(VEAT Notice) - OPM-Optimised Bespoke Magnetically Shielded Room

Aston University is putting out this notice as a VEAT (Voluntary Ex ante Transparency Notice).

It is the intention of Aston University to award a 5-year contract for the supply, installation, service and maintenance of an OPM-optimised bespoke magnetically shielded room to from June 2024 to May 2029 to Cerca Magnetics Limited.

Aston University intends to award the contract without a call for competition in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ((32.2(b) ii.

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

Aston University requires a magnetically-shielded environment to support the use of OPM-magnetoencephalography. Cerca Magnetics Limited offer a unique patented shielded room system which incorporates built-in degaussing to remove residual magnetisation and reduce the static magnetic field; and electromagnetic coils which allow high fidelity control of residual fields and their variation over space inside the MSR. This level of static/residual field control is required for the scientific work with OPM-MEG that Aston University intends to conduct within the shielded room.

The University will not enter the proposed contract before 22 November 2023.