Statistic Modeling Interactive Tool for Research Grant Data Analysis

This is a notice of intent, not a request for a proposal. A solicitation document will not be issued and proposals will not be requested. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of Acquisitions- Neurosciences, Station Support/Simplified Acquisition, on behalf of the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), intends to negotiate and award a purchase order on a noncompetitive basis to The University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute. The NINDS has a need to focus and prioritize its research activities, in order to more effectively pursue its mission of reducing the burden of neurological disease. The NINDS seeks a software tool for topic-modeling analysis and graphic display of categorical relationships between abstracts submitted to the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Currently, The NINDS possesses spreadsheets containing a list of grants including publically available information (i.e. Title, Principle Investigator, Abstract, etc), plus information regarding program staff assignments to each grant. However, at this time, the NINDS does not possess or have access to the type of topic-modeling and graphic output software necessary to process existing data efficiently and effectively. Dr. Gully Burns, Neuroinformatic Research Scientist, with the Information Sciences Institute at The University of Southern California has developed an all encompassing and ready to use interactive tool that has the capacity to process the NINDS data in its current form. The interactive tool uses an informatics technique known as Statistical Topic Modeling and it already overlays the framework that had previously been chosen for analysis, and thus provides the benefit of direct comparison within the NINDS ongoing efforts. It is anticipated that delivery will be 90 days. There is no known comparable tool available for this requirement the NINDS intends to award a purchase order on a noncompetitive basis to the University of Southern California. The acquisition is being conducted under simplified acquisition using FAR 13 procedures and is exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6, Competition Requirement. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this synopsis. The determination by the Government not to compete the proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely with the discretion of the Government. Comments to this announcement, referencing synopsis number NOI 456673 may be submitted to the NIDA, Station Support/Simplified Acquisition Branch, 31 Center Drive, Bldg 31, Room 1B59, Bethesda, MD 20892-2080, and Attention: Joseph S. Cuccurullo, Contract Specialist.