Biological sample logistics and fulfilment services

The aim of Our Future Health is to recruit up to five million adults from across the UK to take part in the largest research study of its kind. Participants will be asked to provide information about their health and lifestyles and small sample of their blood.

OFH will ask for permission to combine the information and samples provided with existing information about them, including their health records. Adding these additional types of information will help to build a more comprehensive picture of health and wellbeing that could be relevant to understanding what changes people's risk of disease.

Combining these multiple sources of health and health-relevant information, including genetic data, will create an incredibly detailed picture that represents the whole of the UK. Researchers will use this information to make new discoveries about human health and diseases.

OFH will use the health information, including genetic data, to calculate disease risk scores for participants in Our Future Health where possible. Based on these risk profiles, it might be possible to better identify individuals who are at higher risk of developing certain diseases. This will provide an opportunity to test the potential of new diagnostic tests or treatments as they are discovered and to see how effective they could be for people at higher risk of certain diseases. This will also mean Our Future Health can facilitate research addressing important questions about the potential uses of new 'genetic risk scores' in health care.

In order to achieve this aim, Our Future Health is separately contracting for services to process blood samples from each of the 5 million participants with the aim to commence from January 2022. It is expected that this will include award to 4 processing sites in the UK - one each in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

OFH are now seeking to engage market providers of logistics services and fulfilment that can manage biological samples in order to define key requirements and capabilities to consider:​

Chain of custody and auditability​

Packaging requirements (UN3373)​

Collection and Drop off points across the UK​

Interim storage / consolidation (Hub & Spoke) options​

Reporting /Tracking solutions​

Temperature monitoring solutions

Kitting and fulfilment options Additional information: Providers in this market are invited to express interest in this procurement activity by email to ofhtransport@akesoco.com by Monday 27th September. On receipt of expression of interest providers will be asked to respond to a short questionnaire to gather information on optimal solutions for the service in advance of being invited to a briefing sessions to describe the requirement and expectation of the service of the market in more detail.