Notice of Intent to Negotiate a Sole Source Contract

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), intends to negotiate a sole source contract with Lab7 located in Austin, TX, for the purchase of integration of data output from the DasBox bioreactor instrument into the existing LIMS system created by Lab7. The system must record metadata about each run, sample, and output, while creating pointers to the data within LIMS so it can be easily found by customers of the Core Facility at the US Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, NE. The ESP laboratory information system (LIMS) was designed and customized for USMARC by Lab7, and this new process-based LIMS is only available from them. The requested modification is to enhance the system to capture data from a new instrument that is a research-focused bioreactor for analyzing bacterial growth and other related parameters, from a recently-procured new DNA sequencing system, to assist in monitoring the data and providing ready access for researchers to the data they requested. No other vendor has the necessary base code for the ESP to make these enhancements. The modified LIMS will assist in monitoring the data and provide ready access for researchers to the data they requested. No other vendor has the necessary base code for the ESP to make these enhancements. Lab7 is the only vendor authorized to modify the existing system data to incorporate the DasBox because of the proprietary setup.

This is a notice of intent and is not a request for competitive quotations or proposals. No solicitation is available. Firms that believe they can provide these products are encouraged to identify themselves and provide a substantive statement with descriptive literature and any other supporting information to the Contracting Officer within 10 days of publication of this notice. All information received within 10 days of publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government to determine if the more than one firm can meet the Government's requirements and is capable of performing the intended task(s). All responses must be in writing and may be faxed to the attention of Donita Furman, fax 402-762-4148, or by email to donita.furman@ars.usda.gov. Questions concerning this acquisition must be directed to Donita Furman at 402-7962-4145 or at the above contact information.