ASRmel Software Licenses

NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD SOLE SOURCE: This is a notice of intent to award a sole source contract. Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) 13.106-1(b)(1)(i). Contracting Officers may solicit from one source if it is determined only one source is reasonably available to satisfy agency requirements, as supplemented with additional information in this notice. Sources were sought and did not satisfy the agency’s requirements.

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) intends to award on a sole source basis a Firm Fixed Price contract to VSN International Limited. ARS has the need for ASReml-R. ASRmel-R is a robust statistical analysis software specifically developed for linear mixed models.

It harnesses the power of linear mixed-effects models to provide a versatile and adaptable solution for analyzing various types of large and complex data sets commonly encountered in animal, plant, and aqua breeding, agriculture, environmental sciences, and medical sciences.

ASReml-R performs Genomic Prediction and complex multi-trait and multi-environment analyses. • Compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x and Rocky Linux 9.x • Based on the R programming language • Capable of operating within a high-performance, multi-user computing cluster environment. • Capable of efficiently handling large and extremely large data sets (100,000 or more observations/effects). • Employ Residual Maximum Likelihood (REML) estimation. • Support of linear mixed-effect models. • Accommodate nested and crossed effects, along with arrays of complex structures on random effects and residuals. • Support spatial analyses, repeated measures, random regression, and correlated structures in breeding datasets. • Perform Genomic Prediction • Perform complex multi-trait and multi-environment analyses. VSN International Limited is the only qualified organization to supply the required software.

Period of Performance:

Base Year:

09.01.2024 – 08.31.2025 Option Year I:

09.01.2025 – 08.31.2026 Option Year II: 09.01.2026 – 08.31.2027 THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE QUOTES; AND NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to the primary point of a contact, Marian Dyson at Marian.Dyson@usda.gov.