline for printed hard copy submission by close of business, Monday January 25, 2010. Electronic copies of submissions should be sent via e-mail to the contracting specialist, Cara Calimano, at calimac@mail.nlm.nih.gov. The submission may be split into multiple e-mails to accommodate e-mail servers. Furthermore, the technical proposal and the business proposal may be transmitted separately. At the completion of the proposal submission, even if only a single e-mail is transmitted, an additional confirmation text-only e-mail should be transmitted, communicating that a complete submission has been sent and detailing the contents of each file and how many separate e-mail files should be expected. ADDITIONAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS The Business Proposal for each offer shall be limited to 20 pages, single-spaced, 12 point font with 1-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right). Since regular attendance at quarterly design meetings is required, offerors should be prepared to include a description of their travel budget and a justification for these costs. If the contractor elects to host one of the quarterly design meetings, the contractor should describe the costs for hosting such a meeting and justify those costs. Electronic copies of the business proposal are due by the application deadline. In addition to the official electronic submission, two printed copies of the business proposal are required. These printed hard copies should be printed, 3-hole punched, and submitted in binders. NLM anticipates an official deadline for electronic submission by noon (12:00 PM), Wednesday January 20, 2010, with an official deadline for printed hard copy submission by close of business, Monday January 25, 2010. Electronic copies of submissions should be sent via e-mail to the contracting specialist, Cara Calimano, at calimac@mail.nlm.nih.gov. The submission may be split into multiple e-mails to accommodate e-mail servers. Furthermore, the technical proposal and the business proposal may be transmitted separately. At the completion of the proposal submission, even if only a single e-mail is transmitted, an additional confirmation text-only e-mail should be transmitted, communicating that a complete submission has been sent and detailing the contents of each file and how many separate e-mail files should be expected. All responses must be in writing and must include pricing information and meet the criteria requirement. All responses from responsible sources will be considered. Please reference the solicitation number "NLM-10-029-CYC" on your proposal and/or inquiries. Facsimile submissions are not authorized and collect calls with NOT be accepted.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/OAM/NLM-10-029-CYC/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: 8600 Rockville Pike, Bldg. 38A, Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States

Zip Code: 20894
 

Record

SN02022489-W 20091213/091211235621-edfe3d14e14fbd8bf7ee6527c793eb9a (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

---

| FSG Index  |  This Issue's Index  |  Today's FBO Daily Index Page |