Oxford Sigma is proud to announce its appointment as a Tier 1 contractor to the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Embedded Engineering Resources Framework, a four-year, multi-supplier engagement running from 2025 to 2029. This achievement represents the culmination of six years of strategic effort, technical excellence, and trusted collaboration with UKAEA and the wider fusion community. It marks a significant milestone in Oxford Sigma’s journey to becoming a key contributor to the UK’s fusion energy ecosystem, delivering advanced materials and engineering solutions to the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) and beyond.
“The company were proud Tier 2 members of the previous version of the UKAEA Embedded Engineering Resource Framework and have enjoyed supporting UKAEA through multiple framework jobs. Being appointed as a Tier 1 supplier reflects the technical depth, resilience, and collaborative spirit our team has demonstrated over the past six years. This milestone not only validates our engineering capabilities but also strengthens our role in advancing the UK’s fusion energy ambitions.”
Mark Anderton, Senior Engineer, EERF Framework Manager, Oxford Sigma
“This Tier 1 appointment is a landmark moment for Oxford Sigma. It reflects the dedication and expertise our team has invested over the past six years to support UKAEA’s mission and the broader fusion community. We are honoured to be recognised as a trusted partner and excited to continue driving innovation in fusion materials and engineering.”
Dr Thomas Davis, Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Sigma
The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has renewed its multimillion-pound Embedded Engineering Resource Framework (“the Framework”) with seven companies. The renewal follows a successful four-year supply of breadth of engineering resources to UKAEA in support of its mission to deliver fusion energy.
The Framework, with a value up to £9m, supports the development of a UK industrial supply chain capability. It affords companies the opportunity to embed and upskill their own engineers within the multiple projects and programme areas at UKAEA as it undertakes fusion energy research.
Gary Stables, Engineering Frameworks Contract Project Manager, UKAEA, said:
“Embedding engineers within UKAEA is a win-win. The embedded engineers help to progress key fusion projects, while gaining valuable skills and experience in fusion. Boosting fusion expertise across the engineering sector is vital for the development of fusion energy and maximising the benefits to industry. Following the success of the first Embedded Engineering Resource Framework, UKAEA will be renewing it for another four years. Now with increased capacity to access technical expertise from selected industrial partners, the Framework will help accelerate the commercialisation of fusion energy.”
Additionally the Framework continues to create the opportunity for companies to collaborate with each other on fusion projects and, crucially, to bring in their supply chain to support fusion projects, growing the fusion ecosystem.
The framework features companies with expertise in some, or all of the following disciplines:
- Mechanical engineering
- Process engineering
- Electrical, control & instrumentation engineering
- Engineering analysis and code development
- Structural and geotechnical engineering
- Materials engineering
- Systems engineering
Successes from the past four years include embedding more than 80 engineers within the following programme areas:
- JET Decommissioning and Repurposing (JDR)
- Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE)
- Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade
- Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP)
- Fusion Technology (FT)
- Materials Research Facility (MRF)
About Oxford Sigma
Oxford Sigma is a Fusion Technology company with a vision to advance fusion commercialisation through materials innovation. Our mission is to develop and deploy advanced materials technologies that meet the critical needs of fusion, nuclear, and security applications. Oxford Sigma aims to produce advanced materials technologies, agnostic to fusion approach, for the materials ecosystem. Our fusion core materials are engineered to enable longer term operations for fusion pilot plants, with the aim of roll out to the first-of-a-kind commercial power stations. Oxford Sigma is internationally recognised as a key fusion materials and technological leader.
Get in touch at [email protected]
About the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
Who we are
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is the UK’s national fusion energy research organisation. We are an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
The work we do
UKAEA’s mission is to lead the delivery of sustainable fusion energy and maximise the scientific and economic benefit. We do this by being technical experts, partnering with companies and the international research community.
At the core of UKAEA’s efforts is the operation of world-leading facilities that build a comprehensive knowledge base for fusion energy. By addressing and solving the challenges across the full lifecycle of fusion, and integrating solutions from various disciplines, we establish technical centres of excellence that serve as the foundation for future fusion power plant programmes.
UKAEA collaborates with its partners to develop fusion power plants by providing access to our skills, facilities and expertise. UKAEA owns UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS) on behalf of the UK government. Through UKIFS, we’re spearheading the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme to design and build the UK’s first prototype fusion energy power plant in Nottinghamshire.
To grow the fusion ecosystem, UKAEA focuses on cultivating skilled talent, growing the fusion industry and creating ‘innovation clusters’. We actively seek opportunities to advance fusion technologies and communicate its vast potential to stakeholders and the public alike to accelerate fusion energy’s future – the energy of tomorrow we need today.
More information: https://www.gov.uk/ukaea. Social Media: @UKAEAofficial
About fusion energy
When a mix of two forms of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) is heated to form a controlled plasma at extreme temperatures – 10 times hotter than the core of the Sun – they fuse together to create helium and release energy which can be harnessed to produce electricity. There is more than one way of achieving this. UKAEA’s approach is to hold this hot plasma using strong magnets in a ring-shaped machine called a ‘tokamak’, and then to harness this heat to produce electricity in a similar way to existing power stations.