SEWP contracts, RFP ghostwriting and national lab royalties

NASA serves up more SEWP

NASA awarded 118 contracts to small and disadvantaged businesses in the two final groups under its $20 billion Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement V government wide acquisition contract.

The 118 contracts announced April 2 were for SEWP V's Groups B and C, for small and disadvantaged firms. The contracts went to 108 companies, with 10 winning in both groups.

Of the most recent SEWP V contracts awards, 14 were awarded to businesses operating in historically underutilized business zones, 25 went to business owned by service-disabled veterans, and 79 were awarded to other small businesses for server support or multi-functional devices.

The contracts are firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, with a $25 minimum per order of supplies or services, and a per contract maximum of $20 billion. Each contract will have an effective ordering period of 10 years, consisting of a five-year base period from May 1, 201, to April 30, 2020, and one five-year option to extend the period of performance through April 30, 2025.

On March 25, SEWP announced 84 companies in the GWAC's Group A for systems/servers and computer-based systems, and 48 for the Group D category that includes networking, security, video and conferencing.

18F offers RFP ghostwriting

The General Services Administration's digital incubator has extended another helping hand to contracting personnel, offering RFP ghostwriting and review as a service to federal agencies.

Through the new service, GSA 18F team members Chris Cairns and Robert Read said in a blog post, 18F can leverage the experience of more than 70 designers, developers and product specialists to assist in writing and reviewing agency RFPs.

According to Cairns and Read, the service is available on a cost-reimbursable basis under the authority of the Economy Act. A simple interagency agreement is all that's required to make us of the service.

Lab's spectrometer tech royalties surpass $10 million

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's royalties on a suite of mass spectrometer technologies have topped $10 million, according to the facility and its operator, Battelle.

According to the lab, this marks the first time that income tied to a specific technology developed at PNNL has reached such a level. PNNL said the income was earned from multiple licenses over nearly a 20-year period, with the annual amount steadily increasing over the past five years.

The analytical technologies, used to detect and measure very low levels of compounds and elements for environmental, national security and health applications, were developed at PNNL as well as at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory and DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus.

The lab said the earnings have been plowed back into new research programs, demonstration projects, laboratory equipment and staff at the Department of Energy national laboratory in Richland, or reinvested by Battelle in research-related activities consistent with its nonprofit mission.

Through licenses, PNNL said it has transferred the technology enhancements to many companies that manufacture and sell mass spectrometers to customers worldwide, including Agilent Technologies in Santa Clara, Calif.; Bruker Daltonics in Billerica, Mass.; Thermo Fisher Scientific in San Jose, Calif., and several others.