We commission research and survey work on a contract basis to develop and support its policies.
Calls for tender are submitted through an electronic tendering system and automatically loaded onto tender advertising portals such as Find A Tender, which is the UK e-notification service where procurement notices are published.
All information on procurement opportunities, existing contracts and tenders are made publicly available. We do not publish commercially sensitive information or information that may be used to obtain an unfair competitive advantage.
Quality assurance in our research
Together with the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council) we have developed a Code of Practice to ensure that science and evidence commissioned by us is consistently of a high and reliable quality.
With Defra, we commissioned the United Kingdom Accredititation Service in 2006 to audit a sample of our science and evidence projects against the provisions of the Code.
Findings from the two year audit programme were disseminated and the Code has subsequently been revised as a result of the audit findings.