Contract

Provision of software development and associated activities

  • OPEN UNIVERSITY(THE)

F03: Contract award notice

Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-005140

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-047332

Published 14 February 2025, 1:23pm



Section one: Contracting authority

one.1) Name and addresses

OPEN UNIVERSITY(THE)

THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

MILTON KEYNES

MK76AA

Contact

Procurement Team

Email

FBS-Procurement@open.ac.uk

Telephone

+44 1908655814

Country

United Kingdom

Region code

UKJ12 - Milton Keynes

Justification for not providing organisation identifier

Not on any register

Internet address(es)

Main address

https://www.open.ac.uk/

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

Body governed by public law

one.5) Main activity

Education


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Provision of software development and associated activities

Reference number

OUPA10627

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 72200000 - Software programming and consultancy services

two.1.3) Type of contract

Services

two.1.4) Short description

The Open University (OU) has appointed a supplier to provide software development and associated activities, to support the CORE OU project.

two.1.6) Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: No

two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)

Value excluding VAT: £450,000

two.2) Description

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKJ12 - Milton Keynes
  • EE - Estonia

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

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.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Price

two.2.11) Information about options

Options: No


Section four. Procedure

four.1) Description

four.1.1) Type of procedure

Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below

  • The services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
    • absence of competition for technical reasons

Explanation:

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.

four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes

four.2) Administrative information

four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure

Notice number: 2024/S 000-019740


Section five. Award of contract

Title

Provision of software development and associated activities

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

five.2) Award of contract

five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

1 August 2024

five.2.2) Information about tenders

Number of tenders received: 1

The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No

five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor

Qubit Labs

Sepapaja tn

Tallinn

Country

Estonia

NUTS code
  • EE - Estonia
Justification for not providing organisation identifier

Not on any register

The contractor is an SME

No

five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)

Total value of the contract/lot: £450,000


Section six. Complementary information

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

The Open University

Milton Keynes

Email

finance-tenders@open.ac.uk

Country

United Kingdom