Choose a laboratory design and construction contractor by first defining what the facility must do, then comparing candidates against that written brief—not against a generic ranking or the lowest headline price. A sound selection tests relevant laboratory experience, the people who will actually deliver the work, coordination of hazards and building systems, fit with the owner’s procurement and delivery method, cost and schedule controls, construction oversight, commissioning, and handover.
The right requirements depend on the laboratory, location, funding, and scope. The APHL/CDC laboratory development guide treats contractor selection as one stage in a longer process that includes defining the vision, assembling a team, assessing risk, designing, overseeing construction, commissioning, and operating the facility. It is general guidance, not a substitute for applicable codes, permits, funding conditions, or laboratory-specific expertise.
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Start with the work the laboratory must support
Do not ask contractors to define your needs for you. Before requesting proposals, document the research or services the lab will support, how people and materials move through it, the equipment and utilities required, the hazards to manage, and the conditions under which construction must take place. A clear brief lets you compare proposals on the same basis and gives the selected team a usable foundation for design, cost, schedule, and acceptance planning.
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The APHL/CDC guide presents laboratory development as a lifecycle: vision and team formation, requirements and risk assessment, design, contractor selection, construction oversight, commissioning, handover, and operations. Use that sequence to organize preparation. The guide also cautions that it does not supply technical requirements for every laboratory type, so identify the standards and specialists relevant to your facility rather than treating a general guide as a complete specification.
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Build a project brief before soliciting proposals
Record the information below at a level appropriate to the project. Some decisions may remain open, particularly early in planning; identify them as open decisions rather than letting each candidate make different assumptions.
- Purpose and workflows: Describe the work, users, activities, material flows, access needs, and operational relationships the facility must support.
- Capacity and change: State expected capacity and known future needs, including where flexibility is important and where the design must meet a fixed requirement.
- Equipment and building systems: List known equipment, utility needs, interfaces, and any equipment decisions still pending. Explain who will confirm compatibility and coordinate requirements into the design.
- Hazards and risk: Identify the work and hazards relevant to the project and explain how risk assessment, safety, and any applicable biosafety needs will inform planning. Do not assume every biomedical project requires the same containment features.
- Security and access: Describe the facility’s access, security, and operational constraints at the appropriate level for the solicitation.
- Site and existing conditions: Identify whether the work is new construction or renovation, known site constraints, occupied areas, and limits on shutdowns, deliveries, noise, or access.
- Budget and schedule: Give the approved funding parameters and important milestones or operational deadlines. Distinguish firm constraints from planning assumptions.
- Acceptance and operations: Describe what evidence will be needed to accept the facility, who will operate it, and what training, records, manuals, and transition support are expected.
Have the owner’s laboratory users, facilities and operations staff, safety representatives, project manager, and procurement or grants staff review the brief before it is issued. Bring in laboratory planning, engineering, biosafety, or other specialist advice where the project needs it. That early coordination helps prevent a proposal from appearing complete while leaving critical responsibilities or requirements undefined.
Identify which requirements actually govern the project
Before judging a contractor’s compliance plan, determine which rules apply to your project. Requirements can arise from the project’s jurisdiction, permits, owner standards, funding source, facility type, and research or service activity. Ask the owner’s design and compliance advisers to identify the applicable requirements and how revisions will be checked during design and construction.
NIH standards have a defined scope
The NIH Design Requirements Manual (DRM) is the detailed design policy and requirements source for NIH-owned, leased, operated, and funded facilities. NIH notes that the full, unabridged manual remains the primary source and that revisions are published over time. For a project within that scope, identify the applicable manual requirements and confirm the current revision during planning. For a project outside it, do not assume the DRM governs; establish the project’s own governing requirements.
BMBL is advisory biosafety guidance, not a regulation
The CDC/NIH Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), sixth edition, describes itself in its foreword as an advisory document recommending best practices for safe work in biomedical and clinical laboratories. The foreword also says it is not intended to be a regulatory document and identifies protocol-driven risk assessment as its core principle. Treat it as biosafety guidance, not as a replacement for binding requirements that apply at your location or under your funding and institutional rules.
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This distinction matters when reviewing proposals. A capable team should be able to explain how it will identify applicable requirements, coordinate safety and biosafety input, and resolve requirements into design and construction decisions. A candidate’s reference to a familiar guide is not, by itself, proof that the project’s full set of obligations has been identified.
Choose a delivery method and solicitation that fit the owner
The delivery method determines how design, construction, risk, and contracts are organized. Establish the owner’s permitted procurement approach before soliciting proposals, and make the proposed roles and contract boundaries explicit. The same contractor credentials or proposal format may not suit every delivery method.
Understand design-bid-build
NIH’s March 2026 Grants Policy Statement describes design-bid-build as the traditional three-phase approach: design, construction bidding (including contractor solicitation and selection), and construction. In this approach, design and construction are contracted separately through those phases. That sequence can make it possible to solicit construction bids against an approved design, but the owner must manage the handoff between the design and construction phases and clarify how design questions, changes, and field conditions will be handled.
