The Supply of Sandbox and Storage Servers for Research Projects

Suppliers can find the complete tender document(s), at no cost, on: https://uwo.bonfirehub.ca.

Procuring Entity:
University of Western Ontario (Western)
Procurement Services
1151 Richmond Street
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7

Contact:
Scott Roth sroth6@uwo.ca         

Procurement Method:
Open tender whereby all interested Suppliers may submit a Proposal.

Description:
The RFP is an invitation to submit offers for The Supply of Sandbox and Storage Servers for Research Projects
Western’s preference is to have a single solution; however, it may be necessary to implement multiple products and therefore the proponent(s) response(s) do not need to cover both coils as Western may select multiple solutions to cover all of its needs.
The primary users of the equipment are approximately 10 academic research groups who specialize in bioinformatics, data science and machine learning with focus on clinical applications and basic molecular research in a range of human health and disease contexts. Each of our research groups have approximately 5 members who will use this computing infrastructure on a day-to-day basis. Typical uses are as follows. All users require significant storage capacity to house securely large-scale datasets. Each group generally works with several large datasets concurrently (several Gbytes to several Tbytes in size) on a daily basis. We expect each group will grow to have storage needs of at least 250Tb over the next ten years, so the system should be extensible especially in terms of storage. Each active dataset is subjected to significant computational and statistical analysis, and the underlying software tools require multiple cores per user. Moreover, these computations are much faster when the machine has considerable memory (at least 2 Tb). Many of our groups require access to graphic processing units (GPUs) since much of the software in this domain uses modern machine learning techniques with implementations that exploit almost always are designed for NVIDIA-based processors. Moreover, several of our research groups focus on the development of novel machine learning/AI techniques and significant GPU power is needed for these purposes.
The server will be housed in an environmentally controlled, secure room, and accessed remotely by the ~30 concurrent users. The server will run a dialect of Linux, likely UBUNTU.
Download the complete tender document for further details.
Budget:
The estimated total budget to purchase both MRI coils is CAD$475,000 plus HST.
Estimated Quantities:
Available within the tender document

Submission Details:
All tender submissions must be uploaded electronically at https://uwo.bonfirehub.ca

Submission Deadline:
June 15, 2023 at 12:00 PM ET

Public Opening:
Not Applicable

Conditions for Participation:
Available within the tender document(s)

Mandatory Submission Requirements:
 

1. Appendix B- Submission Form
2. Appendix C- Rate Bid Form
3. Appendix D- Reference Form
4. Appendix E- Deliverables and Technical Requirements Questionnaire
5. Appendix F- Proponents Checklist

Complete submission requirements are provided within the tender document(s).


Scored Submission Requirements:
 

1. Mandatory Requirements
2. Solution, Experience and Qualifications
3. Specification and Deliverables
4. Service and Support
5. Sustainability
6. Value- Added Ideas
7. Accessibility (AODA)
8. Pricing
9. In-kind

This procurement is covered by Chapter 5 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).
This procurement is covered by Chapter 19 of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).


Delivery Date:
August 2023

Duration of Agreement:
Upon receipt of equipment and satisfaction of obligations as set out in the Agreement.

Additional Options:
Available in the tender document(s)

Negotiation:
At the end of the evaluation process, Western may identify one or more Suppliers with whom it wishes to enter into negotiations, by written notification.  See tender document(s) for further detail.

Prequalification:
Not Applicable

Responses must be submitted in English.

Suppliers should note that information contained within this Tender Notice is subject to change.  Suppliers are encouraged to download the tender document(s) which contain the most current information.
 
If there is a conflict between the tender document(s) and this Tender Notice, the tender document(s) will take precedence.
 

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