National Children's Study Vanguard 2.0

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT, NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. A SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED AND PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) serves as the lead agency for the National Children's Study (NCS). The NCS is a longitudinal cohort study that will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of children. Additional information about the Study to include the current Concept of Operations is available on the Study Website (http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov). An extensive and ongoing pilot phase of the National Children's Study, known as the Vanguard Study, began field work in January 2009. The goals of the Vanguard Study are feasibility, acceptability and cost evaluation of recruitment, study visit data collection, and logistics. Vanguard Study activities are separate from the exposure response assessments that form the core of a separate Main Study. The Vanguard Study will continue for the next two decades as a separate study linked to and informing the larger Main Study. The Vanguard Study is necessary to test and validate all procedures for the Main Study prior to scale up and implementation. About 4,000 children were enrolled under the NCS Vanguard Study. The Vanguard 2.0 Study is continuing to implement the next phase of the NCS Vanguard Study with a focus on the core activities of participant retention, study visit development and assessment and formative research on methods to address specific questions or needs. Contract No. HHSN275201200007I Entitled "National Children's Study Vanguard 2.0" South Regional Operating Center (South ROC) Contractor: Northwestern University The NCS seeks to expand the Vanguard Study through enrollment of subsequent births by women with children already enrolled in the Study. During the Vanguard Study's Alternate Recruitment Substudy (ARS), enrollment has been limited to babies born during a pre-defined recruitment period, which for any single family may be more than one birth event. These time frames are now complete for each of the various ARS recruitment approaches and no new recruitment is currently allowed. It is expected that recruitment in the NCS Main Study will occur over multiple years. Thus, women enrolled in the Main study could experience more than one pregnancy during the recruitment period. Enrollment of additional births in the Vanguard Study is critical to our ability to best operationalize future recruitment activities. The Offeror must have the ability to enroll sibling births at a limited number of Study locations that represent the highest birth rates in our study and administer the NCS approved study protocol that includes the collection of environmental samples, biospecimens and physical measurements during pre-pregnancy and pre- and post-natal visits. This Notice of Intent is not a request for proposal. However, if responsible sources believe that they can perform the above request, they are encouraged to respond by submitting three (3) copies of the capability statement for consideration by the NICHD to Deborah A. Baca, Contracting Officer, NICHD Office of Acquisitions, Contract Management Branch, 6100 Executive Boulevard, Room 8B13B, MSC 7510, Bethesda, MD 20892-7510: (301) 443-7794; dbaca@mail.nih.gov Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the 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. Information provided will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback with respect to any information submitted.