**[Program in Developmental Neuroscience/Laboratory of Comparative
Ethology (PDN/LCE) Site Visit]{.underline}**

**Purpose:**

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will be
having their quadrennial site visit to Program in Developmental
Neuroscience/Laboratory of Comparative Ethology (PDN/LCE) of the NICHD,
which is directed by Dr. Chris McBain.  The visit will begin Wednesday
evening, October 22^nd^, 2008 (Dr. Rennert will meet with the reviewers
at the hotel for an orientation at 8:00 p.m.), all day Thursday, October
23^rd^ and will end by mid-afternoon, Friday, October 24^th^. The
meeting will be held in BG 31A conference room 2A48 and will be chaired
by Dr. W. Thomas Boyce, a member of our Board of Scientific Counselors.

During the past several years, the review of intramural research at the
NIH has become more rigorous than had been the case earlier. The feeling
throughout the Institutes is that our intramural scientists should be
subjected to the same scrutiny as the NIH\'s grantees, allowing for some
differences in the structure and dynamics of intramural and extramural
research. There has been an important attempt in all of the Institutes
to upgrade the quality and significance of the site visit process, and
it is being taken seriously indeed especially since our resources are
increasingly limited. To deploy these resources as fairly and
intelligently as possible, the NIH depends greatly upon the site visit
reports with commentary that is explicit and stringent.

The number of attendees for the site visit is determined by the number
of investigators in the Program plus a chair and co-chair for the event.
PDN/LCE has 5 Senior Investigators that require three independent
reviewers each. This brings the total of reviewers plus chairs to 17.

**Quote Need:**

In order to facilitate the Program in Developmental
Neuroscience/Laboratory of Comparative Ethology (PDN/LCE) site visit
from our NIH campus, we will need the coordination and administration of
airline tickets, hotel reservations, per diem, ground transportation and
honorarium for the attendees. All of the expenses will be reimbursed
after the site visit with the exclusion of the airline ticket which must
be paid for by the travel agency upfront. This is to help defer the cost
burden that each reviewer will be subjected to. The final expense will
be the cost of generating and distributing a site visit notebook to all
of the reviewers. The following details will apply:

-   **Attendees**-there will be 17 site reviewers. Three (2) of these
    are foreign.

-   **Hotel**- The travel agency must provide for two night hotel
    accommodations at the governments hotel per diem plus tax. As the
    reviewers are not government employees they are will be subject to
    the state and hotel tax totaling 14%. A hotel contract is pre
    drafted by the site visitor coordinator. It provides a block of
    rooms, which will be individually guaranteed by each site reviewer.
    No action is required on the part of the travel agency for this
    expense outside of an expense reimbursement after the site visit.

-   **Per diem (MMIE) Clause** -- The travel agency must provide the
    MMIE portion of the daily per diem to each traveler for each day of
    the meeting. For the PDEGEN Meeting the travel days requiring MMIE
    are as follows:

    -   **10/22/08** - Day of travel, day of meeting

    -   **10/23/08** - Day of meeting and travel

    -   **10/24/08** - Day of meeting and travel

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-   **Ground Transportation** --

    -   The travel agency must provide a \$200 flat ground
        transportation reimbursement unless total reimbursements
        receipts submitted exceed this amount. In that case, the higher
        amount is to be refunded. This covers reviewer's ground expenses
        to and from the airport on both legs of their trips.

    -   The travel agency must coordinate all ground transportation
        between the hotel and meeting location for 10/23 & 10/24. This
        will include a morning pick up at the hotel by 7:30 a.m. on both
        days as well as an afternoon drop off back to the hotel on 10/23
        at a time to be determined by the meeting agenda.

-   **Honorarium** -- The travel agency must provide honorarium for each
    day of service the reviewer provides toward the site visit. For the
    PGD Site Visit the applicable days and amount are listed below:

    -   10/23/08 -- 1 Day @ \$200

    -   10/24/08 -- 1 Day @ \$200

-   **Site Visit Notebook** -- The travel agency will be responsible for
    making copies and distributing the site visit notebook to the
    reviewers. A master notebook will be submitted to the travel agency
    4-5 weeks before the meeting and will have to be copied and mailed
    to all reviewers no later than three weeks before the start date of
    the meeting. Notebooks must be mailed via a trackable mailing
    service (e.g. FedEX or UPS).

-   **Special Exceptions -- None**