Nicole Freid

Nicole T. Freid serves as a key procurement professional within the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), supporting the agency’s mission to advance biomedical discovery through the acquisition of specialized scientific infrastructure and technical services. She manages a portfolio of contracts centered on high-precision analytical instrumentation, maintenance of sensitive laboratory equipment, and contracted research support services critical to pediatric and reproductive health research. Her work ensures that NICHD’s laboratories maintain operational readiness and scientific integrity by securing mission-critical capabilities through compliant, performance-based acquisition strategies. Freid engages with a diverse ecosystem of vendors, including manufacturers of laboratory analytics systems, precision equipment repair specialists, and professional scientific service providers. She cultivates long-term partnerships with firms capable of delivering technical support for complex instrumentation such as mass spectrometers, flow cytometers, and next-generation sequencing platforms. Her contracting approach emphasizes vendor reliability, compliance with federal quality standards, and the ability to deliver just-in-time service for time-sensitive research environments. Her procurement patterns reflect a strong preference for open competition, with 87.8% of acquisitions conducted without set-asides, indicating a focus on technical capability over socioeconomic classification. However, she consistently supports small business participation, with approximately 10.8% of awards designated as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5 and a modest but meaningful 1.4% allocated to women-owned small businesses, demonstrating balanced adherence to federal socioeconomic goals. Freid’s primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 334516 (analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing) and 811210 (electronic and precision equipment repair and maintenance), reflecting her domain expertise in life sciences instrumentation. She also frequently procures professional scientific services under NAICS 541990, ensuring access to specialized technical expertise in data analysis, assay validation, and instrumentation calibration. Her work underpins the scientific rigor of NICHD’s research ecosystem through strategic, technically informed contracting.