COMMERCIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET AUTHORING SOFTWARE

SUBJECT: Commercial Safety Data Sheet Authoring Software

SOLICITATION NUMBER:  1333ND25QNB640463

RESPONSE DATE: September 2, 2025

CONTACT POINTS: Don Graham, Contracting Officer, (301) 975-6753

                          

DESCRIPTION:

THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL

ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6-STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS-AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED, AND A SEPARATE WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED.  THE SOLICITATION IS BEING ISSUED USING SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF FAR PARTS 12 AND 13.

This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2025-05 dated 8/7/25. 

The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 518210- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services 40M. This acquisition is being solicited as a total small business set-aside.

Contractors must possess an ACTIVE registration in the System for Award Management system, www.SAM.gov, when submitting a quotation and shall continue to be registered until time of award, during performance, and through final payment of any contract resulting from this solicitation. The Contracting Officer will confirm that Contractors have an “active” registration at the www.sam.gov website upon receipt of the quotation. If the SAM.gov registration is not active, the quotation will not be considered for award.

BACKGROUND:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) supports accurate and compatible measurements by certifying and providing over 1300 Standard Reference Materials® with well-characterized composition or properties, or both.  Industry, academia, and government use NIST SRMs to facilitate commerce and trade and to advance research and development.  The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), 29 CFR 1910.1200, requires that manufacturers classify the hazards of the chemical products they produce.  Additionally, manufacturers must provide information about the classified hazards of their chemical products to downstream users by developing and providing Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) and “shipped” container labels.  The HCS provides specific requirements regarding the hazard classification process and the required content and format for SDSs and “shipped” container labels for “hazardous chemicals” (as defined in the HCS).  The HCS chemical manufacturer requirements also apply to “laboratories” (as defined in OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1450, Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories) when the hazardous chemicals will be shipped from the laboratory workplace.  The NIST’s Office of Reference Materials is responsible for producing Safety Data Sheets for hazardous chemical SRMs and samples shipped from NIST, with a projected demand of 600+ custom SDSs per year. 

The objective of this solicitation is to establish a Firm-Fixed-Price purchase order based on the requirements described in the attached Statement of Work (SOW).

The Vendor shall provide cloud-hosted software that creates a Draft SDS according to OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), 29 CFR 1910.1200, when a chemical composition is entered in the system using Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers and percentages for each of the components.

All Contractors shall provide a firm-fixed-price quotation for the following Contract Line Items (CLINs), in accordance with the requirements outlined in the attached Statement of Work.

CONTRACT LINE ITEMS:

• Line Item 0001: (Quantity 1yr) Commercial Safety Data Sheet Authoring Software in accordance with the Statement of Work (Attachment 1).

• Line Item 0002: (Optional Line Item) (Quantity 1yr) Commercial Safety Data Sheet Authoring Software in accordance with the Statement of Work (Attachment 1)

• Line Item 0003: (Optional Line Item) (Quantity 1yr) Commercial Safety Data Sheet Authoring Software in accordance with the Statement of Work (Attachment 1)

• Line Item 0004: (Optional Line Item) (Quantity 1yr) Commercial Safety Data Sheet Authoring Software in accordance with the Statement of Work (Attachment 1)

• Line Item 0005: (Optional Line Item) (Quantity 1yr) Commercial Safety Data Sheet Authoring Software in accordance with the Statement of Work (Attachment 1)

DELIVERY TERMS

Delivery terms shall be FOB Destination. The Contractor shall pack and mark the shipment in conformance with carrier requirements, deliver the shipment in good order and condition to the point of delivery specified in the purchase order, be responsible for loss of and/or damage to the goods occurring before receipt and acceptance of the shipment by the consignee at the delivery point specified in the purchase order; and pay all charges to the specified point of delivery.

EVALUATION CRITERIA & BASIS FOR AWARD:

The Government intends to award a single purchase order resulting from this solicitation to the responsible Contractor whose quotation, conforming to the solicitation, will provide the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered.

In addition to price, the following factors shall be used to evaluate quotations:

1. Technical Approach
   1. Technical Approach: NIST will evaluate the extent to which the Contractor’s quote demonstrates their ability to satisfy the requirements in the Statement of Work, ensure work quality, and on-time completion of tasks and deliverables

1. Past Performance.

1. Past Performance: Evaluation of past performance shall be based on the references provided and/or the Contractor’s recent and relevant procurement history with NIST or its affiliates.  Past Performance will be evaluated to determine the overall quality of the product and service provided by the Contractor.  The Government will evaluate past performance based on Past Performance Surveys and by contacting appropriate references, including NIST references; if applicable.  The Government reserves the right to consider information available from other sources.  In the case of a Contractor without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available, the Contractor will be evaluated neither favorably nor unfavorably.

Quotations that do not demonstrate that the proposed solution meets or exceeds all requirements will not be considered further for award. If a Contractor’s technical description and/or product literature does not indicate whether its proposed solution meets a certain minimum requirement, NIST will determine that it does not meet the requirement.

Price:

The price evaluation will determine whether the quoted prices are fair and reasonable in relation to the solicitation requirements.  Quoted prices must be entirely compatible with the technical quotation.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Due Date for Quotations and Questions

All quotations must be submitted, via e-mail, to the Contracting Officer, Don Graham, at Donald.Graham@nist.gov. Submissions must be received no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 2, 2025. FAX quotations will not be accepted.  Contractors must reference the solicitation number in the subject line of the e-mail submission.   Quotes shall not be deemed received by the Government until the quotation has entered the e-mail inbox of the individual(s) set forth above.

