SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Small Business Sources Sought: LitCoin Foundational Knowledge Graph Generation
- Notice Date
- 2/13/2023 6:41:03 AM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIDA Bethesda MD 20892 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20892
- Solicitation Number
- 75N95023Q00114-SBSS
- Response Due
- 2/27/2023 6:00:00 AM
- Point of Contact
- Renato Gomes
- E-Mail Address
-
renato.gomes@nih.gov
(renato.gomes@nih.gov)
- Description
- 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; (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition; and (4) availability of domestic sources manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory quality. 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. This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement and to determine the method of acquisition.� It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract.� Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotes.� No award will be made as a result of this notice.� The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice.� This notice is strictly for research and information purposes only. Background:� The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation�s leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people�s health and save lives. NCATS is one of 27 Institutes and Centers at the NIH and its mission is to catalyze the generation of innovative methods and technologies that will enhance the development, testing and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics across a wide range of human diseases and conditions. ODDPP promotes innovations that improve the efficiency of drug development from target identification � including expanding the target landscape � through early-stage clinical trials. With an ever-growing number of scientific studies in various subject domains, there is a vast landscape of biomedical information which is not easily accessible to the public, even though it is stored in open data repositories. Open scientific data repositories often lack the necessary metadata to make them sufficiently useful to most researchers, or simply are too vast to be explored fully. In order to make the most of these repositories, a consolidated linkage map that relates all scientific discoveries will be necessary. One potential way to build this map is to create highly-connected knowledge graphs that can transform open data repositories by increasing usability. These graphs can assist in identifying gaps in medical research and accelerating research for unexplored medical domains. However, open medical data on its own is not enough to deliver its full potential for public health. Engaging technologists, members of the scientific and medical communities and the public in creating knowledge graphs from open data repositories, funders can exponentially increase data utility and value to help solve pressing national health issues. NCATS held a Stakeholder Feedback Workshop� in June of 2021 to solicit feedback on this concept and its implications for researchers, publishers, and the broader scientific community, and used that feedback to build an overall plan for implementation of LitCoin. One important piece of feedback from that workshop suggested that implementation of such a potentially disruptive concept would necessitate a pilot program within a narrower research space than �all biomedical research�. This has led to a collaboration with the HEAL Initiative, with the hopes of capitalizing on the highly collaborative nature of research in pain, addiction, and related scientific areas to demonstrate LitCoin�s potential to impact the current biomedical data sharing landscape. In preparation for the LitCoin Pilot Program, a highly-connected and highly-accurate knowledge graph representing the bulk of knowledge in the pain and addiction research space must be generated, which will form the foundation that will spur future research and new discoveries. The generation of this graph will normalize having authors curate knowledge assertions generated from the text of their published research, empowering other researchers to amplify their findings and reuse their data in new ways.�� In 2021, NCATS performed the LitCoin Natural Language Processing (NLP) Challenge� with the objective of (1) helping data scientists better deploy their data-driven technology solutions towards accelerating scientific research in medicine and (2) ensuring that data from biomedical publications can be maximally leveraged and reach a wide range of biomedical researchers; together this will drive toward solutions for the critical problems these scientists aim to solve. As a result, eight (8) NLP systems that accurately capture the information denoted in free text and provide output of this information through knowledge graphs were obtained by NCATS. As a result, the development of a system that can generate knowledge graphs from the free text of PubMed abstracts from free text of PubMed abstracts, using Natural Language Processing systems will allow HEAL researchers to expand the reach of their scientific discoveries, even those that normally would be difficult to publish through traditional means. This will normalize the pre-curation of research findings by the researchers who generated them, creating a highly-accurate knowledge graph which will contain the bulk of the knowledge in the pain and addiction research space. Purpose and Objectives: The Office of Drug Development Partnership Programs (ODDPP) at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) requires the development of a system that can generate knowledge graphs from the free text of PubMed abstracts, using Natural Language Processing systems, as part of the LitCoin program. The LitCoin program�s overall goal is to create a new currency for scientific research, one which aligns with current technologies and the