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PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY

RBGKEW1573 phenoTest for SPEED project

Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew · Transparency notice on Find a Tender

Tender information last checkedLast checked 2 Oct 2026, 13:26.

Opportunity overview

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew intends to award a contract for the provision of a custom-built phenoTest 3D X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging platform to support the ARIA-funded SPEED project. The contract will include delivery, installation, commissioning, software licences, maintenance, calibration, technical support and training. The platform will be used to measure dynamic seed and seedling traits at individual-seed level using non-destructive longitudinal 3D X-ray CT imaging. The requirement includes access to the associated proprietary hardware, software, algorithms and processing workflows necessary to generate and analyse the required research data. The supplier will retain ownership of the equipment. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew will receive operational access to the platform and the associated rights required to use the system for project purposes. Delivery, installation and commissioning are required in sufficient time to support project milestones, with installation planned at Wakehurst, West Sussex, United Kingdom.

Awarded to

Amounts belong to published awards or contracts. Where several suppliers share one value, it is labelled as shared and is not a supplier-specific allocation.

PhenoKey B.V.

No match
Published award value
£600k
Awarded
Not supplied
Award ID
1
Status
pending
Identifier
GB-PPON PGTQ-4635-TGMN
Location
's-Gravenzande, NL, 2691AC, Netherlands

Classification

No classification was supplied.

Lots

  • Lot 1Value not stated

Documents and notices

Published notice details

Additional information from the published procurement release. Fields appear only when supplied by the source; check the original notice and tender documents before acting.

Scope, procedure and submissions

Id
RBGKEW1573
Status
complete
Procurement Method
direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Why this procedure was chosen
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew intends to award this contract directly to PhenoKey B.V. under section 41(1)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023. The authority considers that the direct award justification relating to intellectual property and exclusive rights applies because the requirement depends upon patented and licensed technology that can only be supplied through PhenoKey B.V. Evidence obtained by the authority confirms that the required solution relies upon protected methods, proprietary software, algorithms and associated intellectual property rights that are necessary to deliver the required functionality. The authority has concluded that no other supplier can lawfully provide access to the required combination of technology, licences and associated services. The authority also considers that the direct award justification relating to technical reasons applies because only PhenoKey B.V. can provide the required phenoTest 3D X-ray computed tomography platform and there are no reasonable alternatives. The requirement includes non-destructive longitudinal phenotyping of individual seeds and seedlings, integration of proprietary hardware and software, and compatibility with previous Kew research. The platform has been validated for the species required by the project and is required to generate comparable research outputs within the project timescales. Alternative suppliers, products and methods would not provide the required combination of technical capability, validated performance, intellectual property access and research comparability. The authority considers that the exclusivity arises from third-party intellectual property rights and essential technical requirements rather than from any artificial narrowing of the specification. Supporting patent, licensing, technical and no-reasonable-alternatives evidence is retained on the procurement file.
Published risks
Technical refinements identified during manufacture, installation, commissioning or validation of the custom-built phenoTest platform

Legal basis

Id
2023/54
Scheme
UKPGA

Procedure reasons

Entry 1
Id
singleSuppliersIntellectualPropertyExclusiveRights
Entry 2
Id
singleSuppliersTechnicalReasons

Lots and requirements

Entry 1
Id
1
Status
complete

Suitability

Sme
Yes

Published documents

Entry 1
Id
conflictOfInterest
Document Type
conflictOfInterest
Description
Not published

Buyer, suppliers and contacts

Organisation 1
Name
Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Id
GB-CHC-803428

Identifier

Scheme
GB-CHC
Id
803428

Additional Identifiers

Entry 1
Scheme
GB-PPON
Id
PGTT-3583-QXLN

Address

Street Address
THE HERBARIUM
Locality
KEW GREEN
Postal Code
TW9 3AE
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Region
UKI75

Contact

Roles

buyer

Details

Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
UK_CA_TYPE
Id
publicAuthorityCentralGovernment
Description
Public authority - central government
Organisation 2
Name
PhenoKey B.V.
Id
GB-PPON-PGTQ-4635-TGMN

Identifier

Scheme
GB-PPON
Id
PGTQ-4635-TGMN

Address

Street Address
Vreeburghlaan 2
Locality
's-Gravenzande
Postal Code
2691AC
Country
NL
Country Name
Netherlands
Region
NL

Contact

Roles

supplier

Details

Scale
sme
Vcse
No

Award information

Award 1
Id
1
Title
RBGKEW1573 phenoTest for SPEED project
Status
pending
Main Procurement Category
goods
Above Threshold
Yes

Items

Item 1
Id
1
Related Lot
1

Additional Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
CPV
Id
38000000
Description
Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses)
Entry 2
Scheme
CPV
Id
48000000
Description
Software package and information systems
Entry 3
Scheme
CPV
Id
51000000
Description
Installation services (except software)

Delivery locations

Entry 1
Region
UKC
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 2
Region
UKD
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 3
Region
UKE
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 4
Region
UKF
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 5
Region
UKG
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 6
Region
UKH
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 7
Region
UKI
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 8
Region
UKJ
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Entry 9
Region
UKK
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom

Value

Including VAT
600,000
Amount
600,000
Currency
GBP

Suppliers

Supplier 1
Id
GB-PPON-PGTQ-4635-TGMN
Name
PhenoKey B.V.

Contract period

Starts
9 Nov 2026, 00:00
Ends
31 Aug 2028, 23:59

Related lots

1

Documents

Entry 1
Id
093272-2026
Document Type
awardNotice
Notice Type
UK5
Description
Transparency notice on Find a Tender
Published
2 Oct 2026, 11:56
Format
text/html

Milestones

Entry 1
Id
1
Type
futureSignatureDate
Due
2 Nov 2026, 23:59
Status
scheduled

Recorded locations

  • Buyer location · KEW GREEN · UKI75 · TW9 3AE · United Kingdom

Notice and amendment history

1 published notice version reviewed by ProcuraAxis.

1 VERSION
  1. 093272-2026Transparency notice on Find a Tender ·