Notice Number: NOT-AI-08-065

Key Dates
Release Date:  September 16, 2008
Receipt Date: January 9, 2009

Issued by
National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), (http://www.niaid.nih.gov)

Description

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) supports research related to the basic understanding of microbiology and immunology leading to the development of vaccines, therapeutics, and medical diagnostics for the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of infectious and immune-mediated diseases.  The NIAID, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, has a requirement to maintain Bioinformatics Resource Centers, which have become the public repository of genomics and related data generated by NIAID-supported genomics programs and grants and contracts as well as publicly available data generated by the scientific community. 

This initiative will provide for the continuation of the Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) program, as well as the expansion, to include collaboration on experimental research projects and maintenance of a central BRCs Portal. The BRCs will be established to provide the scientific community with databases that house not only genomics data, but also a variety of research data about infectious diseases caused by human pathogens in the NIAID Category A-C Priority Pathogen lists for biodefense research, as well as pathogens causing emerging/re-emerging infectious diseases (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/research/topics/emerging/list.htm), and to make available analytical resources and bioinformatics services.

Specifically, the Contractor shall be required to establish and maintain a Bioinformatics Resource Center that will provide scientific, web-based database resources to researchers who use in their investigations genomics and other basic research data of microbial organisms. To provide these resources, the Centers will: 1) collect and efficiently update research data for multiple pathogens; 2) establish databases that store, integrate, and annotate a large variety of experimental data types from different public and private data sources; 3) develop interfaces to the databases to allow external users to easily query, retrieve, analyze, upload, and download data; 4) develop software tools and algorithms to analyze and curate pathogen research data. Software developed by the Centers shall be made available to the scientific community with an open source license, with the appropriate tutorials and help documentation. Data generated by the Centers will also be publicly disseminated to the scientific community. Outreach activities to the scientific community, hands-on training and workshops shall be provided by the BRC.

Moreover, the expansion of the BRCs program will provide the opportunity for the BRCs to collaborate with experimental research laboratories through “Driving Biological Projects (DBPs)” to apply bioinformatics techniques to investigate and support experimental biology research in infectious diseases.  Finally, one of the BRCs shall support and maintain the BRCs Portal of information for the BRCs program (currently named BRC-Central http://www.brc-central.org/). The BRCs Portal will serve as the central data repository and analysis resource for all targeted pathogens for selected data types, and will facilitate interoperability projects among the BRCs and with other bioinformatics resources.

Upon award, the new contractors will have to ensure an effective transition of the data and software hosted by the incumbent BRCs contractors into the new BRC and BRCs Portal.

It is anticipated that multiple cost reimbursement, completion type contracts will be awarded for a five-year period of performance beginning on or about August 24, 2009.  It is estimated that the provision of FTEs will be approximately as follows:  12.4 FTE per year for the BRC and 16.4 FTE for the BRC that will also support the BRCs Portal.

This RFP will be available electronically on or about September 15, 2008, and may be accessed through FedBizOpps http://www.fedbizopps.gov/.  Only electronic copies of the solicitation will be available.  All information required for the submission of an offer will be contained in the solicitation. Responses to this RFP will be due approximately January 9, 2009.  Any responsible Offeror may submit a proposal that will be considered by the Government, however, this notice does not commit the Government to award a contract.  No collect calls will be accepted.  No facsimile transmissions will be accepted.

Inquiries

For questions or further information, contact:

Kathy Fetterman
Contract Specialist
Office of Acquisitions, Division of Extramural Activities, NIAID, NIH, HHS
6700-B Rockledge Drive, Room 3214, MSC 7612
Bethesda, MD  20892-7612 (Express mail:  Use Zip Code 20817-7612)
Phone 301-402-4598
Fax 301-480-4675
Email fettermanka@niaid.nih.gov

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	Office of Extramural Research (OER)			National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892			Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
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