UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

We wish to purchase IT training services from a strategic partner for IT training as per Appendix A of the attached Bidders Response document This appointment will commence 1st January 2023 and be for a period of 3 (three) years with the potential to extend for 2 (two) further years, on an annual basis. All appointments will be subject to an annual review.

The University of Manchester (UoM) are seeking to implement a new Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) System to consolidate and enhance its facilities management execution strategy. The duration of the contract is 5 years, subject to the right of the University (at it's sole discretion) to exercise the right to extend the contract by up to 5 further years on a year by year basis. The maximum length of the contract is therefore 10 years The estimated total range of the contract is for the entire contract duration, including all optional modules and contract extensions. Suppliers MUST complete section 3.6 of the SQ document providing relevant FULL details of 3 reference of a similar nature (ie. dealing with a wide estate or HE institution with a minimum of 50 buildings) and value to this procurement. Suppliers must confirm within section 3.8 that their software has been in full operational use for more than 3 years

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester operate an aerosol mass spectrometer on the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe-146 research aircraft, to make highly accurate and quantitative measurements of atmospheric aerosol composition in real time. The current system is being upgraded as part of the facility's Midlife Upgrade (MLU) programme, to ensure that cutting-edge aerosol measurements can continue to be made on this facility until 2040. In addition to decommissioning old, obsolete components, we are seeking to improve on the mass spectrometer design to permit measurements of organic elemental composition in addition to mass concentrations. The equipment will be located at The University of Manchester when not deployed on the FAAM aircraft.

The equipment is being purchased for the Henry Royce Institute (HRI) at the University of Manchester. The Royce Institute operates as a Hub and Spoke model, with the Hub at the University of Manchester and spokes at the founding partners comprising the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College London. It will be a focal point, nationally and internationally for materials science. The equipment fund is financed by the Henry Royce Institute: http://www.royce.ac.uk/ The Henry Royce Institute at The University of Manchester requires a Steam Recycling System for recovering fibres from prepregs and composites. It will be used for cleaning of epoxy-based composites, facilitating recovery of the fibres within the composite part largely intact, while collecting polymer residue for evaluation. The equipment will be located at The University of Manchester.

The University wishes to appoint a Contractor or Contractors as the University of Manchester is seeking to conduct a telephone survey (CATI) of a representative group of around 2000 UK businesses. We aim to target a member of the leadership team in each firm with responsibility for investment decisions. We envisage targeting firms with 10 or more employees across the private sector and in all UK regions. Interviews will last around 20 minutes on average and we anticipate the survey being conducted between January and March 2024.

The University is seeking to appoint a Contractor to provide external refurbishment works to the George Kenyon Building Project. The University will shortly be issuing documentation for a further competition exercise through the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Framework Agreement RM6088 Construction Works and associated Services. The further competition will be held under Lot 2.1 Construction Works £3 - £10 million England North.

We wish to purchase an Application Streaming solution that allows for applications on demand to be run on cluster PC's, and other locations. Bidders are expected to demonstrate in section 6 of the SQ documentation reference of a similar size, complexity and value to this project The University of Manchester no longer meets the criteria of a 'body governed by public law' and is therefore not considered a contracting authority for the purposes of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and/or any replacement legislation. As a result, the University of Manchester will no longer be subject to the regime contained in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and/or any replacement legislation with effect from 1 August 2023. However, as an institution founded for the public good, an exempt charity and an organization in receipt of public funds, the University has a duty to manage expenditure in an appropriate manner and aims to deliver value for money across its non-pay spend by adhering to good procurement practice.

The internal refurbishment of the old 'Vodafone room' (Estates Room Reference 'G.78B') which has been recently decommissioned, turning it into a new data centre. The works are internal only. Asbestos is present within the area and removal will be part of the scope of these works.

The internal refurbishment of the old 'Vodafone room' (Estates Room Reference 'G.78B', 'Telecity Enclosure') within the Kilburn Building to form a new high performance data centre.

The University of Manchester wishes to purchase controlled environment chambers, specifically gloveboxes, for handling air and moisture-sensitive materials in a controlled/inert environment and for fabricating and characterizing optoelectronic devices. The facility will promote innovation in sustainable electronics and showcase emerging manufacturing methods for the semiconductor industry. The facility will be housed within the Henry Royce Institute hub on the Manchester campus and provide support to academic partners and small to medium businesses in Greater Manchester and across the UK. The project aligns with the Royce Roadmap on Materials for Energy Transition and will introduce new technical capabilities to academic and industry partners in sustainable semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing, optoelectronics, and advanced sensor technologies. The project aims to enable additional capability for developing sustainable optoelectronics and sensor technologies. The facility will enable material synthesis, device fabrication and comprehensive characterisation under chemically inert atmosphere conditions. Such stringent conditions are critical for removing/minimising the deleterious effect of oxidation and/or other unwanted chemical reactions, which typically compromise early-stage materials and device triage.

