Agriculture, Land-use, Climate and Nature Evidence Programme

The Welsh Government wishes to commission an evidence programme to provide ongoing support to policy and operational teams within Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). This programme will broadly cover the interrelated areas of agriculture, land-use, climate and nature. The successful bidder, most likely consortium, will provide ongoing evidence, including that of a business-critical nature, through three interrelated work packages:

• Monitoring - undertake a National Field Survey (NFS)
• Modelling - provide ongoing integrated land-use modelling using the Integrated Modelling Platform (IMP)
• Evidence - deliver ongoing analytical support

The Welsh Government expects the programme to:

• Undertake a National Field Survey (NFS) enabling the monitoring and evaluation of policies in the areas of agriculture, land-use, climate and nature, including, but not exclusively, Glastir; transition schemes; the Sustainable Farming Schemes; the Nature Network Programme.
• Undertake appropriate analytics of NFS data and other sources to satisfy reporting requirements in the areas of agriculture, land-use, climate and nature, including, but not exclusively, National Trends; Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 indicators; the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 State of Natural Resources Reporting (SoNaRR); Rural Development Plan replacement reporting; other emerging international and domestic reporting requirements.
• Be adaptive and responsive in delivering evidence needs to support policy across the areas of agriculture, land-use, climate and nature, including, but not exclusively, ongoing modelling capability using the Integrated Modelling Platform and other modelling tools; undertake tactical analysis and evidence reviews and provide direct expert scientific support.

To deliver this it is required that the lead supplier will bring together a wide range of skills, expertise, and organisations; will be adaptive and responsive; will identify and embrace new technology; will maximise the opportunities for using and sharing the data collected; will seek to deliver maximum community benefits and aspire to deliver an exemplar evidence programme. Additional information: The budget for the 2 year initial contract term is between GBP 2,600,000.00 – 3,000,000.00. The potential total contract budget for the max. 8 years of the optional extension periods is between GBP 10,400,000.00 – 12,000,000.00. The budget stated in II.1.7 is the max. budget for up to 10 years.