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
150 College Street, 3rd Floor, Room 350,
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 Widefield and Confocal Microscope for High Content Organoid Screening.
The Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto is looking to purchase a confocal and widefield microscope package (“System”) that will primarily be used for organoid screening in microfluidic devices. The microscope will reside within the CRAFT facilities, specifically in the Mechanical Engineering building (MC) at 5 King’s College Road, Toronto ON M5S 3G8. There the microscope will be part of a suite of imaging instruments that CRAFT provides open access to its entire user base. The user base is primarily composed of graduate students from 30+ departments working on microfluidic related research. The microscope therefore will be used by a large number of users, each with specific requirements. Therefore, we aim to have a well-accessorized instrument that can serve as a workhorse instrument for our users to perform confocal imaging and widefield imaging.
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 Thursday, February 26, 2026 (2:00 PM local time). The submissions will not be opened publicly.
CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION
The procurement is subject to the following conditions for participation: Please see Schedule A to the RFP Data Sheet, Section 6.2.(2).
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 is six (6) years including the first year of warranty period and following optional five (5) years of extended warranty.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The University will base its selection of qualified suppliers on the following criteria:
EVALUATION CRITERIA Weight
B.1 Experience and Qualifications 5
B.2 Technical Requirements
B.2.1 Confocal Imaging Requirements
B.2.1.1 Confocal Detectors 15
B.2.1.2 Confocal Lasers 15
B.2.1.3 Deconvolution 3
B.2.2 Widefield Imaging Requirements 15
B.2.3 Additional System Requirements 10
B.2.4 Workstation and Software Requirements 3
B.2.5 Regulatory and Industry Standards Compliance 1
B.3 Delivery, Installation and Testing 4
B.4 Training Requirements 4
B.5 Warranty and Extended Warranty Services 5
Schedule D Part 2 Financial Submission 20
Total 100
Optional Demonstration 15
Total incl. Optional Demonstration 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.
