The Association of Public Health Laboratories, Inc. (APHL, or the Association) has a long standing partnership with the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) to strengthen the nation's ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters and chemical, biological, radiological and emerging threats. A critical aspect of strengthening preparedness and response capabilities and capacities is research and development of emerging technologies to bridge critical gaps and ensure these technologies have been appropriately vetted and coordinated across the public health system. To support CDC CPR efforts, APHL's Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) Program works across the public health system with the private and public sectors to develop and evaluate emerging technologies.
The work described in this request for proposal (RFP) ensures opportunities for input from academic partners to develop and evaluate critically needed capabilities that will strengthen national health security. Through this RFP, APHL seeks to identify an academic institution who can support development of a functional metagenomic bioinformatics pipeline capable of identifying various pathogen types in clinical samples.
Eligibility
Interested parties must submit a proposal to APHL that provides all the information specified in the Submission of RFP section below. In order to be considered for funding, an applicant must ensure APHL has a complete proposal no later than the Proposal Due Date specified in the RFP Process Overview section above. Applicants will find proposal submission information in the Submission of RFP section below.
Anticipated RFP Schedule
Applications are due to the individual(s) specified in the Final Response section of this RFP by 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on February 21, 2022. APHL anticipates the following schedule for the entire competitive bidding process:
January 21, 2022: APHL issues RFP
January 28, 2022: Required Letter of Intent due to APHL by 5:00 pm ET
February 21, 2022: Complete RFP responses due to APHL by 5:00 pm ET
February 21- February 28, 2022: Proposal review
February 28, 2022: APHL publicly announces the names of the selected applicants on its procurement website, www.aphl.org/rfp
March 8, 2022: Anticipated start date of project
APHL will post any modifications to this anticipated schedule to APHL's procurement website, www.aphl.org/rfp.
Response Submittal
Confirmation of Intent to Respond
APHL requires that prospective applicants submit a brief email statement ("letter of intent") indicating intent to submit a proposal by no later than 5:00 PM ET on January 28, 2022. The letter of intent should be emailed to emergency.preparedness@aphl.org (ATTN: Tyler Wolford). While the letter of intent is not binding and does not enter a contractor or consultant into the review of the RFP, the information that it contains allows APHL's evaluation team to plan the contract development and review process. A letter of intent is required for consideration of application. Potential applicants must include the name of the organization or individual that will submit the proposal in their letter of intent.
Final Response
APHL must receive a complete proposal by no later than 5:00 PM ET on February 21, 2022. Applicants should submit proposals via email to emergency.preparedness@aphl.org (ATTN: Tyler Wolford). The applicant is responsible to ensure that APHL receives the proposal by this deadline.
APHL will send an email acknowledging the receipt of your application. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within 48 hours, please call 240-485-2769 and email emergency.preparedness@aphl.org (ATTN: Tyler Wolford).
Materials
The Official RFP Document will provide detailed information, please read it on its entirety. APHL will communicate any modification to this anticipated schedule on APHL’s procurement website (www.aphl.org/rfp) and via an email blast to the public health laboratories.
Please note: Per CDC's request, APHL has added an additional reviewer. This additional reviewer will be bound to the same rules as the previous reviewers.