Commissioning research capability, facilities and specialist analysis
Scientific research is bought in three distinguishable ways and the notices look similar. The first is a commissioned programme: the buyer defines a question and funds a team to investigate it. The second is access to capability -- beam time, vessel time, controlled environment facilities, computing -- where the buyer is purchasing time on an asset it cannot justify owning. The third is routine analytical service, where samples are sent and results returned against a method and a turnaround. Each has different qualification and different economics.
Quality assurance is the recurring requirement. Laboratories are expected to hold accreditation for the specific methods in scope, participate in proficiency testing, maintain traceable calibration and documented chain of custody for samples, and report uncertainty alongside results. For work that may be used in regulation or litigation, those requirements harden further and the reporting format itself becomes specified. An accreditation held for a neighbouring method does not satisfy a requirement written for this one.
Data and publication terms are as commercially significant as the price. Public and donor funders increasingly require research data to be deposited under open conditions with defined metadata, and require resulting publications to be openly accessible, which has cost and timing implications a bid should carry. Ethical approval, biosafety and containment levels, animal research licensing, export and transfer controls on materials, and access and benefit-sharing obligations for genetic resources are conditions precedent with their own lead times, and they are the usual reason an award does not translate into a start.
This section describes how this category is bought generally, across the public buyers that publish it. The figures elsewhere on this page are measured for this market alone.
Who buys scientific research in United Kingdom?
GlobalGov holds 180 scientific research records from 32 distinct buying organisations in United Kingdom. The most frequent publishers are Epsrc (31 records); Esrc (25 records); Stfc (22 records); Nerc (20 records); European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) (17 records); Bbsrc (12 records). Between them the 6 largest account for 71% of everything published, so buying here is concentrated in a few authorities.
| Buying organisation | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Epsrc | 31 | 17% |
| Esrc | 25 | 14% |
| Stfc | 22 | 12% |
| Nerc | 20 | 11% |
| European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) | 17 | 9.4% |
| Bbsrc | 12 | 6.7% |
What are scientific research contracts worth in United Kingdom?
39 of the 180 records publish a contract value. The median is $635,000 and the largest single published value is $8.1M. By size, 9 under $100k, 20 between $100k and $1M, 10 between $1M and $10M. The remaining 141 publish no value at all, so every figure here describes the priced subset only, and values are as stated by the buyer rather than as finally awarded.
| Contract size | Records | Share of priced |
|---|---|---|
| under $100k | 9 | 23% |
| between $100k and $1M | 20 | 51% |
| between $1M and $10M | 10 | 26% |
| above $10M | 0 | 0.0% |
How often are scientific research tenders published in United Kingdom?
United Kingdom published 11 notices in this category in the last twelve months. Over the last three years there were 12, spread across 18 separate months of activity since 13 December 2017. April is historically the busiest month. No new notice has been published in this category since 15 May 2026, 139 days ago, so treat the figures above as a record of the market rather than as this week's pipeline.
Where do the United Kingdom scientific research records on this page come from?
These 180 records are collected from 4 official sources: UKRI (145), TED (24), Contracts Finder (6), Find a Tender (5). GlobalGov is an independent aggregator and is not affiliated with any of them; each record links back to the notice on its issuing portal. The set is rebuilt nightly, and the counts on this page were taken on 2026-10-01.
Most recent Scientific Research tenders in United Kingdom
None of these are open for bids now — they are the most recent records GlobalGov holds for this market, kept here so the shape of a typical scientific research notice in United Kingdom is visible. Set an alert to be told when the next one opens.
Methodological and Research Services
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Scientific Research procurement in other markets
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