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 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