Notice of Intent: Service Agreement for PRISMA 3T MRI Scanner

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT AND NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS. This notice is published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.101(a)(1) requiring the dissemination of information regarding proposed contract actions. This is a Notice of Intent to award a sole source, firm-fixed price purchase order under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 12.102 and 6.302-1 - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Service Will Satisfy Agency Requirements and is not a request for competitive proposals.
POP: 8/15/2026 - 8/14/2027 with 3 option years
The National Institute of Health (NIH) NIDA IRP Neuroimaging Research Branch (NRB) intend to negotiate on a sole source basis with Siemens Medical Solutions USA,Inc, on an other than full and open competition basis to obtain a comprehensive annual service and maintenance agreement. The Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is located on the campus of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (JHBMC) in Baltimore, Maryland. Within the Neuroimaging Research Branch (NRB) of the NIDA IRP is the Neuroimaging Core (NIC). The NIC provides neuroimaging services to all 3 branches at the NIDA IRP that perform clinical experiments. Broadly, the goal of those experiments is to better understand the neurobiological mechanisms of drug addiction, the neural consequences of short and long-term drug use and the potential reversibility of these neuroadaptations. The major paradigm employed toward this goal is the development and application of novel neuroimaging tools, predominantly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The NIC PRISMA scanner is under a service agreement (Contract 75N95022P00403) that will expire on August 14, 2026. We therefore require a service maintenance agreement for the scanner after this date, without interruption in service, to ensure continued high imaging performance to support research of neurobiological mechanisms of drug addiction in those three branches.
Justification:
The Contractor shall provide preventative maintenance (PM) and repair services for the PRISMA 3T MRI Scanner (NIH No. 02066840). Requirements include:
• At least 95% guaranteed up time, with next day delivery of genuine Siemens ISO 9001 certified replacement parts and repair during normal business hours with no longer than an 8 hour response window.
• Telephone access to a technician within 60 minutes or less. The technicians need to be able to address both technical and applications issues. Telephone support should be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Further, the technician needs to be able to connect to our Siemens Imaging Console and provide us with direct real time support in order to solve most problems with negligible down time, maximizing our data integrity.
• Periodic preventative maintenance visits. This should include tracking and scheduling of required maintenance tasks, exchange of wear and tear parts according to the maintenance plan, care measures, adjustments to factory specifications, verification of specified performance and functionality, documentation and detailed protocols of system condition. Furthermore, wherever possible, the system needs to be maintained at its current specifications (which may be more stringent than factory specifications). Our group has many longitudinal experiments, where participants are followed over time. We need any signal changes over time to be due to changes in the participant due to our experimental manipulation, and NOT due to changes in scanner performance.
• Regular helium refills and maintenance of magnet ancillary components and magnet performance. Coverage of parts associated with maintaining the magnet and refrigeration components must be provided. Coverage should include burst disc, vent kit, valves, MSUP, ERDU, helium compressor, high pressure gas lines and cold head. Remote monitoring of helium levels must be included.
• All travel time to and from our site needs to be covered in the contract.
• Provide advanced reports with system-specific usage data, which is collected from our system. This detailed data will enable us to leverage our system's full potential and maximize workflow and productivity.
• Provide software updates, modifications or reliability enhancements to the system. Includes two types: Mandatory (safety and performance-related update instructions) and Non-mandatory (reliability-related service instructions).
• Training for our scanner operator in the latest techniques as MRI is a dynamic field, such that we stay on the cutting edge of the field. Thus, we will require access to at least 24 Continuing Education (CE) credits of online training. These credits need to be recognized by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT).
• During the base period, an upgrade of the operating platform to the Evolve AdvanceNow platform (syngo MR XA60A or better). This shall include the necessary hardware and software to transition to that platform. Further, it shall include the upgraded MARS reconstruction system and physiologging (logging of time-stamped physiological data during fMRI acquisition). All contract periods shall include software updates as they become available.
The contract Service Plan shall include the following:
Due to the critical nature of the Prisma 3T MRI Scanner, the Contractor shall ensure the following:
1. Maintenance and repair of the cryocooler, which includes:
• Monitoring the cryogen levels
• Refill the cryostat with liquid helium at intervals defined by the manufacturer’s recommendation
• Supply and refill cryogen as needed or requested
• Maintain customer transfer lines, cold head, secondary water cooling system
2. Maintenance and repair services for all other parts of the equipment, which includes the following:
• The contractor must have either an adequate supply of parts in stock and readily available to the service technicians or be able to obtain any required part within 24 hours of the service technician assessment
• The service technicians need to be factory certified
• All service is to be warranted for 6 months and any replacement part must have at least a 12 month warranty
Contractor shall have access to proprietary parts and test instrumentation for effective repair in case of malfunction. Technical performance requirements include system coverage on the subject equipment by Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) factory-trained, authorized technicians and providers of any required parts and software or proprietary diagnostic software and software enhancements must be OEM certified (new or like-new) and compatible with the subject equipment.
Contractor shall be required to provide written progress reports in achieving this statement of work during the period of performance. The original documentation shall be provided by the vendor to show they completed service on the instrument and should document technical progress with the POC.
Service shall include labor and parts coverage, , on-site labor response, technical telephone response (call-back to schedule), and planned maintenance, diagnostics software license and service documentation, customer engineer training, and preferred labor rate.
Only one award will be made as a result of this notice. This will be awarded as a firm-fixed price purchase order.
The period of performance for this requirement will be a Base year for 12 months. The North American Industry Classification (NAICS) code for this acquisition is NAICS – 811210 Other Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance - Dollars or Number of Employees: $34 million
Specifically, NIAID has a need for the following:
This will be the only notice of the Government's intent to solicit, negotiate, and award to one source to satisfy this requirement. The Government plans to award a contract for this requirement within 7 days of this notice.
The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1 (b)(1)(i) only one source available, no substitutions possible. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTATIONS. All responsible sources who can provide the Human Genome Mutation Database (HGMD) should submit a capability statement via email to Linda Smith at Linda.Smith2@nih.gov by 5:00 pm EST on July 18, 2026. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Any responses received by NIAID after this date and exact time specified are late and will not be considered.
This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for any 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 it’s 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.
For additional information or to submit responses, please contact Linda Smith, Contracting Officer at Linda.smith2@nih.gov. Or Jessica Emerson at Jessica.emerson@nih.gov