Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2023-08-14
Buyer: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet - DTU
Country: DK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 72210000: Software programming services
Estimated value: 440000 USD

Technical requirements: The intended procurement by DTU Biosustain is for a Software-as-a-Service consisting of Electron-ic Lab Notebook (ELN), Bioregistration & Sample Tracking, Workflow & Results Management, and Molec
DTU Biosustain – The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability is an independent re-search-only unit at DTU focused on developing world leading microbial cell factories for production of chemicals and proteins. DTU Biosustain has a strong translational mission aimed at industrial col-laborations, spinouts and licensing.  The intended procurement is for Software-as-a-Service, consisting of Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), Bioregistration & Sample Tracking, Workflow & Results Management, and Molecular Biolo-gy.  The contract renewal with Benchling Inc. is aiming to provide continuity of service at DTU Biosustain and to support all software customizations we have developed at the Center based on the Bench-ling product until now.
Benchling was chosen because it was and still is the only integrated R&D software platform that meets the needs for the development of cell factories. It includes a Molecular Biology suite that is integrated with an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) as well as a LIMS (Laboratory Information Man-agement System) including modules like Bioregistry, Inventory, Requests, Workflow & Results Management. Benchling also provide a free educational platform “Learning Labs” with guides for each of the mentioned module, as well as a “Support chat” to contact Benchling support represent-atives directly in the platform, allowing to get a first response within maximum 2 days.
All modules are seamlessly integrated which reduces both errors made in transferring information from one system to another and the time effort that it takes to keep multiple systems synchronized.
Benchling is completely cloud based and therefore accessible by all international research sites that are associated with the Center. Benchling is also fully end-user configurable, and integratable, meaning you do not have to maintain on premise servers and is not dependent on the vendor to make configuration changes. Instead, Benchling’s point-and-click end-user configuration enables flexibility as workflows change and develop. In addition, Biosustain’s internal development group can easily integrate any instrument using Benchling’s completely exposed REST APIs without the need for vendor involvement.
Benchling includes an ELN that makes it very easy for scientists to capture unstructured data that can be searched electronically and shared with other users. In addition, it allows users to configure data structures, enabling the capturing of structured data that can be queried, analyzed and com-pared downstream. This is all possible without having access to LIMS functionality.
The foundation of Benchling LIMS is a biologically intelligent registration system. This means you can directly register and view nucleotide and amino acid sequences from your LIMS, as well as build advanced constraints that are specific to sequences as data type (for example, only allow pro-teins to link DNA sequences when the protein is a valid translation of the DNA sequence). Beyond that, you can design and analyze sequences directly in your LIMS. Benchling offers native tools for “in silico” cloning, primer design, CRISPR guide mRNA design, sequence analysis, alignments, and generation of libraries via combinatorial assembly  . The seamless integration of the Molecu-lar Biology suite is especially important for cell factory development and a very unique feature. Moreover, DTU have developed many add-ons to it with very dedicated software applications.
Benchling has also an integrated data warehouse, which means that Benchling exports the struc-tured data immediately to a data warehouse in a simplified and easy to use format, enabling scien-tists to query and analyze data easily without impact on the operational database.
Benchling also provides monthly meetings that track costumer success, providing support and guidance to our system administrator and superusers. Requests from Biosustain are taken into consideration and promptly assessed and by Benchling.
Complaint regarding prequalification must be submitted no later than 20 calendar days after notification has been sent to the concerned Candidates informing them who has been selected, if the notification includes the grounds for the decision, cf. lov om Klagenævnet for Udbud (Complaints Board for Tenders) § 7, Section 1.
Complaint regarding the award of a contract must be submitted no later than 45 calendar days from the date after the Contracting Authority has published a notice in the European Union Official Journal informing that the Contracting Authority has awarded/concluded a contract, cf. lov om Klagenævnet for Udbud (Complaints Board for Tenders) § 7, Section 2, no. 1.
Complaint regarding award of a contract under a framework agreement with a reopening of the competition (mini-tender):
Complaint regarding the award of a contract under a framework agreement with a reopening of the competition must be submitted no later than 30 calendar days from the date after the Contracting Authority has notified the concerned Tenderers that a contract based on a framework agreement with a reopening of the competition has been awarded/concluded, if the notification includes the grounds for the decision, cf. lov om Klagenævnet for Udbud (Complaints Board for Tenders) § 7, Section 2, no. 2.
Complaint regarding the award of a contract must be submitted no later than 6 months from the date after the Contracting Authority has notified the concerned Candidates and Tenderers that a framework agreement has been concluded, cf. lov om Klagenævnet for Udbud (Complaints Board for Tenders) § 7, Section 2, no. 3.


Winner: Benchling Inc.
Award value: 440000