SOFTWARE/HARDWARE

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR 13.106(b)(1), with Saarland University in Saarbrucken, Germany, for purchase of additional and re-formatted data for NIST Standard Reference Database Number 46: Critically Selected Stability Constants of Metal Complexes. NIST Standard Reference Database number 46 provides thermochemical data for complexes consisting of ligands and metal ions or protons. This data has applications in analytical chemistry as well as basic chemical research. The database currently contains data for 6166 ligands. It is shipped as a program for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Data used by this program is in files which are a non-standard format devised by the database developer. Source code to the database program was not provided by the developer. The database was developed at Texas A&M University for NIST and has been distributed since 1993. There have been eight version of the database released; the database was last updated in 2004. In order to extract and use the existing data (which is a proprietary format known only to the developer) the existing data format must be reverse-engineered. In order to provide an up-to-date database for its customers, NIST needs to have the existing data converted to a format which can be read by standard tools. In addition the data set needs to be updated with additional data to make it more current. In addition the University of Saarland has demonstrated that they have the technical ability to properly collect and abstract data of this type. Saarland University/Dr. Stefan Stucky is the only source able to perform the entire work required. The Government anticipates the award of a firm-fixed- price purchase order. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, companies that believe they can fulfill the requirement may provide a written response to this notice and provide evidence to substantiate that capability. A determination by the Government whether to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competition.