The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) anticipates that Request for Proposals (RFP) NHLBI-WH-06-09 will be available on or about January 9, 2006. The objective of the RFP is to maximize the scientific yield from the biologic resource and associated participant exposure and outcome data generated by the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) research studies. The overall WHI program is intended to improve knowledge about the predictors and prevention of some of the more common diseases affecting older women (cardiovascular diseases, cancers of the breast, colon and rectum, and fractures). Because of their importance to public health, the BAA will expand existing efforts within WHI centered around these diseases. However, extensive information was also collected on other outcomes, such as other cancers, cognition, and functional status, and proposals using these phenotypes or groups of phenotypes will also be considered. NHLBI anticipates that the research programs funded by this BAA will include applications of genomics, proteomics, and other laboratory investigations to the existing frozen samples of DNA, serum, plasma, red blood cells, and urine. This BAA seeks innovative technologies that enable comprehensive yet efficient investigation of sets of markers associated with disease outcomes or treatment effects, or of groups of mediators that might substantively explain the pathway of exposure or treatment effects on disease outcomes. Focused studies on a more limited number of candidate genes or candidate markers will be considered if there are reasonably strong data supporting large effects from these individual markers that need to be confirmed in a large dataset, and their validation has potential public health implications.

Detailed information on the WHI program will be found at http://www.whiscience.org/. The NHLBI anticipates awarding contracts based on technical merit, available funds, and programmatic balance. Prospective Offerors are invited to attend a pre-proposal conference on February 27, 2006, from 1:00-3:00 pm, at the Natcher Building on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. NHLBI staff will explain the purpose of the initiative, provide instructions about the proposal process and answer questions. Questions provided by February 20, 2006 will be answered at the conference. Offeror institutions are urged to send a representative to this conference. All attendees, as well as anyone who cannot attend the pre-proposal conference, will be given access, through an amendment to the Solicitation, to any distributed materials, questions and answers, and a summary of the discussion. These materials and additional information about the meeting will be posted with the BAA. Attendance is not a pre-requisite for proposal submission and will not be considered a factor in proposal evaluation.



This announcement is not a request for proposals (RFP) and, although eight to ten awards are anticipated, the Government is not committed to award a contract pursuant to this announcement. The RFP will be available on the FedBizOpps web page at http://fedbizopps.gov. Prospective offerors are responsible for downloading the RFP and all attachments. It is also offerors’ responsibility to monitor the FedBizOpps web page for the release of any amendments to the RFP. Letters of intent are due no later than February 10, 2006. This acquisition has been designated as a full and open competition under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541710.