Find a TenderPast planning notice
Published 15 Jan 2025, 12:15 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

AI Safety Institute Commercial Framework - Early Market Engagement Opportunity

Official notice

Authority: DESNZ & DSIT Group Commercial

Framework agreementServices
Sectors: Research & Development (R&D) (73) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£19,500,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 May 2025from the planned procurement notice

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI), a directorate of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) intends to create a new multi-supplier Commercial Agreement for the provision of Frontier AI Research Services framework under the new Procurement Act 2023 regulations.

The purpose of this PIN is to provide advance notice to the market that DSIT is considering undertaking a tender exercise to set up this commercial agreement and would like to invite Suppliers to a virtual early market engagement session on this proposed procurement.

CPV: Research and development services and related consultancy services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1We are keen to hear from Suppliers who provide Frontier AI model evaluations,…Planned

We are keen to hear from Suppliers who provide Frontier AI model evaluations, research, testing, code creation, human studies across the following domains:

Science (Chemistry and Biology)

Cyber Misuse

Red-Teaming and Safeguards

Criminal Misuse and Criminology

Persuasion and Deception

Wider Societal Impacts of AI

Autonomous Systems

Survey Participant Provision

Multi-Modal AI Research (visual, audio)

We are currently not looking for Suppliers in the following areas due to the number of other routes to market available:

AI Digital Services

AI Deployment

AI Integration

AI Licencing

We intend to hold a first meeting with interested suppliers on 6th February 2025 at 15:00 (UK Time) (subject to change).

DSIT invites suggestions and feedback from this session, as these activities will help inform thinking and shape a future procurement strategy. The provisional agenda is below:

Welcome and introduction to AISI

Overview on how to sell to AISI (+ Government Procurement Reform)

AISI’s proposal for the ‘Frontier AI Research Services’ new commercial agreement

Supplier feedback and suggestions

General Q&A

If you are interested in this potential opportunity, DSIT would like to engage with you. Please contact us by emailing [email protected] with your company details. Following confirmation of company details and contact information, an ‘MS Teams’ invite will be circulated for the market engagement event. We would ask that you have a maximum of 2 attendees from each organisation.

Presentation slides will be made available after the session(s).

Useful resources:

www.gov.uk/government/publicati… ↗

www.gov.uk/government/collectio… ↗

www.gov.uk/government/publicati… ↗

*** This is early market engagement for a potential opportunity. The Department is not obligated to run a procurement following this activity and is not liable for any costs associated with participating in this early engagement. ***

Additional Information:

The Department for Science Innovation and Technology uses the Jaggaer eSourcing Portal as its eSourcing tool. Jaggaer will be used for this competition should it come to tender. To register as a supplier, please visit beisgroup.ukp.app.jaggaer.com ↗ and follow the instructions to register as a supplier.

Services will be delivered primarily to the United Kingdom, with some limited requirements overseas.

The estimated total value is an indicative value over the lifetime of the framework (3 years), including any options to extend.

The Cyber Essentials scheme is mandatory for Central Government Contracts which involve handling personal information and providing certain ICT products and services. The Government is taking steps to further reduce the levels of cyber risk in its supply chain through the Cyber Essentials scheme www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberessentials/over… ↗. The scheme defines a set of control which, when properly implemented, will provide organisations with basic protection from the most prevalent forms of threat coming from the internet.

To participate in this potential procurement, bidders will be required to demonstrate that they are Cyber Essentials compliant for the services under and in connection with the procurement.

The services that arise from this from this framework will involve the supplier holding material that has been assigned a protective marking under the Government Security Classifications scheme (April 2014) of OFFICIAL/SENSITIVE. Bidders will be required to implement their solution in accordance with the Framework Agreement Schedule, “Security Requirement and Plan”, to meet Framework Agreement requirements. This documentation will be released at the ITT stage.

Delivery: UK

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
What this means for your bid
  • “AI Safety Institute Commercial Framework - Early Market Engagement…” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Past planning notice
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Framework agreement
Who may use this agreement
Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Yes (GPA)
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
15 Jan 2025, 12:15 GMT
Last source update
15 Jan 2025, 12:15 GMT
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-001340
Classification (CPV)
Research and development services and related consultancy services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-04d030 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Appointment period ends
—

Timeline

15 Jan 2025 → 1 May 2025 · 2 dates
  1. Notice published
    15 Jan 2025, 12:15 GMT
  2. Tender notice expected
    1 May 2025, 00:00 BST

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

DESNZ & DSIT Group Commercial

Contracting authorityBody governed by public lawGeneral public services London, UKContact email

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.