Planning

eLoran Programme

DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

PlanningUpdate

27 May 2025 at 14:34

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

19 May 2025 at 14:16

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The procurement process for the eLORAN Programme is currently in the planning stage, administered by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. The initiative seeks to establish a nationally-owned UK eLORAN system aimed at providing resilient, terrestrial, sovereign Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services across the UK, benefiting critical national infrastructure and the wider economy. This process involves market engagement, with interested parties encouraged to respond by June 30, 2025, to influence the business case development. The exploratory phase does not represent an immediate procurement commitment. The projected timeline includes a potential contract start in April 2027 and initial operational capability by early 2028, focusing on enhancing PNT resilience. Key stakeholders can participate in clarification sessions before June 13, 2025, and submit detailed responses thereafter.

This initiative presents significant opportunities for businesses specializing in global navigation and positioning systems, technology integration, or infrastructure support services. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with expertise in GPS-alike systems could find themselves well-positioned to participate due to the procurement's suitability for diverse firm sizes. Innovators with unique solutions for PNT challenges are particularly encouraged to propose concepts that could extend the eLORAN system's capabilities. The eLORAN Programme encourages engagement that might lead to contracts commencing in the financial year 2026/27, offering chances to contribute to a transformative national infrastructure project, thus fostering potential growth and innovation pathways for participating firms.

Find more tenders on our Open Data Platform.
How relevant is this notice?

D3 Tenders Premium

Win More Public Sector Contracts

AI-powered tender discovery, pipeline management, and market intelligence — everything you need to grow your public sector business.

Start Free Trial Book a Demo
All Features Pricing

Notice Information

Notice Title

eLoran Programme

Notice Description

Build and operation of a nationally-owned UK eLORAN PNT system within the UK to provide resilient, terrestrial, sovereign, sustainable, and high-quality Position, Navigation and Timing

Planning Information

Introduction There is recognition within the UK and internationally that much critical national infrastructure is dependent in some way on Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or other Global navigation satellite system (GNSS). In October 2023, UK Govt published its new Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Policy Framework which includes a “10 Point Plan” to enhance national PNT resilience . This plan includes: “develop a proposal for a resilient, terrestrial, and sovereign Enhanced Long Range Navigation (eLORAN) system to provide backup Position and Navigation” An eLORAN programme is being established within the National PNT Office with three main objectives: a. Build a Nationally-owned UK eLORAN PNT system with initial operating capability (IOC) by start of 2028 and full operating capability by 2030, that will provide resilient, terrestrial, sovereign, backup Position, Navigation and Timing for UK Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and the wider economy and society. b. Ensure interoperability with other national and international eLORAN systems. c. Conduct research and development to ensure the long-term sustainability, continual improvement and expanded applications of the eLORAN system. Achieving these objectives will result in three primary outcomes: d. Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) resilient to the loss of GNSS provided timing. From 2027, a resilient, sovereign timing service provided to UK CNI from the Universal Coordinated time from National Physical Laboratory (UTC (NPL)) and eLORAN. e. CNI resilient to the loss of GNSS provided PNT. From 2029, a full eLORAN system to be built to provide backup PNT across the UK. f. New PNT use cases exploited. From 2030, the full eLORAN system can be exploited to find new innovative use cases that were previously inaccessible by PNT services by GNSS. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is currently developing the business case for an eLoran system, referred to herein as “eLORAN Programme”. To this end a set of potential services and associated mission requirements have been derived. These are presented at Annex A. For the avoidance of doubt, this notice is not informing the market of an imminent procurement. All costs pertaining to the completion of this response are to be borne by the responders. Please note, procurement dates and other data in this notice are subject to governance and should not be viewed as a firm commitment. This premarket engagement is purely to gain market knowledge and is not the launch of a new procurement. Timelines and technical requirements will be refined through market engagement. At this stage a contract start date April 2027 with an IOC in early 2028 is estimated. Respondents are invited to review these services and provide responses to the questions below, with whatever level of detail and means is considered appropriate by the respondent, considering the objective is to support development of the eLORAN Business Case. The questions are separated into two parts: • Part A: Technical considers the technical feasibility and processes of developing the stated capabilities. • Part B: Programmatic explores the projected costs and preferred commercial arrangements to deliver the capabilities. Queries If you have any queries or clarification questions with regards to providing a response to this questionnaire, please get in touch at NPNTO@dsit.gov.uk. The deadline for clarification questions is 30/05/25. Questions and responses will be provided to all participants, to ensure you have access to the same level of information. Submitting Responses & Timescales Responses should be submitted either as a word document or PDF to NPNTO@dsit.gov.uk Target for responses to Part A and B is 30/06/25 These are not deadlines; later responses will be considered, but respondent’s scope to influence the programme is reduced the later submissions are received. These responses will be reviewed by the cross-government eLoran programme team members to: • Identify potentially suitable candidate companies or proposals that might be able to meet the UK National eLORAN System requirements; • Identify potentially suitable candidate companies that would best support specialised functions in the larger UK National eLORAN System; • Inform further refinement of the National eLORAN Programme requirements and capabilities; • Identify concepts or proposals with different solutions than those previously considered; • clarify or expand understanding of potential relationships of national eLORAN systems dependencies and support to UK critical national infrastructure; • determine the pathway for the next stage of commercial engagement. Respondents should anticipate invitation to direct technical and commercial engagement with the National eLORAN Programme working group hosted by DSIT. The intention of this premarket engagement is to initiate the process to commercial competition leading to award of contract or contracts for a UK National eLORAN System commencing financial year 26/27.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-051748
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/027816-2025
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

38 - Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses)

CPV Codes

38112100 - Global navigation and positioning systems (GPS or equivalent)

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
27 May 20259 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
1 May 20263 months to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
29 Apr 2027 - 31 Dec 2030 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
commercialexcellence@ics.gov.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1A 2EG
Post Town
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

Download

The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts. 

{
    "tag": [
        "compiled"
    ],
    "id": "ocds-h6vhtk-051748-2025-05-27T15:34:15+01:00",
    "date": "2025-05-27T15:34:15+01:00",
    "ocid": "ocds-h6vhtk-051748",
    "initiationType": "tender",
    "parties": [
        {
            "id": "GB-PPON-PVWZ-3216-PVQL",
            "name": "Department for Science, Innovation & Technology",
            "identifier": {
                "scheme": "GB-PPON",
                "id": "PVWZ-3216-PVQL"
            },
            "address": {
                "streetAddress": "22 Whitehall",
                "locality": "London",
                "postalCode": "SW1A 2EG",
                "country": "GB",
                "countryName": "United Kingdom",
                "region": "UKI32"
            },
            "contactPoint": {
                "email": "commercialexcellence@ics.gov.uk"
            },
            "roles": [
                "buyer"
            ],
            "details": {
                "classifications": [
                    {
                        "scheme": "UK_CA_TYPE",
                        "id": "publicAuthorityCentralGovernment",
                        "description": "Public authority - central government"
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ],
    "buyer": {
        "id": "GB-PPON-PVWZ-3216-PVQL",
        "name": "Department for Science, Innovation & Technology"
    },
    "planning": {
        "milestones": [
            {
                "id": "engagement",
                "type": "engagement",
                "description": "Introduction There is recognition within the UK and internationally that much critical national infrastructure is dependent in some way on Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or other Global navigation satellite system (GNSS). In October 2023, UK Govt published its new Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Policy Framework which includes a \"10 Point Plan\" to enhance national PNT resilience . This plan includes: \"develop a proposal for a resilient, terrestrial, and sovereign Enhanced Long Range Navigation (eLORAN) system to provide backup Position and Navigation\" An eLORAN programme is being established within the National PNT Office with three main objectives: a. Build a Nationally-owned UK eLORAN PNT system with initial operating capability (IOC) by start of 2028 and full operating capability by 2030, that will provide resilient, terrestrial, sovereign, backup Position, Navigation and Timing for UK Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and the wider economy and society. b. Ensure interoperability with other national and international eLORAN systems. c. Conduct research and development to ensure the long-term sustainability, continual improvement and expanded applications of the eLORAN system. Achieving these objectives will result in three primary outcomes: d. Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) resilient to the loss of GNSS provided timing. From 2027, a resilient, sovereign timing service provided to UK CNI from the Universal Coordinated time from National Physical Laboratory (UTC (NPL)) and eLORAN. e. CNI resilient to the loss of GNSS provided PNT. From 2029, a full eLORAN system to be built to provide backup PNT across the UK. f. New PNT use cases exploited. From 2030, the full eLORAN system can be exploited to find new innovative use cases that were previously inaccessible by PNT services by GNSS. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is currently developing the business case for an eLoran system, referred to herein as \"eLORAN Programme\". To this end a set of potential services and associated mission requirements have been derived. These are presented at Annex A. For the avoidance of doubt, this notice is not informing the market of an imminent procurement. All costs pertaining to the completion of this response are to be borne by the responders. Please note, procurement dates and other data in this notice are subject to governance and should not be viewed as a firm commitment. This premarket engagement is purely to gain market knowledge and is not the launch of a new procurement. Timelines and technical requirements will be refined through market engagement. At this stage a contract start date April 2027 with an IOC in early 2028 is estimated. Respondents are invited to review these services and provide responses to the questions below, with whatever level of detail and means is considered appropriate by the respondent, considering the objective is to support development of the eLORAN Business Case. The questions are separated into two parts: * Part A: Technical considers the technical feasibility and processes of developing the stated capabilities. * Part B: Programmatic explores