Exploring the appeal of 30by30 for Landowners/Managers

The contract timeline is as follows:

• Contract Start Date: The expected start date is 12 October 2026.
• Contract End Date: The expiry date is 31 March 2027.
• Total Duration: The contract duration is approximately 5 months.
• Extension Period: There is an option for an extension period of up to 1 month.

Key Milestones and Phases:

• An Inception meeting will be held at the start of the contract to discuss methods and timelines.
• Regular online progress meetings are expected bi-weekly.
• End of October: Applying to Natural England Ethics Committee and developing sampling framework and recruitment strategy.
• Early November: Preparing and agreeing research instruments (e.g., topic guides).
• Mid-January: Conducting research.
• End-January (started in Nov): Analysing research.
• End January: User-testing.
• Early February: First draft of report.
• Mid-February: Validation workshop.
• 1 week later (after early Feb): Feedback on first draft of report.
• 3rd week of February: Second draft of report.
• Early March: Feedback on second draft of report.
• Monday 15 March: Final draft of report for technical review.
• Second half of March: Implications workshop for NE/Defra 30by30.

Payment Schedule Milestones:

• Approximately mid-November: 10% of the budget upon completion of the ethics application, research instruments, sampling framework, and plan.
• Approximately mid-January: 40% of the budget upon completion of the research.
• Approximately mid-February: 30% of the budget upon completion of user-testing (with summary), analysis (with agreed outputs), and submission of the first draft.
• Approximately mid-April: 20% of the budget upon submission of the final draft, plus anonymised data.

Steering Group Meetings:

• End of October: First meeting on recruitment, methodology, and research instruments.
• Early December: Second meeting on progress, user-testing plans, and two workshops.
• Early February: Third meeting on initial findings and user-testing results.
• Early March: Fourth meeting on validation workshop results, draft report, and final plans for the implications workshop.

The core scope of work and statement of work summary for this tender involve several key areas and deliverables. The successful contractor will be responsible for applying to the Natural England Ethics Committee, with the deliverable being an approved ethics application by the end of October. They will also need to develop a sampling framework and recruitment strategy, providing a sample framework and a one-page plan.

The technical evaluation criteria, which carry a 70% weighting, highlight that the scope encompasses a service or product proposal (including methodology), the provision of key personnel, and robust research project management. The contractor is also expected to attend progress meetings every two weeks if required and provide summaries of these meetings.

A significant aspect of the work involves adhering to sustainability principles in operations, focusing on the entire project life cycle to align with the Contracting Authority’s objectives and addressing impacts related to climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, biosecurity, resource efficiency, waste, pollution risk, biodiversity, modern slavery, and equality, diversity & inclusion. Furthermore, the contractor must ensure appropriate protective security controls are in place to comply with the Government Security Classification Policy (GSCP) for information security. There is also a requirement to disclose whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning tools are used within the quote submission or service delivery processes.