2026-JAII-01 AI Hub Consulting Service RFP

Background
The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), on behalf of the Massachusetts AI Hub, is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) for Consulting Services to support the design, development, and launch of the Data Commons Collaborative (DCC). This initiative aims to centralize access to data for AI development, research, and innovation, thereby accelerating AI development and ensuring equitable access across the Commonwealth.

Work Details
The selected Respondent will provide full-service project management and technical consulting services for the development and delivery of the DCC. The work includes:

1. **Program Management & Coordination**: Develop and maintain an integrated project plan and timeline; conduct regular meetings and stakeholder updates; ensure milestones defined in the DCC project plan are met.

2. **Technical Architecture & Platform Development**: Design and build the data commons website and backend infrastructure; implement metadata management, cataloging, and discovery tools (e.g., CKAN, Dataverse); develop role-based access and identity management system; develop a central ledger for tracking 'Commons Credits'; enable API-based data access and usage analytics.

3. **Dataset Curation and Integration**: Assist in curating the initial set of datasets; ensure metadata completeness and FAIR data principles; support ingestion pipelines, version control, and provenance tagging.

4. **Synthetic Data Capability**: Integrate synthetic data tools (e.g., SDV, Synthea, CARLA); support synthetic dataset generation and validation pipelines; ensure compliance with privacy and audit policies.

5. **AI Fairness and Bias Framework**: Implement bias detection, auditing, and mitigation tools (e.g., AIF360, Fairlearn); establish bias impact documentation workflows and dashboards.

6. **Security, Governance & Compliance**: Define and implement RBAC, MFA, dataset tiering; ensure logging, encryption, audit trails; define terms of use and enforce ethical data handling.

7. **Testing, Rollout, and Adoption**: Conduct QA across platform functions; train end users and administrators; prepare documentation and support materials; support public launch.

Period of Performance
The RFP was issued on August 21, 2025 with responses due by September 23, 2025. The exact period of performance will be determined upon contract award but is expected to align with project milestones outlined in the proposal.

Place of Performance
The geographic location(s) for performance are not explicitly stated but are likely to be within Massachusetts given the context of the Massachusetts AI Hub initiative.

Bidder Requirements
Respondents must demonstrate familiarity with program requirements including technical expertise in platform delivery related to metadata standards, synthetic data generation capabilities, AI fairness tools. Additionally, they must provide references from previous similar work.