66--ILLUMINA MISEQ I100 PLUS SYSTEM 70316572

The contract is for the procurement of an Illumina MiSeq i100 Plus System benchtop next-generation sequencer, including base warranty and four optional years of preventative maintenance, to replace an aging unit at the Fort Collins Science Center’s Molecular Ecology Laboratory in Colorado. The system must meet specific technical requirements including support for four flow cell options, 10 reagent configurations, output ranges from 1.5 to 30 gigabases, and read lengths up to 2x300bp, with runtimes between four and 15.5 hours to enable same-day results. The equipment must comply with Section 508 accessibility standards for both hardware and software, and all software and hardware must be free of malicious code. Delivery is scheduled for the Fort Collins site, with consumables required to support room temperature shipping and storage. The base performance period runs from May 1, 2026, through January 31, 2031, with four one-year option periods for maintenance services, and a possible six-month extension beyond that. The contract is issued as a total small business set-aside under NAICS code 334516, following FAR Part 12 for commercial items and FAR 13.5 for simplified procedures. Offerors must be certified small businesses and submit proposals electronically by May 7, 2026, with technical and pricing submissions kept separate. Pricing information is not disclosed in the solicitation, and award will be based on a best-value determination where technical performance and past performance are significantly more important than price, though unreasonable pricing will disqualify otherwise superior proposals. The contract incorporates numerous mandatory FAR clauses related to ethics, compliance, and reporting, including requirements for Unique Entity Identifier and SAM maintenance, prohibitions on forced internal confidentiality agreements, personal identity verification of personnel, equal opportunity protections for veterans and individuals with disabilities, reporting on veteran employment, and strict prohibitions against human trafficking through Alternate I of FAR 52.222-50. Contractors must comply with NIST and FIPS cybersecurity standards, DOI privacy and security guidelines, and are obligated to flow down key clauses such as accelerated payment to small business subcontractors, prohibitions on covered telecommunications equipment, and preference for U.S.-flag vessels, with alternate provisions applied to the latter. Payment is required through the Treasury’s Invoice Processing Platform, with contractors needing to register and submit itemized invoices via IPP, and all proposals must include an Accessibility Conformance Report using VP