Request for Information (RFI): Identifying Organizations with the Appropriate Expertise to Maintain the Molecular Imaging and Contrast Agent Database (MICAD)

Notice Number: NOT-RM-12-027

Key Dates
Release Date: June 22, 2012

Issued by
Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)

Purpose

This request for information (RFI) seeks to identify organizations with the appropriate expertise and capabilities to sustain, continue to populate and expand the NIH Molecular Imaging and Contrast Agent Database (MICAD: http://micad.nih.gov).  This RFI serves to notify the community and to provide all interested parties an opportunity to respond.

Background

MICAD is a freely-accessible online source of scientific information on in vivo molecular imaging and contrast agents.  MICAD was initiated in 2004 as a component of the NIH Common Fund Molecular Libraries and Imaging Program.  The purpose of MICAD was to create a centralized resource for the scientific community on all peer-reviewed molecular imaging agents.  Through resources provided by the NIH Common Fund and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), MICAD now exists as an integrated component of the NLM Bookshelf (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books) and contains information on over 1200 imaging agents.  Each MICAD entry is a structured summary of a single molecular imaging agent, and is prepared and reviewed by an expert team of Ph.D.-level scientists.  In addition, each MICAD chapter is indexed as an individual entry in PubMed, so the information is accessible to the community through multiple routes.  As an example of recent usage of MICAD, there was an average of approximately 13,700 web hits/month during the 6 months between May 2011 and October 2011.

The NIH is now interested in transferring MICAD to a private entity to sustain, continue to populate and expand it for the indefinite future.  An ideal partner entity in this venture would be able to provide scientific expertise on molecular imaging agents, computational infrastructure to maintain the database, a plan for maintaining the freely-accessible high quality content of MICAD, and a vision for expanding its utility for the community. 

Information Requested

Entities responding to this RFI are requested to submit the following information:

1) Description of the organization's vision for the future of MICAD.
2) Description of the organization's ability to provide freely accessible, high-quality scientific content on molecular imaging agents, and how that content would be clearly and explicitly separated from any opinions, comments or commercially-sponsored content.
3) Description of the resources that the organization would provide to support MICAD.

Responses

Responses will be accepted through July 13, 2012. Please email your response to the above inquiries to: am187k@nih.gov

In your response, please also provide the following (and include the Notice number NOT-RM-12-027 in the subject line):

Name of the organization/site
Full contact information for the point of contact

This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of NIH.  NIH does not intend to award a grant or contract to pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for use of such information.  Acknowledgment of receipt of responses may not be made, nor will respondents be notified of evaluation of the information received.  No basis for claims against NIH shall arise as a result of a response to this request for information or use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent announcement.  Responses will be held confidential. Any proprietary information should be so marked.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Anne E. Menkens, Ph.D.
National Cancer Institute
6130 Executive Blvd., Room 6068
Bethesda, MD  20892
301-496-9531
am187k@nih.gov
http://imaging.cancer.gov


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