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Contract Opportunity

The US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis (IAW FAR 13.106-1(b)) with Bennett Aerospace, Inc., 1 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603-2578, for a contract for “Silence of the Traits” for invasive species control.

The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Environmental Laboratory (EL), Environmental Processes Branch (EP-P) Environmental Genomic and Systems Biology team (EGSB) requires scientific research services to investigate the physical, chemical, biological, and ecological processes that are critical to the assessment, modeling, management and remediation of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems using bench, mesocosm, and field-scale experiments. The specific tasks which the contractor shall be required to participate in are directed towards satisfying the Corps, Army and Department of Defense (DoD) requirements through the use of multi-disciplinary approaches including ecology, genomics, conservation biology, systems biology, computational biology, predictive toxicology, bioinformatics, and invasive species control. The EGSB team is pursuing basic and applied science and this research provides scientific support for making critical risk determinations and, ultimately, provides customers and stakeholders with the capacity to make scientifically defensible decisions. Successful and timely completion of the EGSB team’s mission requires highly skilled contractors.

The minimum needs for this requirement shall include conducting genomic, genetic, molecular biology and biotechnology based studies to support ongoing EGSB projects researching current environmental problems such as invasive species control. Due to these highly skilled research areas involving specialized techniques associated with nucleic acids, the ability to work with DNA and RNA from diverse sources (including multiple animal and plant species), data processing of DNA/RNA sequence data, and execution of standard molecular biology techniques will be essential skills for contractors to successfully meet deliverables. Specific skills needed include molecular biological processes involved in RNA extraction, RNA quantity / quality assessment, DNA extraction, DNA quality / quantity assessment, genomics, gene expression assays, cDNA library preparation, next-generation nucleic acid sequencing, transfection procedures, molecular cloning, gene-target identification, enzyme quantification assays, various cell-free and in vitro assays, PCR, qPCR, RT-qPCR, and additional genomics-related techniques. The contractor shall perform diverse tasks including 1) utilizing a modified virus to target plants by a mobile insect vector in order to improve crop traits and 2) conduct experiments to develop out gene silencing-based biotechnologies for invasive species control.

The work of this contract will build upon proprietary data developed under contract W912HZ19D0002, a contract with Bennett Aerospace, Inc.

This acquisition is being conducted under FAR 13.106-1(b). There are no set-aside restrictions for this requirement. The intended procurement will be classified under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 541714 Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology), with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation document exists for this requirement. However, parties interested in responding to this notice shall submit technical data, including price, sufficient to determine capability in providing the same or similar items. All capability statements received by the closing date of the publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

Capability statements shall be submitted only by e-mail as a Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, or Adobe PDF attachment to crystal.e.north@usace.army.mil. Statements are due by 1000 (10:00 am) Eastern Time 21 December 2022. No phone calls will be accepted.

Point of Contact

Crystal North, Contract Specialist, Email crystal.e.north@usace.army.mil

Place of Performance

Address: USACE/ERDC EL- ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORY

3909 HALLS FERRY ROAD, VICKSBURG, MS

Postal Code: 39180-6199

Country: UNITED STATES

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