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How to do business with NTU

For suppliers looking to work with us, find out more about how we procure, how to get started, and how to register your details for any contracts we advertise.

NTU have a Procurement Policy which applies to the procurement of the goods and services we need to operate, teach and conduct research. Depending on the value of the contract, we may seek quotations from suppliers, or for higher value contracts we may invite tenders.

Contract thresholds

Typically for contracts under £50,000 we will invite suppliers to provide quotations for the goods and/or a proposal for delivering the services.  These will usually be requested in writing via email.

For any contracts valued at £50,000 or more, we will invite suppliers to tender. All bids submitted will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria and any weightings described in the invitation to tender documents. We also use third-party frameworks to appoint suitable suppliers (more information is given in Using Collaborative Frameworks below).

The University, as a public body, is also bound by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.  Any contracts over the threshold defined by UK Government must comply with the requirements of the Regulations.

Current thresholds (from 1 January 2024) are as follows:

  • Supplies and Services £214,904 (including VAT)
  • Works (including subsidised works contracts £5,372,609 (including VAT)

The contract thresholds are updated every two years and will next change on 1 January 2026.

The Regulations in the UK are also scheduled to change during 2024, with the passing of a new approach to procurement – the Procurement Act 2023. Find more information on gov.uk.

Contract opportunities and eTendering

To express an interest in supplying your goods or services, or to apply for a current tender, you should first register your company details on our procurement portal EU Supply (see below). You can then express a formal interest to relevant tenders as and when they are published.

You can view our latest opportunities on EU Supply.

We also advertise locally on:

NTU can access collaborative frameworks put in place by Higher Education and wider public sector bodies.  If you want to provide goods and/or services through one of the frameworks, you will need to submit a tender to the organisation operating the framework.

NTU are members of the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC), and use several others, including:

University consortia

Wider public sector frameworks

NTU has a dedicated tendering site to invite suppliers to tender. Up until September 2022, this was provided by In-Tend. In October 2022, the University moved to EU-Supply, our new e-tendering portal.

If you were previously registered with In-Tend, you need to re-register with EU Supply.

To view the available NTU opportunities:

  1. Visit EU-Supply.
  2. Click 'Current tender opportunities' in the left-hand column.

To express interest in any of our available tenders, you'll need to login or register to view. You won't be able to express an interest, or download documents or information, until you've done so.

Once you've registered, you'll be able to:

  • access to all available tender requirements at NTU
  • express interest
  • download tender documentation
  • make your submissions.

We've prepared a guide to help you.

If you have any login issues or need any technical support, email EU-Supply.

Becoming an NTU supplier

Once you have been selected as a supplier to NTU, the Procurement team will run a number of diligence checks, if these have not already been conducted during the tender process.

The checks include, but are not limited to:

  • making sure we have suitable contract terms and conditions and that a contract is signed
  • making sure you have agreed to comply with GDPR/our data processing requirements (if there is personal data being processed)​
  • ensuring any software we wish to purchase meets our information security standards
  • confirming your agreement to work with us to achieve our strategic commitments to sustainability, equality and diversity, and employability​
  • confirming your financial stability and insurances
  • verifying your bank details are correct and legitimate​ and that you will invoice us in accordance with our guidance

You can find out more below.

The University has standard terms and conditions it enters into with suppliers, which are below:

  • Purchase Order terms and conditions — standard terms and conditions applicable to any Purchase Order.
  • Goods & Services terms and conditions — standard terms and conditions issued with any invitation to tender for goods and/or services.
  • Framework terms and conditions — standard terms and conditions that are used where the University enters into a contract with more than one supplier which will be issued as part of the procurement process.

Whilst the University uses standard terms these will be adapted as required to suit the purchase or procurement, and specialist terms may be used where more appropriate, e.g. JCT or NEC for construction or refurbishment projects, so the above are shared for guidance only.

The following policies and procedures are key for our suppliers:

Information about our strategic commitments can be found here:

To be able to send you a Purchase Order we must first be able to set you up on our finance system.  We need some key contact information for this, including your bank details.  In order to ensure we have accurate and correct bank details we must verify the bank details you provide to us.

We have an independent team who conduct this on behalf of the Procurement team, who use various means to verify bank details. This may include identifying a general contact number or email address from your website, which we will use to contact you to verify the details.  If you have an online contact form, we may use this too.  Please ensure you respond to this request as soon as possible.

As part of our commitment to sustainability, we require suppliers to send us invoices in an electronic (PDF) format via email to purchase.ledger@ntu.ac.uk.

Invoices must contain all of the standard information as per the gov.uk website, plus:

  • A valid Purchase Order (PO) reference number
  • Our correct legal entity name (for example, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Consultants Limited, MTIF (BEZ) Limited etc)
  • Name of person requesting goods or services

We use software to read the invoice and enter the invoice details into our finance system, so if the invoice is incorrect or incomplete, it will not pass for payment and may be returned to you.

Goods and Services should not be provided to the University without a valid purchase order.

Useful links

APUC

Advanced Procurement for University and Colleges.

EEM

A not-for-profit purchasing consortium for the East Midlands.

ESPO

A public sector buying consortium.

HEPCW

Higher Education Purchasing Consortium for Wales.

LUPC

London Universities Purchasing Consortium.

NEUPC

North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium.

NHS Shared Business Services

Working with NHS Trusts and organisations to maximise their purchasing power.

NWUPC

North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium.

Public Sector Contracts

Search for contracts worth over £10,000 with the Government and its agencies.

SCAPE

A public sector partnership for construction related services.

SUPC

Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium.

The Crown Commercial Service

Cabinet Office agency responsible for improving Government commercial and procurement activity.