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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research Laboratory (CRREL) intends to award a contract on a sole source basis to Cryosphere Innovation, LLC upon the basis of the authority provided at FAR 13.501(a)(1)(i).

The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, NH requires the acquisition of eighteen (18) total Cryosphere Innovation BRAND ice mass balance buoys, nine (9) each of the “standard” configuration and nine (9) each of the “ARCSIX” configuration, along with data delivered to CRREL for 12 months via Iridium data service. This brand is necessary in order to ensure interoperability of prior data with newly collected data on the sea ice using the same buoys.

Specifications:

The system must be capable of being used in harsh, extremely cold field conditions (down to -50 degrees C), must operate autonomously, and be capable of operating on internal power only for at least 12 months in the harsh sea ice environment (a storage of at least 80aH at 18V nominal), barring damage by ice deformation or bears.

Delivery:

The 9 “ARCSIX” configured buoys shall be delivered to CRREL at 72 Lyme Road, Hanover NH 03755 (ATTN Chris Polashenski).

The 9 “standard” configuration buoys shall be delivered to Prudhoe Bay, AK via Air Cargo. The buoys will be held for pickup at the Deadhorse Airport.

CRREL has been conducting specialized sea ice mass balance research using very unique, niche, specially designed sea ice mass balance buoys since 2020. The datasets developed have been established using unique buoys developed by Cryosphere Innovation, LLC. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in field work, data collection, data analyses, and model building based on use of the Cryosphere Innovation, LLC buoys and this current procurement is required to extend and continue that research. CRREL requires this buoy in order to ensure interoperability of prior data with newly collected data on the sea ice using the same buoys. Additionally, in the 2020 procurement, the contract specialist contacted Cryosphere Innovation, LLC and was informed that the buoy was invented, developed, and is manufactured and sold only by Cryosphere Innovation, LLC. Cryosphere Innovation owns the intellectual property and production rights to buoy and has not licensed or approved any other vendor to produce the buoy therefore IAW FAR 13.106(b) (1), Cryosphere Innovation, LLC is the sole provider, and no other distributor is capable of fulfilling the Government’s requirement.

This Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive quotations. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. Any interested party that believes they can fulfill this requirement should submit a capability statement to be reviewed. All submissions will be considered, however there is no guarantee that submissions in response to this notice will in any way alter the Government's acquisition strategy.

Responses to this notice shall be submitted NLT 12:00 PM CDT, 30 August 2023 to Lisa.A.Bernard@usace.army.mil

Telephone responses will not be accepted.

Responses to this notice will not be considered as a response to any solicitation, a request to be added to a prospective offerors list, or to receive a copy of any solicitation. A determination by the Government not to compete the contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

Note: In order to be eligible for award of a Government contract, vendors must be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), have no active exclusions, and complete the FAR and DFARS representations and certifications.

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