Preservation services of exhibits and specimens

Tender description

The contracting authority is seeking to establish a single party framework agreement with a suitably qualified service provider to carry out the safe deinstallation of a suspended juvenile humpback whale and adult fin whale skeleton at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. The desintallation is required to be complete by the end of October 2020 (subject to Covid-19 restrictions being lifted sufficiently to do so). The contracting authority also reserves the right to engage the successful tenderer to carry out the re-installation of the specimens at a later date. The contracting authority is seeking to establish a single party framework agreement with a suitably qualified service provider to carry out the safe deinstallation of a suspended juvenile humpback whale and adult fin whale skeleton at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. The service provider must be a suitably accredited and experienced natural history conservator. Suitable accreditation requires registration with a recognised national conservation accreditation organisation, e.g. ICRI, ICON, etc. Suitable experience requires examples of practical work involving the dismantling of suspended whale specimens in a museum environment. The scope of services include, inter alia: 1) Condition assessment: initial record of specimen and ongoing record-keeping of process; 2) Deinstallation of specimens: the safe dismantling of the two whale specimens and retrieval from height; 3) Preparation for transport: ensuring the elements of the specimen can be safely transported out of the building; 4) Preparation of specimens (optional). The desintallation is required to be complete by October 2020 (subject to Covid-19 restrictions being lifted sufficiently to do so). The contracting authority also reserves the right to engage the successful tenderer to carry out the re-installation of the specimens at a later date. As the subject matter of this framework agreement is a Title III service and also falling below the EU threshold, the establishment of the framework is not subject to the provisions of Directive 2014/24/EC with regards to the choice of procedure. Therefore, the contracting authority is employing a negotiated procedure and advertising this in the OJEU on a purely voluntary basis.