Official UK procurement notice
Provision of software development and associated activities
Authority: OPEN UNIVERSITY(THE) (Education)·Consortium: 2 public authorities
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Open University (OU) has appointed a supplier to provide software development and associated activities, to support the CORE OU project.
CPV: Custom software development services · Software programming and consultancy services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Service development capacity, in the form of software development and associated…Awarded
Service development capacity, in the form of software development and associated activities, to support the CORE project:
CORE hosts the world's largest collection of open access research outputs, which are used and referenced by people globally, including researchers, libraries, software developers, funders.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 28 Jun 2024, 08:39 BST
- Last source update
- 14 Feb 2025, 13:23 GMT
- Authority reference
OUPA10627- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-005140- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-047332Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons
- Published justification
The Open University (OU) has awarded a one (1) year agreement to Qubit Labs to provide software development and associated activities, to support the CORE OU project.
The CORE code base contains more than 250k lines of code. Qubit personnel have the required training, expertise and specialist knowledge to operate and develop the CORE
infrastructure The cost and time to upskill another company to the level required precludes the award of the contract to a company other than Qubit.
Notice history
1 event · 2 releases on Find a Tender- Buyer details updated14 Feb 2025, 13:23 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qubit Labs | £450,000 † | — | Awarded |
| Qubit Labs | £300,000 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Provision of software development and associated activities · Qubit Labs
- Signed
- 1 Aug 2024
- Value
- £450,000
- Status
- active
Contract 019740-2024-1 · Qubit Labs
- Signed
- 28 Jun 2024
- Value
- £300,000
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids | — | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeDispute resolution & review bodies
- The Open UniversityReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Qubit LabsAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.