Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) H

What they want

• Act as the Study Coordinating Center for a new RURAL Expansion cohort in the rural Southern Plains
• Identify up to 4 rural counties and build sampling plans (the amendment places county selection and sampling under Task Area B)
• Plan and carry out procurement of one or more mobile examination units (semi-trailer, customized RV, etc.)
• Recruit and examine up to 2,000 participants with a baseline clinical exam comparable to the original cohort (coronary calcium CT, lung and abdominal/thigh CT image acquisition, echocardiography, lung function tests, blood and other samples); reading of lung, abdominal and thigh images is not included
• Follow participants over time, track hospitalizations and heart/lung events, and lead classification of new clinical events
• Run community engagement in each county, including locally based community engagement coordinators; plan for English and Spanish staff and materials
• Build and maintain the data and biospecimen repositories and integrate them with the original RURAL cohort
• Support data analysis, manuscripts, ancillary studies, and study closeout or transfer to a successor

What they'll judge offers on

• Approach (30 points)
• Personnel (25 points)
• Resource Management (20 points)
• Resource Sharing (15 points)
• Organization and Facilities (10 points)
• Past performance (evaluated after the technical evaluation)
• Section 508 accessibility compliance, Data Management and Sharing Plan, and inclusion plans for women, minorities and children (rated acceptable/unacceptable)

What to include when you submit

• Submit the Technical Proposal and the Price-Cost (Business) Proposal separately; searchable electronic copies only
• Create one PDF for the Technical Proposal and one PDF for the Business Proposal, each complete in itself and not referencing the other
• Include the NIH 'Breakdown of Proposed Estimated Costs (plus Fee)' Excel workbook in its original Excel format, with a separate cost proposal for Task Areas A and B and a cost estimate for Task Area C
• Name files with the offeror name, solicitation number and proposal type (Technical, Business or Excel Workbook)
• Letter size pages, 10 to 12 point font, at least 1/2 inch margins, no web links, no audio or video files
• Commitment letters are required from subcontractors and consultants who are not on the offeror's staff; letters of support should be limited to those showing a tangible benefit
• Complete the Small Business Subcontracting Plan through the SBCX link given in the question responses
• Include a completed HHS Section 508 Product Assessment Template, a Data Management and Sharing Plan, and plans for including women, minorities and children
• State the specific Southern Plains area(s) targeted for recruitment, with a rationale, and describe a procurement process for the mobile exam units
• Create an eCPS account early; account setup can take up to three business days
• Proposal intent and clarification deadlines (September 1, 2026) have passed, and the amendment says no further questions will be answered; state any assumptions in the proposal

You must have

• No small business or other set-aside is listed in SAM.gov, so the competition appears open to all offerors. A contractor registered in SAM.gov with a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) is needed for invoicing. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) which is in the System for Award Management
• A Small Business Subcontracting Plan is submitted through the HHS SBCX system; NHLBI gave the link in its answer to question 8. The text does not say whether small businesses are exempt. complete and submit the required Small Business Subcontracting Plan
• Commitment letters are required for any subcontractor or consultant who is not a member of the offeror's staff. As noted in the solicitation (page 114), Commitment Letters are
• Provide a plan for including children in the research (or a justification for excluding them), and plans for including women and minorities. An unacceptable plan can knock the proposal out. Your proposal must include a description of plans for including children.
• Show Section 508 accessibility compliance for electronic and information technology products and services, using the HHS Section 508 Product Assessment Template.
• Provide past performance references on comparable work. The evaluation will be based on information obtained from references provided by the Offeror,
• Key staff or collaborators need experience in population-based epidemiology, cardiovascular and pulmonary studies, CT imaging, biostatistics, genomics, laboratory science and mobile health technology; personnel may not be committed to more than 100% of their time across federal grants and contracts.

Current contractor

NHLBI states there is no incumbent for this requirement. The original RURAL Heart and Lung Study (cooperative agreement U01HL146382, renewed in 2026 under contract HHS 75N98026D00018) is a separate effort whose holder is not named.

Not in the notice text

• Page limits for the technical proposal (Section L, Item 2.a.6) were left out of the text provided
• How price is weighed against the technical score (start of Section M and Sections H and L were left out)
• Whether small businesses are exempt from the Small Business Subcontracting Plan (the text only shows the SBCX link)
• Estimated cost for each period is listed as 'to be negotiated'; the exact value of task orders is unknown
• Report requirements and deliverables (Att_5), the proposal intent form (Att_2) and the Section K representations and certifications (Att_4) were not provided
• Middle sections of the solicitation and statement of work, including Section H special requirements, were left out; the redline and highlight marks in the revised statement of work are not visible in the text
• Whether the competition is truly open or single source
• Where the prime contractor must be located; place of performance is blank in SAM.gov