Evaluation of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts HQ Retention

Description

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is commissioning an 
independent evaluation of the construction of a new net-zero headquarters for the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at the University of 
Reading's Whiteknights Campus. The maximum budget for the evaluation is £630,000
including VAT. We are seeking to commission an experienced external supplier with 
relevant expertise.
We are establishing a contract for a single supplier, although a supplier may choose to 
subcontract parts of its delivery. If you choose to bid with subcontractors to deliver the 
requirement, you must be clear in your bid about who they are and to what extent they 
will provide the service (see section 6 for more information on subcontractors).
This specification proposes a high-level approach to delivering this evaluation, but we
encourage bidders to suggest adaptations if they feel they would better deliver the 
requirements. These should be fully explained and justified.
We anticipate that the contract will cover a period from December 2025 until the end of 
2032 and will be structured into three main phases:
- Baseline phase
- Interim phase
- Full evaluation phase
The contract is being offered under the Crown Commercial Services Research & Insights 
Dynamic Purchasing System (RM6126) and the terms associated with that DPS will apply.
On 11July 2025 the Department applied a filter of categories on the Research & Insights 
Dynamic Purchasing System's marketplace was undertaken. 
The categories selected were economics (appraisal and behavioural economics), higher 
education, workplace training/skills development, employment, decarbonisation, 
emissions and net zero, financial analysis (incl. cost-benefit analysis, return on 
investment analysis), impact assessment, impact evaluation, theory-based impact 
evaluation (incl. theories of change (ToC) and logic modelling), value-for-money 
evaluation, and stakeholder research.