NERIC Robotic Equipment

The North of England Robotic Innovation Centre (NERIC) is a newly formed specialist department within the University of Salford. NERIC is an £18 million project part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Research England. It will serve as a hub for small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) looking to design, test and validate innovation in the rapidly growing area of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence. NERIC will support SME's to implement robotic and automation solutions in many different sectors including healthcare delivery and technology development, manufacturing, acoustics, product design, built environment and infrastructure development and maintenance, and many others.

This initial request for tender is one of three tranches, with this first tranche aimed at long lead items and items for a food and manufacturing laboratory. Further tenders are expected to be published in the future for intelligent mobility, healthcare and green infrastructure laboratories.

This tender is split into seven Lots as outlined below. Suppliers can choose to submit bids for all Lots or alternatively may choose to only submit bids for particular Lots. The score given on one Lot will not impact the score given on another Lot as each Lot will be scored separately. The University of Salford reserves the right to award to one supplier for all Lots, or to multiple suppliers for different Lots. The University of Salford also reserves the right to award only some of the Lots or none at all. Collaboration between robotic original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and integrators is encouraged.

With a building set to open in September/October 2022, the group is looking to populate its labs with industrially relevant robotic and automation equipment including the equipment covered in the following Lots:

As NERIC is a department within the University of Salford, educational discounts will be applicable wherever possible (specifically base robots) with ongoing relationships sought. Examples may include but not limited to collaboration on robotic research issues, support of conferences/seminars in the dedicated NERIC Innovation Industrial Zone/seminar space and hosting of supplier/integrator events at the NERIC facility. Supplied equipment will be mainly used to demonstrate to SME's in the Greater Manchester area.