Description

GENERAL
This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential requirement.

This notice is issued to help determine the availability of qualified companies technically capable of meeting the Government requirement, to determine the method of acquisition. It is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. The Government will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. 

BACKGROUND
The Division of Population Health Research (DiPHR) within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, requires automated collection and management of large-scale public social media data related to food, nutrition, eating behaviors, hunger, and sentiment from platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter). Access to these services will  accelerate research productivity and generate preliminary data for future external funding opportunities.

SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS

The DiPHR has utilized Apify in the past, and is seeking information on this and other comparable solutions available commercially. The solution must provide scalable data acquisition capabilities that enable efficient collection of millions of text, image, and video records needed for artificial intelligence (AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), computer vision, and machine learning analyses. Data acquisition must be timely, reproducible, and conducted on a large-scale. Additionally, the solution must:

• Collect public social media data from multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter), to support research on food, nutrition, eating behaviors, hunger, and public sentiment.
• Feature automated, scalable data extraction capable of collecting millions of text, image, video, engagement, and metadata records to meet study data collection needs.
• Facilitate structured data export and storage capabilities (e.g., JSON, CSV) to support efficient data management, reproducibility, and integration with research workflows.
• Possess scheduling and automation features that enable continuous or periodic data collection to support longitudinal monitoring and trend analyses.
• Incorporate data quality controls, including filtering, deduplication, and validation features, to improve data accuracy and reliability. 
• Allow for API access and compatibility with artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, machine learning, and Large Language Model (LLM) workflows to support advanced analyses.
• Maintain secure cloud-based infrastructure and data management capabilities to support compliant and efficient research operations.

REQUESTED INFORMATION

The Government requests feedback from interested parties regarding potential sources for solutions meeting the requirements in this notice. Interested parties submitting a response are asked to include the following information:

• Organization name, including any "DBA" if applicable.
• Universal Entity Identifier (UEI)
• Business size and socioeconomic category
• Capabilities statement for the organization
• Technical capabilities of the solution
• A rough order of magnitude (ROM) or a commercial price list which can be utilized to determine estimated pricing for 12-months of services.