Omni-C and RNA Sequence Reads for Pecan & Hickory Species

This solicitation, numbered 1232SA26Q0708, is an unrestricted Request for Quotation issued under FAR Part 12 for commercial items targeting the generation of Omni-C and RNA sequence reads for 15 pecan and hickory accessions to enable high-quality, chromosome-scale genome assemblies. The work involves nuclei extraction, chromatin conformation capture library preparation, and sequencing to produce HiRise assemblies, BAM alignment files, TAD analysis outputs at multiple resolutions, and approximately 24 paired FASTQ files with about 20 million read pairs each, all to be delivered by March 31, 2027. The place of performance is Byron, Georgia, with delivery terms set at FOB Destination, and the Government will inspect and accept the deliverables upon receipt at that location. Quotations must be submitted electronically via email to lynn.hults@usda.gov no later than 4:00 a.m. Central Standard Time on July 3, 2026, with no hard copies or faxes permitted. All offerors must be currently registered in SAM.gov with a valid Unique Entity ID, and failure to maintain this registration at award will disqualify the quotation. Pricing information is not provided in the solicitation, and the award will follow a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) basis, where technical acceptability is a threshold requirement assessed before price comparison. The technical requirements are strictly defined, with deliverables expected to meet specified data quality thresholds including 30x coverage per haplotype for Omni-C libraries and completion within nine months of project initiation. Past performance and relevant experience with similar government or institutional projects must be clearly demonstrated in the submission; responses that merely state willingness to comply with the Specifications without providing detailed descriptions, experience, or past performance history will be deemed non-responsive. The solicitation includes comprehensive prohibitions against contractor-imposed terms that restrict government rights to data access, use, or transfer, including bans on AI training on government data, forced arbitration, automatic renewals, and unilateral service suspensions. Contractor obligations are governed by Federal law, and all supplier terms must be approved via bilateral modification; clickwrap or browsewrap agreements are unenforceable. Payment will be processed exclusively through the Department of the Treasury Invoice Processing Platform, and no alternate invoicing systems are authorized. The NAICS code is 541380 with a small business size standard of $19 million, but