Educational Support Services

This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential requirement. This Sources Sought Notice should not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment by the Government. The National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine (NLM) is conducting a market survey to help determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, 8(a) small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, woman-owned small businesses, and small disadvantaged businesses capable of serving the needs mentioned below. NLM will be seeking educational support services in the development, planning and implementation of workshops for the education of personnel involved in animal care and use programs at PHS assured institution(s). The vendor will also be responsible for executing the following tasks: Most workshops and conferences are conducted in concert with an institutional or organizational host. Under this acquisition, the vendor must be responsible for providing the host with substantive guidance and assistance with regard to logistical planning and execution. - The vendor must guide the host in developing logistic and administrative requirements of the workshop, to include: o Develop a registration fee that will be anticipated to off-set the host institution's expenses, o Develop and execute registration procedures and registration of attendees, o Select and reserve workshop venue, o Attend to other local administrative details to ensure a successful workshop. This may include, but is not necessarily limited to, arranging food and beverages, nametags, negotiating venue, procuring audio visual equipment, copy and print services, etc. The vendor must make a concerted effort to solicit appropriate participation of women, racial/ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities, and other individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented in science, in accord with the NIH Policy "Guidelines on Inclusion of Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in NIH Sponsored Intramural and Extramural Scientific Meetings and Conferences." (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not95-123.html) The workshops/conferences will be held at accessible sites, as outlined by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and, as applicable, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 that permits convenient accessibility for attendees. Participants with disabilities will be permitted to voluntarily identify any special needs. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE The vendor may be located anywhere in the US, but representatives must travel to and be available on site at all conferences and workshops organized under the agreement. MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS The vendor must have a detailed substantive understanding of the federal policies and rules governing laboratory animal care and use, the ability to work cooperatively with host institutions, and demonstrated experience in organizing and executing effective conferences and workshops. The vendor must provide professional content at the OLAW supported-workshops including: - The vendor must supply a core faculty consisting of 8 to 15 nationally recognized experts from academic, private and governmental organizations. The faculty expenses (e.g., honorarium, lodging, travel expenses, per diem and any other faculty expenses) will be the responsibility of the contractor and the co-host institution and will not be covered by OLAW. The faculty will teach on topics including: o Federal laws, regulations, guidance and policies, including but not limited to the Public Health Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the Animal Welfare Act Regulations. o Animal program operation o IACUC responsibilities and operations o Ethics - The vendor must invite members of OLAW, USDA APHIS AC and AAALAC, and other suitable international, national, state or local officials, as appropriate, to serve as adjunct faculty in workshops. - The education provided by the workshops will consist of modules appropriate for adult education including didactic and interactive session addressing comprehensive overviews of the laws, regulations and policies supplemented with examples and approaches for successful and effective implementation and administration. - A module will provide attendees the opportunity to participate in deliberative and challenging mock IACUC sessions with the benefit of guidance from the faculty. These interactive sessions will demonstrate the application of information presented during the didactic sessions. - The volunteer core faculty will develop and present lectures supported by suitable lecture materials (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote). - The faculty will develop appropriate scenarios for mock IACUC discussion sessions. The faculty will lead discussions of the scenarios with the workshop participants, supplemented by an interactive lecture system (e.g., Audience Response System). - The faculty will be available to meet and network with workshop participants during meals and breaks. - Students will receive an extensive Resource Manual in an appropriate combination of hard copy and electronic format specifically prepared for their workshop that contains copies of presentations along with relevant laws, regulations, policies and guidelines. - Students will be offered the opportunity to receive continuing education credits (e.g., Registry of Approved Continuing Education [RACE] credits) for their participation in the workshop programs. The vendor must provide technical support of the workshops, including: - Coordinating meeting planning, including contacting, inviting and making arrangements for core and adjunct faculty - Accepting requests, evaluating requests and selecting host organizations to assure that workshops hosts are both diverse and qualified to support workshops and that the educational opportunities are distributed throughout the nation, enabling individuals from various regions to have fair access. - Working in concert with the host organization to explain their responsibilities and guide them through the entire process of serving as host organization. - Advising and assisting the hosting institution in making conference arrangements at an appropriate location, including AV and other technical arrangements, room configuration, loading of power point presentations onto conference computer, etc. - Developing a master Resource Manual that includes up-to-date information and guidance culled from multiple sources (OLAW, USDA, AAALAC), handouts of workshop module presentations (e.g., PowerPoint notes), references, information, laws, regulations, and guidelines, evaluation sheets, sponsor acknowledgements, etc. Assists local host with arrangements for duplication of Resource Manual. - Developing and administering a written survey that will be distributed to participants after each workshop to collect participant assessment of the workshops. OLAW will be provided with a compilation of the survey data and the contractor will maintain a database of all the surveys. DELIVERABLES 1. Workshops as described 2. Logistical, administrative and planning support to host institutions, as described 3. Resource manual, as described 4. Student evaluations data, as described This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in 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 a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Please send all responses via email to Raymond Hawkins, Contracting Officer, at hawkinsra@mail.nih.gov . Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s)."