Independent External Peer Reviews for the US Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) requires professional technical services in support of required independent external peer reviews (IEPR). The USACE Mission Support Battalion (UMSB) will award and administer one or more Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA) on behalf of the USACE Institute for Water Resources (IWR). These BPAs will serve the needs of the entire USACE consistent with the general scope of work detailed in the Performance Work Statement.

The purpose of this BPA is to provide IEPR services to USACE for scientific assessments and water resource projects. The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Bulletin M-05-03, “Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review,” (2004) and the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA 2007), as amended, mandate that certain scientific assessments and project studies conducted by USACE shall be subject to peer review by an independent panel of experts.

In addition, these authorities and directives and related USACE guidance on review processes allow that USACE may choose to perform IEPR on certain work products. USACE requires contractor support to provide technical services in support of IEPR’s for water resources projects, scientific assessments and related work products consistent with OMB Bulletin M-05-03 and WRDA 2007, as amended, and related USACE guidance.

For each order under this BPA, the Contractor will be required to establish a panel of experts, typically in accordance with the National Academy of Science’s (NAS) policy for selecting committee members, and manage peer reviews for project studies, scientific assessments and/or related work products. Specific requirements will be detailed in the PWS for each order. In accordance with the WRDA 2007, as amended, offerors must be an eligible 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Business to submit a proposal as a prime contractor for this requirement.

Amendment 001 is to provide answers to questions and to amend Section L and M of the solicitation.