---
title: "Procurement of Marine Data Products"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-05631d"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05631d"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05631d.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05631d.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS"
published: "2025-08-20"
---

# Procurement of Marine Data Products

Buyer: DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-05631d

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## Summary

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), located at Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street, London, initiated a procurement process for "Procurement of Marine Data Products" focusing on data services within the public authority central government category. This tender was processed as a direct below-threshold procurement, justified by the absence of competition due to the technical expertise required that only OceanWise Limited could provide. The contract commenced on 1st August 2025 and will run until 31st July 2026, but a subsequent cancellation notice was issued on 20th August 2025 due to a revision of contract details.

The procurement, aimed at acquiring a Marine Digital Elevation Model for various applications, provides opportunities for businesses specialising in marine data services, particularly those with proprietary data and expertise like OceanWise Limited, an SME based in Eastbourne, UK. This highlights a specific business growth area for firms that can offer unique solutions in marine sustainability and data modelling, essential for supporting DEFRA’s environmental objectives. Such procurement processes suggest an avenue for growth for small and medium enterprises that can meet specific, targeted needs within the marine industry sector.

## Notice

The Marine Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a dataset providing a representation of the estimated depth of the sea across the UK continental shelf. Some of the specific uses of this technology include habitat modelling, sediment mapping and determining the adequacy of the UK's Marine Protected Area network. The Oceanwise Marine DEM uses the best available marine data sources to ensure data coverage and quality. This dataset is owned by the Supplier within their Intellectual Property and therefore this can only be made available by Oceanwise. Access to this dataset is key in helping Defra meet marine sustainability goals and policies and it will be used by marine analysts across Defra group, Natural England, JNCC, the MMO and CEFAS. In line with the Procurement Act 2023, this complies with the thresholds for a Direct Award due to the following justification: "6. (a) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required and (b)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works." This is because Oceanwise have the expertise and knowledge, along with ownership of the best available marine data sources, to produce a dataset that will replace legacy, poor-quality data that has been used previously. Additionally, given the nature of this procurement (i.e. below the Procurement Act threshold of PS139,688), this is a below threshold Direct Award and therefore is compliant with the Below Threshold rules within the Procurement Act 2023.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/049999-2025 |
| Notice type | UK5 - Transparency Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Below threshold - without competition |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 20 Aug 2025 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 21 Jul 2025 |
| Contract period | 31 Jul 2025 - 31 Jul 2026 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £24,951 |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Cancelled |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS |
| Additional buyers | Missing |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1P 4DF |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West |
| ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London |
| Local authority | Westminster |
| Electoral ward | St James's |
| Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | OCEANWISE |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

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

### Codes

- 72300000 - Data services

## Release History

- 20 Aug 2025 at 07:54 - TenderCancellation - UK12 - Procurement Termination Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/049999-2025
- 21 Jul 2025 at 14:12 - Award - UK5 - Transparency Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/041708-2025

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/049999-2025
  20th August 2025 - Procurement termination notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/041708-2025
  21st July 2025 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://defra-family.force.com/s/Welcome
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05631d. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05631d.json.