Grant Funding Analysis and Reviewer Finder

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Information Technology and Applications Center (ITAC) Grant Funding Analysis and Reviewer Finder Sources Sought Notice HHS-NIH-NHLBI-HO-15-07-JT Contracting Office Address Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Rockledge Dr. Bethesda, MD, Office of Acquisitions 6701 Rockledge Dr RKL2/6016 MSC 7902, Bethesda, MD, 20892-7902, UNITED STATES 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 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 541511. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a small business set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under NAICS code 541511 should not submit a response to this notice. Background The NHLBI is seeking small businesses with the ability to (1) modernize the NHLBI's current Reviewer Finder application using the latest technologies and interfaces and (2) provide a Portfolio Analysis solution design that consolidates analysis use cases and NHLBI business owner requirements, and (3) provides access to data sources used for international grant abstracts, publications and citations, researcher expertise, funders, awards, etc. (1) The current Reviewer Finder application includes the following features: - Identify reviewers using fingerprint technology, manage study sections, assign applications and check for conflicts of interests automatically. - Find the best reviewers by automatically comparing application science to 4 million expertise profiles. - Clusters applications together for reviewer identification. - Modeled against the NIH peer review process. - Users can build and edit committees in real time. - Propose and finalize reviewer assignments and automatically exclude experts with conflicts of interest. (2) There are currently limited portfolio analysis capabilities at the NHLBI. Project Requirements (1) Modernize Reviewer Finder Application - Understand and modernize the current features of the Reviewer Finder application using the latest technologies, interfaces and databases. - Replace the current Reviewer Finder with a modernized version of the tool. - Reviewer Finder Application o User Administration extension to use NIH Single Sign-On o Reviewer Identification Extensions for NHLBI Reviewer o Identification for Clusters ? Meetings ? Multi-project application o Committee Builder o Committee Manager - Reviewer Finder Infrastructure o Development Infrastructure and Deployment Infrastructure - Reviewer Finder Data Preparation o Prepare non-public NIH grants data for use in Reviewer Identification - Reviewer Finder Contribution to eRA Application Programming Interface (API) o Upload data to eRA o Author disambiguation using eRA person profiles - Provide access to data sources that provide international grant funding information to make reviewer decisions and portfolio analysis decisions. (2) Portfolio Analysis Requirements and Design - Determine what features of the Portfolio Analysis tool are required to be implemented to meet the goals of the NHLBI. - Provide a Portfolio Analysis solution design that consolidates analysis use cases and NHLBI business owner requirements. (3) Optional Scope - Prioritize and implement the Portfolio Analysis solution requirements and design. Capability Statement Small business concerns that believe they possess the capabilities necessary to undertake this work should submit complete documentation of their capabilities to the Contracting Officer. The capabilities statement must specifically address each project requirement separately. Additionally, the capability statement should include 1) the total number of employees, 2) the professional qualifications of scientists, medical experts, and technical personnel as it relates to the above outlined requirements, 3) a description of general and specific facilities and equipment available, including computer equipment and software, 4) an outline of previous projects that are similar to the project requirements in which the organization and proposed personnel have participated, and 5) any other information considered relevant to this program. The capability statement must not exceed 5 single sided or 2.5 double sided pages in length and using a 12-point font size minimum. Interested small business organizations are required to identify their 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 numbers 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 John Turner, Contract Specialist, at john.turner@nih.gov and Marianne DiSomma, Contracting Officer, at disommam@nhlbi.nih.gov in either MS Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), 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. 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 one (1) Firm Fixed Price contract, with a base period of six (6) months and one (1) optional period of six (6) months, with an approximate award date of January 5, 2015. Original Point of Contact John Turner, Contract Specialist, NHLBI COAC Services Branch, Phone (301) 402-9787, Email: john.turner@nih.gov