Contract award · 10 Apr 2026

Purchase of a Materials Tester

University Of Edinburgh awarded “Purchase of a Materials Tester” to GDS Instruments for £63,711 on 10 Apr 2026. Awarded without open competition.

No competitionLaboratory & precision equipmentScotland

Value £63,711
WinnerGDS Instruments SME

Awarded without open competition

Awarded without open competition. The buyer went directly to one or a few suppliers instead of advertising the contract. Procurement rules allow this only in specific cases, such as extreme urgency, when only one supplier can do the work, or for call-offs from an existing framework.

What “without competition” means

Key facts

Buyer
University Of Edinburgh · Body governed by public law
Supplier
GDS Instruments SME
Value
£63,711
Procedure
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Sector
Laboratory & precision equipment · Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses) (CPV 38000000)
Region
Scotland
Timeline
  1. Contract date10 Apr 2026
  2. Published10 Apr 2026Published the same day

Description

The University of Edinburgh intents to award a contract for the purchase of a triaxial materials load tester. The University of Edinburgh believes that GDS Instruments is the only supplier capable of providing a solution that meets its requirements, specifically: 1) Measurement accuracy and integrity through proprietary design that removes seal friction and pressure compensation irrespective of surrounding stress as well as the elimination of the need for mathematical compensation to correct for ram upthrust. 2) Enhanced safety due to the usage of pressure/volume controllers as compared to syringe-based or pneumatic systems. 3) Open architecture software that is crucial for the ongoing research at the University that also allows for user-defined custom scripts and custom calculations and virtual transducers.

About the supplier

Other awards in the same procurement

Call-offs and awards published under the same process (for example a framework or dynamic purchasing system).

Date Contract Supplier Value
2 Jul 2026 GDS Instruments SME £63,711

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