For NIH grant-supported construction covered by that policy, the recipient must use procurement methods that offer qualified contractors a fair opportunity. The policy describes the intended result as an occupiable facility that conforms to approved design and specifications and is within the owner’s ability to pay. These are policy details for covered NIH grant activity, not universal rules for every owner or project. Verify the requirements attached to the actual funding source, jurisdiction, and owner before setting the solicitation.
Make the procurement process fair and comparable
Use one defined scope, submission deadline, and set of evaluation criteria for all candidates, consistent with the owner’s procurement rules. Provide the same material information and clarifications to all eligible bidders, document how proposals are evaluated, and follow required conflict-of-interest and approval procedures. If the owner’s rules prescribe a process, that process controls over a scoring approach borrowed from another project.
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Do not present a homegrown matrix as an industry standard or assign arbitrary weights simply to make a decision look mathematical. A matrix is useful because it makes the owner’s priorities visible and keeps comparisons tied to evidence. The scoring method, if one is used, must follow the owner’s rules and be established before proposals are evaluated.
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Compare proposals against a project-specific matrix
Ask every candidate to respond to the same brief and provide evidence, not just assurances. The following comparison axes are a practical synthesis of the laboratory-development lifecycle and procurement considerations; they are not a published standard with required weights. Adapt them to the project and the owner’s evaluation rules.
| Evaluation area | What to assess | Evidence or questions to request |
|---|---|---|
| Relevant laboratory work | Similarity of laboratory type, scale, new-build or renovation conditions, and occupied-site constraints. | Ask for project examples, the candidate’s actual role, the work performed by the proposed team, and references able to speak to that role. |
| Named technical team | Whether the named architecture, engineering, laboratory planning, construction, and specialist capabilities match the project. | Request names, responsibilities, relevant experience, availability, and the process for approving substitutions. |
| Requirements and risk | How workflows and functional needs will be captured and how safety, biosafety, security, utilities, and applicable codes will be coordinated. | Ask how requirements will be documented, reviewed, assigned, and tracked through design and construction, and how unresolved assumptions will be escalated. |
| Delivery and procurement fit | Whether roles, contract boundaries, bidding approach, schedule, and change process suit the owner’s selected method and funding rules. | Ask for a responsibility description, procurement assumptions, decision points, and a proposed process for clarifications and changes. |
| Cost and project controls | How estimates, contingency, procurement, schedule risks, scope changes, and owner decisions will be managed. | Request the estimating and reporting approach, assumptions behind the proposal, treatment of changes, and how the owner will be alerted to emerging cost or schedule risks. |
| Construction oversight and quality | How work, interfaces, submittals, inspections, documentation, safety, and field changes will be coordinated and checked. | Ask who will oversee construction, what records will be maintained, how nonconforming work or conflicts will be resolved, and how approved changes will be recorded. |
| Commissioning and operations | Whether completion includes planned testing and acceptance, operator training, records, manuals, and an organized handover. | Request a commissioning outline, proposed acceptance evidence, training plan, as-built and operating/maintenance documentation plan, and handover responsibilities. |
For each area, record the candidate’s claim, the supporting evidence, the owner’s assessment, and any unresolved issue. Treat a polished narrative as a claim until it is supported by project examples, named staff, defined responsibilities, or a credible plan. When a proposal relies on an assumption that could affect cost, schedule, safety, or operation, make the assumption visible and ask for clarification under the solicitation’s rules.
Verify experience, people, and project controls
A firm’s overall portfolio does not establish that the people assigned to your project have delivered comparable work. Check the candidate’s actual role on cited projects and whether the proposed project lead and technical staff were involved. Contact references through the owner’s permitted process and ask about performance relevant to your project rather than relying on general satisfaction.
- Which named team members performed the comparable work, and what decisions or deliverables did they own?
- How did the team coordinate laboratory workflows, equipment interfaces, building systems, safety needs, and owner requirements?
- How were cost estimates, schedule risks, scope changes, and owner decisions communicated and tracked?
- How were construction questions, field conditions, quality issues, and design changes documented and resolved?
- What testing, training, records, and operational support were included at completion?
- Will those same staff be available for this project, and how will changes to the proposed team be managed?
Ask for a project-specific plan rather than a promise that the firm “will coordinate” or “will ensure quality.” A useful answer names the responsible role, the point in the project when the work occurs, the information or approval needed, and the record the owner will receive. If a candidate cannot yet define a detail because the brief is incomplete, the proposal should identify the open decision and explain its consequences rather than silently assume an answer.
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Test whether equipment and building systems are being coordinated
Laboratory equipment can impose requirements on clearances, utilities, exhaust, room layout, and operating conditions. The contractor should show how equipment requirements will be gathered and coordinated with architecture and engineering, and who will confirm compatibility as equipment selections become firm.
