NASA Investigator use of Centrifugation Facility

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC) is hereby soliciting information under this Request for Information (RFI) to determine whether or not there are interested and available vendor sources capable of meeting the identified requirements. This RFI is subject to review or cancellation at any time and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. The Government will not pay for the information submitted in response to this request and respondents will not be notified of the results. NASA/ARC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including Small, Small Disadvantaged (SDB), 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Veteran Owned (VOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SDVOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) businesses, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI) for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the Centrifugation Facility. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses hereto. Organizations having the capabilities necessary to meet or exceed the stated requirements are invited to submit appropriate documentation, literature, brochures, and references. Capabilities statement should address the requirements identified in the below statement of work/specifications. Statement of Work: Contract for NASA Investigator use of Centrifugation Facility NASA Ames is looking for potential research facilities to enable research on centrifugation of biological specimens and hardware. Expected test radius to range from approximately 1 meter up to approximately 3 meters. Must be able to support payloads in range of mass from 2-10kg and support experiment durations of 1 day to 90 days. Requirements Facilities responding to this should have an understanding of how much space is needed for rodent loading into cages, animal weighing and animal husbandry requirements to support 1-90 day experiment runs in the centrifuge facility. 5 linear feet of laboratory bench space should be considered the minimum required. Facility must also have access to an IACUC board and have prior experience in handling of vertebrate species. Centrifuge must be able to accommodate rodents in standard vivarium sized enclosures, with 2 (400g) rats per cage. This volume and mass can be considered as the maximum that will be required. Provide technical expertise, operational support and access to laboratory space and centrifuge facilities to allow NASA funded research to be obtained using the centrifuge facilities. For each investigation, the facility shall: 1.Provide expertise at kickoff meeting to go over NASA researcher defined requirements for use of the facilities - to be done via telecom. NASA to provide detailed documentation of experiment including specimen, specimen housing, animal husbandry requirements if needed, rotational rate, ramp rates, deceleration rates, run time, definition of anomalies, data acquisition requirements, and laboratory space requirements to allow for set up, run and completion of the investigation. 2. Provide an updated written cost estimate and schedule for support of the proposed research. 3. Facilitate IACUC approval if needed. 4. Provide operational support of the centrifuge including specimen housing fit check with centrifuge, ramp up and ramp down as required by research, and ongoing monitoring during 30-day centrifugation. 5. Provide minimal lab support including ice and dry ice deliveries as needed. 6. Provide data as acquired as well as data from facilities taken during the investigation. Materials Provide ice and dry ice, 4 degree or -80 degree temporary storage for samples prior to shipment, for a typical 4 station dissection flow for three days of dissections. All other dissection materials to be supplied by investigator with NASA funds. 1. Labor Categories / Title - Subject Matter Expert in centrifugation with biological specimens - Centrifuge operator - Laboratory technician 2. Expertise/experience requirements: Education/years of experience o Subject Matter Expert in centrifugation with biological specimens: 5+ years o Centrifuge operator: 6 months operational experience o Laboratory technician: bachelor's degree in appropriate science or 2 years experience Safety/Quality Follow all applicable site safety and quality policies while on site. Supplier is responsible for explaining safety/quality policies to visiting scientists and support staff. To be provided by NASA: Operational requirements documented for the contracted experiment. Document information to include radius required, payload parameters, duration of experiment run, rotation rate, lighting, power and temperature requirements and/or constraints, hazardous materials reports, and detailed schedule. Interested firms are requested to submit their response to this RFI via email only to Matt Heagy at email matthew.j.heagy@nasa.gov no later than 4:00 p.m. PST, on Friday 07/21/2017. Submissions shall be compatible with and accessible using Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat software applications. When responding, reference RFI NNA17625475L. This announcement does not constitute a Request for Proposal. Please do not request for a copy of the solicitation, as no solicitation exists at this time. If a firm requirement is developed and a solicitation is issued, the solicitation will be made available on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website (www.fbo.gov) It is the responsibility of offerors and interested parties to monitor the Internet site for the release of the solicitation and amendments, if any and will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the documents. NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html . Information about major upcoming ARC procurement actions is available at http://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eis/admin/admin.cgi?center=ARC.