This notice announces the intent by the U.S. Army Medical Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA), 820 Chandler St, Fort Detrick, Maryland, 21702, intends to award a sole source contract to The Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International for an accreditation program which evaluates organizations that use animals in research, teaching or testing.  Accreditation site visits occur every 3 years, and accreditation continues until the next site visit provided the unit’s annual fee is paid, and no animal program events occur that warrant revocation of accreditation. To maintain continued full accreditation, U.S. Army Public Health Center (APHC) must respond to yearly requests for annual report of animal activities by the Contractor, notify the Contractor of significant animal program changes, and pay the yearly accreditation fees to AAALAC. The yearly fees are used to cover AAALAC’s annual report and associated administrative expenses and site visits that occur every 3 years. APHC is currently fully accredited as a result of the most recent site visit. The last triennial site visit was performed in April 2021 to assess the APHC’s Animal Program to determine its accreditation status. The next site visit is due to occur in January-March 2024, at which time, the APHC facilities and program will be evaluated for continued accreditation.

Absence or lapse in accreditation is in violation of these regulations, and would require the APHC to provide an explanation and plan of action to obtain accreditation to the Animal Care and Use Review Office at US Army Medical Research and Development Command, which serves as the DoD Component oversight office for the APHC Animal Program. AAALAC International is the only organization of this type in the world that provides accreditation of animal research programs.

This announcement fulfills the synopsis requirements under FAR 5.102(a)(6) and 5.203(a).  This Special Request for Information is not a request for competitive quotes. Information received in response to this notice will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether a competitive procurement is in the best interest of the Government. If no written responses are received by the date listed below, which reflects at least fifteen (15) days after the publication of this notice, the solicitation will be issued as sole source. All questions and responses concerning this notice shall be emailed to Mr. Nathaniel Reus at [email protected]

Interested concerns must identify their capability to the above email address no later than 2:00 PM Eastern Time, 1 December 2021.