Annex A
Title of project: / National Plant Monitoring SchemeDate and time for return of tenders: / Friday 15 August @16:00 hours
Contract Reference No: / C14-0263-0847
Address for tender submission: / 1 electronic copy to be sent to
PLEASE DO NOT SEND TENDERS DIRECTLY TO CHRIS CHEFFINGS, LYNN HEELEY, DORA IANTOSCA OR GORDON GREEN VIA THEIR PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESSES, AS THIS WILL INVALIDATE YOUR TENDER
Tender responses must be less than 10 MB in size.
On receipt of your tender, you will receive an automated e-mail to confirm receipt by JNCC Support Co. If you do not receive this automated email, please contact, in the following order:
Sue Wenlock (00 44 1733 866880)
Chris Downes (00 44 1733 866877)
Contacts for technical information relating to this project specification: / Chris Cheffings
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Email:
Tel:+44 1733 866805
OR
Lynn Heeley
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Email:
Tel: +44 1733 866858
Contact for any queries regarding the tendering procedure: / Dora Iantosca or Gordon Green
Finance Team
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Email: or
Tel: 01733 866894 or 01733 866806
Proposed start-date: / September 2014
Proposed end-date: / September 2017
National Plant Monitoring Scheme
Contents
1. Joint Nature Conservation Committee 5
2. Project Aims 5
3. Project Background 6
4. Project Objectives 6
5. Project Objectives: Detailed tasks 6
6. Potential follow-on work 9
7. Outputs 9
8. Dissemination 9
9. Timescale 9
10. Health and safety 10
11. Product specification 10
12. Project management 11
13. Instructions for tender submission 12
14. Evaluation Criteria 13
15. Payment 14
16. Additional Contractor requirements 14
17. Appendices 14
1. Joint Nature Conservation Committee
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the statutory adviser tothe UK Government and devolved administrations on UKand international nature conservation. Its work contributes to maintaining and enriching biological diversity, conserving geological features and sustaining natural systems.
Our role is to provide evidence, information and advice so that decisions are made that protect natural resources and systems. Our specific role is to work on nature conservation issues that affect the UK as a whole and internationally:
· advising Government on the development and implementation of policies for, or affecting, nature conservation in the UK and internationally;
· providing advice and disseminate knowledge on nature conservation issues affecting the UK and internationally;
· establishing common standards throughout the UK for nature conservation, including monitoring, research, and the analysis of results; and
· commissioning or supporting research which it deems relevant to these functions.
The Committee comprises 14 members: a Chairman and five independent members appointed by the Secretary of State; the Chairman of CNCC; the Chairmen or deputy Chairmen of Natural Resources Wales, Natural England and SNH; and one other member from each of these bodies.
JNCC, originally established under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, was reconstituted by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. Support is provided to the JNCC by a company limited by guarantee (JNCC Support Co) that the Committee established in 2005.
2. Project Aims
This project is to administer and develop a scheme to coordinate and collect data on the abundance of target plant species in semi-natural habitats and assess the associated trends in habitat quality to provide a part of the evidence base on the state of the countryside and key drivers of change.
Aims:
· Deliver a sustainable and flexible scheme that utilises volunteer recorders to monitor changes in the abundance of plant species in semi-natural habitats throughout the UK over the long-term
· Through collection of annual data on the abundance of key plant species, detect change in the quality of semi-natural habitats throughout the countryside
· Allow and facilitate analysis of the collected data with other environmental datasets, in order to assist in understanding why change is occurring (pressures and drivers)
· Contribute data that can be used to produce meaningful ecological indicators and other relevant reporting products on semi-natural habitats
3. Project Background
The National Plant Monitoring Scheme is a new project that will coordinate, collect and analyse data on plant communities, in order to provide a part of the evidence base that can be used to address policy issues and give an indication of changes in the quality of key habitats in the countryside. The scheme will monitor the abundance of target plant species, mostly in semi-natural habitats, and builds on the initial project design of 2010 (JNCC Report No. 440) and the 2012-2014, Defra-funded, field trial of the method led by CEH with partners BSBI and Plantlife.
