SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- Software Development and Maintenance
- Notice Date
- 3/11/2015
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Station Support/Simplified Acquisitions, 31 Center Drive, Room 1B59, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892
- ZIP Code
- 20892
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SBSS-15-186
- Archive Date
- 4/2/2015
- Point of Contact
- Paul C. Marsalese,
- E-Mail Address
-
paul.marsalese@nih.gov
(paul.marsalese@nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Introduction: 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. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) CODE: The NAICS code applicable to this requirement is 541990 - All Other Professional Scientific, and Technical Services - and the associated small business size standard of $15.0 million dollars. Background: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Intramural Research Program (IRP) conducts basic research on the neural mechanisms underlying such cognitive functions as perception, memory, decision-making and emotion in non-human primates. A number of these studies involve training and recording from non-human primates. Such studies rely on sophisticated experimental control and data acquisition software. For the past 20 years, the Laboratory of Neuropsychology has developed and maintained a widely-used computer program for this purpose: NIMH Cortex. NIMH Cortex is free and open source. It has the power and flexibility to support the complexity of behaviors exhibited by primates. The development and maintenance of NIMH Cortex has been crucial for behavioral neurophysiology laboratories both inside and outside the NIMH IRP. Within the IRP, research in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, and the Laboratory of Systems Neuroscience, rely on the continued development of the Cortex software. A decision has been made to transition from the Cortex software platform to MonkeyLogic, which will replace NIMH Cortex by taking full advantage of modern Windows operating systems. However, MonkeyLogic is not a yet a full replacement for NIMH Cortex. For this reason, NIMH Cortex will be maintained until MonkeyLogic meets the needs of existing NIMH Cortex users, including those in the IRP. Purpose / Objective: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Laboratory of Neuropsychology, Office of the Chief has a potential requirement for the end-of-life maintenance of NIMH Cortex experimental control and data acquisition software suite, and the transition to MonkeyLogic experimental control and data acquisition software. The maintenance component of this potential purchase order is to make NIMH Cortex, originally a DOS program, operate smoothly and reliably under the Windows 7 operating system. By May 2014, support for the Windows XP operating system was discontinued by Microsoft Corporation. Over the past year, much of the work has been done to achieve Windows 7 compatibility. Beta testing with Windows 7 has started. The necessary work is to finish the Windows 7 capability for both 32-bit and 64-bit installations, and to finish building the compile and testing tools so that NIMH Cortex can be compiled using the latest Microsoft software development environment. The development component of this potential purchase order is to extend the compatibilities of MonkeyLogic (http://www.brown.edu/Research/monkeylogic/) to support the hardware and software that are essential to many of the current NIMH Cortex users. Because both NIMH Cortex and MonkeyLogic collect data and respond to recorded events within real-time requirements, the task of expanding MonkeyLogic requires expertise at enough levels to assure safe and reliable program performance. Thus, the development of reliable and robust performance that will not put the data acquired by monkey laboratories at risk for errors is needed. Contractor Experience: The contractor must have first-hand experience and success that indicates mastery in both NIMH Cortex and MonkeyLogic. The scope of work requires a senior programmer with specialized experience in primate neurophysiology software development of real-time data acquisition systems. This experience is essential because only someone with the specialized experience in this domain can build out a roadmap that assures a transition from NIMH Cortex to MonkeyLogic without having to research the myriad of details each entails and without having to start over studying the needs of existing users. Expertise in the programming of C, C++, Matlab and Microsoft.NET are required. Anticipated period of performance: It is anticipated that the period of performance will be 12-months from date of award. Capability Statement: Contractors that believe they possess the ability to provide the required services should submit documentation of their ability to meet the project tasks to the Contract Specialist. Contractors must provide their Company Name, DUNS number, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information. Interested organizations are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the solicitation notice number. All capability statements sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Paul Marsalese, Contract Specialist, at Paul.Marsalese@nih.gov in MS Word format within 7 calendar days of the date of this announcement. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. Note: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. 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 review of the responses received, pre-solicitation and solicitation notices may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. The solicitation release date is pending. The Government intends to negotiate a fixed-price contract.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NIDA-2/HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SBSS-15-186/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Rockville, Maryland, 20852-3831, United States
- Zip Code: 20852-3831
- Zip Code: 20852-3831
- Record
- SN03664357-W 20150313/150311234721-0223bf13d952c3284752d3b9f801106c (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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