expectations of researchers generating research findings. Biomedical researchers are constantly generating new data, but do not report a large portion of them in ways that make them accessible and reusable. For example, a study published in BMJ Open in 2018� found that 87% of survey respondents reported including supplementary material with their most recently-published article, yet such findings are rarely made available in a way that adheres to FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reuse) data principles. Part of the reason for this is the fit-for-purpose nature of most biomedical databases� generalized databases exist but are used far less often. Researchers lack incentives to share these types of datasets, and disincentives, such as fear of being �scooped� by other research groups, also exist. LitCoin will attempt to solve these problems by creating a convenient process for authors to generate computationally-accessible knowledge from their published work, and by normalizing the �pre-curation� of natural language processing-generated knowledge by the authors themselves. The use of the term �knowledge� here is deliberate� we�re not just talking about data, but the conclusions that can be reached based on that data. Knowledge graphs contain statements of assertion, such as �Smoking causes cancer�, which are backed up by data that has led to the assertion. These knowledge assertions are the basis for building a complex, highly-connected knowledge graph upon which to build with LitCoin. NCATS recognizes that such an undertaking may be best suited to a pilot within a specific field of biomedical research in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the project, and so have partnered with the HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term�) Initiative� to pilot the LitCoin system for research focused on pain, addiction, and related scientific areas. The HEAL Initiative is investing in data science technologies and approaches to advance discovery in addiction and pain research. At this time, natural language processing of biomedical publication text is primarily performed post-hoc with a maximum accuracy of 60-70%; substantial effort is currently exerted in manual curation and review of the outcome data from this kind of process. Project requirements: The Contractor shall generate a 90% accuracy knowledge graph representing knowledge of approximately 5000 published papers in the HEAL research� space to be deployed on NCATS cloud environment and be accessible to the scientific community by means of a web interface. The specific project requirements are listed below and provided in the attached Draft Statement of Objectives. Natural language processing (NLP) system Knowledge Graph Application Programming Interface (API) for knowledge graph access Presentation to HEAL investigators Anticipated period of performance: This is expected to be a one-year contract. Other important considerations: The Government will require unlimited rights in any data produced in the performance of this contract in accordance with FAR 52.227-14, Rights in Data � General (May 2014). Capability statement /information sought. Companies that believe they possess the capabilities to provide the required services should submit documentation of their ability to meet each of the project requirements to the Contracting Officer. The capability statement must specifically address each of the project requirements separately as well as brief explanation on a possible experience in the curation of knowledge assertions.� Additionally, the capability statement should include 1) the total number of employees, 2) the professional qualifications of personnel as it relates to the requirements outlined, 3) any contractor GSA Schedule contracts and/or other government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) by which all the requirements may be met, if applicable, and 4) any other information considered relevant to this program. Capability statements must also include the Company Name, Unique Entity ID from SAM.gov, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information. The response must include the respondents� technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Interested companies are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the solicitation notice number. One (1) copy of the response is required and must be in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format using 11-point or 12-point font, 8-1/2� x 11� paper size, with 1� top, bottom, left and right margins, and with single or double spacing. The information submitted must be in and outline format that addresses each of the elements of the project requirement and in the capability statement /information sought paragraphs stated herein.� A cover page and an executive summary may be included but is not required. The response is limited to ten (10) page limit.� The 10-page limit does not include the cover page, executive summary, or references, if requested. All responses to this notice must be submitted electronically to the Contract Specialist and Contracting Officer.� Facsimile responses are NOT accepted. The response must be submitted to the Contract Specialist, Renato Gomes, at e-mail address renato.gomes@nih.gov The response must be received on or before February 27, 2023 by 9am, Eastern Time. �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 presolicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in www.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).�
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/opp/fce5ff4585d74f669488d54870348775/view)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Rockville, MD 20850, USA
- Zip Code: 20850
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20850
- Record
- SN06590387-F 20230215/230214060652 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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