Quality Control of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN)

Action Code: Sources Sought Classification Code: AS21, R&D: Transportation-Motor Vehicle-Basic Research Solicitation: 693JJRQ18000052 Agency/Office: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Location: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration HQ NAICS Code: 541715, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences, 1,000 Employees. Point of Contract: Vincent Lynch, Contracting Officer, ph(202) 366-9568 Title: Quality Control of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) Description(s): The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is issuing this Sources Sought Notice to identify potential qualified Small Business (SB), Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), 8(a) Certified SDB, HUBZone SB, SDVOSB, or WOSB concerns that may be interested in and capable of performing the work described herein to support the CIREN program by performing quality control functions through a detailed and unbiased review of the case data collected and entered by the CIREN centers. The quality assurance contractor shall have the corporate/past experience needed to interpret the data collected by the CIREN centers, which is critical to expanding NHTSA's, and the public's, understanding of human injury causation in motor vehicle crashes by conducting in-depth investigations and performing multi-disciplinary reviews of case subjects' outcomes. The data generated in these studies will provide the impact biomechanics and automobile safety community with highly-detailed field-based data that can support trend analysis and research related to advanced dummies and models, injury criteria, restraint performance, and vehicle design. This data collection and analysis activity helps to provide the scientific basis needed to support the agency's motor vehicle and traffic safety goals. In addition to supporting internal NHTSA efforts, NHTSA-sponsored research provides high-quality publicly-accessible data that serves as the basis for countless other research endeavors. NHTSA welcomes all qualified Small Business concerns, with the appropriate NAICS Code and past experience to submit their Corporate Capability Statements that demonstrate their ability to successfully accomplish the goals of the project as listed below. NHTSA does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses to this notice or otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made; no formal evaluation of the information received will be conducted by NHTSA. NHTSA may; however later on issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). However, should such a requirement fail to materialize, no basis for claims against NHTSA shall arise as a result of a response to this notice. Background: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs. The agency develops, promotes, and implements effective educational, engineering, and enforcement programs with the goal of ending vehicle crash tragedies and reducing economic costs associated with vehicle use and highway travel. The Office of Vehicle Safety Research conducts extensive research, development, testing, crash investigation, and data collection and analysis activities to provide the scientific basis needed to support the Agency's motor vehicle and traffic safety goals. In addition to supporting internal NHTSA efforts, NHTSA-sponsored research provides high-quality publicly-accessible data that serves as the basis for countless other research endeavors. Motor vehicle traffic crashes are one of the leading causes of death for children and adults in the United States (CDC WISQARS data for 2015). In 2016, there were 37,461 fatalities and more than 2.4 million persons who sustained injury in traffic crashes on U.S. roads. Further examination of those fatalities indicates that 23,714 were light vehicle occupants, 5,286 were motorcyclists, and 5,987 were pedestrians. NHTSA strives to base its rulemaking and research priorities on findings from field crash data. In the late 1970s, NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) devised an approach to provide nationally-representative traffic crash data. NHTSA's NCSA operates data programs consisting of records-based systems (crash records recoded for uniformity) which include the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS) formerly known as the National Automotive Sampling System General Estimates System (NASS-GES); and the investigation-based Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS) formerly known as the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) and Special Crash Investigations (SCI) programs. CIREN is a sponsor-led multi-center research and data collection program involving a collaboration of clinicians and engineers in academia, industry, and government pursuing in-depth studies of crashes, and the resultant injuries and treatments, to improve processes and outcomes. Objective: The objectives of this project are to support the CIREN program by performing quality control functions through a detailed and unbiased review of the case data collected and entered by the CIREN centers and to prepare the data for researcher analysis and public release. Furthermore, this Contract provides indirect support to other NHTSA field data programs (CISS and SCI) as a result of the in-depth review and identification of problems with data collection and coding. The networked nature of CIREN will continue to support cross-pollination of knowledge and encourage development of new research areas well-suited to the participants' skills. Capabilities: The corporate capability statement must address the capabilities necessary to accomplish the scope outlined above as well as the additional tasks and characteristics given below: General Requirements The Contractor project personnel shall perform the requirements according to contract language, process documentation, and guidelines established by NHTSA - deliverables include quality control findings, edit check scripts, overall CIREN quality performance assessments, and periodic reports. The networked nature of the CIREN program requires frequent interaction with NHTSA, the CDAN IT contractor, and the CIREN contractors. The CIREN process includes frequent case review web conference meetings, and the Contractor must have at least one representative participate in each such meeting. The Contractor project personnel shall attend meetings and training sessions provided by NHTSA for the CIREN program and the CDAN data system as deemed necessary by the NHTSA COR or NHTSA CIREN Program Manager. The Contractor project personnel may be required to lead instructional or informational sessions on quality control at these training sessions. Format of Corporate Capabilities Statement: Any interested qualified Small Business firms, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), 8(a) Certified SDB, HUBZone SB, SDVOSB, or WOSB concerns should submit their Corporate Capability Statement, which demonstrates the firm's ability and past experience in no more than 10 pages to perform the key requirements described above to the identified NHTSA point of contact listed herein. Any proprietary information should be marked as such. All respondents are asked to certify the type and size of their business organization is in-line with the requirements of this Sources Sought Notice, and must be received no later than 5 calendar days from the date of publication of this notice.