Chemical Procurement, Analysis, Sample Preparation

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Office of Research and Development (ORD), Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE), Chemical Characterization and Exposure Division (CCED) Chemical Procurement, Analysis, Sample Preparation, and Management Services has a requirement that requires a contractor that can procure and supply hundreds to thousands of requested chemical samples, confirm chemical identities based on vendor-provided documentation and by analytical means, solubilize and formulate into appropriate dilutions, plate into high-throughput formats, ship samples to ToxCast partners and assay vendors, provide automated sample handling procedures for hundreds to thousands of chemicals, and maintain chemical data management for accurate sample tracking. This effort will support CCED, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
The EPA anticipates awarding a single award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with a base year and four one-year options (for a total of five years). This procurement will be conducted as a full-and-open competition under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 15: Contracting by Negotiation. The NAICS Code for this procurement is 541715, and the size standard of 1,000 employees.
The PWS detailing the specific technical areas for this FedConnect procurement announcement is posted as an attachment on the FedConnect web portal. Notices of any modifications to this procurement announcement, including Requests for Proposals and amendments, will be posted using the FedConnect web portal. FedConnect can be accessed at https://www.fedconnect.net/Fedconnect/.
In addition, all contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), as this facilitates registration for FedConnect. Please note that vendors MUST have their SAM profile set to "public"; otherwise FedConnect will not be able to access the SAM information required to validate vendor credentials. Registration may be completed, and information regarding the registration process may be obtained at http://www.sam.gov. There is no charge for registration in SAM.
Interested parties will be able to find the Request for Proposal (RFP) number RFP-68HERH23R0005 and all related information on FedConnect. When the RFP is released, all documentation will be available on FedConnect only, and all correspondence and proposal submissions will be required to be submitted via email. FedConnect is a web portal that connects agencies and contractors to streamline the process of doing business with the federal government. There is no charge to use FedConnect. Contractors can register at www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/. For assistance in registering or other FedConnect technical questions, contractors should call the FedConnect Help Desk at (800) 899-6665 or emailcontactsupport@fedconnect.net.
This requirement is a follow-on to contract number 68HE0D18D0001.

Background
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a solicitation for a contract to provide chemical procurement, analysis, sample preparation, and management services in support of the ToxCast chemical prioritization project under the Office of Research & Development’s Chemical Safety and Sustainability Program. The Contractor is required to manage EPA’s current physical library of thousands of neat (powder) and solution samples, replenish and expand the library as needed, procure hundreds to thousands of compounds, confirm chemical identities, solubilize and formulate samples at various concentrations and configurations, plate samples into high-throughput formats, ship samples to EPA-approved collaborators and contract assay vendors, provide automated sample handling procedures for hundreds to thousands of chemicals, maintain chemical data management for accurate sample inventory tracking, provide current inventory files to EPA in a specified format on request, and provide reliable freezer storage for preserving the integrity of EPA’s chemical library for future use.

Work Details
The tasks include standard procurements of 2 x 100 mg sample(s) requiring routine sourcing and handling procedures, non-standard procurements of sample(s) requiring specialized sourcing and/or handling procedures (e.g., custom chemicals, semi-biologic ser reports), data validation (unit = sample procured), compounds procurement under two tiers defined by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), purity and ID screens using LC-MS analytical techniques, GC-MS analytical techniques, NMR analytical techniques, solubilization and formulation including manual weighing with solubilization and manual weigh only, plating of samples into 96, 384, 1536 plate-well formats or matrix tubes, chemical sample distribution including standard shipment (e.g., non-hazardous domestic overnight shipments) and non-standard shipment (e.g., semi-biological toxic intl. shipments), data management including on-demand non-standard query (4 hrs), modification to existing informatics protocols (i.e. Pipeline Pilot) and/or minor updates to existing queries and reports (20 hrs), modification to standard end user reports (e.g. modification to data fields calculations database fields) (40 hrs), new development (80 hrs).

Period of Performance
The estimated period of performance for this requirement will be from November 26, 2023 to November 25, 2024 with four option years available.

Place of Performance
The place of performance is at the Contractor's facility.