Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

**This amendment is to post a Q&As document as an attachment of the solicitation** This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Ac... **This amendment is to post a Q&As document as an attachment of the solicitation** This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6 Streamline Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Items, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. The procurement is being conducted under Contracting by Negotiation in accordance with FAR Part 15. This announcement constitutes the formal Request for Proposal (RFP) 75N97020R00005. The resultant contract will be a Firm Fixed-Price per unit with up to maximum quantities. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through March 2020 Federal Acquisition Regulation revision, which includes the consolidation of all Federal Acquisition Circulars 2020-05. This acquisition is a 100% small business set-aside and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 519120, Libraries and Archives with a size standard of $15.0M. The purpose of this contract is to obtain indexing of the biomedical literature for the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The main task of this contract is to apply descriptive terms selected from NLM’s controlled vocabulary of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to journal article citations in MEDLINE to make it easier for users to find relevant information when searching PubMed. This process is known as MEDLINE. This contract also includes tasks that involve linking MEDLINE records to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI’s) Gene database and providing indexing for the Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj) database. The scope of journals indexed for MEDLINE is broad and covers biomedicine, as well as the life sciences. In addition, biomedical articles may be selected for indexing from a set of physics and chemistry journals. MEDLINE indexing is to be performed within NLM’s indexing system via two distinct approaches: Regular Indexing and MTIFL (Medical Text Indexer First Line) Completion. The solicitation will include four (4) Contract Line Items (Task 1) – Regular Indexing; (Task 2) – MTIFL Completion; (Task 3) – Gene Linking; and (Task 4) – HSRProj Indexing. For the base period, the NLM seeks to obtain: Regular indexing of up to 690,000 journal articles; MTIFL completion of up to 100,000 journal articles; Creation of up to 70,000 gene links; and Indexing of up to 2,100 HSRProj records. NLM expects each of these tasks to be priced separately. It is anticipated that MULTIPLE AWARDS will be made from this solicitation. This requirement is for one base period will begin on or about September 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021 with option for one (1) successive one-year period. The Government anticipates multiple awards; however, the Government reserves the right to award one or more contracts at its discretion. TECHNICAL EVALUATION FACTORS Technical factors are of paramount consideration in the award of the contract; however, price is also important to the overall award decision. All evaluation factors other than price, when combined, are significantly more important than price. The Government can make tradeoffs among price and technical factors in determining which Offeror offers the best value by awarding to other than the lowest price Offeror or other than the highest technically rated Offeror. Offerors are advised that award will be made to that Offeror whose proposal provides the best overall value to the Government. TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA In determining which proposal represents the best value and results in the lowest overall price alternative (considering price, special features, administrative costs, etc.) to meet the Government's needs, the Government shall evaluate proposals using the following technical evaluation criteria, which are listed in the order of relative importance with weights assigned for evaluation processes: FACTOR WEIGHT CRITERION A - Personnel (50%) Indexing personnel will be evaluated on: (a) Experience in indexing biomedical literature or indexing experience in other subject areas; (b) Education consisting of at least a Bachelor's degree with a major in the biological sciences, or its equivalent (in the event of a proposed indexer's demonstrated outstanding experience in a biomedical field, the requirement for a Bachelor's degree may be waived at the Government's option). CRITERION B - Understanding the requirement and technical approach (25%) The proposal will be evaluated on: (a) The offeror's demonstrated understanding of the technical requirements, including the offeror's understanding of the performance standards and quality control and the provisions for rejection of batches of journals or individual articles, and the offeror's plan for training of new indexers. (b) The offeror's specific approach and strategies proposed to meet the requirement, including the approach used to assure the completion of required quantities of journals on a timely basis and the feasibility of estimated production levels for the proposed personnel. CRITERION C - Corporate capability and successful past performance with similar projects (25%) The proposal will be evaluated on: The offeror's demonstrated record of successful technical and administrative past performance in managing a project of equal scope and complexity, including successful completion of production schedules and explanation of management participation. All proposals received by Monday, June 15, 2020 at 5:00 P.M. EST (Eastern Standard Time) will be considered by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Responses must be in writing and must include pricing information and meet the criteria requirements. All responses from responsible sources will be considered. Inquiries regarding this procurement may be made to the National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 105, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5488, Attention: Uyen Phuong, Contracting Officer via email at phuongu@mail.nlm.nih.gov no later than May 26, 2020 at 12:00 P.M. EST. ** The Statement of Work (SOW), NIH electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS), and Appendix of this requirement are attached to this solicitation. ** Responses to this posting must be submitted via the electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website at https://ecps.nih.gov, no later than 5:00 p.m., (Eastern-Daylight Savings Time), Monday June 15, 2020. NOTE: For directions on using eCPS, go to https://ecps.nih.gov and click on "How to Submit an Electronic Proposal." Follow the “How to Submit an Electronic Proposal” instructions provided on the eCPS website at: https://ecps.nih.gov/home/howto. Please note that creating an account to submit may take up to three (3) business days. Please apply for a new account early to allow enough time for the registration process. Submission of proposals by facsimile or e-mail is not accepted. Offerors are solely responsible for submitting proposals and any modifications or revisions so as to reach the Government office designated above by the date and time specified in the solicitation. If your proposal is not received by the date and time specified in the solicitation, it will be considered a “late proposal,” in accordance with FAR Clause 52.215-1 Instructions to Offerors – Competitive Acquisition. All proposals received before the deadline for submission of proposals stated in this publication of solicitation will be considered by NLM. FACSIMILES OR EMAILS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTABLE. Firms interested in responding to this notice must be able to provide the products and services described by NLM in the Statement of Work. Vendors shall comply with all applicable Federal, State and Local laws, executive orders, rules and regulations applicable to its performance under this contract.