EPA - Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP-Wiki) Server - MRAS

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through the General Services Administration (GSA), is conducting market research to support its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). This program is pivotal for assessing the safety of chemicals and pesticides, ensuring they do not adversely affect human health or the environment. The EPA aims to enhance its chemical safety assessments by leveraging adverse outcome pathways (AOPs), which provide a structured framework for understanding how chemical perturbations can lead to adverse health effects. By moving away from traditional animal testing methods, the EPA seeks to refine, reduce, and replace these practices with new approach methodologies (NAMs) that are more efficient and cost-effective.

At the core of this initiative is the AOP-Wiki, an internationally recognized repository endorsed by the OECD. The AOP-Wiki serves as a central platform for organizing scientific knowledge related to AOPs. Historically funded through voluntary donations by organizations such as the Society of Advancement of AOPs (SAAOP) and supported by partnerships like that with the American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT), there is now a need for more stable funding mechanisms. This is where EPA's financial contributions come into play, ensuring that AOP-Wiki remains operational and accessible not only for EPA's regulatory needs but also for broader scientific use.

The scope of work under this contract involves maintaining and enhancing the AOP-Wiki's infrastructure. The contractor will be responsible for supporting server costs, routine software updates, security measures, and feature enhancements necessary to keep this critical information system functional. By doing so, it will facilitate EPA's statutory work in screening chemicals more efficiently under various legislative acts such as the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.