NIH’s biosafety-cabinet guidance illustrates why this coordination needs to be specific: cabinet selection and installation involve clearance and facility compatibility. Under the NIH process described for its facilities, new cabinets must be NSF 49 listed, and exhaust-connected models have specific design and operating conditions. This is an example of an NIH requirement, not a rule that every laboratory project needs a biosafety cabinet or that every owner follows the same process. Ask candidates how they will coordinate the equipment actually required by your work with the facility systems and standards that apply to your project.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Require a credible construction oversight and quality plan
Construction oversight is not an administrative afterthought. Renovations can involve existing conditions and occupied operations; new construction still requires coordination among trades, design disciplines, equipment suppliers, and the owner. Ask how the candidate will organize submittals, inspections, field questions, safety coordination, documentation, and changes so that decisions are traceable and the work can be checked against approved design and specifications.
Clarify the boundary between the contractor’s responsibilities, the designer’s responsibilities, specialist reviewers, and the owner’s approvals. The proposal should explain how a field condition or proposed substitution is raised, who assesses its effect on requirements and operations, who has authority to approve it, and how the final decision is recorded. The owner should not assume that a contractor’s general quality statement explains this process.
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Ask candidates to describe the path from construction completion to a facility that the owner can operate. Commissioning and handover should be addressed in the proposal, not deferred until the end when missing records, incomplete training, or unclear acceptance criteria are harder to correct.
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- Testing and inspection: Ask what will be inspected or tested, who will perform or witness it, how results will be documented, and how deficiencies will be tracked to resolution.
- Acceptance criteria: Identify how the project will demonstrate conformity with the approved design and specifications and any project-specific operational requirements.
- Training: Ask which operators need training, what topics and records are anticipated, and when training will occur in relation to turnover.
- Records: Specify the expected as-built records, operating and maintenance documentation, equipment information, and other closeout material relevant to operation.
- Handover roles: Identify who assembles and reviews closeout materials, who accepts them, and how open items or exceptions will be documented.
The APHL/CDC lifecycle guidance includes commissioning, handover, and operations as parts of laboratory development. NIH describes specialized review and verification support for high- and maximum-containment facilities, underscoring that some projects may require additional specialist involvement. Do not assume those services or requirements apply to every facility; identify the project’s actual containment level, governing standards, owner expectations, and required reviewers before procurement.
Compare total project fit, not only the initial fee
There is no general laboratory construction cost benchmark established by the cited guidance, so a universal price-per-area figure would not be a reliable way to select a contractor here. Compare proposals only after checking that they cover the same scope, assumptions, responsibilities, and deliverables. A lower initial fee or construction price may not represent a better fit if important planning, oversight, commissioning, or handover responsibilities are excluded or unclear.
Ask candidates to explain how they will update estimates as requirements and design mature, identify contingencies and exclusions, report risks, handle scope changes, and keep the owner’s decisions visible. Review schedule assumptions alongside cost assumptions: a proposal should show the dependencies and owner decisions that affect delivery, not just a target completion date. The owner’s funding limits and procurement rules remain central to the comparison.
Run a disciplined selection and close out the decision
- Confirm authority and constraints. Establish the owner, funding source, jurisdiction, procurement rules, project scope, and permitted delivery approach.
- Complete and review the brief. Bring users, facilities, safety, project, and procurement stakeholders together to confirm workflows, capacity, equipment, hazards, site constraints, budget, schedule, and handover needs.
- Identify applicable requirements. Record the governing codes, permits, owner standards, funder conditions, and laboratory-specific guidance, with specialist advice where needed. Confirm how current revisions will be checked.
- Issue a consistent solicitation. Provide all candidates the same scope and response requirements, explain the selection process, and manage questions and clarifications fairly under the owner’s rules.
- Evaluate evidence against the matrix. Compare relevant work, named staff, requirements management, delivery fit, controls, oversight, commissioning, and handover. Record evidence and unresolved issues rather than relying on impressions.
- Clarify material gaps through the permitted process. Ask candidates to explain assumptions, exclusions, staffing commitments, and responsibilities consistently and document the responses.
- Check references and finalize responsibilities. Verify the actual role and performance of the proposed team, then ensure the award documents reflect scope, deliverables, decision rights, reporting, and closeout expectations.
If no candidate demonstrates a credible fit, revisit the brief, delivery method, or market outreach rather than selecting on an unsupported promise. The decision record should explain how the selected proposal met the project’s requirements and how material risks or open decisions will be managed.
Use older background literature carefully
The National Academies Press lists Laboratory Design, Construction, and Renovation: Participants, Process, and Product, a National Research Council report published in 2000. It can offer historical background on laboratory project participants and process, but its publication date means it should not be treated as the current authority for codes, technical criteria, or present-day project requirements. Use current, applicable standards and owner or funder requirements for those decisions.
What a strong choice looks like
The strongest candidate is the one whose team can connect your documented work and risks to a credible plan for design, procurement, cost and schedule control, construction oversight, testing, training, records, and operational handover. Selection should be fair, evidence-based, and consistent with the owner’s rules. No universal credential list, contractor ranking, delivery method, or price benchmark can substitute for confirming what applies to the specific laboratory and project.
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