RFP QuestBeta
OpenStage · planning

Queen's University Belfast

260083 - Contract for Supply, Delivery, Installation & Commissioning of a High Throughput Live-Cell Imaging System and associated maintenance, ancillary and consumables.

Laboratory EquipmentCPV 33110000
ValueEst. £650,000
Deadline
Published16 Apr 2026
RegionNationwide

Est. £650,000 (range £460k–£1.1m) — from this buyer's Nov 2025 notice (250172 - Contract for Supply, Delivery, Installation, Commissioning of Cage Wash System and associated maintenance, ancillary and consumables.)

Who to contact
procurement@qub.ac.uk

The procurement contact named on the official notice.

Contract value in context
£650ktotal contract value
median £123k
this tender£0£16.5m

This sits in the upper-middle of the Medical Equipment & Pharmaceuticals band — a substantial contract for the sector. Based on 9,456 valued Medical Equipment & Pharmaceuticals tenders in our corpus.

When this comes round again

Queen's University Belfast's Medical Equipment & Pharmaceuticals cycle is past due — it ran about every 5 months across 5 notices, and the door is open now. It may re-tender at any time.


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The brief

The Future Medicines Institute (FMI) requires a high throughput live-cell imaging system to enable FMI scientists and collaborators to monitor live cell imaging in real time under optimal conditions of cell growth in a properly maintained carbon dioxide and humidity environment to enable the efficient capture of cellular changes as they happen in the incubator.

The objective of procuring a live cell imaging system is to enhance FMI’s capacity to monitor cells in real time, in an optimally controlled environment, to support and strengthen its drug discovery capabilities.

The proposed system must: • Be capable of multiplate/vessel imaging, up to a capacity of 6 plates/vessels and including capacity to image 6 384 well plates, to meet the volume of analysis that the centre is undertaking and support high throughput drug screening projects. • Enable high resolution fluorescence and bright field images to be captured and recorded in real time over hours, days, or weeks. • Offer flexibility to enable users to observe and quantify complex biological changes over time in cells and 3d structures such as spheroids and organoid models. • Include a fully integrated image acquisition system to capture real-time insight into morphological and phenotypic changes and allow multiple users the opportunity to perform complex cellular assays. • Offer versatile assay configurations, supporting various experimental formats such as 2d cell systems and 3d spheroid, and organoid models.

The procurement of this live cell imaging system directly supports FMI’s broader goals of: • Accelerating drug discovery through rapid identification and characterisation of therapeutic candidates • Providing screening capabilities in high-throughput format • Facilitating translational research by bridging fundamental cellular studies with therapeutic applications.

The procurement of a live cell imaging system will provide direct benefit to research scientists within FMI, and wider stakeholders such as partner organisations and the wider academic community in Queens University Belfast (QUB) by: • Significantly enhance its cellular screening capabilities. • Enhancing live cell imaging capabilities and data acquisition throughput in optimised cellular conditions. • Reducing time in setting up multiple vessels for multiple time point experiments. • Reducing plasticware consumables and expensive reagents currently used in setting up multiple time point experiments.

If funding becomes available to address future expansion needs the University reserves the right to purchase additional Live-Cell Imaging Systems during the life of the contract.

Subject to the availability of funding, the University may optionally purchase additional Live Cell Imaging Systems during the term of the contract.

Any such additional purchases shall be non guaranteed, limited to the optional items and maximum quantities and/or values set out in the Pricing Schedule, and shall have been included in the estimated contract value for the purposes of this procurement

Requirements

What the notice asks for

01

The objective of procuring a live cell

The objective of procuring a live cell imaging system is to enhance FMI’s capacity to monitor cells in real time, in an optimally controlled environment, to support and strengthen its drug discovery capabilities.

02

The proposed system must

The proposed system must:.

03

Be capable of multiplate/vessel imaging, up

Be capable of multiplate/vessel imaging, up to a capacity of 6 plates/vessels and including capacity to image 6 384 well plates, to meet the volume of analysis that the centre is undertaking and support high throughput drug screening projects.

04

Include a fully integrated image acquisition system

Include a fully integrated image acquisition system to capture real-time insight into morphological and phenotypic changes and allow multiple users the opportunity to perform complex cellular assays.

05

The procurement of a live cell imaging

The procurement of a live cell imaging system will provide direct benefit to research scientists within FMI, and wider stakeholders such as partner organisations and the wider academic community in Queens University Belfast (QUB) by:.

Sentences from the notice that state an obligation, surfaced automatically and shown in the order they appear. Not an exhaustive list — always confirm against the tender documents.

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Source & provenance
OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06842a
Stage
planning · Planning
Source
Find a Tender
Buyer ref
034682-2026
View the original notice on Find a Tender

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source data © Crown copyright.

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