NINDS 23-011493

Submitted by patelsnv on
Post Date/ Solicitation Issue Date
Closing Response Date
Proposed Award Date
Project Title
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING DEVICE
Contracting Office
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

Contact Points

Primary Contract Specialist

ELAINE
ESTRELLA
elaine.estrella@nih.gov
NAICS Code Number
541690
Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
Small Business Size Standard
16,500,000
FPDS Classification Code
6515
Estimated Period of Performance
08/14/2023-09/30/2023
Delivery of Goods
BLDG 35 RM BC212
Competition Status
Brand Name or Equal
Brand Name
TURNER SCIENTIFIC
Rationale/ Salient Characteristics
• The supplier shall provide a portable touch-screen tablet-based computer system with an interface to operate the system, review and interrogate environmental readings, create reports, and log staff activity.
• The system shall be mounted on a stable rolling stand and have sufficient battery power to keep the system operable during movement.
• The system shall include sensors used to continuously monitor temperature, humidity, light levels, vibration, and noise levels in ranges observable by laboratory animals, sized to monitor conditions from inside shoebox size rodent cages.
• The system must include software capable of recording logged data from system sensors and displaying that data in context of the affected animal species.
• The system must be able to export logged data for external analysis.
• The system must not depend on internet or network connectivity to function.
• The supplier shall provide a warranty term of at least 3 years against defects in materials and assembly during normal use.
• Due to the delicate and precise nature of the parameters being monitored, the supplier shall provide for annual sensor calibration and cleaning.
• Any required software will be licensed for at least 3 years from purchase.
Single-Sole Source Determination
Turner Scientific is the only company operating in the laboratory animal care sector that has created a product capable of continuous monitoring of noise, vibration, temperature, humidity, and light as it will affect common laboratory rodents in cages. While many other companies have environmental monitoring systems, those products focus on macro-environmental factors that affect rooms, laboratories, and facilities with a focus on their effects on people and equipment. Those systems also typically exclude noise and vibration monitoring altogether or restrict monitoring to the ranges of noise and vibration observable by people. The Turner Scientific Sensory Sentinel is the only product currently capable or continuously observing, recording, and reporting all environmental conditions (including vibration and ultrasound) that affect laboratory animals in the PNRC. As the manufacturer and sole US distributor, Turner Scientific is also the only company capable of providing warranty service and software licenses for its hardware.
Background/Description of Requirement

​​​​​​The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducting research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of neurological disorders and stroke. The NINDS mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

The Animal Health Care Section (AHCS) of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is tasked with veterinary care, management and oversight of the Building 35/35A SAF. The Building 35/35A SAF currently houses approximately 16,000 mouse and rat cages, consisting primarily of mice.  The rodents housed in these cages are used by numerous NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) to carry out their research missions. The institutes and centers sharing in this research endeavor are:

      • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
      • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
      • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders (NIDCD)
      • National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
      • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
      • National Eye Institute (NEI)
      • National Institute on Aging (NIA)
      • National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
      • National Center on Complimentary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

The NINDS AHCS has the need to continuously monitor for adverse microenvironmental parameters that affect laboratory animals, including light level, temperature, humidity, noise, and vibrations. Monitoring these parameters will allow the AHCS to ameliorate any negative conditions found, reducing potential variables, and contributing to good science. Monitoring these parameters will allow the AHCS to ameliorate any negative conditions found, reducing potential variables, and contributing to good science. To meet this need, the AHCS intends to purchase two Sensory Sentinel monitoring stations.

Considering the flood recovery projects inside the PNRC, and the pre-planned construction projects both in and around the PNRC, it is extremely important to bring to monitor these microenvironmental conditions to ensure they do not become confounding variables that affect the research conducted here.

The objective of this procurement is to acquire equipment to reliably and continuously monitor for adverse microenvironmental parameters that affect laboratory animals. Our current monitoring tools do not capture all of these parameters, and the environmental conditions currently observed are only recorded at the macro-environment or “room” level. To accurately understand the experience of the lab animals, these conditions must be monitored inside the animal cage at the microenvironment level.

It is important to note that laboratory animals inside cages on ventilated microisolator racks experience environmental conditions differently than humans on the outside. The microenvironment can have differing temperature and humidity than the macroenvironment. Cages located at different levels of height on a rack will experience different light levels. The blowers forcing filtered air into the racks may cause vibrations that go unnoticed, or the racks themselves may absorb and dissipate construction vibrations felt by humans. Finally, rodent species have vastly different hearing ranges than humans. For example, mice can hear sounds up to 100 kHz; to contrast, the upper limit of the human hearing range is 20 kHz.

Procurement Requirement:

Continuous environmental monitoring system (Sensory Sentinel) for vivarium and 2 years extended warranty and shipping.

Delivery: 30 days ARO

 

 

 

Interested parties may identify in writing their interest and capability in response to this requirement. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement and include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, the delivery period after contract award, the prompt payment discount terms, the F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), the Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.

All responses must be received by closing date and must reference the announcement. Responses may be submitted electronically to the attention of the contract specialist. Fax responses will not be accepted.

All responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency.