Preventive Maintenance Services

This Small Business Sources Sought Notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment by the Government. This notice is intended strictly for Market Research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Eunice Kennedy Shriver, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is conducting a market survey to determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business or HUBZone small businesses capable of providing emergency repairs including parts, labor and shipping costs for a Division-owned Illumina NextSeq 500 sequencing machine.

The Division of Developmental Biology is a division comprised of 17 separate laboratories and two shared animal Core facilities that engage in a diverse and highly interactive research program for cellular, molecular, and developmental biology as part of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Division of Intramural Research (DIR). As the largest Division in the NICHD DIR, the DDB pursues the mission of the NICHD by conducting research in a wide variety of areas including developmental differentiation and patterning, chromatin dynamics and epigenetics, the immune system, DNA replication, gene regulation, and RNA metabolism. Division investigators perform research using a wide variety of model systems from bacteria to mice and employ a number of cutting edge cellular and molecular techniques to solve pressing questions in developmental biology and disease.

As computer processing technology has progressed, next-generation sequencing has become a foundational technique for studying a multitude of developmental processes through the application of bioinformatics and whole-genome studies. The Division of Developmental Biology has purchased a NextGen Sequencer from Illumina, Inc. to allow all of its labs access to this increasingly important research method. This sole source order is for a yearly preventative maintenance contract for this machine, which is required in order to keep it in optimal working conditions. The complexity of the equipment prevents us from maintaining it on our own, and Illumina, Inc. is the sole manufacturer and provider of such contracts here in the United States. Failure to perform regular maintenance on this machine could lead to the generation of inaccurate genomic sequencing data and a large number of erroneous conclusions. This is not an acceptable situation for any NIH scientist.

The intended procurement will be classified under North American Industrial Classification (NAICS) code 811219 with a size standard of 1000. All respondents are requested to identify their firm's size and type of business. Interested firms responding to this market survey must provide (a) capability statement demonstrating their experience, skills and capability to fulfill the Government's requirements for the above. The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail, but not to exceed 15 pages, so that the Government can determine the experience and capability of your firm to provide the requirements above. Capability statement must be received at the email address identified in this synopsis by 11:00 A.M. local time on July 22, 2019. Any questions regarding this announcement must be sent via email to verne.griffin@.nih.gov and must include solicitation NICHD-19-128 in the subject line of email.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise 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. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provided feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate response to a solicitation.

Responses to this notice shall contain enough information to establish the interested parties bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement and include: certification by the OEM that you are authorized to provide services.

Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise 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. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provided feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate response to a solicitation. Confidentiality - 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)." PLEASE NOTE: In order to receive an award, contractor must be registered and have valid certification in the System for Award Management (SAM) http://www.sam.gov

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