Scope
Description
PACE (Pathways to Antimicrobial Clinical Efficacy) is a £30 million initiative supporting and funding early-stage innovation in medicines and diagnostics, aimed at tackling AMR. It was established in September 2023 and is a collaboration between Innovate UK (IUK), LifeArc, and Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) - three leaders in the UK's health innovation and research community.
The PACE programme is looking for an external provider to deliver an 'Enabling Project' in partnership related to early health economic analysis to support our cohort of AMR diagnostic innovation developers from our 2nd PACE funding call. Please see (https://paceamr.org.uk/news/ukhsa-announced-as-first-pace-collaboration-to-help-tackle-deadly-antimicrobial-resistance/) for details of our first enabling project partnering with UKHSA to provide access to clinical isolates for our first cohort of therapeutics developers.
The overall purpose of this second enabling project is to provide PACE awardees and the wider AMR community with access to practical early-stage health economic outputs, including care pathway insights, indicative cost analyses, early-stage economic modelling and value proposition frameworks tailored to our cohorts emerging diagnostic technologies. These outputs will be designed to support product development decisions, stakeholder engagements and future reimbursement planning with relevance across bloodstream infections (BSI), respiratory tract infections (RTI) and urinary tract infections (UTI).
To maximise impact, the provider is expected to group diagnostics with similar clinical positioning or use cases together to make the most of synergies across the cohort (e.g. when establishing the existing care pathway of the indications). Where relevant, the provider is also expected to align with existing or ongoing initiatives. A key priority is to ensure that insights, and findings from the project are made publicly available through open-access tools, share reports etc. to ensure that it benefits the broader AMR innovation community to inform future policy, funding and procurement decisions.
The support required is across three work packages:
Kick-off webinar: Introduce PACE awardees (diagnostics projects) to early-stage health economic assessment including its purpose, relevance and application across the cohort.
Baseline development and modelling tool: Deliver care-pathway analyses (BSI, RTI and UTI) and a re-usable (modelling with guidance -enabling scenario testing using default assumptions.
Project-specific deployment: Collaborate with each PACE project to input diagnostic specific data, generate tailored analyses, and refine the tool using real-world examples.
Total value (estimated)
- £300,000 excluding VAT
- £360,000 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 9 February 2026 to 8 August 2027
- Possible extension to 8 February 2028
- 2 years
Description of possible extension:
The PACE programme will have the option to extend the Contract for a further 6 months, subject to the awarded Suppliers satisfactory performance.
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services
Contract locations
- UK - United Kingdom
Participation
Particular suitability
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
Submission
Enquiry deadline
26 November 2025, 4:00pm
Tender submission deadline
9 December 2025, 4:00pm
Submission address and any special instructions
https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=d32c4542-afbf-f011-813a-005056b64545
Please email procurement@md.catapult.org.uk if you have any issues accessing.
Tenders may be submitted electronically
Yes
Languages that may be used for submission
English
Award decision date (estimated)
9 February 2026
Award criteria
| Name | Type | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | Quality | 80% |
| Price | Price | 20% |
Other information
Conflicts assessment prepared/revised
Yes
Procedure
Procedure type
Open procedure
Contracting authority
MEDICINES DISCOVERY CATAPULT LIMITED
- Companies House: 09928547
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PJPQ-6911-DQYY
Block 35g, Mereside Alderley Park
Macclesfield
SK10 4ZF
United Kingdom
Region: UKD62 - Cheshire East
Organisation type: Public authority - sub-central government