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 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
- Official notice
- 066852-2026 on Find a Tender
- Timeline
-
- Contract date2 Jul 2026
- Published15 Jul 2026Published 13 days after the contract date
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
GDS Instruments: every public contract they have won.