Directorate of Contracting, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Rm A1040c, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799

R -- SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE TRI-SERVICES NURSING RESEARCH PROGRAM SOL MDA905-98-R-0011 DUE 052298 POC David D. Denton, Contracting Officer, 301-295-3065 or fax 301-295-1716 E-MAIL: click here to contact the contract officer via e-mail, ddenton@usuhs.mil. The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Department of Defense Medical School has a requirement for support services for the DoD Tri-Service Nursing Research Program. The selected contractor will be required to provide personnel to perform a variety of services to include, but not limited to, program management, program marketing, peer review of grant proposals, post-award grants management, program budget management, and conducting workshops, meetings and seminars. The Tri-Service Nursing Research Program is a Congressionally appropriated initiative directed at military nursing research. The purpose of the TriService Nursing Research Program is to improve health care for Department of Defense beneficiaries by expanding the scientific knowledge base through military nursing research. This program provides infrastructure and educational support for nurturing and retaining military nurse scientists and provides grants to military nurse scientists in area of military nursing to strengthen military nursing research efforts in the Army, Navy and Air Force. The program works under an Executive Director, a military nurse, who oversees and is responsible for all operational aspects of the program and reports directly to the Chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force Nurse Corps. The Executive Director will act as the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative and will oversee and coordinate all contacting actions. The specific requirements for each part of the program are: 1. Program Management -requires the contractor to assemble an administrative staff to provide direct support for the day-to-day office management which includes but is not limited to handling correspondence; office management communication by telephone, facsimile, e-mail, and written correspondence; copying and distribution of materials; minute taking, transcription, mailing; and other office duties. Maintain an established database for use in pre and post award activities, networking contacts, conference/educational attendees, and other data as required by the program. Provide various reports derived from the database. Process orders for supplies and services to be used by the program, maintain database for monitoring the budget expenditures and develop spreadsheets for use in analysis of cost/benefit data, provide reports and information papers on budget issues. Plan and prepare all aspects of travel requests in support of meetings and educational activities, track the processing of travel orders from initial request and authorization through completed travel claims, maintain a database of travel expenditures (obligation and commitments) for all travel related expenses will be maintained. 2. Marketing Tri-Service Nursing Research Program -- to include review, maintenance, and update of the web site. Respond to E-mail through the web site, create and maintain a presentation style poster about the program, prepare and display the poster as required. Prepare a marketing brochure which summarizes the vision, mission and objectives of the program and describes the contributions the program has made in the field of military nursing research. Distribute the brochure as required. . Distribution will occur at various educational events and by mail to schools of nursing and to designated military addresses. 3. Conduct Peer Reviews -- provide direct support for a scientific peer review process which consists of a minimum of a scientific merit review and a programmatic review. The cycle of support begins with the development of Call For Proposals and continues through award of funding. Prepare and distribute Call For Proposals for the Tri-Service Nursing Research Program. This document will be required for each funded fiscal year. The Contractor will be responsible for receiving phone calls and letters requesting copies of the Call for Proposals and PHS 348 and forwarding requested copies within three (3) working days. The Contractor shall develop an electronic list of requestors delineating the name of the company, name of the individual as POC, complete mailing address to include the street address note as to whether request was by letter or phone call and the date Call For Proposals was mailed to the requestor. The Contractor will assemble a panel of experts, for the scientific merit review of proposals. This panel will consist of a chair, executive secretary, government observer, primary and secondary reviewers, and orienteers representing each branch of the Armed Forces, Army, Navy and Air Force. All proposed chairpersons, with curriculum vitae's (CV's)) shall be submitted to the Executive Director for review and coordination within three (3) weeks from the last submission deadline. Minimum criteria shall include prior peer review experience (participation on at least two peer review panels); experience leading a research program; a history of peer review support. The panel chairperson shall work closely with executive secretaries to constitute PRP. Program management shall provide the Contractor with a list of potential PRP members, including Consumer Representative when required. Each PRP may have a consumer representative as a full voting member. This PRP member shall not be assigned as a primary or secondary reviewer, but will be sent all proposals for review. An evaluation of the inclusion of consumers may run parallel to the review process. The Contractor shall be required to fully participate in any activity related to this, e.g., evaluation of consumer participation. This panel will include scientists having expertise in a wide range of areas to include but not limited to nursing, epidemiology, evaluation research, qualitative and quantitative, research methodologies, pharmacology, physiology, and basic sciences. A minimum of 50% of the panel members will have recent experience in military nursing. PRPs shall have at least 10 and no more than 25 members. Minimum criteria for peer reviewers shall include appropriate scientific credentials within specific disciplines that cover certain educational, teaching, academic publications,and research experience; the majority of PRP members should have recent experience in managing an extramural funded research program. Based on the subject covered, PRP composition may require diversity of scientific expertise. The completed panel member list to include CV's shall be submitted to program manager within two weeks of the first PRP meeting. This panel will be assembled at a time and place designated by the Executive Director. The Contractor will set up a receiving delivery point in a Government provided location at USUHS, Bethesda, Maryland. Proposals will be received from all delivery sources between the hours of 9:am and 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Upon receipt the Contractor shall: Date and time stamp all boxes received. Open all boxes. Stamp the original proposal with date and time. Label each copy of the proposal with the unique numerical identifier. Proposals may also be submitted on computer disc in which case the Contractor shall label and handle in such a manner as to preserve the integrity of the data (e.g., not store near magnetic objects, phones, etc.) The original signed copy must be a hardcopy. Enter data into