UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Award of contract for the supply of Vessel Chartering Services – Demersal fish sampling in the Mersey Estuary

A replacement camera system for a JEOL 1400 TEM to include camera, scintillator, PC and software. Must use the existing camera interface. A high readout speed and minimum 12megapixels, a wide field of view along with an electronic shutter and high-speed camera link digital interface. 1.2 The supplied PC to have Windows 11 professional and a minimum of dual 1TB hard drive, 8 GB RAM. A 24” monitor and all cables and accessories to be included

Hire of Trinity House guard buoys for 14 locations around the UK. These are essential as tehy provide protection to out Waverider buoys at these locations.

The continuous and escalating pressures from climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and the intensified utilisation of natural habitats are placing marine ecosystems under unprecedented strain. This ongoing degradation compromises the resilience of these systems, making them more vulnerable to acute shocks like marine heat waves and spills, as well as chronic stresses such as wind farm construction. The decline in ecosystem health not only threatens fisheries and other livelihoods but also hampers our capacity for carbon absorption. To effectively manage and mitigate these challenges, there is an ever-increasing demand for cost-effective and targeted environmental monitoring. Modern technologies, including drones, computer vision, and artificial intelligence (AI), are proving invaluable in enhancing monitoring capabilities while reducing the need for intensive human involvement. However, traditional visible light surveys of benthic and coastal habitats offer limited insights into the identification of flora, fauna, and pollution. In response to these limitations, there is a growing adoption of hyperspectral imagery. This technology captures significant amounts of data beyond the visible light revealing new environmental detail, surpassing the capabilities of visible light or human monitoring. Cefas requires a sensor to develop and extend its monitoring capability for coastal and benthic environments. Hyperspectral imaging is required to detect and characterise flora and fauna on land (seaweed on rocks, on beach), sea surface (plankton, algae) and underwater (benthic epifauna and flora). In addition, ideally the sensor would allow us to detect pollutants such as plastics that are characterized more in the Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) range of spectrum. The sensor will support near‑term pilot pipelines for: (a) benthic habitat surveys (via Cefas custom built housing) and (b) aerial shoreline surveys for plastic detection, while providing a flexible platform for future applications. Scope of Requirements: Technical Requirement The Supplier will provide a complete hyperspectral infrared imaging solution suitable for both Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) operation and laboratory use, including all necessary hardware, lenses, software and accessories required to acquire, calibrate, process and export orthorectified hyperspectral data cubes. At a minimum, the proposed system will be capable of capturing data across the Very Near Infrared (VNIR) spectral range (400–1000 nm). Ideally, a drone-mountable solution would extend coverage to include VNIR, Near Infrared (NIR), and as much of the SWIR range as feasible—targeting a full spectral span of approximately 400–2700 nm. Cefas understand that drone-compatible SWIR sensors may exceed the maximum available budget (£130,000 inc. VAT). Therefore, a hybrid approach of a drone-mounted VNIR sensor, complemented by a laboratory-based (non-flyable) SWIR system is an acceptable solution. Cefas is open to alternative configurations if the Supplier can propose a more suitable option that meets the technical requirements and stays within budget. In addition, the Supplier will provide comprehensive training on implementing data processing pipelines for hyperspectral data collected from the sensor, as well as operational support for Cefas drone pilots. This support will include training sessions covering environmental conditions, target selection, and sensor configuration to ensure optimal data collection Clear documentation of all data collection and processing steps are essential.

Meiofauna analysis for samples collected from the Endeavour.

The Marine Protected Area (MPA) monitoring programme is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and through this programme, Cefas co-ordinates some of the evidence collection for the monitoring of MPAs in English waters.<br/><br/>Cefas wish to commission a contract for the analysis of imagery collected from two sites in the English Channel in 2023 and 2024. These surveys covered Wight-Barfleur Reef Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Offshore Brighton Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) respectively, which both contain similar seabed conditions and sediment types.<br/><br/>The supplier is required to undertake the analysis of seabed imagery (still images and videos) collected on the CEND1723 survey by drop frame camera (DC) at WBRF SAC, as well as DC video data collected on the CEND0524 survey at OBRG MCZ:<br/><br/>• 54 stations were sampled at WBRF SAC using a triplicate transect approach, acquiring 4449 images of sufficient quality for analysis and 18 hours 39 minutes of video.<br/>• Six stations were sampled with drop camera in a single transect for ground truthing purposes at OBRG MCZ, with one station being sampled in triplicate, totalling nine videos. Overall 3 hours and 3 minutes of video were acquired.

