SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- Security Risk Assessment
- Notice Date
- 8/16/2007
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 561611
— Investigation Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Office of Acquisitions 6700 B Rockledge Room 3214 MSC7612, Bethesda, MD, 20892-7612, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-NIHAO2007005
- Response Due
- 9/7/2007
- Archive Date
- 9/22/2007
- Description
- Background: This notice is for information and planning purposes only. This is not a request for proposals and does not commit the government to award a contract now or in the future. No solicitation is available at this time. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Division of Extramural Activities (DEA) is interested in identifying whether there are any interested organizations with expertise in assessing procedures for the conduct of personnel security clearances in place at foreign institutions. An assessment of the procedures for the conduct of personnel security clearances must be conducted prior to the NIAID approving the use of funds under a grant or contract to a foreign institution for work with select agents. Select agents are biological agents and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety, to animal health, to plant health, or to animal or plant products. To prevent the misuse of select agents, the United States issued federal regulations, including the Final Rule 42 CFR Part 73, 7 CFR Part 331, and 9 CFR Part 121 for the use, possession and transfer of select agents regulated by, respectively, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (http://www.cdc.gov/od/sap/pdfs/42_cfr_73_final_rule.pdf ) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) (http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/pdf/05-5063.pdf). One of the requirements of the regulations is that all individuals who access select agents must have an approved security risk assessment by having their background checked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division (Section 73.10, 331.10 and 121.10 of the Final Rules). These U.S. regulations are adopted by the NIAID select agent policy, which requires that U.S. grantees and contractors comply with the requirements of the U.S. regulations before the funds on select agent research can be used. For foreign grantees and contractors, the NIAID select agent policy requires the awardees to provide information about their institutional safety and security procedures and measures for the use, possession, and transfer of select agents, including their procedures for the individual security risk assessment, so that it can be assessed whether the procedures and measures are comparable to those described in the U.S. regulations. The assessment of the procedures and measures will be reviewed by the NIAID Interagency Select Agent Review Group (ISARG), who will provide a recommendation to the director of Division of Extramural Activities (DEA) for the approval of the use of funds on select agent research conducted at the foreign institutions. Scope: It is estimated that there will be, annually, three or four foreign grantees/contractors whose projects involve select agents and are, therefore, required to comply with the NIAID select agent policy. The primary purpose of this announcement is to identify whether there are interested organizations with the demonstrated expertise in global security risk assessment needed to assess the information or procedures regarding the conduct of personnel security clearances provided by the foreign awardees and to report to the NIAID whether the procedures are effective and reliable. Additionally, interested organizations are requested to provide evidence of their demonstrated capability to conduct or assist in the conduct of background checks on a foreign awardees staff; as such capabilities may also be required by the NIAID. Objective: To be deemed capable to perform this requirement an organization must submit a written capability statement that clearly demonstrates the ability to: 1) To review a foreign institution?s procedures for the conduct of personnel security clearances for individuals who have access to select agents and to assess whether the procedures are effective and reliable. 2) To provide recommendations of what changes are needed, if the procedure is deemed not to be effective and reliable. Additionally, it is requested that interested organizations please provide: 1) Information on whether they can provide such services off of the GSA Schedule. 2) Approaches and methodologies to pricing such services. Responses: Interested organizations that believe they have the capabilities necessary to successfully perform this requirement may submit a Capability Statement to Mr. Charles Newman, Contract Specialist, via e-mail at newmanc@mail.nih.gov by 1:00 P.M. EDT on September 7, 2007. Please note that there is no standard form or format for such Capability Statements. However, at a minimum your submission must clearly provide the information concerning your organization?s capabilities in an organized manner. Responses should be limited to no more than 20 pages and should clearly address each of the competencies stated above. Any proprietary information should be so marked. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 561611. Therefore, the small business size standard for this announcement is $11.5 million in annual receipts. See http://www.sba.gov/size/ for information on what is a small business and a guide on size standards. If Capability Statements received in response to this announcement indicate a reasonable expectation of obtaining competitive offers from two or more responsible and capable small business concerns, the anticipated subsequent solicitation may be 100% set-aside for small businesses. All small business organizations (SB, SDB, WOSB, HUBZONE, VOSB, and SDVOSB) are encouraged to respond to this notice. The Government reserves the right to cancel this requirement at any time. Please be advised that all information submitted will be considered proprietary. No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing to a respondent concerning the review of their submitted material.
- Record
- SN01374688-W 20070818/070816220631 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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