Background information on Project This tender is being run on behalf of Prof. Roman Gorbachev for the School of Physics and Astronomy/National Graphene Institute. Project Overview The National Graphene Institute (NGI) has a large cleanroom facility housing a range of state-of-the-art instruments dedicated to the fabrication and characterization of 2D related metamaterials and devices for a broad range of applications, from advanced optoelectronics to nanofluidics. An essential part of many fabrication processes is the capability to dry etch materials. A range of plasma-based dry etching techniques have been developed for 2D materials (2DM), primarily to completely remove specific regions in order to create a pattern defined by a lithographic mask. "Thinning down" of atomically thin 2DM by etching so far remains problematic, as the surface amorphization leads to complete loss of their unique properties. Subsequently, "soft-plasma" etching techniques were developed to approach layer-by-layer etching of various 2DM. These methods provide great control of the thickness, but they are not self-limiting in nature due to associated physical etching processes and thus require careful optimization of many dry etching parameters. Even then, damage to the underlaying materials is frequent, limiting its use for nanotechnology applications that demand the highest crystal quality (quantum technologies, sensors, etc.). To overcome these limitations, this project aims to study the use of Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) of 2DM, using multi-step, self-limiting reactions to allow precise (layer-by-layer), highly selective and low damage etching. The proposed platform must include the capability to perform ALE in addition to the conventional inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and/or reactive ion etching (RIE) processes, with fast recipe control and fine tuning of low bias powers. Apart from "thinning down" of 2DM, more controllable and reliable ICP/RIE will also benefit a range of already existing processes in terms of reproducibility, uniformity and control, such as clean layer transfers for heterostructure fabrication and synthesis of high-quality ohmic contacts to 2DM.

1. Background information on The University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a place where research has a global impact, where students experience outstanding teaching and learning, helping them to develop into tomorrow's leaders, and where all activity is enriched by a commitment to social responsibility. Manchester was the first and most eminent of England's civic universities. Today, we are part of the prestigious Russell Group of UK universities, with an international reputation for the highest level of research and teaching, as demonstrated by our position in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. In 2021 we were placed 35th in the world and fifth in the UK. Looking ahead, it is our vision to be one of the world's leading universities and to be recognised globally for the excellence of our people, research, learning and innovations, and for the benefits we bring to society and the environment. The University employs over 13,000 staff across 3 faculties plus professional services and plays a key role in the cultural life of the region through Manchester Museum, John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Jodrell Bank (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Whitworth Art Gallery. Our student community is one of the largest in the UK and at present, we have more than 44,000 students studying at the University This quality of research feeds into our taught courses, many of which are also designed to meet the needs of industry. We offer more than 1,000-degree programmes and receive more undergraduate applications than any other UK university. Further details on the University can be found at: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/facts-figures/ 2. Background information on Project The University of Manchester wishes to purchase Automation Systems for DNA & RNA Sequencing Preparation. The facility will be housed within the National Biomarker Centre (NBC) within the Paterson Building on Wilmslow road. These automotive systems will allow a high throughput of DNA Sequencing Preparations in a standardised fashion for analysis of patient samples for Cancer Research. These systems will be used on multiple research projects freeing up scientific staff for other experimental processes. 3. Project Overview This project aims to enable Automation Systems for DNA and RNA Sequencing Preparation capability for our Nucleic Acid Biomarker (NAB) team in the National Biomarker Centre (NBC). There are two main current area of interest for DNA Sequencing Preparation they are methylation (T7-MBD-Seq) & Targeted Next Generation Sequencing analysis. Each area of interest has large research and translational projects, with up to 10,000 samples for each. Other area of development relate to Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of DNA, and RNA sequencing. As these projects contain large cohorts of patient samples, the manual processes for DNA sequencing preparation becomes very labour intensive. Automation of these pr...

The Advanced Materials Enrichment and Synthesis (AMES) capability tendered for here will provide isotopic enrichment and localised synthesis of materials via high-dose focused ion beam implantation, alongside the doping of ion species into these materials with single-ion determinacy. Housed within the Photon Science Institute at the University of Manchester, the capability will be incorporated within the Henry Royce Institute as part of the existing Platform for Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering Facility. AMES is funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council grant application APP21442 and the University of Manchester.

Background information on Project The University of Manchester operates two Electron Probe Micro-Analysers (EPMAs); a Cameca SX-100 and a JEOL JXA-8530F. These instruments are used for the quantitative elemental characterisation of a wide range of Earth, planetary, environmental and materials science samples. The University of Manchester has been awarded funding by the Natural Environment Research Council to replace the >25 year old Cameca SX-100 EPMA. Project Overview This project aims to enhance the EPMA facilities at the University of Manchester by replacing the Cameca SX-100 with a new, state-of-the-art Field Emission Gun-equipped Electron Probe Micro-Analyser (FEG-EPMA). This new instrument will offer significantly higher spatial resolution and enhanced quantitative capabilities via the complete integration of both wavelength and energy dispersive spectrometers. In addition, this instrument will also offer enhanced low energy (e.g. <400 eV) and light element emission detection for elements down Z = 5 (boron), with simultaneous detection of low energy X-ray emissions allowing for chemical state investigations (e.g. 3d metals) that requires a spectral resolution of <5 eV. Subject to vendor site surveys, it is intended that this instrument will be housed in the electron microscopy facility in the Nancy Rothwell Building, University of Manchester.