The Chemical Database Service beyond 1st April 2008
Historical Perspective
The Chemical Database Service at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory has for
many years been grant funded by the UK Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council. The EPSRC recently made the decision to
terminate funding
by this mechanism.
Subsequent to this the EPSRC has recently awarded a contract for
provision of a somewhat reduced database portfolio to the CDS at
Daresbury.
This new provision started 1st April 2008. Further details of the
new service will be added to this page.
The EPSRC Open Tender Exercise
During the summer of 2007 Research Councils' Procurement Organisation
(RCPO) acting on behalf of the EPSRC published an open tender
invitation in the European Journal.
This invitation covered provision of Structural Chemistry and
Thermophysical Property Databases.
Applications from both commercial as well as higher education
institutes were encouraged using a standard procurement route.
There was no requirement in the call for specific databases, any
systems which meet the requirements of the detailed specification
relating to subject areas covered being eligible for consideration.
The Chemical Database Service submitted a tender proposal for
service provision, and we received formal notification that we were
successful in late October 2007.
Our bid accepted by the EPSRC included the following components:
- The Cambridge Structural Database
- The Inorganic Crystal Structure Database
- The CrystMet database system
- The NIST Crystal Data Identification File
- DETHERM, thermophysical properties database
- The SpecInfo spectroscopic system
- The ACD/Labs I-Lab spectroscopic and physical properties prediction system
The new arrangements (Contract R5-E3-34) came
into operation on 1st April 2008.
The contract is for 3 years with a possibility of an extension to 4 or
possibly 5 years.
I-Lab provision, however, will be reviewed after the first year.
NOTE: the EPSRC has now agreed further funding
for the ACD/Labs I-Lab service until at least 31/03/11