Informatics Support Center for Breast and Colon Cancer Family Registries

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) is conducting a market survey to determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small businesses, including 8(a), small disadvantaged, woman owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, and HUBZone small businesses with the ability to perform the requirements of the program. ONLY SMALL BUSINESSES SHOULD RESPOND TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.The purpose of the acquisition is to provide continued support for the necessary maintenance and enhancement of the current Informatics Support Center (ISC) Central Database for the interdisciplinary Breast and Colon Cancer Family Registries (BC-CFR's), which are grant-supported. The Contractor will work with the BC-CFR, and therefore must be well-versed in the activities and objectives of the BC-CFR. The Contractor must have an understanding of, and comply with NCI Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) specifications; be able to provide related technical training and assistance to the BC-CFR participating sites and NCI staff; and provide statistical and study design support to the BC-CFR investigators, their collaborators, and NCI. The Contractor must have an established data management and quality control infrastructure, have the expertise and resources to develop software applications requested by NCI in support of the BC-CFR community, receive and aggregate data transmitted from the BC-CFR sites and provide requested data sets to investigators, and have the expertise to develop and maintain a virtual tissue repository system. The Contractor will provide expert and specific informatics services, including: (1) the capability to transfer, evaluate and enhance the current database architecture and its relational modular components. Enhancement/re-design of database architecture must proceed in compliance with the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) specifications; (2) continued integration of the NCI Cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR) metadata standards, and Common Data Elements approved by NCI; (3) quality control and cleaning of core and ancillary data; (4) maintenance of data available to the scientific community through the BC-CFR for collaborative projects; (5) provision of high-quality datasets to Principal Investigators of BC-CFR-approved projects; (6) development and maintenance of a Biospecimen Tracking System; (7) development and maintenance of a Virtual Tissue Repository; (8) provision of statistical methodology and research design support to BC-CFR investigators and NCI; (9) construction and implementation of a web-based system to access the BC-CFR summary data; and, (10) evaluation and development of software tools as needed.The current ISC uses a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) to create and maintain a secure data processing, storage and retrieval system of core and ancillary data and a centralized Biospecimen Tracking System for tracking the storage, retrieval and distribution of biological specimens at the repositories located at the BC-CFR participating sites. This system houses the BC-CFR's centralized database and includes interrelated modules. The incumbent contractor is Research Triangle Institute (contract number N02-PC-54406).The NCI intends to award a cost plus fixed fee contract for one base year period of performance on or about 4/1/2009. This contract will include four option years, with a period of performance from approximately 4/1/2010 to 3/31/2013. AT THIS TIME, ONLY CAPABILITY STATEMENTS FROM SMALL BUSINESSES ARE BEING REQUESTED. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. Capability statements must specify the offeror's business size and type, and demonstrate similar work that has been performed in the past and the dollar value of that work. The required service is defined as NAICS code 541512. For purposes of this announcement, a small business is defined as one that has revenues of <$23 Million. Small businesses that believe that they have the ability to satisfy all of the above stated capabilities, and who meet the stated size standards, are encouraged to submit a capability statement. The capability statement should be limited to no more than fifteen (15) pages and it should address each of the competencies indicated above. If responses indicate the likelihood of satisfactory competition among qualified businesses, the anticipated solicitation will be restricted to small businesses only. All capability statements sent in response to this SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to Diane Stalder, Contracting Officer, at email stalderd@mail.nih.gov, in either MS Word, Wordperfect or Adobe Document Format (PDF), by 5:00 pm Eastern time August 4, 2008. Questions regarding this requirement must be submitted in writing and directed to Diane Stalder a the above e-mail address before the closing date of this announcement.