the projected costs and preferred commercial arrangements to deliver the capabilities. Queries If you have any queries or clarification questions with regards to providing a response to this questionnaire, please get in touch at NPNTO@dsit.gov.uk. The deadline for clarification questions is 30/05/25. Questions and responses will be provided to all participants, to ensure you have access to the same level of information. Submitting Responses & Timescales Responses should be submitted either as a word document or PDF to NPNTO@dsit.gov.uk Target for responses to Part A and B is 30/06/25 These are not deadlines; later responses will be considered, but respondent's scope to influence the programme is reduced the later submissions are received. These responses will be reviewed by the cross-government eLoran programme team members to: * Identify potentially suitable candidate companies or proposals that might be able to meet the UK National eLORAN System requirements; * Identify potentially suitable candidate companies that would best support specialised functions in the larger UK National eLORAN System; * Inform further refinement of the National eLORAN Programme requirements and capabilities; * Identify concepts or proposals with different solutions than those previously considered; * clarify or expand understanding of potential relationships of national eLORAN systems dependencies and support to UK critical national infrastructure; * determine the pathway for the next stage of commercial engagement. Respondents should anticipate invitation to direct technical and commercial engagement with the National eLORAN Programme working group hosted by DSIT. The intention of this premarket engagement is to initiate the process to commercial competition leading to award of contract or contracts for a UK National eLORAN System commencing financial year 26/27.",
                "dueDate": "2025-12-31T23:59:59+00:00",
                "status": "scheduled"
            }
        ],
        "documents": [
            {
                "id": "022752-2025",
                "documentType": "marketEngagementNotice",
                "noticeType": "UK2",
                "description": "Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender",
                "url": "https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/022752-2025",
                "datePublished": "2025-05-19T15:16:57+01:00",
                "format": "text/html"
            },
            {
                "id": "027816-2025",
                "documentType": "marketEngagementNotice",
                "noticeType": "UK2",
                "description": "Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender",
                "url": "https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/027816-2025",
                "datePublished": "2025-05-27T15:34:15+01:00",
                "format": "text/html"
            }
        ]
    },
    "tender": {
        "id": "ocds-h6vhtk-051748",
        "legalBasis": {
            "id": "2023/54",
            "scheme": "UKPGA",
            "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents"
        },
        "title": "eLoran Programme",
        "description": "Build and operation of a nationally-owned UK eLORAN PNT system within the UK to provide resilient, terrestrial, sovereign, sustainable, and high-quality Position, Navigation and Timing",
        "items": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "additionalClassifications": [
                    {
                        "scheme": "CPV",
                        "id": "38112100",
                        "description": "Global navigation and positioning systems (GPS or equivalent)"
                    }
                ],
                "deliveryAddresses": [
                    {
                        "region": "UK",
                        "country": "GB",
                        "countryName": "United Kingdom"
                    },
                    {
                        "region": "UK",
                        "country": "GB",
                        "countryName": "United Kingdom"
                    }
                ],
                "relatedLot": "1"
            }
        ],
        "mainProcurementCategory": "goods",
        "aboveThreshold": true,
        "lots": [
            {
                "id": "1",
                "suitability": {
                    "sme": true
                },
                "contractPeriod": {
                    "startDate": "2027-04-30T00:00:00+01:00",
                    "endDate": "2030-12-31T23:59:59+00:00"
                },
                "status": "planning"
            }
        ],
        "communication": {
            "futureNoticeDate": "2026-05-01T23:59:59+01:00"
        },
        "status": "planning",
        "amendments": [
            {
                "id": "027816-2025",
                "description": "This Notice is updated as follows: For details of the eLORAN Market Engagement Questions and Annex A: Proposed/Potential Services and Mission Requirements email NPNTO@dsit.gov.uk The target date for clarification questions is 13/06/25 The target date for responses is 04/07/25 These are not deadlines; later responses will be considered, but respondent's scope to influence the programme is reduced the later submissions are received."
            }
        ]
    },
    "language": "en"
}