There are currently only extremely limited annual data on plant abundance and change, or on the quality status of much of the semi-natural habitat outside of protected sites. The scheme will fill a significant gap in the UK-wide surveillance programmes, many of them coordinated through JNCC.
Volunteer effort will be critical to the successful delivery of the scheme, although there is scope to supplement the data with paid surveyors in more remote or under represented habitats. The method and delivery will also serve as a backbone for bolt on modules covering complementary aspects of ecosystem function such as information on pollinators.
4. Project Objectives
To meet the overall aims of this project (Section 2), the objectives are to:
- Deliver an operational network of volunteers using NPMS methods
- Finalise development of NPMS methods and review these at the end of the project period
- Ensure effective online recording conforming with data standards
- Publish and analyse data annually
- Consider possible solutions and synergies for the delivery of data on additional taxon groups
5. Project Objectives: Detailed tasks
These detailed objectives constitute the required outputs for the contract. It should be noted that all outputs must comply with JNCC EQA procedures as detailed in the accompanying documentation. Costings from the tenderer are required for each of the objectives and the tasks contained within these including time/resource allocation per partner organisation where a joint tender is submitted. As a very rough guide, it is suggested that costs for Objective 1 are likely to account for 65 to 80 % of the total costs by the final year of the project.
Objective 1 – Deliver an operational network of volunteers using NPMS methods
JNCC requires operational support of the new National Plant Monitoring Scheme, consequently, the following tasks are required:
· Build a sustainable network of volunteer recorders capable of delivering the survey results throughout the UK
· Support a network of ~1000-5000 new and existing recorders monitoring habitat plots on allocated monads
o monad allocation and provision of mapping[1]
o training and support (including ensuring some progression to at least ’Indicator plots’[2])
o production of appropriate guidance information
o promotion (including targeted promotion) of the scheme to potential recorders within the wider recording community
Objective 2 – Finalise development of NPMS methods and review these at the end of the project period
In the first year, it will be necessary to assess the outcomes of developmental work undertaken in the 2014 field season, and make any required changes to the methods prior to the 2015 field season. All developmental work will be available as short options reports by 30 September 2014. Aspects that are being studied include:
· Volunteer ability to identify habitats (and hence appropriateness of the habitat classification and guidance)
· Plot size
· Plot selection
· Target species lists
To ensure that the survey method and the analysis of the resulting data are the best they can be in answering the required project aims it is essential to periodically review these aspects of the scheme. This will need to be done at the end of the initial three year project period. Elements should include:
· Does the target species list tell us enough about each habitat and are the volunteers encountering the species in high enough numbers to tell us about the quality of habitat throughout the UK?
· Are there regional issues with species lists, access to certain habitats or lack of recorders etc.?
· Are there further refinements required either to the field method or the analysis to ensure policy relevance?
· Are there enough samples to ensure statistically robust evidence, particularly for individual countries?
· Proposals for how to target network development to improve power to detect change.
Objective 3 – Ensure effective online recording conforming with data standards
The tenderer must ensure that any online recording system conforms to data standards and ensures data flow to the NBN Gateway and is generally fit for purpose i.e. provides clear guidance and downloadable survey forms; allows efficient and accurate data entry; validates the data appropriately on entry; provides interactive mapping functionality; and feedback via summary statistics/mapping to recorders. An initial online indicia based recording system was rolled out in 2012 (see: http://www.brc.ac.uk/npms/) and then improved in 2013 - 14. Tenderers should note that it is more likely to be cost-efficient to either negotiate with the current provider of the online system, or to use the indicia code, rather than create an entirely new system.
There may be scope for further development, e.g. additional reporting features. The contractor is invited to propose online developments that would improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the system or detail a new system delivering equitable functionality.
