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
- Supplier
- Cranfield University SME
- Value
- £14,184,518
- Procedure
- Single tender action (below threshold)
- Sector
- Waste, cleaning & environmental · Environmental information systems (CPV 90714100)
- Region
- London
- Official notice
- View on Contracts Finder
- 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: • The platform which is owned and hosted by Cranfield for the provision of National Soil Map (NATMAP) • National Soil Inventory (NSI) and soil attribute data (SOILSERIES & HORIZON), and its supplementary data bases (broadly: the LandIS platform data). 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. 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).