Pre-Solicitation Notice with Intent to Sole Source for Academic Research Core Services

Pre-Solicitation Notice for the notice of intent to award a sole source contract. This is not a solicitation. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Office of Research and Development (R&D), Regional Procurement Office (RPO) East in Pittsburgh, PA intends to negotiate on a sole source basis for a five-year indefinite delivery contract with the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF SUNY) to obtain academic research core services for ongoing research studies for VA Western New York Healthcare System Research Services (VA WNY HCS). RF SUNY is the only known vendor that can provide the specialized academic research services required. The vendor is the only known accredited academic animal core facility maintained near VA WNY facilities that must be used by the VA researchers to comply with existing regulations and laws. Since the intent is to procure this on a sole source basis, no solicitation will be posted to Contract Opportunities. The applicable NAICS code is 541940 with a $10M size standard. The PSC is R416. The authority for this action is RFO FAR 6.103-1 only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotes. However, any responsible source who can provide an equivalent service with the features described above, may submit a capability statement to the contracting office no later than Thursday, March 12, 2026, 3:00 PM, ET. Interest/capability statements which specifically detail how your service meets the requirement may be sent to Shannon Hukriede at shannon.hukriede@va.gov. No telephone responses will be accepted. A determination not to compete the proposed requirement based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.