Note that (other than essential system maintenance), further development work may be desirable, but is not essential to the continuance of the scheme, and whether or not it is funded will depend on funds available.
Objective 4 – Publish and analyse data annually
Production of annual trends and indicators is an important part of the NPMS. Additionally, making the results of the scheme accessible is vital to ensure maximum use of data and to provide feedback to volunteer recorders. Until at least 3 years of data are available, trends will not be possible; however annual summary metrics should still be produced.
The following tasks are required:
4.1 Validate, clean and collate habitat plot data each year from all monads in the scheme to ensure analysis of results occurs within one calendar year of collection.
4.2 Produce annual metrics on species abundance for all ‘Wildflower’ and ‘Indicator’ species.
4.3 Produce annual metrics using combined species abundances within semi-natural habitat types. The habitat classification used must be agreed with the Project Steering Group. Publish these metrics as Official Statistics to an agreed timeframe within one calendar year from the data collection.
4.4 Produce similar habitat-based annual metrics by country (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) at the same time as UK metrics. The appropriate habitat classification must be agreed with the Project Steering Group.
4.5 Following advice from the Project Steering Group, produce annual indicator updates (e.g. C7 Plants in the wider countryside). In the first year, provide appropriate data and metrics for consideration by groups responsible for indicator development.
4.6 Work closely with the Project Steering Group to identify questions that need to be answered using the data. Where appropriate produce annual metrics for individual species or plant communities, or analyse against environmental drivers.
4.7 Provide access to field data, through the NPMS recording webpages and partner organisation websites, and by publishing distribution data on the National Biodiversity Network Gateway at full resolution in conformance with the data access policy by the end of the calendar year in which it is collated.
4.8 Publish metadata that allow the field data to be analysed alongside other environmental datasets by external organisations.
4.9 Publish a newsletter (with results of the scheme) to recorders, and other stakeholders following each recording season.
4.10 Publish summary statistics, mapping and feedback (such as the newsletter) to recorders online through the NPMS recording webpages and partner organisation sites following each recording season.
4.11 Periodically update text interpreting results on the NPMS and partner organisation websites.
Objective 5 – Consider possible solutions and synergies for the delivery of data on additional taxon groups
Ensuring that the scheme is sustainable for the long term is a key element of the initial project period. This scheme has the potential to provide very strong links to emerging approaches to more structured surveillance and the focus on semi-natural habitat provides an opportunity to integrate with surveillance planned by the country agencies. In order to assist in this, the method and delivery should also serve as a backbone for bolt on modules covering complementary aspects of ecosystem function such as information on pollinators and the presence/absence and abundance of other taxa. The tenderer is invited to suggest how this objective can be met, particularly in the context of considering the scheme within a broader strategic framework of surveillance.
6. Potential follow-on work
Tenderers should be aware that there is the potential for the successful contractor to be invited by JNCC to undertake additional work on this contract into the financial year 2018/19 as follows:
· Modifying the scheme in line with recommendations from the review and from the Project Steering Group for delivery in the 2018 field season
Please note however that the potential for additional work to be undertaken is subject to a continuing need, availability of funds, and satisfactory contractor performance. For the avoidance of doubt, no guarantee can be given, that you will be asked to undertake the potential additional work outlined within this Annex A document. Tenderers are not asked to provide detailed project plans for these follow-on aspects at this stage.
7. Outputs
Outputs are as defined within the detailed project objectives. All outputs must comply with JNCC EQA procedures as detailed in the accompanying documentation. Key outputs include:
· A UK wide network of a minimum of 1000 volunteer recorders using NPMS methods
· Guidance documents for volunteers, including finalised methods
· A review of methods at the end of the initial project period
· An effective online recording system with summary statistics and feedback
· Annual metrics on species and habitats including indicators
· Full resolution field data and metadata made freely available
· Recorders newsletter