Account Management, Planning, and Maintenance for Online Crowd-Sourced Surveys and Cognitive Tasks for Individuals

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

Solicitation Number:  75N98026Q01128

Title: Account Management, Planning, and Maintenance for Online Crowd-Sourced Surveys and Cognitive Tasks for Individuals

NAICS CODE: 541990 – All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Classification Code: R499 – Professional Administrative, and Management Support Services

Size Standard: $ 19.5 Million

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.

For equipment/supply requirements, responses must include the place of manufacturing (i.e. address if supply/equipment is a domestic end product and include country of manufacture). For equipment/supply requirements, small businesses must also address the size status of the manufacturer under the applicable NAICS code (i.e. address Non-Manufacturer Rule).

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 Unit on Computational Decision Neuroscience (CDN) at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is requesting to run online surveys of individuals with and without mental health disorders with an online survey provider’s platform. To conduct these studies, NIMH will require a contract for a provider to collect these surveys and provide the responses along with additional demographic information.

Purpose and Objectives.

The contractor shall provide all resources necessary to accomplish the tasks and deliverables described in this Statement of Work (SOW). The contractor shall provide services for managing accounts for online crowd-sourced research.

Salient characteristics include the following: 

Task: Collecting Survey and Task Responses from Individuals With and Without Depression

1. The Contractor shall provide the participants for the cognitive tasks and surveys. CDN and their collaborators at NIMH will build the cognitive tasks surveys and ensure that they comply with the Contractor’s requirements. The Contractor shall make the tasks and survey(s) available to their panel of respondents until the required number of responses are collected and will manage participant reimbursement.
2. The survey questions may assess the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms and other psychiatric conditions and assess the impact of those symptoms on respondents functioning in day-to-day life. Additionally, we may collect open-ended responses about participants’ experiences with the task(s), their condition, and other factors. The responses to survey questions may be collected through the Contractor’s service or through a third-party service to be arranged by CDN. Participants will also complete a battery of cognitive tasks downloaded from servers managed by CDN. Respondents may be required to have a personal computer with Windows 10 or MacOS to complete the cognitive tasks.
3. The collection shall be a combination of surveys and tasks taking up to 45 minutes from at least 2,720 respondents; 680 from each of the following 4 categories: 1) Adults with Anxiety but not depression; 2) Adults with depression but not anxiety; 3) adults with depression and anxiety; 3) and controls with neither anxiety nor depression. Assuming participants are of similar quality in terms of attention, comprehension, and accuracy of screening responses, collection of a greater number of respondents would be preferable.
4. The collection of a combination of surveys and tasks shall be for up to 75 minutes from at least 1,500 high-quality adult respondents fluent in English who have access to a personal computer with Windows 10 or MacOS in order.
5. Participant completion compensation shall be at $20.

Government Responsibilities.

The government’s responsibilities involve providing feedback to the contractor on the operation of the ongoing online studies if a problem arises.

Data Rights.

The Government shall have unlimited rights to, and ownership of all deliverables provided under this contract, including reports, recommendations, briefings, work plans and other deliverables.  (FAR Clause 52.227-17 Rights in Data- Special Works).

Delivery or Deliverables. The contractor shall deliver within 30 days after receipt of the order. Site delivery address shall be, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Building 10, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Capability statement /information sought.

Companies that believe they possess the capabilities to provide the required products or 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.  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 of 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.

Respondents must provide, as part of their responses, a capability statement that clearly identifies their ability to provide the requirements specified in this notice.  The respondent must also provide their DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HubZone, etc., pursuant to the applicable NAICS code and any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the acquisition requirements.

Please note that NINDS is particularly interested in small business sources. If you are a small business, please state the type of small business (small business; HUBZone; service-disabled, veteran-owned; 8(a); veteran-owned; woman-owned; or small disadvantaged businesses) and your size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible.

In case domestic sources are available and capable of fulfilling the Government’s need, and a future solicitation is published, the Government will use evaluation preferences in accordance with FAR 25.

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 an outline format that addresses each of the elements of the project requirements 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) pages. The 10-page limit does not include the cover page, executive summary, or references, if requested.

The response must include the respondents’ technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.

All responses to this notice must be submitted electronically to the Contract Specialist.

Facsimile responses are NOT accepted.

The response must be submitted to D Robin Knightly at robin.knightly@nih.gov.

The response must be received on or before Wednesday, September 16, 2022, at 9:00am 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).