Contract for setting up an aquaculture hub through the creation of a website / information portal and database to support aquaculture in England.

As part of an ongoing research project, Cefas is collaborating with Defra and industry partners for the provision of the 2025 May king scallop dredge survey services. This Contract seeks to secure a suitable vessel and all management, crew, victuals, fuel, and other services necessary to carry out the requirements.

Illumina sequencing consumables required to projects on the Illumina NextSeq2000

Essentials of working in on or near water and Emergency First Aid Training

Specialist service to package, collect and dispose of Lowestoft radioactive sealed sources that are no longer required. Under our EPR permit we must dispose of any radioactive sources that are no longer required.

As part of an ongoing research project, Cefas is collaborating with Defra and industry partners to carry out dredge fishing surveys with the aim of determining harvestable biomass of king scallop in the main fishing grounds around England. This Contract seeks to secure a suitable vessel and all management, crew, victuals, fuel, and other services necessary to carry out the requirements. Aims and Objectives The main objectives of the survey will be to: - carry out tows at predetermined survey locations using Newhaven commercial and modified scallop dredges; - count and measure all king scallops in designated survey dredges and retain samples for further analysis in the laboratory; - identify and count bycatch species. Cefas will provide two scientists to oversee the survey operations and undertake the scientific data collection, working with the vessel crew to deliver the objectives of the survey. The Skipper will be required to discuss and agree with the scientists a Detailed Operational Plan (DOP) before commencement of the survey, including the overall objectives and tow locations. This may be done via telephone, video call or onsite visit to the supplier (whatever is more practical with the time permitted). 4. Scope of Requirements Cefas is collaborating with Defra and industry partners to carry out dredge fishing surveys to assess harvestable biomass of king scallop in the main fishing grounds of the English Channel, the Bristol Channel, and along the Yorkshire/Durham coast. The contract is estimated to start in August 2025, or as soon as possible after award. The initial Contract period will be to 31 March 2026, to cover one survey in September 2025, with the option to extend for 3 further periods of 12 months each, subject to funding confirmation. If extended, the requirement will be for one survey in May and one survey in September each year. The aim is to carry out a combined total of up to 260 tows on an annual basis, each tow with the gear on the ground for a duration of 15 minutes, at a speed of 2.5–3.0 knots, using a combination of Newhaven commercial and modified scallop dredges which are deployed simultaneously. 5. Survey Area and Time of Operation / Delivery Period The May survey will be carried out over a period of 12–15 days in specified areas within ICES Divisions 27.7.e and 27.7.f (see Figure 1 below). It shall start as soon as possible after 1st May 2025 and be completed as soon as possible (weather permitting, while adhering to safe working conditions). The September survey will be carried out over a period of 10 days in specified areas within Division 27.7.d (see Figure 2 below) and Division 27.4.b (see Figure 3 below). It shall start as soon as possible after 1st September 2025 and be completed as soon as possible (weather permitting, while adhering to safe working conditions). The exact start and end dates of each survey may vary between the years of the potential Contract extension periods and will be agreed in the Detailed Operational Plan (DOP). Weather forecasts and tides (spring/neap) should be factored into the timing of the surveys and may require flexibility.

