Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 2 Jul 2026, 11:18 BST

Official UK procurement notice

NNLC746 - Nuclear Advanced Computing & Innovation Partnership (NACIP)

Authority: NATIONAL NUCLEAR LABORATORY LIMITED

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£500,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 22 Jul 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 30 Sept 2028 · up to 30 Sept 2030 with extensions · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL) is seeking to enhance its access to High Performance Computing (HPC) capability to support the growing computational demands of its scientific, engineering and research programmes.

The project aims to establish access to scalable HPC resources, associated technical support and specialist expertise to enable advanced modelling, simulation, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data-intensive research activities. The capability will support delivery of projects for UKNNL customers whilst also strengthening UKNNL's internal capability in advanced computing technologies.

procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗

CPV: Information technology services · Research and development services and related consultancy services · Systems support services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Oct 2026 – 30 Sept 2028 (2 yrs) · up to 30 Sept 2030 with extensions
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How NATIONAL NUCLEAR LABORATORY LIMITED buys Systems and technical consultancy services (CPV 7222), and who usually turns up

NATIONAL NUCLEAR LABORATORY LIMITED’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Systems and technical consultancy services (CPV 7222) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerNATIONAL NUCLEAR LABORATORY LIMITED · division 72
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 1 known-size awards · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=623
0 of 147%

No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 4 known-location awards · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=471
1 of 441%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=73
—48 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 48 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 4 of 7 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7222 · UK-wide, n=932
57%58%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer6 lots with bid counts · all categories
17% had one bid
The market136 lots with bid counts · CPV 7222 · UK-wide
13% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid17% / 13%
Buyer: 1 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 18 of 136 lots with published bid counts.
2–367% / 32%
Buyer: 4 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 44 of 136 lots with published bid counts.
4–617% / 24%
Buyer: 1 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 33 of 136 lots with published bid counts.
7+0% / 30%
Buyer: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 41 of 136 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyerToo few to chart: 1 lot with estimate and award, 5 needed · all categories
The market96 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7222 · UK-wide
42% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate42%
Market: 40 of 96 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%45%
Market: 43 of 96 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate14%
Market: 13 of 96 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 7224 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£500k

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 72. The comparison uses that group.

Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 791 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet12% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 791 similar lots
1 bid12%
97 of 791 similar past lots received 1 bid (12%).
2–328%
218 of 791 similar past lots received 2–3 (28%).
4–628%
224 of 791 similar past lots received 4–6 (28%).
7+32%
252 of 791 similar past lots received 7+ (32%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £500k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
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
2 Jul 2026, 11:18 BST
Last source update
2 Jul 2026, 13:00 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-062236
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Information technology servicesResearch and development services and related consultancy servicesSystems support services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06c227 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

2 Jul 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published114 days ago
    2 Jul 2026, 11:18 BST
  2. Market engagement103 days ago
    13 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    Interested suppliers are invited to review the project overview and complete the questionnaire within the e-tendering portal here

    procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗

    UKNNL will review responses to better understand market capability, capacity, potential delivery models and available procurement routes. Information gathered through this engagement will be used to inform the future procurement strategy and development of any subsequent requirement.

  3. Tender notice expected94 days ago
    22 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts24 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 2 Jul 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    2 Jul 2026, 11:18 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    2 Jul 2026, 13:00 BST
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Link to e-tendering portal added

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

United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-COH: 03857752 5th Floor, Chadwick House, Warrington, North West, WA3 6AEContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure