Notice of Intended Procurement
NAME OF PROCURING ENTITY
The Governing Council of the University of Toronto (the “University”)
CONTACT PERSON AND CONTRACT PERSON COORDINATES
Renee Cheng
215 Huron Street, 3rd Floor
Toronto, ON M5S 1A2
reneeke.cheng@utoronto.ca
PROCUREMENT DOCUMENTS
The procurement documents are available at www.merx.com.
Note that obtaining access to the procurement documents will require prospective suppliers to register and pay a registration fee. Pricing and Payment Terms are available on the MERX website.
DESCRIPTION OF PROCUREMENT
The University is conducting an RFP for Physical Vapor Deposition Materials Acceleration Platform.
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto is seeking proposals to purchase a materials acceleration platform (henceforth system) for the physical vapor deposition and electrical characterization of thin film samples. The system is to be integrated into the Acceleration Consortium’s Inorganic self-driving lab and the associated artificial intelligence pipeline to enable the autonomous design and discovery of novel compositionally complex alloys. Humanity currently faces one of its greatest threats: the anthropomorphic climate change crisis which has resulted in frequent life-threatening extreme weather events and rising ocean levels. The Mission Innovation 6 report highlighted the urgent need for new materials to address key technological gaps in support of a Green Economy, i.e., one that uses renewable energy sources to power manufacturing and trade. Materials Acceleration Platforms (MAP), which combine experimental automation with artificial intelligence to plan and execute experiments, represent an essential technology to reaching these goals. The system requested will enable us to rapidly create and test new alloys by building a one-of-a-kind combined synthesis and characterization tool which is the essential physical infrastructure to support MAP activities at the University of Toronto and the Acceleration Consortium.
The procurement is anticipated to involve negotiation. An electronic auction is not anticipated.
ADDRESS AND FINAL DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS
Submissions must be submitted electronically at https://utoronto.bonfirehub.ca/ on or before Friday, October 25, 2024 (2:00 PM local time). The submissions will not be opened publicly.
CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION
Proponents should achieve a score of 65% out of the available 80 technical points of 100 points.
APPLICABLE TRADE AGREEMENTS
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):
- The Canadian Free Trade Agreement, Chapter Five
- The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Chapter 19
- The Ontario-Quebec Trade and Cooperation Agreement, Chapter 9
CONTRACT DETAILS
The term of Agreement is intended to be for a period of three (3) years including the first year of warranty period and following optional two (2) years of extended warranty.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The University will base its selection of qualified suppliers on the following criteria:
Schedule D Part 1
Technical Submission Requirements Weight
B.1 Experience and Qualifications 5
B.2 Technical Requirements
B.2.1 System Frame and Enclosure Requirements 2
B.2.2 Vacuum Chamber Specifications 6
B.2.3 Safety and Certification Compliance 2
B.2.4 Control and Software Integration
1) PC and control software 3
2) Application Programming Interface (API) – like control 5
3) Adaptive GUI/API control 8
B.2.5 Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) Capabilities 2
B.2.6 Vacuum Pumping Systems 2
B.2.7 Sputter Sources and Power Supplies 4
B.2.8 Advanced Gas and Substrate Control 7
B.2.9 Integration and Measurement Systems
1) In-situ monitoring and control 4
2) Integrated in-situ 4-point probe 4
3) Electronics for thermoelectric 4
4) Data and meta-data management 4
B.3 Delivery, Installation and Testing 5
B.4 Training Requirements 5
B.5 Warranty and Extended Warranty Services 8
Schedule D Part 2
Financial Submission 20
Total 100
Optional Demonstration 15
Total incl. Optional Presentation 115
NOTES
Suppliers should note that information contained within this notice is subject to change. Suppliers are encouraged to obtain the procurement documents which contain the most current information. If there is a conflict between the procurement documents and this notice, the procurement documents will take precedence.
