This emergency/quick purchase was required due to a situation in which items available on the spot market or at discounted prices were available for a limited time such that sound business judgment mandated a purchase immediately to take advantage of the availability and price.

The vendor, Axilon, satisfied the technical demands outlined in the two Statements of Work provided separately for each of the two custom items. The vendor also met the requirements for the timeline described below. This vendor met the two risks described below.

Currency Risk: The PI negotiated a quote in US dollars to avoid currency penalties that might arise during the extended lead time, 21 months, of the contract. This price is valid through the quotation end date of April 16, 2021. However, the German vendor was willing to provide a quote in US dollars only if the following clause was placed in the quote.

Our prices are calculated based on the current exchange rate of 1.21 $ per Euro. Due to the high volatility of the exchange rate between the US$ and the Euro in the last months this price can remain firm only if the exchange rate at the date of award of this contract does not deviate by more than plus or minus 2% from the given exchange rate of 1.21 $ per Euro. In case the deviation is larger the price will be adapted proportionally to the ratio between the exchange rate at the date of award and 1.21 $ per Euro.

This means that we are subject to currency fluctuations during the time between issue of the quote and the award. During just these past few weeks when the quotes were issued on March 11, 2021, the currency has fluctuated down to 1.18 $ per Euro and is now back to 1.20 $ per Euro. Fluctuations below 1.186 would make the two items more expensive, roughly $15,000 per each fluctuation of 0.01 in the exchange rate. The risk is that the value of the dollar to Euro will go down during the next few months. Given the strength of the dollar, it is unlikely that the currency will fluctuate in our favor.

Timing Risk: The $14M NSF-supported construction project awarded to UIC is timed to synchronize with a major upgrade of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. The APS is a DOE-run X-ray source that serves a national community of scientists. The APS will be shut down for a major upgrade starting in June 2022 that will take one year, until June 2023, to complete. The UIC project is building a beamline at the APS that must be synchronized with the APS construction schedule. The current lead time for the two items to be purchased from Axilon is 21 months. If ordered soon, the delivery of these items will allow the beamline to be completed within the APS timeline. If the order is delayed by 3 or more months, then installation of these items will be late and, as a result of other items that must be installed on the beamline only after the two items from Axilon, the UIC project will extend beyond the APS completion date of June 2023. If UIC cannot meet the APS timeline, we will not be able to fulfill our federally funded obligation to NSF, and will be at risk of losing additional support/supplements/continuations, for this grant award.