Introduction

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

Background

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) supports research related to the basic understanding, treatment and ultimately prevention of infectious, immune-mediated and allergic diseases that threaten millions of human lives. The NIAID Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) supports a comprehensive extramural research program focused on the prevention and control of diseases caused by virtually all infectious agents (with the exception of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)). The NIAID is re-competing the Structural Genomics Centers for Infectious Diseases (SGCID) program, herein now referred to as the Centers for Research on Structural Biology of Infectious Diseases (CRSTAL-ID).

In 2007, the NIAID established two five-year contracts to support the SGCID program. These SGCID centers focused on determining three-dimensional (3D) structures of protein targets of biomedical interest. The SGCID program was re-competed in 2012 and two five-year contracts were awarded to the incumbents. In 2017, the SGCID program was again recompeted and two five-year contracts were awarded to the incumbents (https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/structural-genomics-centers-infectious-diseases-resources):

1.  Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (novated to Seattle Children’s        Research Institute) (Contract No. HHSN272201700059C)

2.  Northwestern University (Contract No. HHSN272201700060C)

Purpose and Objectives

The goal of the CRSTAL-ID program is to continue to support experimental determination of 3D protein structures and other molecules with important biological roles across human pathogens, and pathogen and host proteins involved in host-pathogen interactions. Pathogens include those on the NIAID Category A-C Priority Pathogen lists and organisms associated with emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases:  https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/emerging-infectious-diseases-pathogens.  

This CRSTAL-ID program will support research projects that utilize experimental approaches to define the molecular mechanisms of protein targets and gain further insight into the functional roles of these targets. Knowledge from these protein structures and their molecular functions will inform: 1) a structural view of biological processes and pathways which will assist systems-level investigations; and 2) insights into functional mechanisms of the protein target(s), either in complex with other biological molecules or with synthetic compounds. Moreover, the CRSTAL-ID program will support projects that perform structure-guided vaccine design and drug discovery and will conduct evaluation and validation assays required for therapeutic use against infectious diseases. This rational structure-guided approach will improve selectivity, specificity and optimization of drug and vaccine development pipelines. Of critical importance, the CRSTAL-ID program will support projects on antimicrobial resistance and pandemic preparedness for emerging infectious disease threats with a focus on viruses with epidemic or pandemic potential to aid in coordination of NIAID response efforts. The 3D structure information, reagents and services provided by the CRSTAL-ID centers will be made freely available to the broad scientific community.

Project requirements

The purpose of this anticipated solicitation is for scientific support of the CRSTAL-ID program through a) generation of 3D structures for targets derived from bacterial, viral, eukaryotic and other human pathogens using state-of-the-art high-throughput (HTP) technologies and structural biology methodologies including x-ray crystallography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM), and structural modeling; b) characterization of molecular functions and biochemical properties of selected targets; c) evaluation of structure-guided design and functional studies of drug targets and vaccine candidates; d) provision of pandemic preparedness and rapid response to emerging infectious diseases threats and programmatic priorities; e) provision of a 3D structure determination service to the external scientific community; and f) dissemination of contract generated resources, including all 3D structure information and reagents.

Anticipated period of performance

It is anticipated that two (2) cost reimbursement, level of effort type contracts will be awarded with a one-year base period of performance beginning on or around June 1, 2022.  Awards are expected to include 4 one-year option periods.  The Government’s base level of effort requirement is estimated at 31,200 labor hours for each contract year, equating to 15 FTE’s with an FTE being defined as 2,080 hours. In addition to the base level of effort, each year of performance is anticipated to contain an option quantity for up to 12 additional FTEs.

Capability statement / information sought

Sources are expected to have the expertise, personnel, and facilities to meet requirements of this project.  Tailored Capability Statements submitted as a result of this announcement should demonstrate the offerors’ qualifications and experience, specifically providing evidence as to their capability to perform this requirement, with particular attention to the following technical areas:

1. The ability to establish and maintain a CRSTAL-ID program that applies state-of-the art HTP technologies and structural biology methodologies to experimentally characterize the 3D atomic structure of proteins or other molecules having an important biological role belonging to human pathogens, include those in the NIAID Category A-C Priority Pathogen lists and organisms causing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases  https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/emerging-infectious-diseases-pathogens
2. The ability to establish and implement projects aimed at characterizing the molecular functional role and biochemical properties of targets whose 3D structure was determined by the incumbent NIAID SGCID centers.
3. The ability to establish and implement projects aimed at performing structure-guided vaccine design and drug discovery, and evaluation and validation of the underlying mechanism of action required for therapeutic use against infectious diseases.
4. The ability to establish and implement projects aimed at performing pandemic preparedness for emerging infectious disease threats with a focus on viruses with epidemic or pandemic potential to aid in the NIAID pandemic preparedness and response strategy and facilitate rapid response measures.
5. The ability to establish data management system, computational infrastructure and bioinformatics capability to support data management and analysis, algorithm and software application development, and other computational approaches for assisting target selection and in silico screening for structure-guided vaccine design and drug discovery.
6. The ability to provide structure determination services to the external scientific community and to establish processes to engage external investigators for collecting recommendations for targets for structure determination.
7. The ability to ensure that all contract-generated resources are publicly available and easily accessible to the scientific community.
8. The ability to establish a multi-disciplinary team with adequate scientific and technical personnel according to meet the required labor hours per contract year.
9. The ability to provide a technical and administrative management infrastructure to ensure the efficient planning, implementation, oversight, and completion of all required activities.
10. The ability to provide facilities, equipment, space, and other resources necessary to carry out the required activities.

Page Limitations:

Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored Capability Statement not to exceed five pages, excluding resumes. Capability Statements must not include links to internet web site addresses (URLs) or otherwise direct readers to alternate sources of information.  Font size must be 10 to 12 points. Spacing must be no more than 15 characters per inch. Within a vertical inch, there must be no more than six lines of text. Print margins must be at least one-inch on each edge of the paper. Print setup should be single-sided on standard letter size paper (8.5 x 11" in the U.S., A4 in Europe). All proprietary information should be marked as such.

Required Business Information:

• DUNS.
• Company Name.
• Company Address.
• Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email address
• Current GSA Schedules and/or Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) appropriate to this Sources Sought.
• Do you have a Government approved accounting system?  If so, please identify the agency that approved the system.
• Type of Company (i.e., small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.) as validated via the System for Award Management (SAM) located at https://www.sam.gov/index.html/#1. This indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your Capability Statement (preferable placed under the eligible small business concern’s name and address).

Number of Copies:

Please submit one (1) electronic copy of your response as follows:

All Capability Statements sent in response to this Small Business Sources Sought notice must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to Swee Teo, Contracting Officer, at [email protected] in MS Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).  The e-mail subject line must specify HHS-SBSS-75N93021R00009. Facsimile responses will not be accepted.

Common Cut-off Date:

Electronically submitted tailored capability statements are due no later than 3:00PM (Eastern Prevailing Time) on May 5, 2021. CAPABILITY STATEMENTS RECEIVED AFTER THIS DATE AND TIME WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Disclaimer and Important Notes

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in 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 to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Beta.SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).”