THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-NAME).

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to award a purchase order to Bitplane Inc. for an annual subscription to Bitplane Imaris software. To ensure continuity of the scientific image analysis across NCATS, the software and support must remain exactly the same going forward due to ongoing assays and studies. Imaris is only available from Bitplane Inc., and there are no agents or dealers authorized to sell this product.

NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE
The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 511210 with a Size Standard of $38.5 million.

REGULATORY AUTHORITY
The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses of the Federal acquisition Requlation (FAR) in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2005-97, dated January 24, 2018.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY
This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13-Simplified Acquisition Procedures, Subpart 13.106-1 (b) (1), Soliciting from a single source.

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

Project Description
Annual Subscription to Bitplane Imaris Software

Purpose and Objectives
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation's leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose 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, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people's health and save lives.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) is a part of NIH, and its mission is to catalyze the generation of innovative methods and technologies that will enhance the development, testing and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics across a wide range of human diseases and conditions.

NCATS needs an additional license for the Imaris software package, which is used for the scientific analysis of fluorescence microscopy three-dimensional image stack data.

NCATS is requesting an annual subscription to:

Imaris 9.1 Single Full (SF): The package consists of one set of node-locked licenses for Imaris including each of the following modules: MeasurementPro, ImarisTrackLineage, ImarisColoc, ImarisXT, FilamentTracer, ImarisCell, ImarisBatch and ImarisVantage. It is ideally suited for researchers who need the entire functionality of Imaris on a single dedicated workstation. Includes 1 year of maintenance.

Period of Performance
Twelve (12) months after receipt of order.

CLOSING STATEMENT
This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice.

Responses to this notice 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 that believe that they are manufacturers or authorized resellers 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.

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."

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.

All responses must be received by 11:59 AM Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday, April 17, 2018, and reference number NIHDA201800167.

Responses may be submitted electronically to Contract Specialist Mark McNally at
[email protected]. Fax responses will not be accepted.

Contracting Office Address:
6001 Executive Blvd
Room 3150, MSC 9559
Bethesda, MD 20892-9559

"All responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency."