US Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), PGAS, Procurement Operations Division, 1325 East West Highway, Station 4301, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3283

B -- INORGANIC QUALITY ASSURANCE ANALYSIS FOR THE NATIONAL STATUS AND TRENDS (NS&T) PROGRAM. POC Donald L. Moses, Contract Specialist; Edward F. Tennant, Jr., Contracting Officer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS) intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, a fixed price contract with the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC). The services contracted for will require NRCC to conduct a series of laboratory intercomparison exercises for trace metals in marine sediments and tissues; evaluate the performance of the National Status and Trends (NS&T) contractor laboratory and other participating institutions; and make recommendations for improving analytical capabilities and quality in participating laboritories under the NS&T Program. This quality assurance project is an essential component of the NS&T Program. NRCC is the only known source capable of performing the required Quality Assurance work because it is the only source of certified trace element reference materials of marine origin (i.e., tissue and sediment) which is actively involved with international intercalibration exercises and which also has a decade of responsibility maintaining the quality of trace element analyses from laboratories participating in NOAA's National Staus and Trends Program. There is no solicitation available. See numbered Note 22. (0302)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0011 19961029\B-0001.SOL)