Child and Family Data Archive, 2026–2031

Notice of Intent to Sole Source

Child and Family Data Archive, 2026–2031

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), intends to negotiate and award a firm-fixed-price sole-source contract to:

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
University of Michigan
330 Packard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

The anticipated period of performance is September 2026 through September 2031.

This acquisition will be conducted pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements, under the authority of 41 U.S.C. § 3304(a)(1).

Requirement

The purpose of this acquisition is to continue the operation, maintenance, security, modernization, and expansion of the Child and Family Data (CFData) Archive. The CFData Archive facilitates the preservation and sharing of data from previous, current, and future ACF-funded research grants and contracts involving early care and education, Head Start, child care, home visiting, and other research concerning children and families.

The archive currently contains data from approximately 125 studies, supports approximately 136 active data users, and adds data from approximately four to eight studies annually. The archive includes public-use data, restricted-use data, associated study documentation, and tools that allow researchers and policy analysts to identify and use ACF-supported research data for secondary analysis, replication, and evidence-building.

The contractor will be required to:

• Maintain secure and continuous public and restricted access to archived datasets and supporting documentation.
• Curate, document, preserve, and disseminate new datasets from ACF-funded research.
• Conduct data-quality reviews, disclosure-risk analyses, disclosure-limitation activities, and determinations regarding appropriate levels of access.
• Operate and maintain a secure Virtual Data Enclave for highly restricted data and perform disclosure reviews of analytic outputs.
• Maintain and enhance the CFData Archive website, metadata and variable-search tools, publication bibliography, and data-user support functions.
• Provide technical assistance and training to data producers, data depositors, federal project officers, researchers, policy analysts, and other users.
• Maintain the archive’s Authority to Operate and comply with applicable ACF, HHS, FISMA, NIST, FedRAMP, Zero Trust, privacy, cybersecurity, and Section 508 requirements.
• Support special-topic and cross-cutting data activities, including additional data archiving, secondary analyses, data linkages, dashboards, and other emerging research requirements when authorized by ACF.
• Provide complete transition-out documentation, data, source code, system materials, and knowledge transfer at the conclusion of the contract.

Sole-Source Rationale

The Government has determined that the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan is the only responsible source presently capable of performing the required follow-on services without substantial duplication of cost, unacceptable delay, and significant risk to the continuity and security of the CFData Archive.

ICPSR developed and currently operates the CFData Archive. Through this work, ICPSR has acquired unique institutional knowledge and specialized technical expertise concerning the archive’s datasets, data-use agreements, disclosure controls, curation procedures, security environment, technical architecture, user-access processes, and relationships with ACF-funded data producers.

ICPSR also maintains an established Virtual Data Enclave that combines secure access to restricted data, approved analytical software, expert monitoring, disclosure review, and controlled release of analytic outputs. The Government’s market research did not identify another archive offering the same integrated combination of capabilities required to securely preserve, curate, disseminate, and support public and restricted-use child and family research data.

Transferring the archive to another contractor would require the Government and a successor contractor to migrate data from approximately 125 studies, establish a new compliant hosting and security environment, obtain a new Authority to Operate, recreate website and search functionality, rebuild data-access and disclosure-review processes, and reestablish agreements with data producers and users.

The Government estimates that transferring the data and establishing replacement archive operations could require approximately 12 months and cost between $1 million and $1.75 million, exclusive of other transition expenses. Establishing a new Authority to Operate could require approximately 24 months and costs comparable to the approximately $300,000 expended for the current archive. Reestablishing data-deposit and data-use agreements could require up to 36 additional months for some studies.

Because some original study teams are no longer available, certain legal, Institutional Review Board, consent, or data-sharing requirements might not be transferable to a new organization. Consequently, some datasets could become unavailable for public or restricted use. Migration would also create an increased risk of unauthorized disclosure, loss of records, broken data relationships, or interruption of access.

Award to another contractor could suspend access to currently archived datasets for an estimated seven to 36 months. Existing restricted-data users could be required to relinquish access and submit new applications after the successor’s security, legal, and review processes were established. New studies becoming ready for archiving during the transition would accumulate in a backlog or require temporary storage, contract extensions, or separate secure arrangements. These consequences would impair ACF’s ability to provide timely public access to federally funded research and support scientific transparency, reproducibility, and secondary analysis.

Submission of Capability Statements

This notice is not a request for competitive proposals. However, any responsible source that believes it can satisfy the Government’s requirements may submit a capability statement containing sufficient technical documentation to demonstrate its ability to perform the required services without substantial duplication of cost, unacceptable delay, interruption of public or restricted-data access, or increased risk to data security and integrity.

Capability statements must be submitted electronically to the Contract Specialist identified in the SAM.gov notice by the date and time specified in that notice.

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed acquisition based upon responses received is solely within the Government’s discretion. Information submitted will be considered only for determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

Interested sources must be registered in the System for Award Management and maintain an active registration to be eligible for award.

For additional information regarding the required services and deliverables, refer to the attached Performance Work Statement. This structure follows the accompanying HHS sample notice.