This is a service / maintenance or supply contract in London, Ontario. Contact the soliciting agency for additional information.

Reference Number 0000325727 Question Deadline 07/20/2026 at 12:00 PM ET Questions are submitted online No The RFP is an invitation to submit offers for the Supply and Install of an Electric Materials Testing Device for Musculoskeletal Research. The requested equipment will support research in musculoskeletal injury biomechanics, with a particular focus on understanding the mechanical mechanisms underlying lumbar spine injury during sub-failure acute loading events. The equipment will be housed within the Lumbar Spine Injury Biomechanics Laboratory (LSIBL) in the School of Kinesiology at Western University and will be used for in vitro mechanical testing of biological tissues, including functional spinal units, intervertebral discs, ligaments, and other connective tissues. The equipment will be used to simulate physiologically relevant loading conditions observed during occupational, recreational, and daily living activities, including compression, shear, torsion, vibration, repetitive loading, creep, and impact exposures. These loading profiles will be derived from complementary human participant studies and replicated on isolated biological specimens to investigate tissue-level responses, injury initiation, micro-damage development, viscoelastic behaviour, and ultimate tissue tolerance. The research program will utilize the equipment to quantify changes in mechanical properties such as stiffness, laxity, hysteresis, creep, stress relaxation, fatigue response, and failure characteristics across a range of loading conditions. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding how factors such as age, sex, degeneration, and prior exposure history influence injury risk and tissue function. The equipment will support a multidisciplinary research environment involving investigators and trainees from kinesiology, biomechanics, engineering, rehabilitation sciences, and musculoskeletal health research. In addition to supporting ongoing funded research projects, the equipment will provide advanced training opportunities for graduate students and highly qualified personnel in mechanical tissue testing, experimental biomechanics, and injury mechanics. Official bid documents must be obtained from www.merx.com and bid submissions must be done through the Merx platform.