Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 27 Mar 2026, 10:20 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

London Transport Museum Annual Visitor and Market Research

Authority: London Transport Museum Limited (Public body)·On behalf of: Docklands Light Railway Limited

ServicesSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 yrsends 30 Sept 2030 · up to 30 Sept 2032 with extensions · starts 30 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

For the past decade, London Transport Museum has conducted regular onsite customer satisfaction research to understand the experiences and motivations of visitors, retail shoppers and café customers. This long running programme has provided essential insights into satisfaction, visitor demographics, operational performance and brand awareness, enabling the Museum to track trends, benchmark performance and support annual planning. The Museum is now entering a new phase. Following a recent total market survey and segmentation refresh, and with a new CRM system enabling post visit email surveys from 2027/28, we are updating our approach to ensure continued robustness while reflecting changing organisational needs.

Upcoming capital developments will also require more frequent insights into visitor experiences as spaces evolve, and this piece of ongoing research will be required help test themes and ideas with audiences during this period of change. We are therefore seeking a research partner who can, for the next three to five years, deliver reliable, unbiased audience insight while embracing innovations such as AI and best practice methodologies.

The supplier will help us understand motivations, expectations, experiences and profiles across Museum, Retail and Catering audiences; keep our segmentation framework active and insightful; and provide timely reporting to support internal decision making, planning and stakeholder reporting. The purpose of this preliminary market engagement is to source a research partner who can contribute to developing the most effective method for delivering the research.

CPV: Market research services · Research services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 4 yrsSME
Contract period: 30 Sept 2026 – 30 Sept 2030 (4 yrs) · up to 30 Sept 2032 with extensions
Delivery: LondonEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How London Transport Museum Limited buys Market research services (CPV 7931), and who usually turns up

London Transport Museum Limited has little published record in this market. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Market research services (CPV 7931) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerLondon Transport Museum Limited · this authority
The marketMarket research services (CPV 7931) · Greater London
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no supplier sizes published · market: CPV 7931 · Greater London, n=91
—47%

Across this market, small firms won 47% of awards with a known supplier size.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in Greater London.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no winner locations published · market: CPV 7931 · Greater London, n=70
—39%

Across this market, 39% of winners were registered in the delivery region.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 7931 · Greater London, n=13
—53 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 53 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no awards on record · market: CPV 7931 · Greater London, n=136
—44%

Across this market, at least 44% of awarded procurements had no recorded rival.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyerNo bid counts published
The market19 lots with bid counts · CPV 7931 · Greater London
16% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid16%
Market: 3 of 19 lots with published bid counts.
2–316%
Market: 3 of 19 lots with published bid counts.
4–621%
Market: 4 of 19 lots with published bid counts.
7+47%
Market: 9 of 19 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyerNo estimate-and-award pairs published
The market22 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7931 · Greater London
50% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate50%
Market: 11 of 22 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%41%
Market: 9 of 22 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate9%
Market: 2 of 22 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 731148 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published

This lot is listed as CPV 7311. The table above uses the notice category.

Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 12 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet8% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 12 similar lots
1 bid8%
1 of 12 similar past lots received 1 bid (8%).
2–317%
2 of 12 similar past lots received 2–3 (17%).
4–633%
4 of 12 similar past lots received 4–6 (33%).
7+42%
5 of 12 similar past lots received 7+ (42%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 6 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
27 Mar 2026, 10:20 GMT
Last source update
27 Mar 2026, 10:20 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-028346
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Market research servicesResearch services
Delivery area
London (UKI)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06761b Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

27 Mar 2026 → 30 Sept 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published216 days ago
    27 Mar 2026, 10:20 GMT
  2. Market engagement201 days ago
    10 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    This engagement notice is being published by TfL on behalf of London Transport Museum and seeks to obtain insight, feedback and market perspectives from potential research partners on how our future audience insight programme could best be delivered.

    London Transport Museum is carrying out this early market engagement to help shape the next phase of its audience insight programme. For the past ten years, the Museum has relied on regular onsite research to understand who our visitors are, what motivates them, and how they experience our Museum, shop and café. This work has been central to our planning and has helped us track trends over time. With updated segmentation, a recent market wide survey and a new CRM system on the horizon that will allow for post visit surveys from 2027/28, it now feels like the right moment to review and refresh our approach.

    We also have several major capital projects coming up, which means we'll need more frequent and flexible insight as our spaces change and develop. That's why we're asking the market for views on how a future three to five year research programme could be delivered in a way that stays robust but also makes the most of new ideas, including the use of AI. Your feedback at this stage will help us test our assumptions and refine our specification before we move to tender.

    This exercise does not form part of any formal procurement process. All responses will be carefully considered but will not bind TfL to any approach to the procurement, nor will responses be treated as conveying any promise or commitment on the part of the respondent. This Early Market Engagement (EME) is to inform the market of LTM's potential upcoming business requirements. Prior to commencing any procurement activities, we wish to better understand the market appetite by requesting you register your interest by completing the MS forms questionnaire: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/sJvrc3xR2E ↗

    by the deadline of 5pm on Friday 10th April 2026. Please email emeliawilson@tfl.gov.uk and bediakilic@tfl.gov.uk to obtain a copy of the draft specification and/ or if you have any questions in regards to this opportunity. TfL reserves the right to conduct further market engagement in the future if required.

  3. Contract starts29 days ago
    30 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    27 Mar 2026, 10:20 GMT
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

3 public bodies on the notice

London Transport Museum Limited

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-COH: 06495761 · GB-PPON: PDJL-2268-PZGV 5 Endeavour Square, London, London, E20 1JNContact email

Other public bodies

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure