FDA 75F40126SSN134837.pdf

This is a Sources Sought Notice (SSN) - a market survey designed to collect written information only. This is not a solicitation announcement for proposals and no contract will be awarded from this announcement. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests. There is no RFQ, or other iteration of a solicitation associated with this Notice, and no telephone calls will be accepted requesting an RFQ package or solicitation. To protect the procurement integrity of any future acquisition that may arise from this announcement, information regarding a government technical point of contact will not be given and no appointments for presentations will be made.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Facility for Biotechnology Resources (FBR) provides an array of Next Generation Sequencing services, including genome, transcriptome, non-coding RNA, and chromatin immuno-precipitation sequencing analysis. The Eppendorf EpMotion Automatic Liquid Handling System is a critical instrument used for next-generation sequencing (NGS) library construction. The instrument is heavily used, is shared across multiple research areas, and performs precise and reproducible liquid handling steps essential for sample preparation.

If your firm is considered a small business source under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 811210 – Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance; with a Small Business Size Standard of $34 Million, and you believe that your firm would be able to provide the FDA with the equipment and/or services described below, please submit an email containing capability statement(s) to timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov.

Other than small (large) business concerns are also encouraged to submit capability statements. An interested supplier shall include information about the company and demonstrate that it can meet all the following minimum performance requirements.

Minimum Technical Requirements are as follows for preventive maintenance-repair (PM/R) service for an Eppendorf EpMotion liquid handling instrument system, S/N: 5075LI307568:

*One (1) planned on-site preventive maintenance visit for routine certification and/or calibration per contract year;

*Priority access to technical support (e-mail and telephone) Mondays - Fridays (excluding Federal Holidays) between the hours of 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Eastern Time;

*Shall include engineer labor, travel, and factory-certified replacement parts for on-demand on-site corrective maintenance visits (including one laser) with a targeted response time of 5 business days;

*Priority status for technical support inquiries with a targeted immediate response time; shall include remote diagnosis and corrective maintenance procedures with latest digital remote support tools;

*Direct Access by the FDA Technical Representative (TR) and/or system operator personnel to the manufacturer’s call center for technical assistance, which is staffed by senior engineers to provide a high level of expertise for troubleshooting the instrument;

*Compass Data Analysis software and firmware updates as required by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) either remotely or in conjunction with a scheduled preventive maintenance or mailto:timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov corrective maintenance visit (updates are defined as changes of the existing software version that are intended to improve its performance);

*All maintenance activities shall be performed by formally trained and certified technicians and/or engineers, following OEM specifications, manuals, and service bulletins, using OEM replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc.;

*All preventive maintenance and/or repair service pricing shall be inclusive of labor, travel, replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc.

Service Records and Reports *The Contractor shall, commensurate with the completion of each service call or preventive maintenance visit, provide the end-user of the equipment and the Contracting Officer with a copy of a field service report/ticket identifying the equipment name, manufacturer, model number, and serial number of the equipment being serviced/repaired and detailing the reason for the service call, a detailed description of the work performed, the test instruments or other equipment used to affect the repair or otherwise perform the service, the name(s) and contact information of the technician who performed the repair/service, and for information purposes, the on-site hours expended and parts/components replaced.

Delivery Point – FOB Destination U.S. FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Facility for Biotechnology Resources Bldg. 52, Room 1152 10903 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002

Responses to this Sources Sought Notice shall unequivocally demonstrate that the respondent is regularly engaged in the sale of same or substantially similar equipment and/or services. Though the target audience is small business vendors or small businesses capable of supplying a U.S.

product/service of a small business vendor or producer, all interested parties may respond. At a minimum, responses shall include the following:

• Business name and bio, Unique Entity ID (SAM) number, business address, business website, business size status (i.e., SB, VOSB, SDVOSB, HUBZone SB, SDB, WOSB, LB), point of contact name, mailing address (if different from business address), phone number and email address. Provide this same information again if responding to provide a service offered by another firm;

• Past Performance (within the last 3 years) information for the sale of same or substantially similar product/service to include date of sale, description, dollar value, client name, client address, client contact name, client point of contact mailing address (if different from that provided for client), client point of contact phone number, client point of contact email address, and name of the manufacturer (to include SAM Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and size status) if not the respondent;

• Descriptive literature, brochures, marketing material, etc. detailing the nature of the equipment and/or services the responding firm is regularly engaged in manufacturing or selling;

• The offeror shall furnish sufficient technical information necessary for the Government to conclusively determine that the offered products/services meet the technical requirements identified above;

• If applicable, the offeror’s capability to initiate service within 5 business days of original notification, to include estimated historical on-site response time for the brand name and model of instrument in this requirement;

• If applicable, identification of the firm's GSA Schedule contract(s) by Schedule number and SINs that are applicable to this potential requirement are also requested;

• If applicable, identification of Best in Class (BIC) contract information or other Government-wide or HHS-wide contracts that the equipment/service is available under;

• If a large business, provide whether subcontracting opportunities exist for small business concerns;

• Standard commercial warranty and payment terms;

• Provide place of product manufacture (Country of Origin) or service performance and any other applicable information to enable review and analysis pertaining to the Buy American statute and requirements relating to Made in America in the event a nonavailability waiver request through the MIAO Digital Waiver Portal is required.

Though this is not a request for quote, informational pricing for the equipment/service would be helpful for market research purposes. The Government is not responsible for locating or securing any information not identified in the response.

Interested Contractors must respond with capability statements submitted ONLY by email on or before 2:00 pm (Central Time in Jefferson AR) on August 10, 2026, to Tim Walbert at timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov. Please reference 75F40126SSN134837 in the Subject line of the e-mail.

Disclaimer and Important Notes This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work.

Responses with weblinks will not be opened or viewed. Responses must demonstrate capability, not merely affirm the respondent’s capability (i.e. the response must go beyond the statement that, “XYZ company can provide the instrument, technical support etc.”).

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis or combined synopsis/ solicitation may be published on SAM.gov – Contracting Opportunities. However, responses to this mailto:timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality and Proprietary Information No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response.

The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

Additional Notes:

If the stated requirements appear restrictive, please submit comments detailing the concern. Failure to provide information indicating that the listed specifications are too restrictive will be interpreted as confirmation that the specifications are adequate for a competitive environment.