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Scope

Reference

C34432

Description

The Blue Belt Programme is the UK Government’s flagship marine conservation programme, working with a number of the UK Overseas Territories to safeguard more than four million square kilometres of the World’s oceans. Earlier this year, the Blue Belt Programme conducted its first offshore research expedition ‘Beyond the Reef’ to the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.

As a component of the ‘Beyond the Reef’ survey, Cefas undertook water sampling, yielding 417 filters (348 samples, 69 field negatives). Our overall aim is to identify the composition and distribution of teleost fishes and elasmobranchs around Anguilla, and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

We require a Supplier to process these samples using a metabarcoding workflow and provide us with the raw sequence data. As we are aiming to publish this research, we require a high level of transparency on, and input into, the laboratory procedures used.

Full specification details can be found in the Bidder Pack.

Services required include:

- Extract DNA from the Sterivex (0.22 µm; PES) filters (348 total; triplicated per sampling station/depth; 4 L filtered total) and field negatives (69; one per station) provided by Cefas.

- PCR amplify a ~170 bp fragment of the 12S rRNA region, with two primer sets: one targeting teleost fishes (MiFish-U) and another targeting elasmobranchs (MiFish-E).

- Pooled PCR products will then be indexed.

- Sequence the library(s) on a suitable High Throughput Sequencing Platform, e.g. NextSeq 1000 P1 XLEAP-SBS, to an appropriate level of sequence depth.

- Provide Cefas with demultiplexed paired-end read sequence data.

Contract is expected to start 1 September 2026 with delivery completed by 1 December 2026. Some flexibility can be provided where essential, up to 1 March 2027.

Total value (estimated)

• £180,000 excluding VAT
• £216,000 including VAT

Above the relevant threshold

Contract dates (estimated)

• 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2027
• 7 months

Main procurement category

Services

CPV classifications

• 71620000 - Analysis services

Contract locations

• UK - United Kingdom

Participation

Legal and financial capacity conditions of participation

As per Bidder Pack

Technical ability conditions of participation

As per Bidder Pack

Particular suitability

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)

Submission

Enquiry deadline

8 July 2026, 12:00pm

Tender submission deadline

17 July 2026, 12:00pm

Submission address and any special instructions

All bids to be submitted via the above eProcurement system.

Tenders may be submitted electronically

Yes

Languages that may be used for submission

English

Award decision date (estimated)

5 August 2026

Award criteria

Other information

Payment terms

As per Bidder Pack

Description of risks to contract performance

Sample degradation or contamination at any stage of the transport or delivery, extraction failure, sequencing failure, PCR failure

Due to the nature of the work and difficulty of working with environmental samples, there is a risk of various elements failing or causing delay or additional time requirements, potentially repeated attempts at some of the delivery to achieve the outcomes.

These could lead to the need to increase contract length, and potentially additional costs where the issue is not the fault of the supplier and where Cefas requires the supplier to do additional work to rectify.

Risk ownership - Buyer and Supplier

Applicable trade agreements

• Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

Conflicts assessment prepared/revised

Yes

Procedure

Procedure type

Open procedure

Contracting authority

CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENT, FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE SCIENCE

• Public Procurement Organisation Number: PPGW-5299-JGTN

Pakefield Road

Lowestoft

NR33 0HT

United Kingdom

Email: procure [at] cefas.gov.uk

Website:

Region: UKH14 - Suffolk

Organisation type: Public authority - sub-central government