NICHD International and Domestic Pediatric and Maternal HIV Studies Coordinating Center

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT, NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. A SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED AND PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE REQUESTED. The Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Disease (MPID) Branch, of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) National Institutes of Health, intends to negotiate a modification to Contract No. HHSN275201300003C entitled, "NICHD International and domestic Pediatric and Maternal HIV Studies Coordinating Center," to increase the negotiated level of effort to WESTAT, Inc. Under the ongoing contract, the NICHD requires continuous and recurring logistical, technical, and administrative support to maintain, coordinate, and manage a multi-site network of domestic and international clinical centers conducting research on treatment, prevention, diagnosis, epidemiology, and natural history of HIV infection and disease and its infectious and non-infectious complications in pediatric, adolescent, and maternal patient populations as well as other high priority infectious diseases affecting children and pregnant women in resource limited countries (e.g. tuberculosis, malaria). WESTAT furnishes all the necessary services, qualified personnel, materials, equipment, and facilities needed to implement, maintain, coordinate, and manage a multi-site network of clinical centers to conduct current and future activities described above. This increased level of effort can only be provided by Westat, Inc., because these services can only be done as a part of the existing infrastructure of the current contract. Awarding a new contract to another contractor would require it to duplicate the infrastructure for participant recruitment in multiple clinical trials, provide another database for data collection, and provide additional laboratory services, etc. This would be highly inefficient and would not allow the project to continue uninterrupted. Multiple clinical trials are already in place in both international and domestic sites, extensive resources have been used to prepare the research sites for recruitment and study activities and training for all staff on current data systems and study procedures. Almost all of this work would need to be duplicated, if additional labor hours had to be purchased elsewhere. This would result in unacceptable delays and increased costs to the government. In view of its experience with the activities under the current contract and its existing infrastructure, Westat, Inc., is uniquely qualified to perform the proposed work. This is not a request for proposals. However, if any responsible source believes it can perform the above requirement, it may a capability statement electronically for consideration by the NICHD to Elizabeth Osinski, Contracting Officer, at eo43m@nih.gov or to Lynn Salo at ls59u@nih.gov. Information regarding respondents': (a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information should be provided if you submit a capability statement. Your capability statement should be no more than 15 pages in length, excluding resumes. All responses must be received in electronically no later than October 15, 2014 and must contain material in sufficient detail to allow the NICHD to determine if the organization can perform this requirement. The capability statement will be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government.