Big business opportunities for UK companies at world-class science facilities UK companies have won over £55m of work from large international science facilities over the last three years with the help of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

What we doThrough our Tender Opportunities Service we provide free

assistance to UK companies working in a diverse range of

sectors. From office supplies to instrumentation we help

businesses to access contracts from the large international

science facilities that we fund on behalf of the UK.

We publicise tenders from:• CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research)

Geneva, Switzerland

CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, is home to the Large Hadron Collider and spends approximately £300m every year on purchasing goods and services.

• ESO (European Southern Observatory) Garching, Germany

ESO run a suite of ground-based telescopes around the world. ESO are poised to begin the construction of the billion Euro E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) project, a 39 metre telescope to be built in Chile.

• ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) Grenoble, France

The ESRF is one of the world’s largest synchrotron science centres. It uses X-rays for leading-edge materials research.

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How tender opportunities can benefit your business

We provide:

• Advance notice of upcoming price enquiries and market surveys

• Advice on how to work with facilities and on the tendering process

• Access to tenders coming from the facilities

• Opportunities to build relationships with the facilities

• A range of events to link industry with facility procurement specialists

Credit: ESRF

www.stfc.ac.uk

• ILL (Institut Laue-Langevin) Grenoble, FranceOn the same site as the ESRF, the ILL is a neutron source.

The neutrons are produced from a nuclear reactor for

materials research. Together the ESRF and ILL have a combined

procurement budget in the region of £50m per year.

• ESS (European Spallation Source) Lund, Sweden The ESS will be an international neutron spallation source

for materials research. It will be built in Sweden.

• FAIR (Facility of Antiproton and Ion Research) Darmstadt, Germany FAIR will be a new, unique international accelerator facility

for research with antiprotons and ions. It will be based in

Germany near existing facility, GSI and is planned to begin

operating in 2020.

Opportunities available

In addition to the high-tech equipment needed for their instrumentation, the international science facilities have large sites and they need equipment and services to maintain and run this infrastructure.

They have contract opportunities in a wide range of sectors, from off the shelf products to new cutting-edge technologies which need a significant R&D phase.

These sectors include:

• Civil engineering (including architecture and building maintenance)

• Instrumentation (including accelerators, cryogenics, vacuum and detector technologies)

• Electronics and electrical engineering

• Mechanical engineering

• Optics and detectors

• Computing and information technologies

Working with the large research facilities could have a big impact on your business. Companies who worked with CERN have been able to develop new products, move into new sectors, increase their national and international exposure and grow their business.

For more information, please contact:Julie Bellingham, UK Industrial Liaison officer for CERN, ILL, ESRF, ESS and FAIR

Email: tenderopportunities@stfc.ac.ukTel: +44 (0)1793 442 060

Sandi Wilson, UK Industry Liaison Officer for ESO

Email: sandi.wilson@stfc.ac.ukTel: +44 (0)131 668 8272

You can access our service and the tender opportunities available by registering on our database at www.stfc.ac.uk/tenderopportunities.

Contract successes for UK industry:

• F2 Chemicals have won contracts totalling £2m to

supply CERN with 80 tonnes of chemical coolants

which flow around the inner detectors of the Large

Hadron Collider experiments. F2 chemicals reported

that working with CERN led to a boost in their sales

and market image.

• SCISYS won a £50k contract with ESO for a software

project to consolidate requirements and provide an

architectural design for the Telescope Control System

of the E-ELT. This experience enabled them to win an

initial £90K contract as part of the pre-construction for

the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Twitter: @STFC_B2B

Credit: ILL