Biosurveillance Tools for Early Warning of Infectious Outbreaks

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Combat Capabilities Development Command, Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) - Biosurveillance Tools for Early Warning of Infectious Outbreaks Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited General Information: Type: Request for Information (RFI) Response Date: 30 April 2021 Classification Code: North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 519190. Contracting Office Address: The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Edgewood Contracting Division (ACC ECD), 8456 Brigade Street, BLDG E4215, Aberdeen Proving Ground MD 21010-5401 THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes - it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. Solicitations are not available at this time. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response and documents submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned. This notice does not constitute a commitment by the United States Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary; the United States Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the United States Government. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on https://beta.sam.gov/. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to this requirement. ELIGIBILITY: The Combat Capabilities Development Command, Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) invites participation from all those engaged in related research activities and appreciates responses from all capable and qualified sources including, but not limited to, universities, university-affiliated research centers (UARCs), Federally-Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), private or public companies, and Government research laboratories. The ACC ECD, on behalf of DEVCOM CBC is requesting information on commercial off the shelf (COTS) or near-COTS disease forecasting tools or epidemiological decision support systems. Responses shall be for expert systems and services and not Research and Development efforts. The systems technologies will be capable of providing early indications and warnings of potential emerging biological threats and will assess technology capability to identify, accumulate and synthesize relevant data from open sources into timely and operationally actionable information. Data types include, but are not limited to, infectious diseases, zoonotic diseases, plant pathogens and surrogate secondary information, excess mortality, increase in hospitalizations, bio security threat information, surge in prescriptions, etc. ACC ECD is seeking the following information from respondents: 1. REQUIRED CAPABILITIES A Timeliness and ability in identifying and reporting potentially significant infection outbreak events and information assume droplets of 500 microns or smaller Extent to which the system leverages AI to search for, screen, filter, fuse and report on potential infection outbreaks Ability to search host nation language reports, articles, social media, etc. and translate raw data and reports into English Effectiveness of web-scraping and other electronic means to search and pull in relevant data and information Level of access to existing related data bases and information feeds Ease of use Data and information architecture, visualization and data layer customization User ability to tune search functions, alert levels and report outputs Ability to incorporate system into a broader integrated bio and health surveillance architecture for DOD and Interagency application System life cycle cost and value proposition Please specify, in detail, any licensing and subscription costs for the expert systems and services. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: The response date for this market research is 30 April 2021 at 3:00PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). No telephone calls will be accepted. All responses to the RFI may be submitted via email to the Contract Specialist at Sheila.l.ramos2.civ@mail.mil or the Contracting Officer at brian.e.mazen.civ@mail.mil. Respondents to this RFI are encouraged to be as succinct as possible, while also providing actionable insight. FORMAT: Page limits for each section are indicated below. Format specifications for responses include 12-point font, single-spaced, single-sided, 8.5 by 11-inch paper, with 1-inch margins. Responses must be in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format (and, as applicable, PowerPoint). Respondents are responsible for clearly identifying proprietary information. Responses containing proprietary information must clearly mark each page containing such information with a label such as - Proprietary or - Company Proprietary. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IN THE RFI RESPONSE. 1. Cover Sheet (1 page): Please provide the following information: a. Response Title b. Technical point of contact name, organization, telephone number, and email address Indicate the Topic Area(s) addressed by the response 2. Technical Description (6 pages) 3. Bibliography/References (2 pages) 4. Graphic Overview Slide (Optional): If desired, include a single PowerPoint slide that graphically depicts the main ideas of the response. QUESTIONS OR REQUESTS FOR CLARIFICATION: Only electronically submitted questions and requests for clarifications regarding this RFI will be accepted. No telephone calls regarding this RFI will be accepted. Written questions and requests for clarification shall be submitted to the following email address: Contract Specialist at Sheila.l.ramos2.civ@mail.mil or the Contracting Officer at brian.e.mazen.civ@mail.mil no later than 3:00 PM EDT 30 April 2021.