Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid Mass Spectrometer with ETD, UVPD

Aston University is putting out this notice as a VEAT (Voluntary Ex ante Transparency Notice) with a view to completing a Direct Award to Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited T/A Thermo Fisher Scientific for the Supply, installation, service and maintenance of an Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid Mass Spectrometer with Electron-transfer dissociation (ETD), Ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) including Oil-Free Roughing Pump and associated equipment.

Aston University intends to award the contract without a call for competition in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ((32.2(b) ii.

The contract duration is expected to be June 2024 to June 2027.

Aston University requires an Orbitrap Ascend Tribrid Mass Spectrometer with ETD, UVPD including Oil-Free Roughing Pump and associated equipment. Thermo Fisher Scientific hold the patent on the orbitrap mass analyser and are the sole supplier of all orbitrap instruments. The orbitrap is unique in its ability to offer ultra-high resolution and mass accuracy capabilities (FWHM 480,000) which is not matched by any other type of mass analyser. The Ascend offers unmatched fragmentation capabilities, such as HCD fragmentation which is necessary for the detection of compound-specific reporter ions, and their subsequent confident identification. This level of high-performance Mass Spectrometer platform is required for the multi-omics scientific work which includes Lipidomics, protein-lipid interactions, Proteomics/oxPTMs and Native proteins that Aston University intends to conduct with the Mass Spectrometer.

The University will not enter the proposed contract before 24th June 2024