DESCRIPTION This Small Business Sources Sought Notice (SBSS) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to identify qualified small business concerns including 8(a), HUBZone or Service-Disabled Veteran-owned business concerns that are interested in and capable of performing the work described herein. The NCI does not intend to award a contract based on responses received nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. 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 requirement is assigned North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 511210 with a size standard of $41.5M is being considered. NCI may issue a request for quotation (RFQ) as a result of this Sources Sought Notice. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NCI shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought Notice or the NCI’s use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement. BRAND NAME OR EQUAL This requirement is for the procurement of the brand name or equivalent software. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision FAR 52.211-6, Brand Name or Equal (AUG 1999) is applicable to this requirement. BACKGROUND The HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch (HAMB) of the CCR, NCI, carries out research projects that include the design, synthesis and development of the next-generation of therapeutic agents against HIV and HIV-associated malignancies. Currently, the branch is also heavily involved in understanding the biology of important viral proteins of SARS-CoVID-19 and in discovering and developing a therapeutic intervention. As part of these research projects, use of a state-of-the-art molecular modeling software is critically needed. The software from Schrödinger LLC helps in the design of the next generation therapeutics against HIV, various cancers, SARS-CoV2, and various other therapeutic targets of interest to many NIH investigators. PRODUCT FEATURES/SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS The software shall provide all of the following functionalities: a powerful and innovative software application for accurate protein structure predictions; a fully-integrated protein structure program that provides an easy-to-use interface that takes a novice user intuitively from sequence to alignment to refined structure; the ability to provide the expert user complete control over calculational settings to maximize accuracy of predictions; a powerful and complete tool for generating accurate receptor models for structure-based drug design; the ability to combine leading force fields, accurate effective solvation models, and advanced conformational searching methods that provide the most complete molecular modeling package suitable for a wide array of research; a complete solution for ligand-receptor docking which provides the full spectrum of speed and accuracy from high-throughput virtual screening of millions of compounds to extremely accurate binding mode predictions with consistently high enrichment at every level; and the ability of the software products to work with each other to simulate receptor flexibility in response to ligand-binding events. RESPONSE DELIVERY POINT Capability statements shall be submitted via email to Contracting Officer, Jolomi Omatete, at
[email protected] no later than 3:00 P.M. EST on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 . All information furnished must be in writing and must contain enough detail to allow the NCI to determine if it can meet the unique specifications described herein. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. In order to receive an award, contractors must have valid registration and certification in the System for Awards Management (SAM) at www.sam.gov. No collect calls will be accepted. Please reference number 75N91020Q00097 on all correspondence. 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, an RFQ may be published. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation(s).