AN22-- SUPPORT Svcs for DEI portfolio analyses Principal Investigator: Donna L. Washington, M.D., M.P.H.

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. It is neither a solicitation announcement nor a request for proposals or quotes and does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Responses to this sources sought notice must be in writing. The purpose of this sources sought announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential businesses interested and capable of providing the services described below. The Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System located at 11301 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles CA, 90073 is seeking a contractor to provide Health Services R&D funded work, Comprehensive DEI portfolio analyses within ORD focusing on inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities and DEI content. The contractor must provide the following tasks: The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System requires expert research services. Specific details regarding each position are outlined with a Statement of Work. Any combination of services stated in the Statement of Work can be combined in a task order. All projects will be initiated by the contractor through strict adherence to the VA approved protocols. The contractor shall provide all resources necessary to accomplish the deliverables, except as may otherwise be specified. The requested services include a portfolio analysis of ORD funded projects to identify an objective and quantifiable estimate of funded DEI efforts, for use in the above-mentioned research project. The exact services and cost are provided in Section 3 below. Tasks and Deliverables The purpose of this contract is to obtain a portfolio analysis of recent (2017 to date) VA Office of Research & Development (ORD) research funding to screen for the presence and absence of research that aims to address DEI, such as disparities in healthcare, research in racial and ethnic minoritized groups, or the recruitment and training of racial or ethnic minority research investigators. The portfolio analysis will identify research projects with explicit DEI objectives as well as publications resulting from funded projects that have addressed DEI topics. Specific tasks and deliverables include: a detailed workplan, documentation of methods and search results, and a summary of findings. Services Description Detailed workplan outlining all steps of the planned portfolio analysis. The protocol will be shared with COIN staff and prospectively registered in the Open Science Framework (OSF). An analytic framework will illustrate the approach. It will include an explicit eligibility criteria and comprehensive search strategy. Documentation of methods and identified research studies. A database of research studies will be established for systematic data abstraction of DEI information. Concise evidence tables will provide details on the included research studies. Summary of findings. Summary figures and tables will support transparent analyses and document the research portfolio clearly. If you are interested and are capable of providing the required service(s) please provide the following information. (1) Company Name, Address, Point of Contact (2) Size status and representations of your business, such as but not limited to: Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB), HUBZone, Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB), Large Business, etc. (3) Is your company considered small under the NAICS code 541715 (4) Does your company have an FSS contract with GSA or the NAC or are you a contract holder with any other federal contract? If so, please provide the contract type and number. (5) If you are an FSS GSA/NAC or other federal contract holder, are the referenced items/solutions available on your schedule/contract? (6) Please provide general pricing for your products/solutions for market research purposes. (7) Please submit a capability statement that addresses qualifications and verifies ability to perform work described above. The Government is not obligated to nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this sources sought announcement. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. The VA is mandated by Public Law 109-461 to consider a total set-aside for Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses. However, if there are insufficient Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business responses, an alternate set-aside or full and open competition may be determined. No sub-contracting opportunity is anticipated. The North American Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541715 (1,000 employees). Responses to this notice shall be submitted via email to contact@example.gov. Telephone responses will not be accepted. Responses must be received no later than 05/12/2023 10:00 AM PST. After review of the responses to this sources sought announcement, a solicitation may be published on the FedBizOpps or GSA eBuy websites. Responses to this sources sought announcement will not be considered adequate responses to the solicitation. All interested offerors must respond to the solicitation in addition to responding to this sources sought announcement. Prospective bidders must be authorized re-sellers in order to participate in the solicitation process. Notice to potential offerors: All offerors who provide goods or services to the United States Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov. Additionally, all Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses or Veteran Owned Small Businesses must be registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Veterans Enterprise VetBiz Registry located at www.vip.vetbiz.gov