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Contract Opportunity

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Acquisitions Services is issuing this Sources Sought / Request for Information (RFI) on behalf of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL).

DISCLAIMER: The intent of this notice is to conduct market research to identify potential sources capable of providing the services identified in this announcement for informational and planning purposes only. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP). It does not constitute a solicitation and shall not be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government (USG) to issue an RFP in the future. Responses in any form are not offers and the USG is under no obligation to award a contract as a result of this announcement. The USG will not pay for or reimburse vendors for any information received or costs incurred in preparing a response to this market survey. Therefore, any costs associated with a submission are solely at the interested vendor’s expense. The USG is not liable for costs associated with this announcement. Any information or response prepared and submitted by a respondent to this sources sought/RFI is strictly VOLUNTARY. Nothing shall be construed herein or through this market research process to commit or obligate the Government to further action as a result of this research.

PROGRAM BACKGROUND:

Several NIOSH activities require evaluating personal protective equipment (PPE)—such as respirators—using human test participants (herein referred to as human participants). For example, NIOSH has long used human participants in its NIOSH Respirator Approval Program (RAP), executed by NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) and regulated by 42 C.F.R. Part 84. NPPTL uses several NIOSH Standard Testing Procedures and industry consensus standards (such as ASTM Respirator Fit Capability) to assess the fit of respirators on individuals to represent the general working population and to ensure respirators meet NIOSH’s minimum performance requirements.

ACQUISITION OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this contract is to obtain a contractor to recruit, prescreen, select, schedule, and pay human participants for costs they may incur because of their participation during respirator evaluation (e.g., time, travel) for the NIOSH RAP and other PPE evaluation activities that NIOSH may conduct. No human participants will meet the definition of “human subjects”, as defined by 45 CFR Part 46 Protection of Human Subjects.

APPLICABLE NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS): 541990 – All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

CONTEMPLATED TYPE OF CONTRACT: A Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) -type contract is contemplated for all services.

CONTEMPLATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: 12-month base period, plus four 12-month option periods beginning May 2024.

SUBMISSION DETAILS:

The USG requests that interested parties submit a capability statement addressing your company’s capability to meet the potential requirements as described in the draft Statement of Work included with this notice. Interested sources should also furnish the following information in their capability statement:

1. Name and address of company, with Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code and Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. Any interested company must be registered with Central Contractor Registration (CCR).


2. Company Point of Contact Name, Department, phone number, and email address.


3. Address whether your company is a small business under the applicable NAICS code, including small business type(s)/certification(s) applicable to the NAICS code of this announcement.


4. Please describe your capability to remotely recruiting qualified personnel (e.g., test subjects for research projects) – i.e., recruiting for appointments in different states than where your company employees are staffed.


5. Please describe your capability to developing and disseminating recruitment materials. Are these materials physical materials or electronic? Please provide 3 recent examples of a recruitment material that was used successfully (e.g., flyer, brochure, social media post, etc.)


6. Please describe your capability and past experience of working with federal entities to schedule recruited personnel that have access to federal campuses.


7. Please describe your capability in pre-screening recruited personnel to assess their qualifications.


8. Please describe your capability to compensating recruited personnel (e.g., direct deposit, gift cards, cash, check, etc.).


9. Do you have an Authority to Operate (ATO), per the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2014 (FISMA), with any federal agencies? If yes, please specify the federal agency and provide a copy of your company’s ATO package.


10. If you do not currently have an ATO from any federal agency, please complete the System Security Plan (SSP) document detailing how integrity, confidentiality, and availability are maintained, which is included with this announcement.

Submissions shall not exceed 6 pages. The page limit excludes the submission of 3 recent examples of recruitment materials, a copy of your company’s ATO package, and the completion of the SSP document.

Your response to this Sources Sought/RFI shall be electronically submitted in either Microsoft Word or Portable Document Format (PDF), via email to the Contracting Officer, Serina Allingham, at xog9@cdc.gov, no later than 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday, March 18, 2024.

Reference this Sources Sought/RFI posting in the e-mail subject line and on all enclosed documents. Information and materials submitted in response to this request WILL NOT be returned. DO NOT SUBMIT CLASSIFIED MATERIAL OR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. All data received in response to this Sources Sought/RFI that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary will be fully protected from any release outside the USG. Since this is a sources sought announcement, no feedback or evaluations will be provided to the respondents.

Providing a response to this Sources Sought /RFI neither qualifies respondents for, nor excludes respondents from, responding to any resulting Request for Proposal (RFP), if any.

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