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Title: High-resolution Cell Imaging System or equal for NCATS ETB biology program (COVID-19 action) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format... Title: High-resolution Cell Imaging System or equal for NCATS ETB biology program (COVID-19 action) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number is 75N95021Q00209 and the solicitation is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ). This acquisition is for a commercial item or service and is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13—Simplified Acquisition Procedures and FAR Part 12—Acquisition of Commercial Items and is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2021-05 dated March 10, 2021 The associated NAICS code is 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing and the small business size standard is 1,000 employees. No set-aside restriction is applicable. Project requirements: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. Among the goals of the agency are to develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources to ensure a continued high return on the public investment in research, and to exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science. In realizing these goals, the NIH provides leadership and direction to programs designed to improve the health of the Nation by conducting and supporting research in various areas. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) was established to transform the translational process so that new treatments and cures for disease can be delivered to patients faster. NCATS is directly addressing this problem by discovering new technologies and other approaches that could greatly accelerate the process of developing and deploying solutions that can be used by all translational researchers. The NCATS Early Translation Branch (ETB) goal is to uncover new small molecule therapeutics and advance the process of therapeutic development through a model of collaborative research. For each collaboration, external disease experts’ team with the ETB’s drug discovery teams, who provide access to small molecule screening, medicinal chemistry and informatics expertise. The ETB is proactive in publishing the results of all its drug discovery campaigns and disseminating small molecule leads to all members of the global health community, who can further explore their potential for development into small molecule therapies. To this end, the acquisition of a Thermo Fisher Scientific EVOS M5000 Imaging System or equal will enable ETB researchers to speed up imaging workflow and optimize cell culture work. Overall a high-resolution cell imaging system will support ETB’s ongoing research for small molecule and combination screening, in silico virtual screening, nanobody/antibody design and optimization that are part of NCATS’s ongoing research to support the COVID-19 pandemic response. The system will also support ACTIV Trace’s efforts to characterize the response of variant SARS-CoV2 viruses to current vaccine and therapeutic interventions. See Attached Purchase Description (PD) for complete details and specifications of the requirement including the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics that “equal” products must meet to that of the Thermo Fisher Scientific EVOS M5000 Imaging System. The Contractor shall delivery the instrument to the following NCATS facility between of hours of 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except federal holidays): National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) 9800 Medical Center Drive Bldg. B/Rm. 1003B Rockville, MD 20850 Delivery is 14 days after receipt of order (ARO). Delivery must be Freight on Board (FOB) Destination, including inside delivery to the room number specified. All required items shall be packaged, marked and shipped in accordance with Government specifications. At a minimum, they shall be marked with the purchase order number and Contractor name. (vii) The provision at FAR clause 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. (viii) The provision at FAR clause 52.212-2, Evaluation – Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. (a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: technical capability of the item offered to meet the Government requirement; price past performance Technical and past performance, when combined, are significantly more important than price. (b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). (c) A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award. (ix) Offerors are to include a completed copy of the attached provision at FAR clause 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications—Commercial Items, with offers. Offerors are to include completed and signed copies of the attached FAR Provision Representations and Certifications pursuant to FAR 4.2103 Procedures, with offers. FAR 52.204-26 Covered Telecommunications Equipment or Services-Representation (Oct 2020) Certification FAR 52.204-24 Representation Regarding Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment (Oct 2020) Certification (x) The FAR clause at 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions – Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and is incorporated by reference. (xi) FAR clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders–Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and is attached in full text and the applicable FAR clauses are checked. (xii) The following additional contract requirement(s) or terms and conditions as determined by the contracting officer are necessary for this acquisition and consistent with customary commercial practices. Any resultant COVID-19 award shall include the following language: HHS reserves the right to exercise priorities and allocations authority with respect to this contract, to include rating this order in accordance with 45 CFR Part 