UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

ARIA is an R&D funding agency. We fund teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is technologically or scientifically possible. ARIA was established by the UK Government in January 2023 with high levels of autonomy and flexibility. From climate change to AI and bioengineering, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK's world-class R&D talent in new ways so that we can meet these head on. One way we do this is by identifying opportunity spaces: areas that we believe are currently under-explored relative to their potential value and impact. The Smarter Robot Bodies opportunity space focuses on robotics. One theme that has emerged is the need to advance modularity, interoperability, and common standards in robotics.

For more info see here ARIA is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We empower scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is technologically or scientifically possible. We will reach across disciplines, sectors and institutions to shape, fund and manage projects across the R&D ecosystem, from startups to universities, to break down silos and discover new pathways. We are looking for proposals for our Forecasting Tipping Points programme. For more info see https://www.aria.org.uk/exploring-climate-cooling/

ARIA is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We empower scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is technologically or scientifically possible. We will reach across disciplines, sectors and institutions to shape, fund and manage projects across the R&D ecosystem, from startups to universities, to break down silos and discover new pathways. We are looking for proposals for our Safeguarded AI: TA1.4 Sociotechnical Integration For more info see here https://www.aria.org.uk/programme-safeguarded-ai/

Launched in January 2023, ARIA is a Research & Development (R&D) funding agency designed to take bold bets that complement and amplify the UK's world-class research ecosystem. We fund transformative science and technology capabilities that will benefit the UK and help humanity thrive. This RFP seeks proposals from qualified IT managed services providers (MSPs) to provide strategic and day-to-day operational support for our IT infrastructure, ensuring seamless business operations and support for end-users. Bidders should note that ARIA is exempt from the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and the new Public Procurement Regulations 2024. This procurement is therefore not subject to them.

Breakthroughs require finding people who think differently about what's possible - and empowering them to follow their vision. To support scientific and technological breakthroughs, outside of programmes, ARIA Programme Directors can award opportunity seeds to support ambitious research aligned to the opportunity spaces they've identified. To understand how opportunity seeds work within our model, see how we're working here (https://www.aria.org.uk/how-were-working/).

Breakthroughs require finding people who think differently about what's possible - and empowering them to follow their vision. To support scientific and technological breakthroughs, outside of programmes, ARIA Programme Directors can award opportunity seeds to support ambitious research aligned to the opportunity spaces they've identified. To understand how opportunity seeds work within our model, see how we're working here (https://aria.org.uk/how-we-fund).

This RFP seeks proposals from experienced Managed IT Service Providers capable of delivering secure, scalable, agile, and proactive support. We are seeking a partner who can anticipate the evolving needs of a cutting-edge R&D funding agency and provide forward-thinking solutions that enable ARIA's mission and growth. The scope is to deliver ARIA's full IT capability, including: ● Delivering dependable, day-to-day operational support that scales with our growing operations. ● Supporting the integration and ongoing evolution of a complex, cloud-based technology ecosystem. ● Continually strengthening our security posture in line with UK-government and NCSC frameworks. ● Contributing to a tech-forward, security-conscious culture through policy, training, and enablement. The total contract value for standard service delivery is anticipated to be up to £1.25m for the initial 36-month term. This figure does not include costs for additional project support, extended hours, or pass-through costs for software and hardware - for this we anticipate an approximate additional £1.8m for the duration of the initial term.

To help guide and shape how ARIA thinks about AI Scientists, we are inviting proposals for a series of short exploratory projects, to be undertaken using AI Scientists. We are specifically looking for AI systems that are able to perform the full end-to-end workflow of scientific knowledge creation. This call will be backed by up to £3M and targets awards of up to £500K with a maximum duration of 9 months