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R2O Maintenance - University of Surrey

Met Office

This public procurement record has 3 releases in its history.

Award

12 Aug 2026 at 14:56

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Award

29 Jul 2026 at 17:43

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Award

28 Jul 2026 at 15:34

UK5 - Transparency Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Met Office procured specialist research and experimental development services to maintain, support and incrementally enhance space-weather models for operational forecasting. The work forms the next stage of the R2O2R project, building on the SWIMMR programme and its sandbox environment and monitoring portal. Its purpose is to bring academic models into reliable operational use within the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre, while supporting collaboration between scientists and academic partners. The services cover model maintenance, updates, issue resolution, optimisation and operational integration. Delivery is connected to the Met Office’s space-weather operations in Exeter and to activity in the South East of England. The requirement is a single service lot for a technically specialised operational research environment.

This procurement is complete and was awarded by direct award to the University of Surrey. The award was made on 29 July 2026, following a standstill period ending on 10 August 2026; the contract was signed on 12 August 2026. The contract runs from 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2027, with annual extensions available. Its value is £249,908 excluding VAT, or £299,889 including VAT. The buyer justified the direct award on exclusive intellectual property rights and technical reasons: the supplier developed and owns the model code, retains the intellectual property and has the specialist knowledge needed to maintain it. The procurement used one completed lot and was evaluated through the direct-award route rather than a competitive tender.

This award indicates demand for suppliers able to maintain scientific models as they move from research into operational forecasting. A credible competitor for a future requirement would need deep expertise in space-weather science, numerical or computational modelling, model architecture and production software support. It would also need experience tracing development history, managing model updates, resolving faults and improving performance without compromising forecast reliability. Understanding how academic research is transferred into a government operational service would be important, as would the ability to work with scientists and external research partners. Access to, ownership of or licensing arrangements for the relevant code and intellectual property would be a decisive consideration. Suppliers should be able to support controlled integration, ongoing maintenance and operational assurance in a specialist public-sector environment.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

R2O Maintenance - University of Surrey

Notice Description

Space Weather Implementation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk' (SWIMMR), was a PS19.9m UKRI SPF funded programme led by STFC from 2019, and which largely concluded in 2023. Several of the projects were targeted at space weather scientific modelling gaps, with the aim of bringing them into operation for forecast capabilities in the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC). The project 'S3' stood up systems and enabled collaboration between academic partners and the Met Office space weather programme, bringing a platform 'sandbox environment' and portal for monitoring outputs into use at the Met Office (MO) where our scientists worked with several academic partners to bring their models into use. Whilst the original SWIMMR programme made this collaboration possible, there is much work remaining to bring the models into working operational use by the target date of September 2027, the Research to Operations to Research (R2O2R) project is the next stage in this Programme.

Procurement Information

The deliverables within this contract are intrinsically linked to models and associated code that have been developed and are owned by the partner (supplier) to a defined level of maturity under the SWIMMR Programme and finalised as part of the R2O2R project. The academic partner retains the intellectual property rights (IPR) for the model code and provides access to the Met Office under licence. As such, the partner remains uniquely positioned to deliver the required maintenance and support services. The purpose of this contract is to ensure the continued maintenance, support, and incremental enhancement of these models within an operational context. This work requires detailed and specialist knowledge of the model architecture, development history, and underlying scientific principles, which reside with the original developers. In addition, the contract supports the ongoing operational reliability and performance of the models within the Met Office Space Weather service, as mandated by DBIST. The continuation of partner involvement ensures effective management of model updates, issue resolution, and optimisation, while maintaining alignment with operational requirements. In summary, due to the proprietary nature of the model code and the dependence on the partner's deep technical and scientific expertise, there is no alternative supplier capable of delivering these services without unacceptable risk to operational continuity and model integrity.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d58e
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/076862-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

CPV Codes

73100000 - Research and experimental development services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£249,908 £100K-£500K
Contracts Value
£249,908 £100K-£500K

Notice Dates

Publication Date
12 Aug 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
29 Jul 20262 months ago
Contract Period
1 Sep 2026 - 31 Mar 2027 6-12 months
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Met Office
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
EXETER
Postcode
EX1 3PB
Postcode Area
Exeter
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLK South West (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLK4 Devon
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLK43 Devon CC
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Exeter
Electoral Ward
Pinhoe
Westminster Constituency
Exmouth and Exeter East

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

University of Surrey

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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