Scope
Reference
ID 5956194
Description
DAERA requires a Supplier to provide the administration, delivery, licencing, support and maintenance of a Carbon Calculator which will provide farm businesses in Northern Ireland with their Whole Farm-level Carbon Footprint, Enterprise-level Carbon Footprint and Product-level Carbon Footprint. Training will be provided to assist farmers to use the information received to take appropriate action to reduce net GHG emissions on their farm. The Carbon Calculator procured for this project will be used on all Northern Ireland farms, and requires 28,400 farm carbon footprints to be completed over the next four financial years 2026/27 - 2029/30.
Total value (estimated)
- £2,500,000 excluding VAT
- £3,000,000 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2028
- Possible extension to 31 March 2030
- 4 years
Description of possible extension:
Following the initial contract period, there are [2] potential extension periods of up to [12] months each. Optional extension periods will be subject to review and satisfactory performance assessment by the Contracting Authority.
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
- 03000000 - Agricultural, farming, fishing, forestry and related products
- 77000000 - Agricultural, forestry, horticultural, aquacultural and apicultural services
- 72300000 - Data services
- 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services
- 73100000 - Research and experimental development services
- 73200000 - Research and development consultancy services
- 73300000 - Design and execution of research and development
- 48218000 - License management software package
- 48100000 - Industry specific software package
- 48430000 - Inventory management software package
- 48781000 - System management software package
- 77100000 - Agricultural services
- 77110000 - Services incidental to agricultural production
- 16000000 - Agricultural machinery
- 34000000 - Transport equipment and auxiliary products to transportation
- 48000000 - Software package and information systems
Participation
Legal and financial capacity conditions of participation
As per tender documentation.
Technical ability conditions of participation
As per tender documentation.
Submission
Enquiry deadline
9 January 2026, 11:59pm
Submission type
Requests to participate
Tender submission deadline
19 January 2026, 11:59pm
Submission address and any special instructions
Tenders must be submitted electronically via the relevant Call for Tender (CfT)
opportunity on eTendersNI, website details immediately below.
Paper submissions will not be accepted or considered and will be rejected by the
Contracting Authority / Buyer.
The tender documents are available with unrestricted and full direct access, free of
charge, at: URL https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
Tenders may be submitted electronically
Yes
Languages that may be used for submission
English
Award decision date (estimated)
19 March 2026
Award criteria
| Name | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| AC6 Cost | AC6 Price / Cost 30% |
Cost |
Weighting description
AC1 Proposed Implementation Plan 21%
AC2 Carbon Footprinting Expertise - Key Personnel 14%
AC3 Contract Management/business continuity 14%
AC4 Proposed Governance Structures 10.5%
AC5 Social Value 10.5%
Other information
Payment terms
Please refer to tender documentation and for further details on invoicing procedures please see : https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/ar ticles/account-ni-good-invoicing-practice
Contract Value
The estimated value figure indicated in the Scope Section represents an overall estimated contract value. This value reflects the potential scale of the contract and takes into account potential optional extension periods and the uptake of potential optional services as detailed in the tender documents. This figure does not however take into account the application of indexation or increases to charges due to increases in the Real Living Wage. Neither CPD nor the contracting Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The Contracting Authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender. Suppliers remain responsible for all costs and expenses incurred by them or by any third party acting under instructions from the Supplier in connection with taking part in this procurement process regardless of whether such costs arise as a consequence, directly or indirectly of any amendments made to the procurement documents by the Contracting Authority at any time. No legally binding contract shall arise (and a Supplier shall have no legitimate expectation that a contract will be entered into) until such time as entry into the Contract has been confirmed by the Contracting Authority.
Description of risks to contract performance
Description of risks to contract performance
The Contracting Authority has identified the following risks as risks that satisfy the criteria
of Schedule 8 sub-paragraph (6)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023 i.e. that the risk/s could
jeopardise the satisfactory performance of the contract but, because of its/their nature,
cannot be addressed in the contract as awarded:
1. This contract includes additional service days to provide for continuous improvement
and also to cover for unknown risks that may arise throughout the contract period. The
additional services days may be used to cover the following as a minimum;
• Enhancement to the functionality of the solution within the scope of this contract;
• System configuration changes/upgrades;
• Enhancement or additional interface requirements;
• Technology changes - to support the introduction of new technologies;
• Changes required to the solution due to changes to legislation;
2. The Contracting Authority has concluded that there is a possibility that the contract may
have to be modified as a result of a materialisation of the known risk/s at a later date in
accordance with Schedule 8 paragraph 5 of the Procurement Act 2023.
Exclusions
If at any time during the procurement, or post award, it comes to the attention of the
Contracting Authority (CA) or CPD, by whatever means, that a Supplier has become
'excluded' or 'excludable' as per Sec 57 of the PA 2023, the CA, after compliance with its
obligations under the PA 23, reserves the right to exclude said Supplier from the
procurement procedure or terminate any contract they have been awarded.
Insert appropriate reservations of rights and disclaimers of liability here consider - e.g.
The Contracting Authority expressly reserves the rights:
(I). not to award any contract as a result of the procurement process commenced by
publication of this notice;
(II). to make whatever changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering
Competition;
(III). to award (a) contract(s) in respect of any part(s) of the [services] covered by this
notice; and
(IV). to award contract(s) in stages.
and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.
This tender competition includes a verification stage;
Before the intention to award phase, as part of the verification process, the tenderer with
the highest scoring compliant bid will be required to provide a working demonstration of
their proposed solution to verify some technical requirements by way of a verification
exercise
Conflicts assessment prepared/revised
Yes
Procedure
Procedure type
Competitive flexible procedure
Competitive flexible procedure description
This competition is being conducted in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) and the Procurement Regulations 2024 (PR 2024) using a Competitive Flexible Procedure.
Once the tender assessment process as set out in the Instructions to Tenderers has been completed, the marks for the Award Criteria and for Price will be combined to identify a provisional Most Advantageous Tender (pMAT). This pMAT will be required to submit the data used by it to produce the full carbon footprint assessment at the Whole Farm-Level, Farm Enterprise-Level, and Farm Product-Level (along with the footprint) for the example/s given at the Conditions of Participation stage to a recommended Third-Party Organisation listed.
Full details are in the Instructions to Tenderers document.
Contracting authority
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs - DAERA
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PLDR-5748-GBBJ
Clare House 303 Airport Road West
Belfast
BT3 9ED
United Kingdom
Region: UKN06 - Belfast
Organisation type: Public authority - central government
Devolved regulations that apply: Northern Ireland
Other organisation
These organisations are carrying out the procurement, or part of it, on behalf of the contracting authorities.
CPD - Supplies and Services Division
Summary of their role in this procurement: Construction and Procurement Delivery - Supplies and Services Division, is a Centre of Procurement Expertise and provides a central procurement function for central government in Northern Ireland.
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PVWG-8426-YWXV
Clare House 303 Airport Road West
Belfast
BT3 9ED
United Kingdom
Region: UKN06 - Belfast