Open Market Consultation was held on 30.03.2016. and especially the preparation of tender documentation (Technical functional specification, Framework Contract, and Annex 9) has progressed as planned, with the target to issue the tender by June 2016.
Indeed, the RfT was issued according to plan, including the review from EC. We received, at the deadline for submission of bids, on July 26, 2016, 4 valid offers. The evaluations of bids was performed between mid July and September 2016, with a report issued by JTEC recommending to STC the approval for selection of 4 bidders. All this is well and fully detailed in deliverable D1.2. Since November 2016, the project has started the full implementation of phase 1, solution design. A careful following-up of the work has been managed by the Buyers Group, with regular meetings at the different contractor premises. A mid-phase review meeting was held in CERN, with all the 4 contractors, in order to fine tune and steer the design activity, and to clarify the full process. The Contractors have all terminated the phase 1 according to time plan, by handling a Final Report, which includes the deliverables specified in our contractual documentation. These reports have been assessed according to the procedure, for eligibility to payments, and for eligibility to access to phase 2.
The comprehensive assessment of the 4 Contractor phase 1 work has been performed by JTEC, with PMT contribution, and an Evaluation Report with final recommendations, has been issued by JTEC and PMT, and has been submitted to STC on April 10th, 2017, and has been submitted to EC on April 24th for final approval. These all resulted in approvals to issuing the Work Orders for phase 2 during the month of July 2017.
Since July 2017 few events have impacted the project phase 2 and 3. The subcontractors requested to be allocated more time for the work to be done, CERN experimented delays in the production and supply of superconducting cable necessary for winding the magnets and eventually the COVID-19 outbreak. All this resulted in interruption and postponement of work in the companies’ premises and a final delay. Due to the above reported events, and considering as well feedback from suppliers, a total of 3 successive amendments to the Grant Agreement requesting extensions of the project duration, were demanded by the project and conceded by the EC.
As a result of the second tender, 3 bidders were selected to perform the engineering design of the superconductive quadrupole for the QUACO project. The subcontractors were from different EU countries: 2 companies from Spain, 1 from France.
As a result of the third tender, 2 bidders were selected to perform the manufacturing of the pilot superconductive quadrupoles for the QUACO project. The subcontractor’s companies were from Spain and from France.
During phase 2 and 3 of the project, and despite the pandemics, the Project Management Team (PMT) met every single week to follow-up punctually the progress of activities and minutes of the more than 100 meetings held are well archived. Specific contacts with the companies were held as well with a weekly frequency, either via teleconference, phone calls, mailings, and where and when possible, with in-person meetings. A few of these in-person meetings required also to be kept, with obvious logistics difficulties, during the pandemic.
The technical scope of the project was concluded when, between March and June 2021 the produced pilot quadrupoles magnets were tested at CERN to characterise their performances in terms of the quality of the produced magnetic field.
Papers to Conference proceedings have been published and new ones are in preparation, and information notes have been also published in CERN or are in publication for the newsletters of the Accelerators science communities.
