Awarded without open competition
Awarded without open competition. The buyer went directly to one or a few suppliers instead of advertising the contract. Procurement rules allow this only in specific cases, such as extreme urgency, when only one supplier can do the work, or for call-offs from an existing framework.
Key facts
- Buyer
- Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs · Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions
- Supplier
- Cranfield University
- Value
- £14,184,518
- Procedure
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Sector
- IT services · Maintenance of information technology software (CPV 72267100)
- Region
- London
- Official notice
- 066137-2025 on Find a Tender
- Timeline
-
- Contract date29 Sep 2025
- Published17 Oct 2025Published 18 days after the contract date
Description
The existing LandIS agreement between Cranfield University (CU) and Defra sets out the conditions under which Defra can access:<br/><br/>• The platform which is owned and hosted by Cranfield for the provision of National Soil Map (NATMAP)<br/>• National Soil Inventory (NSI) and soil attribute data (SOILSERIES & HORIZON), and its supplementary data bases (broadly: the LandIS platform data).<br/><br/>All Crown bodies currently enjoy full royalty-free access to LandIS, and this available to charities and research institutions. Non-crown bodies such as the Environment Agency or Natural England, and other public sector bodies, private individuals, consultants, and businesses do not have royalty-free access to this data.<br/>Defra and Cranfield University are working towards reducing or removing some of the licencing restrictions pertaining to the afore mentioned datasets.
About the supplier
Cranfield University: every public contract they have won, plus their Companies House record (company RC000151).