Framework Agreement for the analysis of phytoplankton and phytobenthos from marine and freshwater environments for the purpose of implementing the Water Framework Directive in Ireland.

Tender description

The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for overseeing and undertaking elements of the national Water Framework Directive (WFD) monitoring programme. The information collected in the programme is required to determine the ecological health of surface water bodies in Ireland. To support this work, the EPA is establishing a multi-party Framework Agreement from which it can tender for contracts to provide technical services, specifically the analysis of phytoplankton and phytobenthos samples from rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters. As the expertise required to identify samples from both freshwater and marine environments may not exist in a single organisation it is proposed to divide the framework agreement into three lots as follows: Lot 1: Marine Phytoplankton Lot 2: Lake Phytoplankton Lot 3: River and Lake Phytobenthos The deliverables will include databases for each water category listing the identified species as well as the abundances of phytoplankton or phytobenthos taxa found in each sample. This information will be used to assess the ecological status of these different water categories and this information in turn will be used to determine if the environmental objective established for these waters are being achieved. Lot 216795: Marine Phytoplankton Marine phytoplankton is one of the biological elements sampled for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) monitoring programme. The requirement of Lot 1 is to provide phytoplankton analysis of approximately 400 marine phytoplankton samples in 2021 to support the EPA’s obligation under the WFD. The number of samples will change from year to year over the duration of the framework.The EPA is establishing a multi-party Framework Agreement from which it can tender for contracts to provide technical services, specifically the analysis of phytoplankton and phytobenthos samples from rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters. Lot 216796: Lake Phytoplankton Lake Phytoplankton is one of the biological elements sampled for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) monitoring programme. The requirement of Lot 2 is to provide phytoplankton analysis of approximately 190 freshwater lake phytoplankton samples in 2021 to support the EPA’s obligation under the WFD. The number of samples for analysis may change over the operation of the framework.The EPA is establishing a multi-party Framework Agreement from which it can tender for contracts to provide technical services, specifically the analysis of phytoplankton and phytobenthos samples from rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters. Lot 216797: River and Lake Phytobenthos The EPA requires the processing, identification and enumeration of diatom taxa in approximately 220 river and 48 lake epilithic diatom samples in 2021, in accordance with the criteria specified in the tender. The number of samples will change from year to year over the operation of the framework. The EPA is establishing a multi-party Framework Agreement from which it can tender for contracts to provide technical services, specifically the analysis of phytoplankton and phytobenthos samples from rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters.