---
title: "Soil Sample Metabarcoding for Natural England's Long Term Monitoring Network 2025 - 2026"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-05ebd8"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05ebd8"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05ebd8.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05ebd8.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NATURAL ENGLAND"
published: "2026-01-23"
---

# Soil Sample Metabarcoding for Natural England's Long Term Monitoring Network 2025 - 2026

Buyer: NATURAL ENGLAND  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-05ebd8

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## Summary

The procurement process for the "Soil Sample Metabarcoding for Natural England's Long Term Monitoring Network 2025 - 2026" project was led by Natural England, a public authority in central government based in London, United Kingdom. The final stage was the award, which took place on 23rd January 2026, following an open competition procurement method. This contract, classified under research laboratory services, involves the analysis of soil samples to deliver comprehensive data on bacteria and fungi essential for long-term monitoring. The contract value was £34,960.10, running from 12th January to 25th March 2026. The winning supplier was the University of Sheffield, located in Sheffield, United Kingdom.

This tender offers substantial opportunities for research-oriented entities, particularly those specialising in environmental science and laboratory services, to showcase expertise in innovative data analysis techniques such as metabarcoding. Given the project's focus on providing repeatable and comparable data in line with historical analyses, organisations with strong capabilities in scientific research and data interpretation within environmental contexts are well-placed to benefit. The nature of the work being under a central government monitoring programme also provides prestige and potential for future collaborations and projects within the public sector.

## Notice

This project is to analyse soil samples collected from a range of sites and time points by Natural England's Long Term Monitoring Network using metabarcoding. The project will deliver raw and taxonomically assigned data on bacteria and fungi within the samples, along with meta-data and reporting sufficient to ensure analyses are fully repeatable. As the soil samples originate from a longer term monitoring programme this project should aim to produce data comparable with previous metabarcoding analyses, as detailed in the specification.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006139-2026 |
| Notice type | UK7 - Contract Details Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Below threshold - open competition |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 23 Jan 2026 |
| Submission deadline | 15 Dec 2025 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 9 Jan 2026 |
| Contract period | 12 Jan 2026 - 25 Mar 2026 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £49,500 |
| Lots value | £49,500 |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £34,960 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NATURAL ENGLAND |
| 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 | UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

### Codes

- 73111000 - Research laboratory services

## Release History

- 23 Jan 2026 at 12:00 - Award - UK7 - Contract Details Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006139-2026
- 12 Dec 2025 at 09:37 - TenderUpdate - UK4 - Tender Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/082292-2025
- 1 Dec 2025 at 12:06 - Tender - UK4 - Tender Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/078446-2025

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006139-2026
  23rd January 2026 - Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/082292-2025
  12th December 2025 - Tender notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/078446-2025
  1st December 2025 - Tender notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/A-8543
  RFQ
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/A-8544
  Order Form
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/A-8545
  Commercial Response
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/A-9096
  NEW - Clarification Q&A

## Notice URLs

- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents
- https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/

## 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-05ebd8. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05ebd8.json.