The BEEMS (British EDF Estuarine and Marine Studies) programme is funded by NNB Generation Company (HPC) Limited. Through this programme, Cefas provide authoritative scientific information on the marine and transitional waters in the vicinity of potential new build nuclear power stations and require a competent Supplier to deliver the element described below. Cefas require services to conduct intertidal mudflat monitoring surveys for the Hinkley Point C (HPC) Nuclear New Build project to meet regulatory environmental monitoring requirements. The ongoing mudflat monitoring programme focuses on a bivalve species, the Baltic tellin, Macoma balthica. This species is a key component of the Hinkley Point mudflat community and was identified, during the HPC environmental impact assessment process, as potentially sensitive to localised seawater temperature increases brought about by the cooling water discharges from HPC. As such, biological samples and physical measurements are collected every year. The monitoring programme is focussed on mudflat intertidal areas around Bridgwater Bay and at a reference site in Wick St. Lawrence, located to the north of the bay. The Contract implementation is expected to start mid-February 2026 and the initial Contract period will end 31 December 2028, with the option to extend by 2 further periods of 12 months each to maximum end date of 31 December 2030. Scope of Requirements: Biological samples are collected at all the sampling stations in high shore and low shore and require the following: a) Six replicate macrofauna samples are collected using a 0.01 m² corer to a depth of 15 cm. Each sample is placed in a sealed plastic bag and transported via private courier to a third-party laboratory for macrofauna analysis. The courier service, arranged by the Supplier, ensures delivery to the Cefas appointed UK based laboratory within 24 hours of collection. Alternative approaches to this analysis method are welcomed and should be outlined within your proposal. (Figure 2) b) Some mud is then shovelled into a 1 mm mesh sieve and sieved on site to collect up to 75 Macoma balthica individuals by hand using tweezers for population dynamic analysis. Samples are stored in a plastic ziplock bags (Figure 3). If only small individuals are found, an additional 10 - 15 larger individual (>1 cm width) must be collected for the condition index measurements and placed in a separate ziplock bag for a condition assessment. Samples are stored in a fridge or in cool box to keep individuals alive for processing at the end of the sampling day. These are then sent to the Lowestoft Cefas Laboratory. c) Sediment samples are collected using a 50 ml plastic syringe with a truncated tip to sample the first 2 cm of sediment as a core (five replicate). Four of the five samples (for pigment and nutrient analysis) are pooled together in a plastic ziplock bag to account for small scale variability and one sample is stored in a pot for Particle Size Analysis. Samples are stored in dry ice for the duration of the survey. These are then sent to the Lowestoft Cefas Laboratory. Physical measurements are carried out at the low shore stations only and require the following: a) Temperature and pressure sensors (Star-Oddi's Data Storage Tag DST centi-TD) are deployed on metal stakes (Figure 4) at the five low shore stations on stakes (see Figure 1). The sensors, which remain in situ, record temperature continuously and data need to be uploaded on a quarterly basis. Biological samples must be collected twice a year during spring tide windows in February and in August. Physical measurement surveys must be carried out four times a year, in February, May, August and November. Note that the biological and physical measurements in February and August are completed during the same survey.

The Supplier will provide an imaging particle analyser instrument to cover gaps in microzooplankton monitoring capabilities in existing programmes. Currently, 80μm mesh ringnets are used in the annual PELTIC (PELagic ecosystems in the Western English Channel and eastern CelTIC Seas) fisheries surveys but the existing imaging methods (Zooscan) are limited to a lower detection limit of 300μm- sized objects. This potentially means organisms in the 80-300μm size range are being missed out entirely. Cefas therefore require a new instrument that must be capable of using objective lenses to detect objects in the size range of 2μm-1mm. Additionally, the instrument must have the ability to be used on board our research vessel to process samples collected at sea, thereby saving time and resources spent analysing the samples post-survey. Scope of Requirements: 1. Technical Requirement 1.1 Must be equipped with objective lens capable of object detection between at least 80μm- 1mm size. 1.2 Must be capable of flow-through automatic image capture with either colour or monochrome images. 1.3 Additional extras to include transportation kit for packing instrument for surveys, including dust cover. 1.4 Must include appropriate image processing software licensing to be able to install software across multiple PCs. 1.5 Must be portable, to allow use both in the lab and to be taken on board our research vessel. 2. Environmental Considerations 2.1 Unit should have an ultra-low power consumption. 2.2 Consideration of how packaging will be managed. Ideally at the time of installation the supplier will remove packaging and dispose of by ethical and environmentally friendly methods. Where possible packaging is to be re-used or recycled. 2.3 Consideration of life cycle assessment for the equipment. 3 Hardware, Software, PC, Licenses, operating systems 3.1 VisualSpreadsheet software (available for installation on other PCs/work laptops), ability to connect to PC/work laptop with Zooprocess and ImageJ software installed. Compatibility with Windows 11 software would be ideal due to recent site upgrades of IT equipment. 4 Installation 4.1 Compatible with UK plug socket. 5 Ease of maintenance 5.1 Easy to clean and flush between sample runs, low-cost cleaning chemicals required without regular need of expensive consumables/parts. 6 Parts, Consumables and Updates 6.1 To provide a fully usable item for all purposes, alongside the core unit,Cefas require provision of: 6.1.1 Objective lens with magnification according to specifications in 1.1 6.1.2 Flowcell 6.1.3 Dust cover The Short Form Contract – version 1.5 42 of 48 Cefas version 1 April 2025 6.1.4 Transportation kit for survey packing. 7 Warranties, Guarantees, Servicing 7.1 Warranties will start from the point of acceptance of delivery and once the goods have been tested to ensure they are in working order. Cefas expect minimum warranty period of 12 months to be included in the purchase.