101, Subpart A—Health Resources Priorities and Allocations System. Any resultant award shall include the following language: This award incorporates only Government provided clauses, terms, and conditions as stated in the award. Contractor provided agreements, terms, and conditions are for reference only. Should the Contractor provided terms and conditions or agreement conflict with Government provided clauses, terms, and conditions, the Government provided clauses, terms, and conditions shall control. FAR 52.252-1 Solicitation Provisions Incorporated by Reference (FEB 1998) This solicitation incorporates one or more solicitation provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. The offeror is cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the offeror and submitted with its quotation or offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation or offer. Also, the full text of a solicitation provision may be accessed electronically at this address: https://www.acquisition.gov/ (End of provision) The following FAR provisions are incorporated by reference: FAR 52.204-7 System for Award Management (OCT 2018) FAR 52.204-16 Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting (AUG 2020) FAR 52.211-6 Brand Name or Equal (AUG 1999) FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Items (JUN 2020) FAR 52.225-3 Buy American-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act (JAN 2021)-Alternate I (JAN 2021) The following FAR provisions are incorporated in full text: FAR 52.225-4 Buy American-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act Certificate (FEB 2021)-Alternate I (JAN 2021) (a) (1) The Offeror certifies that each end product, except those listed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this provision, is a domestic end product. (2) The terms "Bahrainian, Moroccan, Omani, Panamanian, or Peruvian end product," "domestic end product," "end product," "foreign end product," "Free Trade Agreement country," "Free Trade Agreement country end product," "Israeli end product," and "United States" are defined in the clause of this solicitation entitled "Buy American-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act." (b) The Offeror certifies that the following supplies are Canadian end products as defined in the clause of this solicitation entitled "Buy American-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act": Canadian End Products: Line Item No. ___________________________________________________________________ [List as necessary] (c) The Offeror shall list those supplies that are foreign end products (other than those listed in paragraph (b) of this provision) as defined in the clause of this solicitation entitled "Buy American-Free Trade Agreements-Israeli Trade Act." The Offeror shall list as other foreign end products those end products manufactured in the United States that do not qualify as domestic end products. Other Foreign End Products: Line Item Number Country of Origin [List as necessary] (d) The Government will evaluate offers in accordance with the policies and procedures of part 25 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (End of provision) FAR 52.252-2 Clauses Incorporated by Reference (FEB 1998) This contract incorporates one or more clauses by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. Also, the full text of a clause may be accessed electronically at this address: https://www.acquisition.gov/ (End of clause) The following FAR clauses are incorporated by reference: FAR 52.204-13 System for Award Management Maintenance (OCT 2018) FAR 52.204-18 Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance (AUG 2020) HHSAR 352.222-70, Contractor Cooperation in Equal Employment Opportunity Investigations 9December 18, 2015) The Invoice and Payment Provisions (Rev. 2/10/2021) is applicable to this solicitation and ay resultant award and is attached. (xiii) The Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) are not applicable to this requirement. (xiv) Responses to this solicitation must include sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities of providing the product or service. The price quote shall include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, delivery days after contract award, delivery terms, prompt payment discount terms, F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), product or catalog number(s); product description; and any other information or factors that may be considered in the award decision. Such factors may include: past performance; special features required for effective program performance; trade-in considerations; probable life of the item selected as compared with that of a comparable item; warranty considerations; maintenance availability; and environmental and energy efficiency considerations. Respondents proposing on an equal product of the brand-name product specified in this announcement must provide, as part of their response: (a) product, catalog, model, and/or part number(s); (b) product description; (c) all relevant information and documentation that the item(s) offered meets the salient physical, functional, or performance characteristics as specified in the purchase description; quantity; estimated price or cost; shipping, handling, and/or installation charges; and delivery date after receipt of order. (xv) In addition, the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size must be included in the response. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov. All responses must be received by June 16, 2021 at 5:00, P.M., Eastern Standard Time, and reference solicitation number 75N95021Q00209. Responses must be submitted by email to Nick Niefeld, Contract Specialist at nick.niefeld@nih.gov. Fax responses will not be accepted. (xvi) The name of the individual to contact for information regarding the solicitation: Nick Niefeld Contract Specialist Email: nick.niefeld@nih.gov Phone; (301) 827-2094.