a program management approved data base. Data entry shall be completed within ten (10) working days from date of receipt. Data entry may be through the use of optical scanning technology, as provided by the Government Executive Director. Provide the Government Program Manager with an updated list of all proposals received, in program management approved format. At minimum, the Contractor's list shall include unique identifier proposal, and total requested budget. Process and mail receipt confirmatin postcards, containing their reference number (Contractor assigned unique numerical identifier), to all offerors within two (2) weeks of receipt. The Contractor shall provide submission data in the format defined by Government program management, e.g., Excel. In addition, the Contractor shall be responsible for the receipt and handling of any BAA addenda submitted to include receipt, date and time stamp, forward one copy to the designated Government Contractor, and store the remaining copies with the original submission, update the Contractor provided, program management approved data base with such information, and provide the program manager with an addenda submission summary. This information can be part of the weekly receipt of proposal list. Categorize submitted proposals by subject area to facilitate identification of scientific expertise required for peer review. Provide planning, computer support, and all aspects for the electronic submission. The contractor will assist in the assignment of proposals for review by primary and secondary reviewers (in some cases, tertiary reviewers). The contractor will do a pre-review of the application to ensure application compliance with guidelines and to verify budgets. Proposals will be prepared and shipped to reviewers in advance of the Scientific Review Panel (SRP) meeting. Preparation and shipping for review will be at times designated bythe Executive Director. It is anticipated that meetings will be held no earlier than 45 days and no later than 60 days after submission deadline. Prepare for all aspects of each level of review (SRP and Programmatic Review meetings) to include coordinating the contract for meeting location and lodging for panel members. Determine and obtain required administrative and logistical support for each meeting. The Contractor shall be responsible for all meeting arrangements, reservations (e.g., hotel, airfare), for analysts and Government program management members. Provide logistical support during each level of review (SRP and Programmatic Review meetings). The contractor will provide official recording of all discussion and comments for each level of review (SRP and Programmatic Review meetings) and will provide a written summary of events of the meetings as directed by the Executive Director. All written notes and summaries will be completed within 2 weeks of each level of review. Use written reviews and salient comments from each level of review, summary reviews for the applicants will be prepared of each of the respective grant proposals. Complete long summaries are required in the format set forth. Summaries shall be provided within fifteen (15) working days of the PRP meeting to the COR. They shall be submitted, as a complete package for each PRP in order by their numerical identifier. Provide a quality assurance/improvement mechanism to assure the summary reviews reflect all salient information about the peer review of the grant application. The Executive Director reserves the right to require rewrites within ninety (90) days after receipt of reviews. This becomes necessary when score and summary are inconsistent or there are other noted discrepancies. Rewrites will be performed within five (5) working days of the request. Scores, standard deviations and PRP percentile ranks (within research, training, or infrastructure categories) shall be provided to the Government program management office within two (2) working days from PRP completion in the form (hard and disc copy) and in a format prescribed by program management. Assists in the submission of recommendations for final program approval and prepare a final list of awardees for execution of grant agreements. Prepare notification of funding decisions to all applicants/grantees. Prepare program evaluation of the process to include recommendations for improvement and prepare letters of appreciation to the panel members. Maintain the establish database for all submitted proposals, results of peer review process and awarded grants. Database information will be specified by the Executive Director. Establish mechanism to assure the accuracy of database information. 4. Post Award Grants Administration -- assist in managing issues related to grants funded through this program. Provide extended support for all active grants up to five years of award. The contractor will coordinate modifications of grant agreements to include. The modifications will entail changes inscope of work, Principal Investigators, institutions, re-budgeting, performance sites, and no-cost extension requests. Assist with correspondence to granting institutions/Principal Investigators. The correspondence will include responses to modifications of grant agreements and notices regarding compliance with funding regulations. The contractor will prepare correspondence for notification of requirements for annual Internal Review Board reviews and Animal Assurances. Provide written review of interim/annual and final reports for research projects funded by this program. The contractor will provide reports on status of projects regarding submission of reports. The contractor will review all interim and find reports for accuracy and completeness and provide summary statement on submitted reports. Provide support for site visits to funded institutions and/or performance sites. Maintain data needed to develop broad based budget reports for all grants and maintain established MIT post award database. 5. ConductEducational Workshops, Conferences and Seminars -- provide administrative, logistical support and meeting planning for all educational programs. The contractor will prepare for all aspects of meetings and conferences to include but not limited to coordinating contract for meeting location and lodging for attendees. Assists applicant in preparing documents for continuing education credit. Prepare presentation materials such as, slides and handouts, for the educational workshops and coordinate the information and funding for all attendees. Ensure that state-of-the-art equipment is provided for audio-visual presentations and provide the support for the AV during workshops. Contractors proposals will be evaluated on five major factors: (1) Understanding of the Scope of Work; (2) corporate management capabilities; (3) experience, past and present performance; (4) technical quality and (5) cost. Potential offeror's will be afforded the opportunity to respond with a written and oral presentation. This is a non-personal services performance based level of effort contract. The contract type will be cost reimbursement -- fixed fee. This contract will be for a five year period, consisting of one base year and up to four one year options. This requirement is a 100% small business set-aside and contractors will be required to present proof of business size. The following SIC Codes and Small Business Sizes apply: 8731 -- Commercial Physical and Biological Research -- 500 employees; 8999 -- Services, N.E.C. -- $5.0 million; or 7389 -- Business Services, N.E.C.- $5.0 million. Requests for the RFP must be received in writing no later than 15 April 1998 and may be requested by FAX (301) 295-1716. (0086)

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