Amplicon sequencing services

The U.S. Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants seeks amplicon sequencing services under a Blanket Purchase Agreement with a not-to-exceed value of $250,000 over five years, with quotations now due November 5 following amendment reopening for full and open competition. The original procurement was set-aside for Women-Owned Small Businesses, but Amendment 0002 (posted October 16) reopened it for full and open competition; questions were due October 22.

Place of performance is the Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Lansing, Michigan. The contractor must provide 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing services, with AVITI sequencing as a mandatory capability and Illumina MiSeq (or MiSeq i100 Plus as replacement) as an alternative for specific projects. The contractor supplies all equipment, labor, supplies, and materials; USGS extracts DNA and submits samples. Government anticipates shipping 70–94 samples per Illumina submission (up to 500 samples annually) and 94–394 samples per AVITI submission (up to 1,600 samples annually, likely reaching 1,600–3,100). Performance runs from September 17, 2026, through September 16, 2031.

Technical requirements include library preparation via PCR with barcoding and pooling; quality control on genomic DNA; and sequencing per specifications (Illumina: 3.6–4.5 Gbp or 12–15 million read pairs; AVITI: 35 million for medium flow cells or 100 million for high flow cells). Data delivery is due within 60 business days with demultiplexed and raw data, quality metrics, and minimum 75% reads at quality score >30. Contractor must provide secure server access for 60 days minimum and archive data for one year. The NAICS code is 541714 (Research and Development in Biotechnology); PSC is Q301 (Reference Laboratory Testing). Evaluation weighs qualifications (equipment, personnel, QA/QC procedures) most heavily, followed by technical performance narrative (two pages maximum) and past performance references (two customers within five years). Non-priced factors are significantly more important than cost. Individual BPA call orders are capped at $100,000; the BPA itself is non-enforceable and cancelable by either party at any time.