Proposal Submission Instructions

Table of Contents

• Key points
• Your notice of intent
• Certify similarity of your paper proposals and PDF proposals on CD
• Your official paper proposal
  • Formatting and layout
  • Page limits and number of copies to send
  • Receipt date and timeliness
  • Packaging, delivery method, and addressing
• Your electronic proposal on CD
  • About the Portable Document Format (PDF)
  • Convert both files to PDF
  • Suggestions on how to minimize PDF file size
  • CD proposal preparation
• If you have questions or concerns

Key points

Read all instructions on this page and in the RFP before mailing or submitting forms, proposals, or CDs. Find the RFP on our list of currently active RFPs and amendments.

Your proposal must be organized as specified in Section L “Instructions to Offerors” -- General Instructions. Appendix A provides additional proposal preparation instructions.

Your proposal will have two separate parts.

• Business proposal
• Technical proposal

In addition, several other forms are required -- see the RFP and the table below for details. Some forms are in the RFP, while others are available on our Forms and Attachments page.

You will submit your proposal in two formats: paper and CD.

• The paper proposal with original signatures is the official, legally binding copy. There are no acceptable substitutes.
• The electronic PDFs of the proposal, on CD, are for the benefit of NIAID. The CDs may or may not be used for review, at the discretion of NIAID.

Do not include links to Internet Web site addresses (URLs) in your technical proposal or otherwise direct readers to alternate sources of information. The solicitation imposes mandatory page limits; including a URL in the technical proposal would increase the proposal size by an unknown quantity, and thus is not allowed. When evaluating a technical proposal, the technical evaluation group will be instructed not to access any URLs. However, you may include printed pages from a Web site in your technical proposal. They will be treated like any other printed material and will count toward the mandatory page limit.

As a potential offeror, you should routinely check FedBizOpps for RFPs and amendments. We do not directly notify you of changes. We index RFPs on our RFP page as a convenience, but amendments only appear on FedBizOpps, and RFPs may be posted on FedBizOpps before they appear on our page.

Send your proposal to NIAID's Office of Acquisitions at the address below. If you have any questions, ask the primary OA contact specified in the RFP, or see the OA contact information.

Your notice of intent

The RFP includes a notice of intent form (Proposal Intent Response Sheet) and a due date for the form. Send the completed notice of intent form early enough to ensure that the OA primary contact receives the form by that date.

Certify similarity of your paper proposals and PDF proposals on CD

You must certify in your cover letter or cover sheet that the documents provided electronically match the paper proposal. Always follow the same page limits, page layout, type size, and type density limits specified below in formatting and layout.

Your official paper proposal

The paper proposal with original signatures is the official copy. There are no acceptable substitutes.

Formatting and layout

Use your usual word processing and spreadsheet programs to prepare and format the technical and business proposals.

• Type size must be 10 to 12 points.
• Type spacing should be no more than 15 characters per inch. Within a vertical inch, there must be no more than six lines of text.
• Print margins must be at least one inch on each edge of the paper.
• Print setup should be single-sided on standard letter size paper (8.5 x 11" in the U.S., A4 in Europe).
• Larger paper sizes will be counted as two pages.
• Two-sided pages count as two pages.

Page limits and number of copies to send

Pages in excess of the limit will be removed and will not be read, evaluated, or considered for review.

The number of copies required by these instructions is effective for RFPs released after January 23, 2006. If the RFP specifies a different number of copies, the RFP prevails.

Receipt date and timeliness

The receipt date and time are specified in the RFP. Plan your timing and delivery method to ensure that OA will receive your paper proposal, CDs, copies, and any other required documents in time.

OA determines whether receipt is timely, based on when OA logs receipt of the complete package. If OA does not receive all required documents and CDs at the specified place and time, it will be considered late and handled in accordance with HHSAR 352.215-70, "Late Proposals and Revisions," if that clause is included in the RFP.

Packaging, delivery method, and addressing

Package your proposal for delivery:

• Print both proposal sections, all required forms, and any appendices.
• Sign and complete all original forms.
• Include the required documents and number of copies. See table above.
• Send the CDs with the paper proposal. See CD instructions for details.

The outside of your package must indicate the RFP number, title, and the statement "TO BE OPENED BY AUTHORIZED GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL ONLY" in addition to the mailing and return addresses.

You must address the package correctly, based on your delivery method:

Addressing is critical! If you incorrectly send a U.S. Postal Service "Express Mail" package to the hand-delivery address, it will be held at a local post office -- NIAID will not pick up your proposal at the post office.

Your electronic proposal on CD

At the discretion of NIAID, the CDs may or may not be used for review. The signed paper proposal is the official copy.

About the Portable Document Format (PDF)

Your must convert your source files to Portable Document Format (PDF). We will not accept any other file format for your CD proposal submission. You can create PDFs using software packages such as Adobe Acrobat, Adobe's online converter, ScanSoft PDF Converter, and others. Anyone who has installed free software such as Acrobat Reader can read PDF files.

Convert both files to PDF

Make two separate PDF files -- one for the business proposal and one for the technical proposal. Include any attachments in the relevant PDF file.

Following the instructions in your PDF creation program, convert your original word processing files, graphics, spreadsheets, attachments, and other files into a PDF. As part of the conversion process, we strongly suggest that you create search indexes in your electronic technical proposal file to make it easier for reviewers to locate information. If you cannot create search indexes, reviewers will still be able to use the generic "Search" command.

Suggestions on how to minimize PDF file size

In order to avoid overly large electronic files, we offer the following suggestions:

Do not embed sound or video (e.g., MPEG) files into the proposal files. They greatly increase file size, and the evaluation system used by the reviewers cannot play sound or video.

Make embedded graphics as small and simple as possible. Complex graphics greatly increase the size of your proposal and make the electronic review of proposals more difficult for reviewers.

• Only use compressed formats like JPG and GIF.
• Minimize the resolution of images -- 1024x768 pixels or smaller.
• Limit scanned images and photos as much as possible.
• Simplify your color palette for creating figures and tables.
• Avoid unnecessary textures or gradients.

If you find your resulting PDF file is still too large to fit on a CD, take a stricter approach using the guidelines above. For example, you may wish to reformat or remove graphics. Then convert the source files into PDF again, and check the size. Repeat this process until the file size is reasonable.

CD proposal preparation

You will submit your electronic files on separate CDs.

• 30 CDs of the technical proposal PDF, including any attachments.
• Two CDs of the business proposal PDF, including any attachments.

You should follow the file size instructions above to ensure that your PDFs fit onto a CD. Any CDs beyond those specified will not be accepted for review. Send the CDs with the paper proposal. See the delivery instructions, above.

As explained above, you must certify similarity of your paper proposals and PDF proposals on CD.

If you have questions or concerns

Let the OA primary contact know as soon as possible. The contact information is specified in the RFP, or see the OA contact information.

Learn more about the other stages of the contracts process on our About NIAID Contracts page.

Return to the main R&D Contracts Web page.