A16. Pre-Solicitation Notice.docx

This is a pre-solicitation synopsis issued in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.101.

DESCRIPTION: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Acquisition Services has a requirement to contract on behalf of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) for wastewater surveillance that complements and supports existing wastewater surveillance networks managed by state, local, tribal, and territorial (STLT) health departments. The contract shall support ongoing wastewater infectious disease monitoring, rapidly respond to emerging outbreaks, and prepare for future public health responses by facilitating wastewater surveillance of multiple pathogens.

The requirements for this wastewater testing services contract shall be:

1. The contractor shall establish service relationships with up to 500 selected public wastewater treatment facilities across the US, its territories, and tribal lands. Facilities shall be selected for testing by CDC in coordination with STLT health departments. The contractor shall have the ability and capacity to identify new potential sites for inclusion, to be approved by CDC in coordination with STLT health departments. The contractor shall provide sampling and shipping supplies at no cost to the participating public wastewater treatment utilities, and the contractor shall be responsible for managing shipping logistics to support public wastewater treatment utility partners. Wastewater samples shall be collected and shipped at a minimum of twice per week. The contractor shall establish a mechanism to collect the utility metadata required for NWSS data submission, including point of contact for the utility, point of contact for the local health department, flow rates at the time of sample collection, sewershed polygons and other required data elements listed in the NWSS data dictionary of which updated versions shall be shared with the vendor by the Government.

2. The contractor shall complete quantitative digital (dPCR) or digital droplet (ddPCR) PCR-based testing for up to 25 infectious disease pathogen targets and shall submit data to CDC within 36 hours maximum of sample receipt by the contractor. Test methods, including sample collection, storage, sample processing (concentration and extraction), assay selection and validation data, and sample results and analysis, shall meet the data submission standards for NWSS. Data submission standards, as defined in the NWSS data dictionary, shall be shared with the contractor by CDC. The contractor shall share protocols for all test method components with CDC with the understanding these methods may be shared publicly. In some cases, sample processing and assay test methods selection shall require dry and wet lab validation by the contractor prior to implementation to evaluate and confirm methods are fit for use and purpose, including the production of validation data. Validation requirements shall be defined by CDC; validation design, results and analyses shall be furnished by the contractor to CDC in a format that can be shared publicly, and validation results and analyses, including raw data, shall be shared with, reviewed, and approved by CDC prior to contractor method implementation. At the request of CDC, the contractor shall evaluate, optimize, validate, and update any current or new test methods to modify and improve performance. Testing shall only be done by a single laboratory located within the continental United States of America.

3. The contractor shall complete sequencing of a subset of samples that have the minimum concentrations necessary to generate high quality sequence data, or lower concentration samples if requested by CDC. Contractor shall have demonstrated capacity for rapid turnaround time from sample collection to submission to CDC. Raw sequence data shall be submitted to CDC within a timeframe designated at the task order level.

4. The contractor shall have the ability to perform metagenomic sequencing with the capacity to sequence one billion reads (or equivalent, dependent upon platform) from each sample, from 100 samples per week.

Research and development costs shall not be covered by this contract.

APPLICABLE NAICS: 541380 – Testing Laboratories and Services APPLICABLE PRODUCT SERVICE CODE: Q301 – Medical – Laboratory Testing ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE (PoP): The anticipated PoP is for base period of 12-months, and four, 12-month option periods as follows:

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: Offsite at the contractor or testing site.

TYPE OF SET-ASIDE: This will be a Full and Open Competitive Procurement (Unrestricted) CONTEMPLATED CONTRACT TYPE: The Government contemplates a Single Source IDIQ with Firm Fixed Price Contract Type.

SELECTION PROCESS: Proposals will be evaluated using a Best Value Trade Off source selection process.

DISCUSSIONS: The Government intends to award without discussions but reserves the right to conduct discussions should it be deemed in the Government’s best interest ANTICIPATED SOLICITATION RELEASE DATE: The Government anticipates releasing the solicitation in July 2026, with an anticipated closing date/proposal due date of 30 calendar days from the date of release of the solicitation. No telephone or written requests for the solicitation will be accepted.

SOLICITATION WEBSITE: The Government will release the solicitation, including any subsequent amendments, if any, on the SAM.gov website.

REGISTRATION: Offerors are required to be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) when submitting an offer or quotation and at the time of award.

DISCLAIMER: This pre-solicitation synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. This synopsis is issued in accordance with FAR 5.101 and shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract. The Government will not accept proposals as a result of this synopsis. Responses to this synopsis are not required.

Questions regarding this notice shall be submitted to the Contract Specialist, G. Henrietta Fumbah Wei, at ehu0@cdc.gov. No telephone questions will be accepted.