Collaboration and Incentives Commission

Tender description

Defra is seeking to procure a contract with a single supplier that has the relevant experience and capability to provide the additional research that is needed to examine the behaviours of farmers and land managers on the ground to fully understand the current barriers and effective gateways to collaborative land management to most effectively deliver environmental outcomes at large spatial scales. Generally, there is relatively little rigorous and robust research evaluating and comparing the effectiveness of different approaches both in terms of farmer and land manager experience (e.g. resistance or acceptance of different initiatives) to identify contingent factors affecting the success of schemes, and in terms of the environmental and social additionally provided (e.g. bigger and better benefits). This project seeks to provide a complete assessment of ‘what works’ by a) synthesising evidence from existing/earlier work/evaluations and, b) using primary data collection to address any remaining knowledge gaps. The evaluation should take each mechanism/initiative in turn and apply a consistent research approach. The evaluation approach should also acknowledge that each initiative will be at a slightly different stage of establishment. This will have a bearing on their ability to demonstrate their efficacy, particularly the delivery of additional benefits, and must be factored into the assessment. Accordingly, a robust methodology will be needed for any comparative analysis to yield findings that can be used in ELM policy-making. This consistency, rigour and awareness will ensure that insights fed back to the policy teams are evidence-led and have considered significant social science factors, particularly the impact on land manager behaviour including any unintended negative implications which may have been absent from previous evaluations.