Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 3 Sept 2026, 11:02 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Remote Teleoperation Robotic Systems & End Effector Tooling

Authority: UK Atomic Energy Authority (Central government)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£300,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 13 Apr 2027from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 7 moends 31 Mar 2028 · starts 3 Sept 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

To identify and assess the suitability of existing technologies to pick and place graphite blocks via a remote teleoperation robotic system with an end effector tool.

CPV: Design and execution of research and development · Engineering design services · Industrial robots · Mechanical handling equipment · Miscellaneous special-purpose machinery · Remote-control equipment

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How UK Atomic Energy Authority buys Miscellaneous special-purpose machinery (CPV 4299), and who usually turns up

UK Atomic Energy Authority’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Miscellaneous special-purpose machinery (CPV 4299) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerUK Atomic Energy Authority · division 42
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: 1 of 4 known-size awards · market: CPV 4299 · South East England, n=7
1 of 457%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

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.

Here, local means registered in South East England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 11 known-location awards · market: CPV 4299 · South East England, n=10
18%20%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside South East England.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 decided notices · market: CPV 4299 · South East England, n=5
17 days12 days

Half of these awards were announced within 17 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 11 of 16 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4299 · South East England, n=15
69%47%

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 buyer5 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 42
20% had one bid
The market7 lots with bid counts · CPV 4299 · South East England
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid20% / 14%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 7 lots with published bid counts.
2–360% / 86%
Buyer: 3 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 7 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 0%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 7 lots with published bid counts.
7+0% / 0%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 7 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 buyer6 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 42
50% below estimate
The market12 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4299 · UK-wide
50% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate50% / 50%
Buyer: 3 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 6 of 12 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%50% / 25%
Buyer: 3 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 12 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 25%
Buyer: 0 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 12 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 42997 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£300k
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 22 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet27% single-bid risk
Past bids on 22 similar lots
1 bid27%
6 of 22 similar past lots received 1 bid (27%).
2–345%
10 of 22 similar past lots received 2–3 (45%).
4–618%
4 of 22 similar past lots received 4–6 (18%).
7+9%
2 of 22 similar past lots received 7+ (9%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 2 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 £300k, 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
3 Sept 2026, 11:02 BST
Last source update
3 Sept 2026, 11:02 BST
Authority reference
T/067CAB/26
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-083367
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Design and execution of research and developmentEngineering design servicesIndustrial robotsMechanical handling equipmentMiscellaneous special-purpose machineryRemote-control equipment
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f10a Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

3 Sept 2026 → 3 Sept 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published48 days ago
    3 Sept 2026, 11:02 BST
  2. Market engagement19 days ago
    2 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
  3. Today
    21 Oct 2026
  4. Tender notice expectedin 174 days
    13 Apr 2027, 23:59 BST
  5. Contract startsin 316 days
    3 Sept 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    3 Sept 2026, 11:02 BST
    UK2

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

UK Atomic Energy Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PLJV-1169-JTDD Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire, South East, OX14 3DBContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure