Physicist Support Services for the Time Scale, Primary Frequency Standards, and Two-Way and GPS Time Transfer

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Acquisition Management Division has published a Special Notice announcing its intent to negotiate a sole-source contract with Thomas E. Parker in Broomfield, Colorado for Physicist Support Services related to Time Scale, Primary Frequency Standards, and Two-Way and GPS Time Transfer operations. The contract falls under NAICS code 541690 (Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services) with a small business size standard of $19 million. NIST plans to use the sole-source authority under FAR 13.106-1(b) to award a firm-fixed-price contract for these specialized services. The notice indicates that NIST anticipates awarding the contract by July 15, 2025, and emphasizes that this is not a solicitation but rather a notice of intent to determine whether competitive procedures could be utilized.

The purpose of this Special Notice is to identify whether other qualified contractors exist who could potentially perform these highly specialized physicist support services, which include maintaining post-processed time scales, conducting primary frequency standard analysis, and monitoring time transfer systems. Interested parties must demonstrate their capability to satisfy the requirements in writing and submit their responses to Contract Specialist Deionne Jones at deionne.jones@nist.gov by June 20, 2025. To be eligible, contractors must possess a PhD in Physics and extensive experience in atomic time scales, frequency transfer operations, and time scale analysis. The 12-month contract requires maintaining time scales with specific technical standards (flicker level better than 1e-15), monitoring maser performance, providing monthly calibration information, and making weekly recommendations on UTC(NIST) steering while working remotely with access to NIST IT resources and attending regular meetings.