Program Description
Every year the Vice Provost for Research supports capital equipment requests that align with university strategic research needs, in particular instruments that will be employed by multiple faculty across different departments. Applications from any full-time faculty, or core facility/recharge center managers/directors, will be considered. In addition to overall research impact, applications will be judged on whether they provide clear management plans that describe how utilization will be supported. Applications must be for capital equipment that directly benefits faculty research, and will be placed in departmental, faculty, or core facility/recharge center research space.
Application Submission Date
Application Deadline: 5:00 PM on October 6, 2023.
Eligibility & Additional Information
Eligibility: Full-time faculty and core facility/recharge center Managers/Directors
Decisions will be announced in December, 2023
To be considered Capital Equipment an item's purchase price must exceed $5,000, and Capital Equipment Funds cannot be used to pay for Service Contracts beyond standard Warranties.
Please make sure that all appropriate delivery, installation, and ancillary components are included on the quote from the instrument vendor.
All items purchased must be delivered by May 31, 2024
Please note - if this instrument will be placed in a BC core facility or recharge center and the PI is not the Core Director, the Core Director must approve this application prior to submission.
Reasonable accessibility of instrumentation purchased via the VPR Capital Equipment Fund for the research needs of other faculty must be permitted.
Awardee will ensure instrumentation purchased via the VPR Capital Equipment Fund is maintained in full operational condition throughout the reasonable usable lifetime
If you have any questions about the program, please contact: Josh Rappoport (rappopoj@bc.edu)
Procurement questions can be addressed to: Justin Goudreau (goudreju@bc.edu)
Procurement Information
BC has specific processes in place for purchasing capital equipment, especially items >$10,000. As soon as funding is approved please reach out to Justin Goudreau (goudreju@bc.edu) to get the process started. As a start Procurement will need to have a copy of the funded proposal, as well as any preliminary quotations you have obtained.
There are two general pathways for purchasing capital equipment >$10,000:
Sole Source: If your purchase must come from a particular supplier, and this can be justified and documented, you will need to fill out a Sole Source Request Form. The form will then be reviewed for approval by Procurement. If your purchase is approved as a Sole Source, Procurement will still negotiate with the supplier on pricing, terms and conditions, and other value added components as appropriate (i.e. extended warranty).
Competitive Bidding: If your purchase allows for competitive bidding, we will work with you to determine a procurement strategy, which may be either a Request for Quote (RFQ) or a Requisition for Proposal (RFP) which Procurement would administer.
Please reach out to Procurement immediately if you have any questions and to allow for sufficient time for Procurement conduct this process if necessary. It is extremely important that you not re-engage your supplier or make any commits or suggestions that you will be placing an order with them until you’ve spoken with Procurement. The more leverage we have, the better overall value we can obtain.