Announcement of an Exempt Purchase

Replacement driver prototypes and electrode filter arrays, drivers for the integrated power system and integrated cabinet. These components are a part of the $7.2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant titled An Integrated Chemical and Microbial Platform for On-demand Food Production from Minimal Resources. The custom components must be manufactured for a large-scale plasma reactor that can fix nitrogen using only air, water, and electricity in order to supply fixed nitrogen products as a substrate for the bioprocess to fulfill the ultimate goal of making food from only air, water, and electricity. The custom drivers manufactured are required in order to scale up the reactor to meet targets specified by the sponsor.

This purchase is exempt from the usual selection processes of the Procurement Code because the procurement expenditure is for performing sponsored research and other sponsored activities under grants and contracts funded by the sponsor or by sources other than State appropriations. (30 ILCS 500 / 1-13(b)(8)) .