This Sources Sought Notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be
construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to identify qualified small business concerns
including 8(a), HUBZone or Service-Disabled Veteran-owned business concerns that are
interested in and capable of providing the instrument(s) and service(s) described herein. The
NICHD does not intend to award a contract based on responses received nor otherwise pay for
the preparation of any information submitted. Your responses to the information requested will
assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a
set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable
NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. This requirement is assigned North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 334516 with a size standard of 1,000
employees is being considered.
NICHD may issue a request for quotation (RFQ) because of this Sources Sought Notice. THERE
IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement
materialize, no basis for claims against NICHD shall arise as a result of a response to this
Sources Sought Notice or the NICHD’s use of such information as either part of our evaluation
process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement.
BRAND NAME OR EQUAL
This requirement is for the procurement of the brand name or equivalent instrument(s) described
under Product Features/Salient Characteristics. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
provision FAR 52.211-6, Brand Name or Equal (AUG 1999) is applicable to this requirement.
BACKGROUND
A high-resolution MRI scanner system comprises a superconducting magnet that applies a large
uniform static magnetic field on the specimen, a spectrometer/console with Radiofrequency (RF)
amplifiers that apply and detect RF signals, and gradient amplifiers that control the application of
magnetic field gradients, and an imaging probe with gradient coils to enable 3D images to be
generated. Technological improvements both in magnet, console and probe design in the past
decade have significantly enhanced capabilities of new MRI scanners, permitting one to design
and perform experiments not considered feasible a decade ago, when we purchased our original
Bruker MRI scanner system. The labs’ current MRI scanner has a 12-year-old 7T vertical bore
magnet and a 10-year-old console/spectrometer and ancillary electronics. The lab is seeking to
upgrade these components which are longer serviceable, and for which replacement parts are no
longer readily available. Our current Avance III console is no longer being supported by Bruker
BioSpin and the software used to control it is vastly underpowered and out of date. The upgrade
to the latest generation MRI scanners will significantly increase attainable signal-to-noise (SNR),
reduce spectrometer artifacts and facilitate high quality data acquisition in our various fixed
tissue, gel or polymer samples where the solvent is predominantly H2O. This improves the ability
to detect water diffusion and exchange, which is a core interest of our lab. Our purchase of a new
MRI scanner will enable us to push the frontiers of MRI microimaging, significantly leveraging
and enhancing our ability to invent, develop and translate novel MRI methods that in the future will be used to scan live animals (pre-clinical) and eventually human subjects for a variety of clinical applications and indications, including stroke, developmental abnormalities, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders of the brain and spine, as well as inflammatory disorders, such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and many others.
Note: Compatibility with our existing 7T MRI should be assured. We plan to operate both MRI systems together until the older 7T MRI catastrophically fails and is no longer operational. The lab plan to transition all of our pulse-sequences and methods from our older 7T MRI to the new one before this happens.
PRODUCT FEATURES/SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS
The instrument shall be brand name or equal to the device(s) listed below.
Name of Device(s): Bruker Biospin 7T Wide Bore MR Magnet with AVANCE NEO WB 300 MHz NMR Spectrometer Console and components. This is a replacement for the labs existing 7T Superconducting MRI Magnet and upgrade of the existing Avance III MRI spectrometer/console.
The required capabilities or performance characteristics of the supplies include the following:
1 - High performance digital NMR spectrometer console that operates at 300 MHz. System electronics should be rack mounted and housed in steel cabinet providing full RF shielding and minimizing cross-talk. Steel cabinet must contain slots and room for high power RF amplifiers. Ethernet ports and router required for data transfer for magnet control and monitoring equipment, solid state NMR accessories, etc. Powering up and powering down must be compatible with existing components. An Embedded Processing Unit (EPU) with at least a 1TB Hard Disk drive required for spectrometer control. System must perform MR pulse generation and control, control of RF transmit and receive signals, and magnet stability and temperature controls.
2- Magnet shim system is required to make scanner B0-field homogeneous. This also includes a shim current control board and individual current supplies for each shim magnet.
3-Preamplifiers for RF controls are required for detecting various nuclei, including 19F, 1H, 2H.
4-TopSpin4 or higher MR acquisition and processing software environment required for compatibility with existing MRI scanner hardware
5-Variable temperature control system required to maintain specimen temperature
6-Range of Highband and Broadband RF amplifiers along with Receive and Transmit (Transceiver) system with RF Quad combiner for measuring MR signal from samples.
7-three 60Amp/channel gradient amplifiers capable of driving the existing Micro5 and Micro2.5 microimaging probes and gradient coil and amplifier chillers that cool them, so they operate safely and reliably.
8-MICWB40 probe body set
9-PCIMAG NMR LINUX Workstation required for controlling various microimaging applications with at least 64 GB RAM for large data sets
10-MicroImaging package for acquisition of images and of localized spectroscopy with existing MRI methods supported, and a user methods development environment including source code.
11-At least two days of service for console/spectrometer installation upgrade and testing product meets all specs.
12-At least five days pre-paid tuition for training of NIH technical personnel.
13-"300WB" 300 MHz/89 mm wide bore Long Hold Time superconducting magnet system
14-cryogen filling and refilling components
15-gradient safety control system
16- cabinet for microimaging diffusion gradient control electronic components
17-1H RF coils ranging from 5 to 30 mm in diameter
18- Monitor and Paravision 7 software package
19-Backups power supply
ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE.
Delivery is to be 9 – 11 months after receipt of award.
The Contractor shall deliver and install the equipment at NIH Bethesda, MD campus:
Exact Building/Room TBD.
Support and Installation
Complete set of system documentation provided in BASH CDROM format. Complete system installation, including magnet, by qualified personnel.
WARRANTY
The Contractor shall warrant that any instruments, equipment and components are free of defects in design, material, or manufacture for a period of at least one (1) calendar year from date of acceptance by the Government.
The Contractor shall also warrant and imply that items delivered are merchantable and fit for use for the particular purpose described in this contract in accordance with FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions – Commercial Items
RESPONSE DELIVERY POINT
Capability statements shall be submitted via email to Contract Specialist, Tina Robinson, at [email protected] no later than 10:00 A.M. EST on July 23, 2020. All information furnished must be in writing and must contain enough detail to allow NICHD to determine if it can meet the unique specifications described herein. Please reference number NICHD-20-178 on all correspondence. Capability statements and email submission, all correspondence and any questions must be sent via email and must include solicitation# NICHD-20-178 in the subject line of email.This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the 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 its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s capability. 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. After a review of the responses received, an RFQ may be published. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation(s).