THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT, A MARKET SURVEY FOR WRITTEN INFORMATION ONLY. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO REIMBURSEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING INFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT OR ANY FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION REQUESTS. NO TELEPHONE CALLS WILL BE ACCEPTED REQUESTING AN RFQ PACKAGE OR SOLICITATION. THERE IS NO RFQ PACKAGE OR SOLICITATION. IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE PROCUREMENT INTEGRITY OF ANY FUTURE PROCUREMENT, IF ANY, THAT MAY ARISE FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, INFORMATION REGARDING THE TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT WILL NOT BE GIVEN AND NO APPOINTMENTS FOR PRESENTATIONS WILL BE MADE.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Acquisitions and Grants Services (OAGS) issues this Sources Sought announcement on behalf of the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) in order to determine if there are existing small business sources capable providing a Preventive Maintenance (PM) and unlimited repair service contract on a JEOL JEM-2100 Transmission Electron Microscope, Model JU2006076, S/N EM17420035. The instrument is a shared resource between the NCTR and the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) and is available to all investigators FDA-wide. This instrument is regularly used by both centers (NCTR and ORA) to conduct research relevant to the mission of each center. This instrument is specifically used to characterize nanomaterials and to evaluate the impact of drug treatments on experimental animals in order to elucidate effects of treatment with FDA-regulated materials on biological tissues and how they may possibly impact human health. The instrument is currently under a service contract and a new contract will need to be in place and set to begin on Sept 12, 2023.
If your firm is considered a small business source under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 811210 Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance; with a Small Business Size Standard of $30 Million, and you believe that your firm would be able to provide the FDA with the service described below, please submit an email to timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov. Other than small business concerns are also encouraged to submit capability statements. The vendor shall include information about the company and demonstrate that it can meet all of the minimum performance requirements.
The PM and unlimited repair service contract shall consist of a Base year plus four (4) possible one-year options. Each year shall be funded at the time the option year is exercised; options will be exercised based on funds availability and the needs of the Federal Government. The initial period of performance shall be for one year; subsequent periods of performance may be renewed at the government's option for the period between 12-24 months, 24-36 months, 36-48 months and 48-60 months beyond the initial contract service period. Contractor quotes shall include details of the items covered under the service contract, any differing levels of the plan that are available, and the levels of service response that are available.
Minimum Performance Requirements for the Preventive Maintenance & Unlimited Repair Service Contract:
*Contractor shall provide one (1) scheduled on-site planned preventive maintenance visit per year which shall include all labor, travel, and OEM factory-certified replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc., as well as consumables;
*Contractor shall provide unlimited On-Site Corrective Maintenance/Repairs;
*Contractor shall provide certified Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts for all repairs and maintenance;
*All maintenance and repair activities shall be performed by service technicians/engineers who are formally trained and certified by the original manufacturer. Engineers shall have access to the manufacturer's latest technical developments, repair procedures, application updates, diagnostic software, and planned maintenance procedures. All repairs and PM services shall be performed following Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM specifications, manuals, and service bulletins, using OEM replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc.);
*Contractor shall provide a 24-hour response time after the initial call for a service response to equipment failure;
*Where problems cannot be resolved remotely, the contractor shall provide a preliminary plan of action for repairs within 48 hours of initial contact, followed by a mutually agreeable estimate for a planned on-site service call by a suitable technician capable of conducting repairs on the failed instrument(s) described in this solicitation. This mutually agreeable estimate should be provided within 72 hours of initial contact;
*Service contract shall include unlimited free OEM system software, firmware and hardware support and updates that are needed for reliability improvements and correction of any defects;
*Contractor shall include unlimited technical support Monday through Friday (excluding Federal Holidays) during contractor's normal business hours;
*The FDA Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) and system operator personnel shall have direct access to the manufacturer's call center for technical assistance, which is staffed by senior engineers to provide a high level of expertise for troubleshooting the instrument;
*All maintenance/repair pricing shall be inclusive of labor, travel, replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc. for the JEOL Transmission Electron Microscope.
Service Records and Reports: The Contractor shall, commensurate with the completion of each preventive maintenance service visit, provide the end-user of the equipment with a copy of a field service report/ticket identifying the equipment name, manufacturer, model number, and serial number of the equipment being serviced, a detailed description of the work performed, the test instruments or other equipment used to perform the service, the name(s) and contact information of the technician who performed the service, and for information purposes, the on-site hours expended, and parts/components replaced. In addition, the Contractor shall provide a written report to the FDA COR and Contract Specialist, summarizing all maintenance activities (including warranty work) each time service is performed.
Period(s) of Performance
Estimated periods of performance are as follows, and are subject to change based on date of award, if any:
Base Year: 09/18/2025 through 09/17/2026
Option Year 1: 09/18/2026 through 09/17/2027
Option Year 2: 09/18/2027 through 09/17/2028
Option Year 3: 09/18/2028 through 09/17/2029
Option Year 4: 09/18/2030 through 09/17/2031
Place of Performance
The equipment is located and shall be maintained at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) at the following address:
US FDA/NCTR
3900 NCTR Rd. BLDG 26, Room A026
Jefferson AR 72079
Responses to this Sources Sought shall unequivocally demonstrate that the respondent is regularly engaged in the sale of same or substantially similar service. Though the target audience is small business vendors or small businesses capable of supplying a U.S. product/service of a small business vendor or producer, all interested parties may respond. At a minimum, responses shall include the following:
- Business name and bio, Unique Entity ID (SAM) number, business address, business website, business size status (i.e., SB, VOSB, SDVOSB, HUBZone SB, SDB, WOSB, LB), point of contact name, mailing address (if different from business address), phone number and email address. Provide this same information again if responding to provide a service offered by another firm;
- Past Performance (within the last 3 years) information for the sale of same or substantially similar product/service to include date of sale, description, dollar value, client name, client address, client contact name, client point of contact mailing address (if different from that provided for client), client point of contact phone number, client point of contact email address, and name of the manufacturer (to include SAM Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and size status) if not the respondent;
- Descriptive literature, brochures, marketing material, etc. detailing the nature of the service the responding firm is regularly engaged in manufacturing or selling;
- The offeror shall furnish sufficient technical information necessary for the Government to conclusively determine that the offered products/services meet the technical requirements identified above;
- The offeror's capability to initiate service within 3 days of original notification. Estimated historical on-site response time for the brand name and model of instrument in this requirement;
- If applicable, identification of the firm's GSA Schedule contract(s) by Schedule number and SINs that are applicable to this potential requirement are also requested;
- If applicable, identification of Best in Class (BIC) contract information or other Government-wide or HHS-wide contracts that the equipment/service is available under;
- If a large business, provide whether subcontracting opportunities exist for small business concerns;
- Standard commercial warranty and payment terms;
- Provide place of product manufacture or service performance and any other applicable information to enable review and analysis pertaining to the Buy American statute and requirements relating to Made in America in the event a nonavailability waiver request through the MIAO Digital Waiver Portal is needed;
- Though this is not a request for quote, informational pricing for the equipment/service would be helpful for market research purposes.
The Government is not responsible for locating or securing any information not identified in the response.
Interested Contractors must respond with capability statements which are to be submitted ONLY by email on or before 2:00pm (Central Time in Jefferson AR) on August 12, 2025 to Tim Walbert at timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov. Please reference 75F40125SSN130908 in the Subject line of the e-mail.
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 or combined synopsis/ solicitation may be published in SAM.gov Contracting Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
Confidentiality and Proprietary Information
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).
Additional Notes:
If the stated requirements appear restrictive, please submit comments detailing the concern. Though this is not a request for quote, informational pricing for the service would be helpful.