The BEEMS (British Energy Estuarine and Marine Studies) programme is funded by Sizewell C Limited. Through this programme, Cefas provide authoritative scientific information on the marine and transitional waters in the vicinity of potential new build nuclear power stations.<br/><br/>The purpose of this procurement is to provide bathymetric data for the Greater Sizewell Bay (GSB) to assess the geomorphological changes of the region, hence contributing to the ongoing monitoring of the Sizewell Coastline.<br/>Two longshore bars (important geomorphological features) exist in shallow waters within the Area of Interest (AOI), with the inner bar being subaerial during some low tide periods. The results gained from the below specified surveys will support the calibration of Cefas instruments located on shore, as well as the ongoing monitoring of the Sizewell coastline. There is a high priority for the furthest landward coverage possible to be achieved by the survey, so that bathymetric data can be meshed to aerial topographic surveys of the beach, typically undertaken at low tide.<br/><br/>In addition to the above, the survey also seeks to obtain Side Scan Sonar (SSS), alongside multibeam data, to detect the presence of potential Sabellaria reef in the offshore infrastructure area. This area has previously been surveyed and shown to comprise outcropping Coralline Crag, which supports Sabellaria formations, and as such the data should be of high enough quality to determine and detect potential reef areas.<br/><br/>Cefas require two shallow water Multibeam Echosounder (MBES) bathymetric surveys to IHO Special Order (at a minimum) within the Greater Sizewell Bay (GSB) as below:<br/><br/>1. Spring Survey - Full extent (offshore) bank survey (MBES) undertaken in the Spring/Summer months; with data collection in nearshore AOI (MBES) and an offshore infrastructure area (MBES and SSS) to be prioritised first.<br/><br/>2. Nearshore Autumn survey (MBES only).

Provision of services in support of the Coastal Health Shared Outcomes Fund Programme, which aims to determine a coastal monitoring framework Uk-wide.

Cefas have a requirement for significant back-end updates to the Cefas intranet. Problem statement The structure, properties and content of the intranet are now in need of considerable maintenance to reflect the new Science directorate organisation and Cefas’ strategic direction. This is not achievable using existing Cefas resource and expertise and these Services will provided by the Supplier. Proposed solution Providing science with a prominent presence will demonstrate a clear commitment to its value within the organisation, enabling colleagues to access information and resources more quickly and intuitively. . Sections 3.1-3.5 below outline changes needed to improve intranet functionality. Establishing a new hierarchy for Science First, we want a new header section at Level 1 for Our Science (as we have for My Employment & HR / Resources and Support etc). Some of the current tiles under Science in the Our Org section can then be moved, ready for content revision. Refer later in this document. Once a new header tab has been established (Figure 3), we will want to create a number of tiles that then hold further information – refer ppt Sci Drivers v5.5 Automatic deletion of items • Secondly, we wish to configure news items and events to automatically be deleted after 13 months and two weeks respectively, with a mechanism for news page owners to be alerted to the proposed deletion one month prior, with an option to keep it. • To develop a back-office scenario that for all news items: o Page owners alerted after 12 months that item will be deleted within four weeks from date of email alert and to action if item to be retained o If no action taken to retain then items are automatically deleted after four weeks from notification. • To develop a back-office scenario that all event listings are automatically deleted after two weeks of the event’s occurrence 3.3 Configure search bar outcomes Third, we want to be able to automate a report that collates all hits, likes and comments relating to news items posted one week from publication, each month and each quarter. • Create a method or running reports which can provide data on news items published between specific dates. This would be used to create monthly and quarterly reports. It would need to include the following data: news item title, news topic, number of views, number of likes and number of comments. • This might be presented as an online dashboard or exported as an excel file. 3.4 Fix ‘Save for Later’ • To fix the ‘Save for Later' option on intranet news items. Currently clicking ‘Save for Later’ does not allow users to do so. Update search function for Teams Area Create a clickable A-Z bar along the top of the Teams page so people can quickly navigate to the team page they are looking for. Assumptions • It has been assumed that underlying network architecture is already in place and requires minor amendment to enable Science section to be established. • It has been assumed that all materials (content) can be uploaded at different times after the architecture has been established to facilitate a rolling update to content, as opposed to a ‘big bang’ data upload • It has been assumed that a proposed development platform will significantly increase the cost for this update, therefore StormID will assess the deployment of the solution with minimum impact of users in the live environment and provide details to Cefas before implementing it. • It has been assumed that automatic deletion of items can be overwritten on an individual basis. • It has been assumed that the development of an automated report as required will not take significant costs or required in excess of half a day’s development.