Scope
Reference
C32097
Description
This agreement has a value of £45,000 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 £139,688), this is a below threshold STA and therefore is compliant with PA23.
Contract 1. Collaboration on EXPLORE Project Outcome Measures
Supplier
Contract value
- £45,000 excluding VAT
- £54,000 including VAT
Below the relevant threshold
Date signed
30 November 2025
Contract dates
- 1 December 2025 to 31 March 2027
- 1 year, 4 months
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 73110000 - Research services
Contract locations
- UK - United Kingdom
Procedure
Procedure type
Below threshold - without competition
Supplier
University of Exeter
The Queen's Drive
Exeter
EX4 4QJ
United Kingdom
Email: a.r.huke@exeter.ac.uk
Region: UKK43 - Devon CC
Small or medium-sized enterprise (SME): No
Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE): No
Contract 1. Collaboration on EXPLORE Project Outcome Measures
Contracting authority
NATURAL ENGLAND
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PJDG-6588-XDMM
Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
United Kingdom
Region: UKI32 - Westminster
Organisation type: Public authority - central government