FM19222 - APA Winding Machine stages

UKRI need to purchase a number of movable stages to construct "winding machines" in order to build Anode Plane Assemblies (APAs) for the DUNE experiment. These APAs are large steel frames with thousands of tiny wires wound around them. The APAs are part of the DUNE experiment and the UK will be building half of them (150 out of 300). The other half will be built in the US, by identical winding machines. UKRI went out to full Open tender in July 2019 (our ref FM19187) for this requirement but we did not receive any compliant bids. This recent test of the market had demonstrated that there was a limited supply base for this very niche product. UK SBS have concluded this Contract in line with article 32, 2 (a) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015. General grounds (2) The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following cases:- (a) where no tenders, no suitable tenders, no requests to participate or no suitable requests to participate have been submitted in response to an open procedure or a restricted procedure, provided that the initial conditions of the contract are not substantially altered