Silver Spring, MD, December 20, 2012. BETAH Associates, Inc., a professional services firm headquartered in Silver Spring, MD, is one of only a few small businesses to be awarded the highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Information and Communication Services (PICS) contract. This multi-award indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract provides NIH buyers at the 27 Institutes and Centers (ICs) a pool of highly qualified, carefully vetted vendors who will compete for individual task orders issued under the contract. PICS is a 5-year contract with a total maximum value of $100 million.

“The world of health communications has changed radically in recent years,” said Michelle Taylor, BETAH President and CEO. “We at BETAH are excited to work closely with NIH and apply both traditional and new strategies in delivering critically important health information.”

To complement its in-house technical and subject matter strengths, BETAH assembled a team of expert partners for this contract to ensure it would be ready to hit the ground running on day one. This team offers NIH extensive knowledge, experience, and a collaborative history in each of the designated contract areas, including Communications Research; Outreach and Promotion Activities; Press, Public Information, Integrated Marketing, and Media Support Services; Outreach to Target Populations/Health Disparities Programs; Materials and Product Development; Graphic Design; Web Design, Development, and Management; Foreign Language Translation and Interpretation; Media and Crisis Communication Training; Information and Referrals (Clearinghouses); Exhibit Development, Design, Production, and Transport; and Meeting, Conference and Event Support.

From grant review coordination and scientific meeting support to communications outreach, summary writing and materials development, for more than 20 years BETAH has successfully supported a wide range of NIH projects through individual awards as well as its current blanket purchase agreement to provide Graphic Arts/Design Services, Web-based Marketing Services and Conference, Events and Tradeshow Planning Services.

About BETAH Associates

Founded in 1988, BETAH is a small, minority- and woman-owned professional services firm with the mission to improve the quality of life, health, safety, and education for vulnerable and underserved communities. In addition to the company’s extensive experience with NIH, BETAH has provided

services to many federal agencies including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Administration on Aging, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, HHS Office on Women’s Health, HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of Minority Health, Small Business Administration, and the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The company offers a diverse blend of technical abilities, competencies, and subject matter expertise that is readily applicable to a broad range of content areas including: HIV/AIDS, obesity, infant mortality, developmental disabilities, healthy aging, and health disparities.

About NIH PICS

The largest source of funding for medical research in the world, NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems. Thanks in large part to NIH-funded medical research, Americans today are living longer and healthier lives. Established to purchase comprehensive communication, evaluation, and social marketing services via task and service orders issued by specific ICs, the PICS contract is expected to enable NIH to achieve and maintain high quality performance in the areas of media, communication, and information dissemination and technology.

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