Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP)

Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL) Operations, Maintenance (O&M) and Enhancement Support Services This SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE is to determine the interest and technical capability of qualified businesses. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government, nor will the U.S. Government pay for information solicited. The information from this notice will help the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) plan their acquisition strategy or plan. CAPABILITY STATEMENT FNS is seeking a contractor to perform both Operations & Maintenance (O&M) support, the development of new enhancement features and to provide technical consulting services for the Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL) systematic review portal and website system. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTE, NO SOLICITATION EXISTS AT THIS TIME. The Food and Nutrition Service, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) & Contracts Management Division (CMD), is conducting a market survey to determine the availability and technical capability of qualified businesses, including large and small business set-asides, small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), 8(a) small businesses, woman-owned small businesses (WOSB), veteran owned small businesses (VOSB), service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB), Historically Under-utilized Business Zone (HUBZone) and Non-profit organization. Offerors shall demonstrate their experience, skills, and qualifications with projects of similar scope and size completed within the last three (3) years, and explain in appropriate detail how they intend to demonstrate competency in each of the following points: A. Demonstrate expertise in producing user friendly Web services to support systematic, transparent and replicable literature-based evidence synthesis products and services; B. Demonstrate expertise implementing systematic review Web services which track user progress and provide development transparency through a multi-step process; C. Demonstrate expertise in training for users on application changes, recommended user best-practices implementation and integrity risk, including NEL technical and application changes, statistical support for quantitative synthesis, copyediting and 508 compliance of web content, record-keeping and invoicing of abstractors; D. Demonstrate expertise in providing recommendations on the scientific synthesis methods and applied technology features for use in systematic review question development and refinement, literature scoping and screening, data extraction, risk of bias assessment, qualitative and quantitative evidence synthesis, and evidence grading; E. Experience in developing an integrated and secure web-based evidence analysis system as well as the ability to understand and troubleshoot a broad range of issues or problems related to NEL processes. Experience with implementing an electronic evidence-based synthesis system supporting a broad range of research designs, dedicated solely to systematically reviewing nutrition evidence in the United States. F. Manage nutrition systematic review projects of a similar size and scope, including meeting government objectives, ensuring the quality and timeliness of deliverables, and coordinating with the government funding agency. The key objective of this project is: • Create and implement requested web development to improve the capabilities, functionalities, efficiency, and effectiveness of the NEL. • Provide system maintenance, hosting support, and updating the USDA's NEL portal and NEL public website, and ensure that they are fully functional, support current systematic review standards, and are user-friendly. These responsibilities include technical support with cloud hosting, project management for the application and database, operational guidance for scientific methodological integrity, development of enhancements and training support services, record-keeping and invoicing of abstractors copyediting and ensuring 508 compliance of materials. (www.NEL.gov or www.nutritionevidencelibrary.gov. BACKGROUND ON THE NEL FUNCTIONS: The Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL) is a systematic review system within the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion that uses state-of-the-art methodology to search, evaluate, and synthesize food and nutrition-related research. CNPP's mission is to improve the health of Americans by developing and promoting dietary guidance that links scientific research to the nutrition needs of consumers. The NEL supports CNPP's mission by conducting systematic reviews to inform Federal nutrition policy and programs. A NEL systematic review (SR) is used to evaluate scientific evidence on food and nutrition to answer a precise question or series of questions. In keeping with best SR practices, NEL systematic reviews are conducted by a multidisciplinary research team to: 1) develop systematic review questions 2) search, screen, and select studies to review, 3) extract data and assess the risk of bias of the research 4) Describe and synthesize the evidence 5) develop conclusion statements and grade the evidence, 6) identify research recommendations. Each step of the process is documented in detail to ensure objectivity, transparency, and reproducibility of the process. CNPP has developed a web-based system called the NEL portal and website to provide the software and web support needed to implement this process to meet current systematic review standards. This system has unique and secure features tailored to the requirements needed to support NEL systematic reviews such as: • Tailored web-based data extraction forms, data management with quality control of data, tailored data display capabilities, web-based forms which support dual completion and adjudication, with built in audit history of tracked changes, collaborative workspaces to upload and share documents, capabilities to support quantitative data synthesis, and public transparency to 508 compliant systematic review materials via a public website. • Project management tools for workflow support, task assignments and invoicing, scheduling of meetings, discussion boards, calendar and mail functions, metric dashboard, customizable reports, media library, and collaborative workspaces. • Uses ColdFusion version 10, along with IIS and SQL Server. The database size is under 5GB. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Interested firms responding to this sources sought shall submit the following: Company name, address, point of contact, telephone number, email address, and Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) NAICS code. Provide business size and status such as Small Business, Disadvantaged, 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUB) Zone, Woman Owned, Minority Owned, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, or Other Than Small Business. Non-profit organization must indicate size (small or large business). Provide contract vehicles you participate in such as General Services Administration (GSA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC), or any other vehicle. Capability statement shall be 10 pages or less. Please submit responses to this Sources Sought Notice electronically (via e-mail) to Keeyada Dickens, at [email protected] and to Sean Merritt, at sean.merritt.usda.gov, no later than 4:00PM EST (Eastern Standard Time) on July 18, 2016. The e-mail subject line must specify Sources Sought for Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL). Facsimile responses will not be accepted. NO TELEPHONE REQUESTS WILL BE ACCEPTED.