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.
Key facts
- Buyer
- University of Northumbria at Newcastle · University of Northumbria at Newcastle
- Value
- £220,820
- Procedure
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Sector
- Laboratory & precision equipment · Scanning electron microscopes (CPV 38511100)
- Region
- North East
- Official notice
- 043016-2025 on Find a Tender
- Timeline
-
- Contract date16 Jul 2025
- Published25 Jul 2025Published 9 days after the contract date
Description
Northumbria University specified a requirement for a versatile, high-resolution environmental scanning electron microscope (eSEM), capable of generating and collecting information from a variety of biological or biohybrid sample materials. The purchase will include installation, training and 2-year Service and Maintenance contract. The delivery must commence in September 2025. The eSEM must be capable to operate in high, low and environmental mode with a wide pressure range (up to 4000 Pa). It needs to deliver high-resolution imaging and perform energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), featuring a Field Emission Gun (FEG) column. This instrument will be used for soft and biological materials, such as biopolymers, composites, and biological cells, accommodating a wide range of biological sample sizes.
About the supplier
Thermo Fisher Scientific (FEI UK Ltd.): every public contract they have won, plus their Companies House record (company 02380120).