Hire of Wind Tunnel for dermal aerosol protection assessments

CPV: Research services

Procedure method

Negotiated without publication of a contract notice

Legal basis

CELEX · 32009L0081 Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (Directive 2009/81/EC)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Competitive procedure

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

17 Aug 2023, 13:32 BST

Last source update

17 Aug 2023, 13:32 BST

Authority reference

0000029019-VTN

FTS notice number

2023/S 000-024177

Classification (CPV)

Research services

Delivery area

East of England (UKH2)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-03f0a7 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

No tenders or no suitable tenders/requests to participate in response to restricted procedure; The products involved are manufactured purely for the purpose of research, experiment, study or development under the conditions stated in the directive; The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons

Published justification

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory on behalf of The Secretary of state for Defence intends to procure the services of Silsoe Spray Applications Unit (SSAU), to hire a wind tunnel and adjacent laboratory to perform chemical analysis on the dissemination of aerosols.

It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 32(b)(ii) of the PCR 2015 because competition is absent for technical reasons as outlined below:

The tests Dstl conduct involve the dissemination of aerosols within a wind tunnel. The wind tunnel must be large enough to house the test mannequins (at the very least 2.5m wide and 2m high, ideally at least 3 m x 2.5 m) with a long enough working area to allow dissemination far enough from the mannequin to allow mixing (>10 m floor length). However, it must not be so large that we cannot generate the aerosols at high enough concentrations within an acceptable time frame (<300 m3). The concentration requirements also dictate that it must be a recirculating wind tunnel. It must have large enough level access to allow the mannequins to be placed in the wind tunnel (2 m high) and be capable of the air speeds of interest (wind tunnels designed for aerodynamic studies will typically operate at higher wind speeds than we conduct testing at).

Overseas facilities are not suitable as their use would involve substantial additional difficulty and expense due to the overseas transport of up to two mechanical mannequins plus approximately 30 crates of other required equipment (on top of additional staff costs and environmental impact). In addition to this many of the test items are classified Official-Sensitive (and on occasion also have ITAR restrictions) that would make export/import difficult if not impossible.

• Silsoe Spray Applications Unit (SSAU)Awarded supplier Building 42, West Park, Bedford,, East of England, MK45 4HP

No document links were published on the notice.