---
title: "SBRI Competition: Fusions Industry Challenges Cycle 2 Phase 1"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-036bab"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-036bab"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-036bab.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-036bab.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY"
published: "2022-09-27"
---

# SBRI Competition: Fusions Industry Challenges Cycle 2 Phase 1

Buyer: UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-036bab

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## Summary

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has conducted a procurement process for the SBRI Competition: Fusions Industry Challenges Cycle 2 Phase 1. The competition aims to address fusion energy challenges through innovative solutions in heating, cooling systems, fusion materials, and technology. The procurement is in the services category and involves research services. The tender was titled "SBRI Competition: Fusions Industry Challenges Cycle 2 Phase 1" and is a limited procurement method without prior publication. The UK Atomic Energy Authority is the buyer, and the location is at Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, UK. The procurement stage is complete with the award date on 26th August 2022.

This public procurement contract offers opportunities for businesses specializing in research services, fusion materials, technology, and innovation. Companies with expertise in microwave heating, neutral particle beam heating, manufacturing of fusion materials, and energy conversion technologies would be well-suited to compete. The competition criteria focus on the quality of proposed solutions, technical validity, innovation, commercial feasibility, and budget appropriateness. The procurement process was conducted transparently and fairly, despite falling outside the Public Contract Regulation 2015 scope. Successful outcomes could lead to the development of marketable products and services in the fusion energy sector, creating growth opportunities for businesses involved.

## Notice

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). The aim of the competition is to develop solutions to fusion energy challenges in two themes for key priority areas. 1. Driving up fusion power plant performance with innovative heating and cooling systems. 2. Improving fusion power plant availability with novel fusion materials, technology, and manufacture. This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition. The decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1 and assessment of a separate application into a subsequent phase 2 competition. Only the successful applicants from phase 1 will be invited to apply to take part in phase 2.

### Lot Information

Driving up fusion power plant performance with innovative heating and cooling systems.

A Pre-Commercial Procurement Activity under SBRI Driving up fusion power plant performance with innovative heating and cooling systems. Projects can focus on one or more of the following under this theme: Microwave heating challenges: high power, long pulse microwave sources with high electrical efficiency (greater than or equal to 55%) development of special waveguide components, for example, diamond window assemblies, power monitors, expansion units, vacuum pumping access improvements on the high voltage power supplies (50kV) for reduced voltage ripple in a compact assembly while maintaining high electrical efficiency (greater than or equal to 98%) development of optical mirrors for evacuation of high thermal loads (approximately 5MW/m2) high precision optical alignment assemblies for the free space to waveguide coupling Neutral particle beam heating challenges: negative ion beam system with high electrical efficiency (greater than 60%) improved beam neutralisation efficiency, for example, Plasma or Laser Neutralisers development of residual ion energy recovery. improved negative ion source efficiency with caesium free operation reduction in scale; improved ion optics, source uniformity and power handling to reduce size of components development of actively cooled high heat flux components (approximately 5-10 MW/m2) with reactor relevant materials development of fault tolerant 1-2MV fast switching power supply systems with high electrical efficiency development of vacuum pumping systems with pumping speeds of millions of litres per second which allow continuous operation Reactor high heat flux components: jet impingement cooling technology transfer sCO2 as coolant diamond components for heat dispersion novel discrete limiter designs, for example, vaporisation layers, speed of maintenance or increased heat flux performance has context menu Additional information: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1156/overview#summary

Improving fusion power plant availability with novel fusion materials, technology, and manufacture.

A Pre-Commercial Procurement Activity under SBRI Improving fusion power plant availability with novel fusion materials, technology, and manufacture Projects can focus on one or more of the following under this theme: fusion grade steels, for example, reduced activation Ferritic or Martensitic (RAFM) development, including, Castable Nanostructured Alloys (CNAs), and Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) steels liquid Metal testing, for example Li, PbLi and Pb scalable or large volume manufacture of tritium breeder materials irradiation resilient joining materials and processes, for example, Tungsten based armour materials, CuCrZr or vacuum vessel ports including fused silica, Mo, MgAl2O4, ZnS, ZnSe novel manufacture of multi-metre complex structures and components for fusion environments testing and evaluation scalable or large volume manufacture of neutron shielding materials manufacture of complex geometry components in refractory metals additive manufacture for non-water coolant components anti-corrosion coatings or novel application methods of corrosion and tritium barrier coatings for complex geometry components development of on-line activation measurements in situ health monitoring of fusion reactor components novel inspection of interfaces in complex multi-material fusion components radiation hard improvements for fusion equipment and plant novel energy conversion technology high temperature superconductors composite materials such as silicon carbide fibre, reinforced silicon carbide novel materials for radiation hard electronic components Additional information: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1156/overview#summary

### Procurement Information

This was a pre-commercial procurement activity lead by Innovate UK. All information relating to the tender can be found here : Competition overview - SBRI: Fusion Industry Challenges - phase 1 - Innovation Funding Service (apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk) . An open, transparent and fair procurement process was still adhered to despite this RTM falling outside of PCR15.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/026987-2022 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large, SME |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 27 Sep 2022 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 25 Aug 2022 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £3,105,983 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY |
| Locality | ABINGDON |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode | OX14 3DB |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLJ South East (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLJ1 Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire |
| ITL 3 | TLJ14 Oxfordshire CC |
| Local authority | South Oxfordshire |
| Electoral ward | Sandford & the Wittenhams |
| Westminster constituency | Didcot and Wantage |
| Delivery location | TLJ14 Oxfordshire CC |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 18 |
| Supplier names | 3-SCI; ALLOYED; ARCHER TECHNICOAT; ASTRAL NEUTRONICS; CAL GAVIN; CASTINGS TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL; DUALITY QUANTUM PHOTONICS; FRAZER-NASH CONSULTANCY; FULL MATRIX; IDOM (UK; JACOBS; LASER ADDITIVE SOLUTIONS; OXFORD SIGMA; QDOT TECHNOLOGY; SWANSEA UNIVERSITY; THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER; TWI; UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

### Codes

- 73110000 - Research services

## Release History

- 27 Sep 2022 at 08:37 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/026987-2022

## Notice URLs

- http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-atomic-energy-authority
- https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1156/overview#summary
- https://uk.eu-supply.com/ctm/Company/CompanyInformation/Index/72814
- https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-atomic-energy-authority

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-036bab. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-036bab.json.