B -- MOLECULAR ASSAY, DEVELOPMENT, & ANALYSIS OF BLUE CRAB PARASITES

The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is issuing notice of intent to negotiate a sole source procurement with The University of Maryland, Center of Marine Biotechnology, Baltimore, Maryland. The proposed requirement will provide technical and scientific support services to National Ocean Service (NOS) to assist in the ongoing collaboration of assessing prevalence of Hematodinium sp in crab tissue collected and archived and to implement a strategy to initiate the development of new molecular assays for emerging diseases. The University of Maryland, Center of Marine Biotechnology is the only known source that can provide crabs raised in captivity at various life cycle stages that have not been exposed to disease and parasites found in wild population. No other facility combines molecular state-of-the-art facilities with access to large numbers of crabs raised in captivity to provide na?ve crabs for experimental assays is which critical to the NOS mission statement to aid in the development and assessment of environmental condition of coastal habitats and provide ecosystem based information on environmental health to coastal managers. As well, no other facility has the expertise and research facilities with a strong focus on blue crab husbandry and biology, biotechnology, and marine environmental biotechnology. The University of Maryland is the only known source that possesses the necessary knowledge, skills, and facility for the required services. The statutory authority is 41 U.S.C.253(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source. The proposed contract action is for supplies or services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one sources under the authority of FAR 6.302(c)(1). The applicable NAICS code is 112519. The size business standard is $7.5 million. In order to comply with the debt collection improvement act of 1996, all contractors must be registered in the central contractor registration (CCR) to be considered for an award of a federal contract. For information regarding registration in CCR, login on to the CCR website: www.ccr.gov/index.cfm. Interested parties may identify their interest and must provide evidence of their capability to respond to this requirement by 4:00 p.m. est. July 18, 2007. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. A determination by the Government not to compete with this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely with the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Note 22 applies.