(a) It is HHS policy that contracting activities shall not award a contract involving live vertebrate animals until the Contractor provides acceptable assurance the contract work is subject to initial and continuing review by an appropriate Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) as described in the PHS Policy at IV.B.6 and 7. The contracting officer shall require an applicable Animal Welfare Assurance approved by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), National Institutes of Health (NIH), of each contractor, subcontractor, or institution having responsibility for animal care and use involved in performance of the contract. Normally the assurance shall be approved before award. The contracting officer, on a case-by-case basis, may make award without an approved assurance in consultation with OLAW. For additional information see PHS Policy II., IV.A, and V.B.

(b) The OLAW, NIH, is responsible for negotiating assurances covering all HHS/PHS-supported or HHS/PHS-conducted activities involving the care and use of live vertebrate animals. OLAW shall provide guidance to contracting officers regarding adequate animal care and use, approval, disapproval, restriction, or withdrawal of approval of assurances. For additional information see PHS Policy V.A.

(c) If using live vertebrate animals, HHS policy requires that offerors address the points in the Vertebrate Animal Section (VAS) of the Technical Proposal. Each of the points must be addressed in the VAS portion of the Technical Proposal. For additional information see PHS Policy and use Contract Proposal VAS Worksheet. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/references/phspol.htm# InformationRequiredinApplications- ProposalsforAwardsSubmittedtoPHS and http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/VAScontracts.pdf.