NIH to Launch Set-Aside GWAC The National Institutes of Health said it will issue the final RFP in September for a $20 billion set-aside governmentwide acquisition contract. The Chief Information Officer–Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) GWAC also includes a full and open component with a $20 billion ceiling over 10 years. The contract is a follow-on to an earlier GWAC with the same name. In a notice posted Aug. 17, NIH said CIO-SP3 will “support the full range of IT needs across the federal government, with a particular emphasis on agencies like NIH and its parent, HHS, that are involved in health care and clinical and biological research.” It will incorporate medical imaging, remote sensing, videoconferencing and Web services previously handled under a separate NIH contract, Image World 2 New Dimensions. In a letter approving the GWAC, Peter Orszag, the outgoing director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the contract will support the new healthcare reform law. The law calls for widespread use of IT to allow consumers to compare health plans, to create universal patient identifiers and to detect was, fraud and abuse.