SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- NIH Toolbox Design Consulting for Research Domain Criteria Field Test Battery
- Notice Date
- 8/27/2018
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 4211, MSC 9559, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-9559, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20892-9559
- Solicitation Number
- NIHDA201800455
- Archive Date
- 9/26/2018
- Point of Contact
- Jeffrey Brown, Phone: 301.827.5852, Kenneth Goodling, Phone: 301.443.6677
- E-Mail Address
-
jeffrey.brown@nih.gov, kgoodlin@nida.nih.gov
(jeffrey.brown@nih.gov, kgoodlin@nida.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE OF INTENT NON-COMPETITIVE INTRODUCTION PURSUANT TO FAR Subpart 5.2-Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions, THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE OF A PROPOSED CONTRACT TO ACTION. THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-NAME). The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), on behalf of the National Institutes of Mental Health intends to negotiate and award a contract with the North Western University to obtain "NIH Toolbox" Design Consulting for Research Domain Criteria Field Test Battery. North Western is the only source can furnish the requirements, to the exclusion of other sources, because they have worked on apps that employ IRT and CAT approaches to achieve brief presentation while maintaining optimal reliability and validity, and that inlclude both behavioral tasks and also self-report measures (for traits that cannot feasibly be assessed by behavioral tasks). They have prior experience in developing tasks that can be adapted as necessary for a wide range of ages, from middle childhood (where feasible and appropriate) throughout the entire adult life span. Specifically, NIMH seeks to gather further information regarding the technical approaches of the "NIH Toolbox" project, in which applications were developed to measure a wide range of applications for measuring traits and behaviors in large studies, including major studies supported by NIMH such as the Human Connectome Project. It is critical to attain consulation regarding the Toolbox instruments for two reasons: first, the Toolbox platform is used across many NIH projects, and so can provide common testing environments and integration across studies from multiple NIH Institutes; and second, these tasks represent leading candidates for common data elements in the future, that will be required across many studies so as to facilitate large-scale analyses. NIMH requires a contractor that has experience with tasks presented to large numbers of subjects across multiple NIH-supported projects, in order to plan for the use of common data elements across studies that allow data mining in very large samples. NIMH requires a contractor that is working on apps that employ IRT and CAT approaches to achieve brief presentation time while maintaining optimal reliability and validity, and that include both behavioral tasks and also self-report measures (for traits that cannot feasibly be assessed by behavioral tasks). NIMH requires a contractor with experience in developing tasks that can be adapted as necessary for a wide range of ages, from middle childhood (where feasible and appropriate) throughout the entire adult life span. Finally, NIMH requires a contractor whose research includes tasks and measures that assess various RDoC constructs. Accordingly, North Western University is uniquely qualified to provide the services required for this contract. North Western Unviersity, 625 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2700; Chicago, IL 60611 NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 54 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. REGULATORY AUTHORITY The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses of the Federal Acquisition Requlation (FAR) in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 05- 2005-94 and 2005-95. Effective January 24, 2018 STATUTORY AUTHORITY This acquisition is conducted as non-competitive under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c) under provisions of the statutory authority of FAR Subpart 6.302-2. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT "NIH Toolbox" Design Consulting for Research Domain Criteria Field Test Battery. Project Description The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is developing a field test battery for its Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project. RDoC is a research framework for studying mental disorders that is organized around particular domains of cognition or functioning, such as fear, memory, and social cognition, rather than traditional diagnostic categories such as schizophrenia or depression. In diagnosing patients and devising outcomes of clinical trials, the emphasis is upon quantitative measurement of such functions rather than reports of symptoms as in traditional studies. There is accordingly a need to develop tests and measures of these functions that are reliable and valid in multiple settings. The RDoC framework specifies dimensions of behavior or cognition that are based upon both a validated function (such as fear or working memory) and a neural circuit or system that has been shown to play a primary role in implementing each function. This approach was taken deliberately to increase the scientific rigor for each dimension, but most tests designed over the past decades have not used this circuit-based approach. For this reason, there are relatively few tests available to date for RDoC dimensions, and extant tests must be chosen carefully to ensure that they meet the standards. NIMH has been actively evaluating and supporting the development of such tests and measures over the past several years, but these have focused on studies conducted in laboratories and clinics where tests are implemented by dedicated laboratory equipment with sophisticated stimulus presentation and data recording capabilities. Further, for some tasks the primary measurement involves a physiological reaction rather than behavioral responses. Currently, NIMH has initiated the development of a field test battery to be deployed in very large, population-based samples (such as the "All of Us" sample of the Precision Medicine Initiative) in order to provide normative data and study the relationship of various RDoC domains to other measures of mental illness and related health outcomes as gauged by electronic health records. In this case the tests must be administered via internet-based tasks in a subject's home, with the result that some extant tasks cannot be used at all and others must be modified extensively for use with a small device in a home setting. In 2016 a workgroup of the National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC) completed a report about Tasks and Measures for RDoC constructs. This report provides a starting point for the proposed work. However, the report emphasized paradigms that can be used in laboratory settings, that sometimes depend on physiological recordings as the primary measure or have other features that make field testing impossible (for instance, the use of a group of laboratory confederates to study social stress). In addition, the field is developing rapidly, and in the year since this report was compiled, more tests have appeared for development by various groups. Therefore, considerable additional work is needed to build upon the foundation of the NAMHC workgroup's report. As mentioned, there are relatively few appropriate tests available for RDoC dimensions to date, and for a number of the 39 current constructs there are no tests at all. Therefore, expert opinion regarding the priority for commissioning development of tests to measure particular dimensions constitutes a final important element of the work to be performed under this contract. This contract aligns closely with the RDoC goals in the NIMH Strategic Plan, which call for enhancing the ability of the RDoC framework to support research that explores domains of functioning that cut across traditional mental disorder categories. Purpose and Objectives The purpose of this contract is to obtain expert consultation regarding: 1) the overall concept and development of a comprehensive web-based test battery that emphasizes tasks that engage subjects' interest; 2) expertise in tasks that utilize item-response theory (IRT) and computer-adaptive testing (CAT) approaches to derive valid data in a short time period; 3) expertise and experience with the tasks used in the NIH Toolbox and other tasks being developed for NIH-directed research, in order to achieve compatibility and common data elements where possible among various NIH projects; 4) expertise in self-report measures that may need to be used where behavioral tasks are not feasible; 5) expertise in developing tasks and measures that are scalable across as broad an age range as possible. Period of Performance: September 29, 2018-September 28, 2019 CLOSING STATEMENT This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. Responses to this notice must include sufficient information to establish the interested parties' bona-fide capabilities of providing the product or service. The price quote shall include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, delivery days after contract award, delivery terms, prompt payment discount terms, F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), product or catalog number(s); product description; and any other information or factors that may be considered in the award decision. Such factors may include: past performance; special features required for effective program performance; trade-in considerations; probable life of the item selected as compared with that of a comparable item; warranty considerations; maintenance availability; and environmental and energy efficiency considerations. In addition the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size must be included in the response. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov." A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement. All responses must be received by September 11, 2018 by 12:00pm EST and must reference number NIHDA201800455. Responses must be submitted electronically to Jeffrey Brown at jeffrey.brown@nih.gov and must reference the solicitation number NIHDA201800455, on your electronic request. FAX requests are not accepted. "All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency."
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