Planning

tNCEA_England Ecosystem Field Survey Coordination

NATURAL ENGLAND

This public procurement record has 4 releases in its history.

Planning

04 Jun 2025 at 11:45

PlanningUpdate

02 Jun 2025 at 14:36

PlanningUpdate

02 Jun 2025 at 14:35

Planning

02 Jun 2025 at 14:17

Summary of the contracting process

Natural England is currently in the planning stage for a tender titled "tNCEA_England Ecosystem Field Survey Coordination," with a focus on environmental management and project management consultancy services. The project is set to run from January 2026 to March 2028 and involves coordinating field surveys across England to gather high-quality environmental data. This procurement process, initiated on 4th June 2025, is part of the Natural Capital & Ecosystem Assessment Programme and aims to support agile policymaking by delivering comprehensive environmental data. Natural England, operating from London, is inviting interested suppliers to participate in a virtual engagement session scheduled for 12th June 2025, with registration required no later than 11th June 2025 at 1 pm.

This tender presents business growth opportunities for companies specialising in project management, environmental consultancy, and survey conduction services. The scope of the project necessitates collaboration with multiple contractors to deliver a wide range of surveys, making it well-suited for SMEs and businesses that can offer innovative approaches to survey management and data collection. Companies with expertise in logistics, training, and environmental data analysis would find significant prospects in contributing to this extensive and transformative programme aimed at enhancing the understanding and management of England's environmental assets.

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Notice Title

tNCEA_England Ecosystem Field Survey Coordination

Notice Description

The requirement is to mobilise and schedule surveys from multiple contractors to deliver England Ecosystem Surveys consistently, and to high quality, according to Natural England's field protocols. The requirement is to mobilise and schedule surveys from multiple contractors to deliver England Ecosystem Surveys consistently, and to high quality, according to Natural England's field protocols. The contract would run from January 2026 - March 2028 The tasks required by the Survey Coordinator are as follows: * Project management of survey coordination including high-level schedules (GANNT), and close management of RAID. * Procurement and contract management of suppliers to deliver surveys. This must be done working collaboratively with Natural England and Defra to ensure transparency and value for money. * Ensure surveyors deployed by contract suppliers have the appropriate skills and experience required by NE. * Ensure surveyors complete comprehensive training prior to undertaking surveys (materials, online sessions and in-field training schedule all provided by NE) * Develop survey schedule taking into consideration specific access requirements (access permission information provided by NE) * Write to landowners to confirm when surveys will take place * Manage logistics for deployment, management and collection of equipment between NE, and survey contractors. * Manage in-season changes to the schedule * Communicate with survey contractors and individual surveyor teams to resolve problems and provide feedback to improve delivery * Track and manage the completion of surveys, including data submission and soil sample logistics with the laboratory services procured by NE separately. * Manage dependencies between surveys, ensuring information about surveys (access information details & changes, plot decisions etc.) is being used appropriately. More information about the NCEA (Natural Capital & Ecosystem Assessment) Programme The UK Government has set world-leading ambition on protecting our natural assets, internationally through the Convention of Biodiversity and domestically via the ground-breaking 25 Year Environment Plan. Intrinsically linked to the successful delivery of Net Zero, protecting our environmental services has never been more vital. Achieving these goals is underpinned by the provision of systematic and robust evidence. For the first-time, Defra are developing a programme to deliver up-to-date, England-wide environmental data to allow for agile policy making grounded in the best available evidence - to truly understand where we are and where we need to get to. NCEA is a transformative programme to understand the extent, condition and change over time of environmental assets across England's land and water environments, supporting the government's ambition to improve the environment within a generation. Natural England (NE) is one of several delivery partners in the NCEA Programme alongside Forest Research, Environment Agency, Joint Council for Nature Conservation and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The Programme is led by Defra as part of the Governments Major Projects Portfolio. Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment in England. We help to protect and restore our natural world. As part of our science and evidence activities, we are delivering several projects for the NCEA, the most significant of which is the England Ecosystem Survey. England Ecosystem Survey (EES) is an ambitious new method of collecting environmental data. The aim of the EES is to get a true understanding of the condition of England's terrestrial environment and natural capital assets. To achieve this the survey will collect data on attributes of extent, condition and connectivity relating to habitats, vegetation and landscape features and landscape character, as well as soil physical and chemical properties and soil and water biota eDNA. It will also collect data to support Natural England's earth observation programme. Change will be assessed through repeat surveys on a five-year cycle. There are three different types of survey, each of which takes place in the same sample of 1km monad squares, so a second key requirement is to manage the dependencies between the different surveys, and the laboratories that receive samples, to ensure there is alignment of the resulting data. Three types of surveys take place in each field season (delivery year) on a random stratified sample of monads selected by Natural England: * Vegetation and landscape (V&L) - surveys required on 500+ monads per year: average time to complete each survey is between 1 and 7 days for a surveyor team of two (average 3-4 days). Survey season from May to September. * Soil sampling and assessment - surveys on the same 500 monads (but likely fewer due to dropouts after V&L): average time to complete the survey is dependent on number of plots but usually 0.5 to 1 day per plot, and 3-4 plots average per monad, surveyor teams of two. Survey season from September to March. * Soil classification - numbers of surveys TBC but will be a sub-sample of the 500 monads: surveyors can work alone but require soil specialist knowledge. Survey season from May to March.

Planning Information

You are invited to participate in a supplier engagement event regarding our requirement for field survey coordination services for England Ecosystem Survey Coordination. This is a key opportunity for suppliers to input into the requirement and the procurement process. We are also keen to engage with the market, understand supplier capabilities, and explore innovations that can drive efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. Join us to learn more about the procurement approach and how you can be part of this. The event will take place virtually via MS Teams 12th June 15:30 – 16:30. The requirement is to mobilise and schedule surveys from multiple contractors to deliver England Ecosystem Surveys consistently, and to high quality, according to Natural England’s field protocols. The contract would run from January 2026 – March 2028 Interested suppliers are asked to register their interest by completing https://forms.office.com/e/qQeVcB3pjr This should completed and returned no later than 1pm on the 11/06/2025. If you have any questions prior to the event please email joyce.angoma@defra.gov.uk The engagement session will include the opportunity for questions to be raised and also for the Authority to get feedback from you about the requirement.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-052ad2
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/029856-2025
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK1 - Pipeline Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security


CPV Codes

72224000 - Project management consultancy services

73111000 - Research laboratory services

79311000 - Survey services

79311200 - Survey conduction services

79311300 - Survey analysis services

79400000 - Business and management consultancy and related services

79420000 - Management-related services

79421000 - Project-management services other than for construction work

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£16,500,000 £10M-£100M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
4 Jun 20258 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
1 Sep 2025Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
5 Jan 2026 - 6 Mar 2027 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planned
Lots Status
Planned
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
NATURAL ENGLAND
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
procurement@defra.gov.uk
Contact Phone
03459335577

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1P 4DF
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

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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.

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