Canada - Real-Time High-Precision Isotopic Water Analyzer System

Description

ACAN No.: UWOACANSR-1827

Date: November 19, 2024

Deadline: December 4, 2024 12:00PM

Upload Electronic Documents to:
https://uwo.bonfirehub.ca
Note: Hardcopies will NOT be accepted
 
 

Background Information

The University of Western Ontario (Western), the third largest university in Ontario, has a full and part-time enrolment of more than 45,000 graduate and undergraduate students and includes three affiliated University Colleges.  The Western campus covers 481 hectares and is located about 4 km north of the centre of London. Western’s campus has one main campus with over 100 buildings. In addition, Western has several offsite locations, including but not limited to, the Institute for Chemicals and Alternative Resources (ICFAR) located on Wonderland Road north and the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) located off the Veterans’ Memorial Parkway, north of Highway 401 near Bradley Avenue. There are approximately 3,800 full-time faculty and staff.  An additional 5,000 part-time staff and faculty represent approximately 3,800 full-time equivalents.
 

Context

This Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) is aimed at communicating Western’s intention to issue a Purchase Order for the Real-Time High-Precision Isotopic Water Analyzer System to Picarro located in Santa Clara, California. However, before the contract is awarded, Western would like to give suppliers the opportunity to prove that they can meet the requirements set out in this advance notice by presenting a Statement of Capabilities during the posting period of at least 15 calendar days.
 

Statement of Capabilities

This document does not constitute a call for tenders.

Suppliers who consider themselves wholly qualified and who are available to meet the specified requirements may present a written Statement of Capabilities to the contracting authority named in this advance notice, by no later than the notice closing date. The Statement of Capabilities must clearly prove that the supplier has the necessary qualifications, capabilities, capacity, experience and resources to meet the requirements set out in the advance notice

If other potential suppliers present a Statement of Capabilities during the posting period and prove that they meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, Western will initiate a full tendering process through Bonfire and MERX public tendering service.

If no supplier presents a Statement of Capabilities meeting the requirements set out in this ACAN by the closing date, a purchase order will be awarded to Picarro.
 

Application

Measuring energy expenditure is crucial to studies of animal physiology and physiological ecology. The proposed system will be used to measure hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopes in breath water vapour and other body water samples of live animals for metabolic studies. In some cases, the body water of the animals will be highly enriched in deuterium and 18O water and the decrease in these isotopes over time can be used to measure water turnover and carbon dioxide production. In other cases, we will measure the natural abundances of 18O and 17O to estimate metabolic rates of wild animals sampled in the field or lab. Thus we require a portable laser spectroscopic water isotope analyzer and associated necessary peripherals for calibration and operation in vapour or liquid water modes.

The research is time sensitive and so the system must be delivered and operational by February 2025.

 

Deliverables

The proposed solution has the following specific characteristics:
 

The solution must include an isotopic water analyzer that will be used to measure metabolic rates from the turnover of 2H, 17O and 18O labelled water molecules.

The system must be configured with various peripherals for liquid including vapour. 
The system must have a measurement rate of ~1 Hz for vapour.
The system should make time-based laser measurements using cavity-ring down spectroscopy for quantifying the spectral features of the vapour in an optical cavity.

The solution will be field deployable, lightweight and compact in size.
The solution must include the following additional services:

Remote technical support
Post-processing software for flagging contamination and normalizing measurements
Associated accessories: keyboard, mouse, and mouse pad
On-site installation and training for the analyzer
The solution must also include a high precision vaporizer for liquid water analysis to be used in combination with the abovementioned analyzer.
Must include an external pump if required
The solution must include a calibration process for vapour mode
Must include dual standards
Must be able to run up to a month in the field unattended
Must have full remote control
The solution must delivered, commissioned and training provided by February 2025.

 

Budget Limit

The available pre-tax budget for the Real-Time High-Precision Isotopic Water Analyzer System is CAD$180,000.

 

Deadline

Statement of Capabilities must be received by Western no later than December 4, 2024 at 12:00PM (noon) ET.
 

Statement of Capabilities Submission Instructions

All submissions and accompanying documents must be uploaded electronically at https://uwo.bonfirehub.ca.  Hardcopy submissions will NOT be accepted.
Suppliers are solely responsible for the delivery of submissions in the manner and time described.
 

Requested Files:

Organize your submission into the following individual files (note the required file types):
Statement of Capabilities Response- MS Word or PDF

Each file has a maximum size of 1000 MB. You will upload each file individually.
 

Technical Support:

Western is using a BonfireHub public portal for the submission process. Please contact Bonfire at Support@GoBonfire.com for technical questions related to submitting your documents. You can also visit their help forum at https://bonfirehub.zendesk.com/hc.
 

Submissions Must Be Submitted on Time at Prescribed Location

Statement of Capabilities submissions must be submitted in the method set out above on or before the Deadline. 

When submitting through Bonfire electronic bid submission, please note that submissions will be time stamped with the time at the end of the upload process not the beginning.

Submissions to Bonfire after the specified deadline will be rejected.
 

Western Primary Contact: Scott Roth sroth6@uwo.ca.

[end of document]
 Bidding and Documents are available on http://www.merx.com. Fees may apply; See https://www.merx.com/public/pricing for more information.

Opportunity closing date

04 December 2024

Value of contract

to be confirmed