Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition PROTECT Huron

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

FAR 12.102(b)

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) FAR 12.102(b)12.201-112.201-212.001(c)FAR 12.102(b) & 12.201-1 1. Acquisition Title: Continued Software Subscription, Maintenance, and Technical Support for the NIH PROTECT eIRB Environment and Custom REST API
Division: Office of Human Subjects Research Protections (OHSRP), Office of Intramural Research (OIR), Office of the Director (OD), NIH
Contracting Activity: HHS/ASFR/OMAS
Author: Nicole Grant, Acting Director, OHSRP
Basis for approval: Individual
2. Nature and/or Description of the Action being Approved: The Office of Human Subjects Research Protections (OHSRP) requests approval for a firm-fixed-price follow-on contract with Huron Consulting Services LLC for continued software subscription, maintenance, and technical support services for the existing NIH PROTECT electronic Institutional Review Board (eIRB) environment and custom REST API. The Government projects award in September 2026 for a 12-month period of performance from September 30, 2026 through September 29, 2027, using fiscal year 2026 funds.
The proposed acquisition will provide continued subscription and support for the existing proprietary PROTECT environment, including Huron IRB, Huron Radiation Safety Committee, Huron Safety for Scientific Review Committee, Huron Portal for Ancillaries, and the Huron REST API used to integrate PROTECT with internal NIH systems. The acquisition also includes product-level technical support, software updates and upgrades, critical system-outage support, and the enhanced response and remediation services required to meet NIH timelines for identified software security vulnerabilities. This action is not an acquisition to select or implement a new eIRB platform. NIH currently operates the proprietary Huron PROTECT environment, and the purpose of this acquisition is to obtain the continued subscription, software maintenance, updates and upgrades, and product-level support required to maintain that existing operational environment.

[Last updated 8/17/2026.]

is therefore peculiar to the existing Huron product in the sense that NIH is acquiring the subscription, updates, upgrades, maintenance, and product-level support for software that NIH already operates. This is not a brand-name preference in an acquisition to select a new eIRB product. NIH is not specifying Huron in lieu of considering functionally equivalent eIRB products for a new implementation; rather, the