National Cancer Institute, Research Contracts Branch, Cancer Etiology Contracts Section, Executive Plaza South, Rm. 620, 6120 Executive Blvd., MSC 7224, Bethesda, MD 20892-7224

D -- DEVELOPMENT OF SEMANTIC AND LEXICAL INFORMATICS TECHNIQUES POC Janet M. Mattson, Contracting Officer, 301-402-4511 Collect Calls Not Accepted E-MAIL: Janet M. Mattson, jm32u@nih.gov. At this time the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is soliciting tailored capability statements from qualified companies. Based on the responses received from this SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT, the proposed acquisition may be solicited. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE NCI TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE. NO RFP PACKAGE IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. All the companies responding to this Sources Sought announcement must have the capabilities to provide for the Development of Semantic and Lexical Informatics Techniques for the NCI. The applicable Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code for this requirement is 7371 (Computer Programming Services with average gross annual receipts over the past three years not more than $18 million). At this time, this acquisition has not been set aside for small businesses however responses shall include their business size. The goal of the NCI is to develop highly specialized scientific and clinical information resources to support the NCI and the cancer research and treatment communities as well as other users on cancer information. The scientific resources are intended to enable scientists, and other individuals to generate comprehensive, integrated representations of current knowledge, past and ongoing NCI-sponsored research and emerging scientific questions regarding any aspect of cancer biology or other relevant scientific discipline. The clinical resources are intended to enable physicians, and other care providers and other persons interested in cancer information to obtain patient-specific or general information on current best practice and experimental therapies, and to contribute various types of clinical information such as clinical trial experiences. Resources such as these will require ongoing advances in the state of the art relative to existing informatics theory and practice. This solicitation is intended to alert interested parties of the NCI's interest in supporting development of semantic and lexical technology focused on biomedicine and biomedical research. Theoretical models, techniques and products suitable for semantic retrieval, indexing, and analysis of knowledge about cancer, for vocabulary matching across scientific lexicons, for improved protocols to support interaction with heterogeneous sources of biomedical information, and for creation of and visualization of scientific knowledge spaces are sought. Experience developing or using computational methods to 1) translate concepts and terms among the various vocabularies used in scientific and clinical fields associated with cancer research and treatment; 2) techniques for recognition of new biomedical knowledge and biomedical concepts via computational methods; 3) technics to discover and visualize the conceptual structure of scientific or clinical disciplines; 4) technics to discover similarities and relationships among concepts resident in one scientific vocabulary and those resident in another vocabulary is considered essential; 5) develop tools to find and evaluate existing computational resources; 6) apply methods for exchanging information using the latest telecommunication/query translation protocols; and 7) design architectures that streamline information flow. This is a sources sought notice and not a solicitation for competitive proposals. Concerns who believe they are qualified for the above effort and desire to submit a qualification statement must furnish concise responses directed specifically at the requirements mentioned above and also must address their experience in computational methodologies identified above. Information submitted must be in sufficient detail to demonstrate the appropriate experience and capability. An (1) original and two (2) copies of your capability statement specific to this announcement must be submitted within 30 days from the date of this announcement. (0007)

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