The University has approved the following policy for all Canada Foundation for Innovation applications and awards, including those for Canada Research Chairs Infrastructure requests. Future applications will not be submitted, and future awards will not be processed, unless they follow these procedures.
The purpose of this policy is to set up a standard procurement procedure for CFI Research grants for both at the Application Stage (request for funding) and at the Post Award Stage (CFI confirm in writing that the application has been approved).
This policy must follow the respective University Purchasing policy and procedures and be compliant with external policy and legislation such as the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), to ensure a fair and equitable competitive bid process. The intent of a competitive bid process is to award a contract to the bidder that provides the best overall value, educational discount and other in-kind contributions to the University. In addition the process is intended to ensure that contractual business terms and conditions (such as delivery, warranty, maintenance agreement, training, CSA approval, customs brokerage, etc.) are addressed in the process.
Please contact Ray Coutu at the Purchasing Office as soon as possible to set up the process for budgeting for the infrastructure.
Purchasing Policy for the purchase of Goods and Services through Research Grants received from Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
In order to have a standard method of assessing the proper valuation of in-kind contributions from a bidder’s quotation, the Purchasing Department (or the Researcher when the infrastructure‘s total value is under $100,000) shall request the pricing structure that will determine the fair market value of each item requested. In order to properly assess the in-kind contribution, the bidders shall provide for each item quoted, the retail price, the educational discount and the CFI in-kind contribution. Please find attached a pricing quotation form to be supplied to bidders when requesting a quotation for the CFI application. If the 20% in-kind contribution is not realized through the bidder, the researcher is responsible to confirm the balance of the funding. Please contact the Research Office for further instructions.
Once the University’s Research Office has received written confirmation from CFI that the Researcher’s application has been approved, the Research Office will notify the Researcher, Research Accountant and the Purchasing Department. While the process of obtaining matching funds is in motion there is time to implement the competitive bid process. At this stage there is one to two months prior to receiving the funding.
The Purchasing Department will contact the Researcher and prepare the competitive bid process through the issue of a Request for Quotation, Request for Proposal. The competitive bid process can be complete during this time and when funding is received at the university the winning bidder will receive a confirmed purchase order for the purchase of goods and services.
At the application for funding stage, if the request for funding is significant, + ($100,000) the competitive bid process ( RFQ, RFP ) would take place at this stage rather than the Post Award stage.The vendor that will win the competitive bid process, will receive the order confirmation once the application has been approved and all the funds have been matched and received at the university. The approval and transfer of the funds could take as long as 18 months. The Purchasing Department would review the original bid with the winning bidder and make the necessary changes staying within the approved research grant.
Click here for the Request for Quotation form