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June 11, 2020 By cs

Could NITAAC’s $40 billion governmentwide IT contract be a boon for small businesses?

The National Institute of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has about two years to award its next great governmentwide acquisition contract called CIO-SP4.

While this may seem like a lot of time, NITAAC already is getting comments back on its draft solicitation.

Keith Johnson, the contracting lead for the CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP4 vehicles for NITAAC, said industry feedback was due back to his organization by May 15 and he expects the final solicitation for the $40 billion IT products and services GWAC to be more responsive to small businesses and agency customers alike.

“The draft has a direction in terms of some items that we would like to change, but all of that is preliminary,” Johnson said in an interview with Federal News Network. “For example, we would like to go to one GWAC. Currently we have a small business GWAC and an unrestricted GWAC, and the scope of both of those contracts mirror each other. There are a number of reasons why we would like to do that. Most notably, as a benefit to our small business owners.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/06/could-nitaacs-40b-governmentwide-it-contract-be-a-boon-for-small-businesses/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: CIO-SP4, GWAC, Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, IT, National Institutes of Health, NIH, NITAAC, set-aside, small business

May 11, 2020 By cs

Georgia Tech among Atlanta institutions taking lead role in fast-tracking COVID-19 diagnostic tests

A trio of Atlanta health care and research institutions will play a leading role in helping to evaluate potential COVID-19 tests as part of a new federal initiative designed to rapidly transform promising technology into widely accessible diagnostic tools to detect the virus.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the Georgia Institute of Technology are teaming up through the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT) .

The Atlanta center was selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate COVID-19 detection tests utilizing a portion of a $1.5 billion investment from federal stimulus funding under a newly launched Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative. This initiative will infuse funding into early, innovative technologies to speed development of rapid and widely accessible COVID-19 testing with a mandate that tests be deployed to Americans this fall.

“The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is urging all scientists and inventors with a rapid testing technology to compete in a national COVID-19 testing challenge for a share of up to $500 million over all phases of development that will assist the public’s safe return to normal activities,” said Wilbur Lam, M.D., Ph.D., pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s and principal investigator of ACME POCT.

As one of only five NIH-funded point-of-care technology centers in the nation within the Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN), ACME POCT will receive a $10 million to $20 million supplement to work closely with relevant technology developers and the medical diagnostics industry across the country to meet the deadline. The technologies will be put through a highly competitive, rapid three-phase selection process to identify the best candidates for at-home or point-of-care tests for COVID-19. The goal is to make millions of accurate and easy-to-use tests per week available to all Americans by the end of summer 2020 and in time for the flu season.

The Center will operate on the frontlines assessing, validating and conducting clinical trials as well as advising in manufacturing and scale-up of relevant COVID-19 tests. They expect hundreds of technology developers and companies to apply for the RADx program and will be involved in clinical validation and shepherding successful projects to meet this national need, making Children’s, Emory and Georgia Tech frontline warriors in this effort.

ACME POCT fosters the development and commercialization of microsystems (microchip-enabled, biosensor-based, microfluidic) diagnostic tests that can be used outside the traditional hospital setting, in places such as the home, community or doctor’s office. Lam and his team will evaluate the tests for the NIBIB as they urgently solicit proposals.

Lam is the principal investigator of ACME POCT and also serves as associate professor of the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Greg Martin, M.D., is co-principal investigator along with Oliver Brand, Ph.D., executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology and a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Together the team makes up the only point-of-care center in the nation dedicated to developing microsystems with sensors, smart phones and wearable technologies. Dr. Martin is also a professor with the Emory University School of Medicine and Chair of Critical Care for Grady Health System.


About Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: As the only freestanding pediatric healthcare system in Georgia, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is the trusted leader in caring for kids. The not-for-profit organization’s mission is to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow through more than 60 pediatric specialties and programs, top healthcare professionals, and leading research and technology. Children’s is one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the country, managing more than one million patient visits annually at three hospitals, Marcus Autism Center, the Center for Advanced Pediatrics and 20 neighborhood locations. Consistently ranked among the top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has impacted the lives of kids in Georgia, across the United States and around the world for more than 100 years thanks to generous support from the community. Visit www.choa.org for more information.

About Emory University School of Medicine: Emory University School of Medicine is a leading institution with the highest standards in education, biomedical research and patient care, with a commitment to recruiting and developing a diverse group of students and innovative leaders. Emory School of Medicine has more than 2,800 full- and part-time faculty, 556 medical students, 530 allied health students, 1,311 residents and fellows in 106 accredited programs, and 93 MD/PhD students in one of 48 NIH-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Programs. Medical school faculty received $456.3 million in external research funding in fiscal year 2018. The school is best known for its research and treatment in infectious disease, neurosciences, heart disease, cancer, transplantation, orthopaedics, pediatrics, renal disease, ophthalmology and geriatrics.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology: The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation’s leading research universities — a university that embraces change while continually Creating the Next. The next generation of leaders. The next breakthrough startup company. The next lifesaving medical treatment. Georgia Tech provides a focused, technologically based education to more than 36,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Institute has many nationally recognized programs, all top-ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked among the nation’s top five public universities by U.S. News & World Report. It offers degrees through the Colleges of Computing, Design, Engineering, Sciences, the Scheller College of Business, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 100 centers focused on interdisciplinary research that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to American government, industry, and business.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.


Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2020/04/30/atlanta-institutions-take-lead-role-fast-tracking-covid-19-diagnostic-tests

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: coronavirus, COVID-19, Georgia Tech, National Institutes of Health, NIH, pandemic

December 15, 2016 By AMK

GAO loses jurisdiction over task order protests valued at more than $10 million

Government contractors hoping to challenge a civilian agency’s award of a task or delivery order may be out of luck, at least temporarily.

GAO-GovernmentAccountabilityOffice-SealPrior to September 30, 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had exclusive jurisdiction over protests of civilian task and delivery orders valued at more than $10 million under multiple-award IDIQ contracts.  The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2008 amended the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) to grant GAO this jurisdiction, Pub. L. No. 110-181, 122 Stat. 3, 237 (2008); the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2012 then established a sunset date for this jurisdiction of September 30, 2016 (41 U.S.C. § 4106(f)).   Any such protests filed after September 30, 2016, are now outside GAO’s jurisdiction, regardless of when the underlying contract was awarded (41 U.S.C. § 4106(f)).  However, contractors retain the right to protest military task and delivery orders valued over $10 million (10 U.S.C. § 2304c(e)), as well as civilian or military task and delivery orders which they allege increased the scope, period, or maximum value of the underlying contract (id. and 41 U.S.C. § 4106(f)).

The Court of Federal Claims’ jurisdiction, which is limited to civilian or military task order protests that allege increased scope, period, or maximum value of the underlying contract, is unaffected by the NDAA sunset provision (10 U.S.C. § 2304c(e); 41 U.S.C. § 4106(f)).

Ryan Consulting Group, Inc., of Indianapolis, Indiana, bore the brunt of the jurisdictional sunset in a GAO decision issued November 7, 2016 (B-414014). Ryan, one of the multiple-award contract holders, was protesting a task order award by Department of Housing and Urban Development under a multiple-award, IDIQ contract with the National Institutes of Health. The task order for enterprise architecture and information technology management support services was valued at more than $10 million.  Ryan did not allege any increase in scope, period, or maximum value of the underlying contract, so GAO had no other basis for jurisdiction. GAO dismissed Ryan’s protest, filed October 14, 2016, for lack of jurisdiction, and noted that GAO has no authority to “grandfather” any protests.

Two pieces of pending legislation could reinstate GAO’s jurisdiction.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=549892

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: FASA, GAO, HUD, jurisdiction, National Institutes of Health, NDAA, task order

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