The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) proposes to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) No. NIMH-02-DM-0006 entitled "Measurement and Treatment Development Activities on Cognition in Schizophrenia" under Full and Open Competition procedures using North American Industry Classification System 541720. NIMH seeks the support of a Contractor who will be responsible for: (1) Designing and conducting a comprehensive survey to explore the feasibility of NIMH entering into agreements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to obtain access to compounds and/or compound libraries with the aim of identifying New Chemical Entities (NCE's) of potential utility to enhance cognition in schizophrenia; (2) Developing a comprehensive list of lead compounds potentially accessible for government/industry collaborative development; (3) Based on face-to-face interviews with key industry decision makers, defining approaches to management of intellectual property issues bearing on government/industry collaboration that would impact NIMH's ability to negotiate access to a compound for collaborative development and/or human clinical trials; (4) Arranging and chairing industry/government/academic consensus-oriented conferences regarding state of the art measurement methods, experimental designs, conflict of interest and intellectual property issues, and pharmacological agents of potential utility in remedying cognitive deficits in schizophrenia; (5) The contractor may be required to create a new instrument that conforms to the specific characteristics of an optimal assessment tool for cognition, and establish the reliability, validity and pharmacosensitivity of such a new instrument; (6) The contractor may be required to design and conduct a small proof of concept augmentation trial of a lead compound identified; (7) Prepare/author one or more reports for the Schizophrenia Bulletin that focus on some or all of the following substantive issues: a) reviewing major neuropharmacological approaches to modulation of cognition and working memory in schizophrenia with emphasis on potential translation implications of pharmacological circuit-based models to human clinical trials; b) review of pharmacological agents of potential utility in remedying cognitive deficits in human subjects with schizophrenia; c) comprehensive assessment of extant and experimental measures of cognition in schizophrenia; d) comprehensive assessment of methodological issues related to evaluating efficacy of augmentation strategies to remedy cognitive deficits in schizophrenia including selection of optimal experimental populations, management of differential side effect profiles of alternative agents, differentiating primary effect on cognition from secondary effects on other dimensions of schizophrenia psychopathology; e) comprehensive assessment of legal, ethical and intellectual property issues impacting government/industry collaboration to develop augmentation strategies to remedy cognitive deficits in schizophrenia; f) comprehensive assessment of prospect for development of imaging-based biomarkers linked to efficacy in remedying cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. A two (2) year base contract with two (2), one (1) year options is contemplated. Plans are to award a contract by September 30, 2002. RFP No. NIMH-02-SS-0003 is scheduled for electronic release on or about February 4, 2002 and the receipt date of proposals is scheduled on or about April 4, 2002. The RFP may be accessed through http://www.fedbizopps.gov or the NIMH home page by using the following instructions: access the home page at http://www.nimh.gov, first select Funding Opportunities, then Contracts, then NIMH Requests for Proposals. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor the above internet sites for the release of this solicitation and amendments, if any. Please note that the RFP for this requirement will include the Statement of Work, Deliverables, Reporting Requirements, Tec

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