Questions: All questions regarding this notice must be submitted via e-mail to the Contracting Officer, Don Graham, at Donald.Graham@nist.gov, no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on August 26, 2025. All responses to the questions will be made in writing, without identification of the questioner, and will be included in an amendment to the solicitation. Even if provided in other form, only the responses included in the amendment to the solicitation will govern performance of the contract.

Please reference the solicitation number in the subject line of all email communications.

Quotation Preparation Instructions:

Each quotation shall consist of three (3) separate electronic files. In preparing the quotation, each electronic file shall stand on its own:

1. Technical Quotation
2. Price Quotation
3. Provisions and Clauses

Technical Quotation:

1.Technical Approach. The Contractor shall provide detailed information demonstrating their understanding of each task in the statement of work. 

Additionally, the contractor shall provide the following:

1. Demonstrate data comes from OSHA’s key and recommended sources of information related to health effects, physical and chemical properties, as outlined in OSHA Publication 3844 “Hazard Communication: Hazard Classification Guidance for Manufacturers, Importers, and Employers.”
2. Provide a hands-on software demonstration for evaluation purposes using three (3) NIST-provided mixture compositions as follows:

Mixture 1: Nitric acid (8%, CAS 7697-37-2), Nickel nitrate (3%, CAS 13138-45-9), Water (89%, CAS # 7732-18-5)

Mixture 2: Hydrochloric Acid ( <25%, CAS 7647-01-0), Polonium-209 (0.000 000 008%), Water (75%, CAS 7732-18-5)

Note:  Polonium-209, with a massic alpha-particle emission rate of approximately 38.94 s-1•g ‐1 in hydrochloric acid solution.  Polonium-209 decays by alpha-particle emission.  During the decay process, X-rays and gamma rays with energies from approximately 10 keV to 900 keV are also emitted. 

Mixture 3: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (0.3%, CAS 42542-10-9), Caffeine     ( 0.1%, CAS 58-08-2), Cocaine( 0.1%, CAS 50-36-2), Ketamine (8%, CAS 1867-66-9), Salicylic acid (20%, CAS 69-72-7), Cellulose (71.5%, CAS 9004-34-6)

2. Past Performance.  The Contractor shall provide past performance information regarding up to five relevant contracts for the past three years with federal, state or local governments, and international and commercial customers.  The information shall describe contracts of a similar type and scope as the current requirement. If the contractor intends to use another firm for substantial portion of this requirement (i.e., >20% of the total level of effort), that firm’s past performance information must also be provided. If the Contractor has no relevant past performance it must include a statement to that effect.

The description of each contract described in this section shall provide the following information, as applicable:

•Contract Number

•Description of work performed and relevance to solicitation requirements

•Period of Performance

•Point of Contact Information (name, email, phone number) for the client reference

Price Quotation:

All Contractors shall submit a firm fixed price, FOB Destination, price quotation for the contract line item(s). The quotation must include a unit price and total amount for each line item and the aggregate price for all contract line items.

The price quotation shall include a cover page with the following information:

1. 1. 1. The solicitation number 1333ND25QNB640463;
      2. The name and address, of the Contractor;
      3. The name, phone number, and email address of the Contractor’s point of contact;
      4. Unique Entity Identifier # for Contractor’s active SAM.Gov registration.
      5. Any applicable discount terms.
      6. A statement that the Contractor agrees to all terms, conditions, and provisions included in the solicitation. If the Contractor objects to any of the terms and conditions contained in this solicitation, the Contractor shall state “The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document with the exception, deletion, or addition of the following:” [Contractor shall list exception(s) and rationale for the exception(s)].  It is the sole responsibility of the Contractor to identify in their quote any exceptions to the terms and conditions of the solicitation. 
      7. A statement that the quotation is valid for a minimum of 90 days from the response deadline of this solicitation.

The Government will evaluate quotations for award inclusive of the prices quoted for all optional line items.  The Government may determine that a quotation is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced.  Evaluation of options does not obligate the Government to exercise the options.

NIST intends to evaluate quotes and issue a contract based on the initial quotes received.  Therefore, the Contractor’s initial quote should contain the Contractor’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. NIST reserves the right to request revised quotes from, or negotiate final contract terms with, one or more, but not all, Contractors if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary. 

Provisions and Clauses:

The provisions and clauses applicable to this solicitation are identified in Attachment 2 titled “Provisions and Clauses”. Contractor’s shall provide a completed copy of all provisions highlighted in the attached Provisions and Clauses document (Attachment 2).

The full text of a Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision or clause may be accessed electronically at  www.acquisition.gov/far.  The full text of a Department of Commerce Acquisition Regulation (CAR) provision or clause may be accessed electronically at https://www.acquisition.gov/car.

Please note that this procurement IS NOT being conducted under the GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program or another Government-Wide Area Contract (GWAC).  If a contractor submits a quotation based upon an FSS or GWAC contract, the Government will accept the quoted price.  However, the terms and conditions stated herein will be included in any resultant Purchase Order, not the terms and conditions of the contractor’s FSS or GWAC contract.

ATTACHMENTS:

The following attachments apply to this solicitation:

• Attachment 1: Statement of Work
• Attachment 2: Provisions and Clauses