Inactive

*NOTE: The below information is also included as an attachment. Project Title: Illumina Reagents and Consumables Sources Sought Notice Number: 75N92020Q0039 This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NO... *NOTE: The below information is also included as an attachment. Project Title: Illumina Reagents and Consumables Sources Sought Notice Number: 75N92020Q0039 This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform this requirement. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. A small business sources sought announcement is also being issued simultaneously for this requirement to assess the capability of small businesses to perform this requirement. If two or more small businesses are found capable of performing this requirement, it will be set-aside for small businesses. The applicable NAICS code for this requirement is 334516. An organization that is considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code, should not submit a response to this notice. Instead, interested small businesses are strongly encouraged to respond to Small Business Sources Sought Notice Number: 75N92020Q0038. A. Background: NIH researchers use Illumina instruments to perform genomics research. As a result, the NIH has numerous Illumina instruments which require the use of Illumina (brand name or equal) reagents and consumables. Reagents and consumables are designed and produced and qualified specifically for use with the manufacturer’s sequencing system. Since the sequencing systems cannot operate without reagents and consumables, it is imperative that a constant supply is available. Illumina offers a variety of models of DNA sequencers for use in smaller labs, at the benchtop, and for larger projects, through centralized large-scale sequencing centers, such as the NIH Intramural Sequencing Center (NISC). Each Illumina instrument requires the use of reagents and consumables to ensure efficient operation and the desired outcomes of the operating systems. Reagents are chemicals and enzymes used to perform an assay or sequencing methodology. These include Library Preparation Kits, Cluster Kits, Enrichment Kits, Sequencing Kits, Custom Oligo Pools, Standard Oligo Pools and Reagent Kits. Consumables are Arrays, Custom Arrays, Flow Cells, and accessories, which are used in the sequencing or genotyping process. All reagents and consumables must be compatible with, and optimally perform in the Illumina manufactured systems. The lllumina instruments require reagents and consumables to run the instruments and produce the required data. Reagents are critical to keeping the lllumina systems operating and can change frequently for various chemical/technical advances. As a result, the NIH requires the ability to select and purchase any reagent or consumable commercially available from the vendors catalog. B. Purpose and Objectives: The purpose of this procurement is to supply Illumina brand name or equal reagents and consumables to the NIH community for use in the operation of NIH-owned and leased Illumina sequencing and genotyping systems including but not limited to the following: 12 NovaSeq 6000 systems, 13 HiSeq systems, 33 NextSeq 500/550 systems, 67 MiSeq systems, 2 MiniSeq systems, 5 iSeq systems and 13 iScan systems. Each of the Illumina systems requires the use of reagents and consumables to ensure efficient operation and the desired outcomes of the operating systems. If an equal reagent or consumable is proposed, it shall meet the same standards and produce the same results as the Illumina branded reagents and consumables. C. Contractor Requirements: The contractor shall supply all reagents and consumables on an as needed basis as requested by delivery order to the National Institutes of Health’s Institutes and Centers delivery locations. A shipping schedule may accompany the delivery order, with ship dates not to exceed 1 year from date of the delivery order. Requesters may make a limited number of adjustments to the shipping schedule after the order is placed. All reagents and consumables shall be compatible with and optimally perform in the applicable Illumina-based systems. The reagents and consumables shall support the installed and future set of Illumina Systems being utilized at the NIH and shall also provide for the following: Sequencing reagents must be able to produce up to 15 Gb (gigabases) on small scale sequencers and up to 6,000 Gb of high-quality bases on high-throughput sequencers per run. Because of the rapid advances in this field, it is anticipated that run productivity will increase over time and reagents must be able to produce according to those advances. Library preparation reagents must support a wide variety of applications, including RNA-Seq, single-cell RNA-Seq, whole genome, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq, Hi-C, whole exome, miRNA, custom panels, amplicons, and targeted capture. Library preparation reagents must be compatible with low input samples (<10 ng) and with FFPE damaged nucleic acids. Library preparation reagents must have simple protocols that can, with few exceptions, be completed in 1-2 days. Preparation time for getting libraries loaded onto sequencers should be less than one day. Sequencing reagents should not include emulsions. They should include RFID verification to eliminate incompatible loadings. Consumables, other than custom consumables, will conform to their specifications until the later of (i) 3 months from the date of shipment from Illumina, or (ii) any expiration date on the end of shelf-life pre-printed on such consumable by the vendor, but in either event, no later than 12 months from the date of shipment. D. Anticipated Period of Performance: September 3, 2020 - September 2, 2025 E. Capability Statement /Information: Interested parties are expected to review this notice to familiarize itself with the requirements of this project. Failure to do so will be at your firm’s own risk. The following information shall be included in the capability statement: A general overview of the respondents’ opinions about the difficulty and/or feasibility of the potential requirement, and any information regarding innovative ideas or concepts. Information in sufficient details of the respondents’ (a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information. The respondents’ DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code: 334516 - Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees. Any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the requirements of the potential acquisition. The capability statement shall not exceed 10 single-sided pages (including all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.) presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, in either Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), with 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper size, and 1 inch top, bottom, left and right margins. All proprietary information should be marked as such. Statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement (preferably placed under the eligible small business concern’s name and address). Responses will be reviewed only by NIH personnel and will be held in a confidential manner. F. Closing Statement Points of Contact: Lynn Furtaw, Contracting Officer, lynn.furtaw@nih.gov at (301)827-7713, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Rockledge 2, Bethesda, MD, 20892-7902, UNITED STATES. Dorothy Maxwell, Contract Specialist, maxwelld@nih.gov at (301)827-7729, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Rockledge 2, Room 6149, Bethesda, MD, 20892-7902, UNITED STATES. Submission Instructions: Interested parties shall submit capability statements via the FedConnect web portal (www.fedconnect.net) and reference the FedConnect Sources Sought Number 75N92020Q0039. The due date for receipt of statements is February 7, 2020, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Vendors can register with FedConnect at https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/default.htm. Please note that FedConnect is used by multiple federal agencies and therefore FedConnect assistance will be provided by Compusearch Software Systems, not the NHLBI OA. More information about registration requirements can be found by downloading the FedConnect Ready, Set, Go! Guide at https://www.fedconnect.net/fedconnect/Marketing/Documents/FedConnect_Ready_Set_Go.pdf. For assistance in registering or for other FedConnect technical questions please call the FedConnect Help Desk at (800) 899-6665 or email at support@fedconnect.net. Please use the Contracting Officer/Contract Specialist contact information provided, should you require a waiver not to use FedConnect for submitting. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. This Sources Sought Notice (SS) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The NHLBI does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. As a result of this notice, the NHLBI may issue a Request for Quote (RFQ). THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NHLBI shall arise as a result of a response to this notice or the NHLBI’s use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement. “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 provide 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 responses 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).”