NovaSeq X Plus Silver Support and Preventative Maintenance Plans

This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal.  The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate an other than full and open competition basis with ILLUMINA, INC. 5200 ILLUMINA WAY, SAN DIEGO, CA 92122-4616, United States, to procure NovaSeq X Plus Silver Support and Preventative Maintenance Plan with a period of performance 8/25/2024 – 7/4/2025.

The mission at the VRC is to determine the immune correlates of protection against emerging infectious diseases.  One of the specific aims of the lab is to understand processes that determine the course of human diseases in which the immune system plays a central role in their pathogenesis and outcome. Many of our current projects will investigate RNA expression profiles of cell subsets from HTVN505 volunteers to identify markers are predictive of susceptibility to HIV acquisition. By far, the most robust approach to measure gene expression is RNA sequencing (RNAseq). This is a project for the servicing of high throughput sequencing instrumentation in the laboratory.  This is instrumentation unique to the field and allows for a deep sequence analysis of clonotypic repertoires in healthy, disease and vaccine settings.  Optimal instrumentation function is integral to the completion of the many projects dependent on this instrumentation.  This request is for a service contract with Illumina, Inc. This contract will include service on the X Plus Serial #LH00323.

     Requirements List:

- NovaSeq X Plus Silver Support Plan, CAT. #20086752 – QTY-1

Includes full coverage for parts, labor, and travel; Reagent replacement upon HW failures; 1 PM; Remote Technical Support 18x5; 2 business day on-site response target*; control SW and HW updates; on- site applications support; discounts on advanced training; remote monitoring available.

- NovaSeq X Plus Preventative Maintenance, CAT. #20086756- Qty-1

Includes labor, travel and replacement of all parts included in the PM Kit; Component Inspections; Subsystem Maintenance; System Requalification; and a PM Certification document. Routine PMs at least once a year is recommended to ensure instrument peak performance and safeguard lab regulatory compliance.

Period of Performance:

Sole Source Justification:

This service contract is needed maintain our NovaSeq X PLus.  This is the only service contract that covers the extensive service needed for our machines. This service is completely comprehensive and includes full coverage for parts, labor and travel. Service contract also includes reagent replacement upon HW failures and remote technical support. Lastly, experiments in process have been conducted using services from this vendor and the lab must continue to use these products to avoid introducing error and outside variables that could result in the corruption of our experiments, thus leading to wasting of time and money.  Illumina is the only vendor that has the extensive knowledge needed to repair these instruments. No other company offers the extensive knowledge and expertise in the intricacies of the instrumentation.  Lastly, service must be provided by Illumina in order for our warranty to remain valid.  Also, the continuity of reagents must stay the same to ensure that experimental results are not influenced by new variables and to avoid any long delays in testing products from other suppliers. Changing variables would prevent the correct interpretation of the experiments in progress.

Priority scheduling and onsite response for all repairs during the period of performance. Priority is defined as giving priority scheduling equal to a direct contract and guaranteeing the equivalent manufacturer’s priority onsite response. If you are a third-party service provider, the priority scheduling and/or response time, must be listed on a capabilities statement, documentation of OEM trained technicians is required, and must provide proof vendor will accept a time and material PO, and respond to service calls.

The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C. 253 (c) (1) as implemented by FAR 13.106-1 only one responsible source and no other supply of service will satisfy agency requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL.  All responsible sources that could provide comparable services may submit a capability statement that will be considered by email (subject line to reference

NOI-NIAID-24-2228655) to Angela Puddy at angela.puddy@nih.gov by 12:00 pm EASTERN Standard Time, Date FRIDAY AUG. 16, 2024. Late submissions shall be treated in accordance with the solicitation provision at FAR 52.212-1(f). All responses received by the closing date of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.