---
title: "Collaboration on EXPLORE project Outcome Measures"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-05fed4"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-05fed4"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05fed4.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05fed4.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NATURAL ENGLAND"
published: "2026-01-02"
---

# Collaboration on EXPLORE project Outcome Measures

Buyer: NATURAL ENGLAND  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-05fed4

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## Summary

The procurement process was executed by Natural England, a public authority within the central government, located in London. The tender titled "Collaboration on EXPLORE project Outcome Measures" falls under the research services industry category. This contract, valued at £45,000, was awarded to the University of Exeter who will be collaborating with Natural England to advance the development of the EXPLORE project. The awarded contract is active, with a timeline from the 30th of November 2025 until the 31st of March 2027. The procurement was conducted directly as a below-threshold Single Tender Action due to technical reasons, justified under the Procurement Act 2023.

This tender offers significant prospects for business growth, particularly for entities involved in strategic IT solutions and research services that align with local government priorities on health, wellbeing, nature, and sustainability. Given the direct award and specialized nature of the work involved, businesses that possess expertise in digital dashboards and web-based applications like the University of Exeter are well-suited to participate. This collaboration underscores an opportunity for organisations capable of delivering highly specialized and technically demanding projects in partnership with government bodies.

## Notice

This agreement has a value of PS45,000 and is between Natural England and the University of Exeter, to support the development of EXPLORE. The contract will run from the 30th November 2025 until the 31st March 2027. EXPLORE is a fully developed IT solution to support strategic decision-making by local authorities. It uses health, wellbeing, nature and sustainability as the common targets for almost all local government work. It has been codeveloped with local authorities, and will be published in Spring 2026. EXPLORE has four domains. These represent the final outcomes from almost all local authority activity and are Health, Wellbeing, Nature and Sustainability. To support Local Authorities in planning for these domains EXPLORE has three components. These are OUTCOME MEASURES (quantitative measure of current progress in each domain), FACTOR MAPS (diagrams show most of the things which influence outcomes) and HORIZON SCANNING. EXPLORE will support Local Authorities to do rapid and holistic planning supporting the government's development agenda. Under the Procurement Act 2023, this direct award is justified as 'due to an absence of competition for technical reasons and provided there are no reasonable alternatives, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required'. This is because the University of Exeter have been a key partner throughout the development of EXPLORE, through RENEW (A Natural Environment Research Council-funded project, which NE participates within). EXPLORE is built into theme 2 of RENEW. Key academic stakeholders have collaborated on the digital dashboards and other web-based components with Natural England and have the necessary expertise to ensure that the EXPLORE web-based components will be successfully delivered. Therefore, they are best placed to take over from the current supplier with regards to managing and keeping the web-based product up to date. Additionally, given the nature of this procurement (i.e. below the Procurement Act threshold of PS139,688), this is a below threshold STA and therefore is compliant with PA23.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000076-2026 |
| Notice type | UK7 - Contract Details Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Below threshold - without competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 2 Jan 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 30 Nov 2025 |
| Contract period | 1 Dec 2025 - 31 Mar 2027 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £45,000 |

## 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 EXETER |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

### Codes

- 73110000 - Research services

## Release History

- 2 Jan 2026 at 15:48 - Award - UK7 - Contract Details Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000076-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000076-2026
  2nd January 2026 - Contract details 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-05fed4. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-05fed4.json.