Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2019-10-23
Buyer: Universitetet i Agder
Country: NO
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 48700000 | 48800000 | 48820000: Servers
Estimated value: 12400000 NOK
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: Centre for Artificial Intelligence research (CAIR) has become a new top priority area for Universitet i Agder [Agder University]. CAIR is working with applied and basic research in artificial intelligence. CAIR is working to create brand new algorithm types with a universal application. This includes variations of deep neutral networks that require a lot of GPU power. The size of the problems that can be solved and the quality of these is directly connected to the capacity of the hardware used. It is the capacity of the hardware that restricts the application and our research environment must seek the most powerful hardware. Nvidia DGX-2 is a single-server 2 PFLOPS machine with 512 GB high speed memory and currently there is no other party in the market who can offer hardware that can compete with DGX-2. The system must be delivered with full AI software stack and professional support.
Centre for Artificial Intelligence research (CAIR) has become a new top priority area for Universitet i Agder [Agder University]. CAIR is working with applied and basic research in artificial intelligence. CAIR is working to create brand new algorithm types with a universal application. This includes variations of deep neutral networks that require a lot of GPU power. We are working with specific artificial intelligence algorithms connected to health, energy, security, accounting and training. The AI research at Agder University is not only basic research, but will and must result in practical solutions for practical problems. The size of the problems that can be solved and the quality of these is directly connected to the capacity of the hardware used. It is the capacity of the hardware that restricts the application and our research environment must seek the most powerful hardware. Nvidia DGX-2 is a single-server 2 PFLOPS machine with 512 GB high speed memory and currently there is no other party in the market who can offer hardware that can compete with DGX-2. The system must be delivered with full AI software stack and professional support.
Agder University believes that the Public Procurement Regulation §13-4, letter b, point 2 applies for this contract. The reasons are as follows:
Centre for Artificial Intelligence research (CAIR) has become a new top priority area for Universitet i Agder [Agder University]. CAIR is working with applied and basic research in artificial intelligence. CAIR is working to create brand new algorithm types with a universal application. This includes variations of deep neutral networks that require a lot of GPU power. We are working with specific artificial intelligence algorithms connected to health, energy, security, accounting and training. The AI research at Agder University is not only basic research, but will and must result in practical solutions for practical problems. The size of the problems that can be solved and the quality of these is directly connected to the capacity of the hardware used. It is the capacity of the hardware that restricts the application and our research environment must seek the most powerful hardware. Nvidia DGX-2 is a single-server 2 PFLOPS machine with 512 GB high speed memory and currently there is no other party in the market who can offer hardware that can compete with DGX-2. The system must be delivered with full AI software stack and professional support.
The University believes that the Regulations' §13-4, letter c, shall also apply. The University has currently 4 NVIDIA DGX-2s and a potential expansion of machines with other systems in addition to the one we already have, will generate relatively substantially compatibility problems. Our operations environment must also involve many extra resources on maintaining and operating 2 different systems.


Winner: Nextron AS
Award value: 12400000
Number of bids: 1