UK Industry and the E-ELT:

The E-ELT presents a major opportunity for UK industry to bid for contracts in a wide range of engineering and technology fields. About 80% of the €1.08billion cost will be in industrial contracts. The STFC and the UK Project Office are working to help ensure that at the UK obtains at least 16% of these contracts, in line with our contribution to ESO. The ESO Project Office is currently in the final stages of preparation for the release of the tenders for some major packages of work:

  • i) The telescope main structure;
  • ii) The dome (telescope enclosure) and site buildings and services
  • iii) The primary mirror (M1) optics and opto-mechanics.

These packages will be tendered in 2012 or early 2013. ESO is particularly keen to have UK industrial involvement in this exciting development and part of STFC’s role is to encourage that participation with assistance from UKTI. Future opportunities will include software and control systems, real-time computer systems, instrumentation sub-assemblies, air conditioning, power supply, IR and optical detector arrays, deformable mirrors and laser guide stars.

Industry events:

UK events: A sell-out industry liason event was held in Sedgefield in June 2012: The E-ELT Project - an exciting industrial opportunity. Future events are now being planned for N. Ireland and Wales.

ESO events: current listings

Contacts:

Professor Colin Cunningham, UK ELT Programme Director, UKATC (Tel: 0131-668-8223)
Sandi Wilson, UK-ESO Industrial Liason Officer, UKATC (Tel: 0131-668-8272)

ESO opportunities: Contracts & Procurement

UK opportunities: The STFC provides a notification service of potential tenders from international science facilities (including: CERN, ESO, ESRF, & ILL. To be added to the STFC database and mailing list, regster here.

UK Trade & Investment also provide support regarding Business Opportunities from Large Research Facilities; for further info contact: Dr Amit Khandelwal at UKTI (Tel: 020-7215-0977).