Researcher Tenders
See open user research tenders and awarded contracts for the UK public sector.
User research reaches the market two ways: as a standalone commission for research, usability testing or participant recruitment, and as a named workstream inside a larger digital delivery contract. Stotles tracks 4,691 notices on this topic, 1,959 of them awarded and 76 sitting at pre-tender.
Departments, councils, NHS bodies and public broadcasters all buy it, usually to meet the GDS service standard. Volume is thin: expect a couple of notices a week, so the awarded records are where the pattern shows.
4,672 results
- Closed tenderPublished 1 July 2021
EIP Digital Service Discovery - Online Absent Vote applications / Identity Verification
£80,000
- Closed tenderPublished 1 July 2021
FutureNHS Discovery/Alpha for platform integration, trend analysis and improved search
£250,000
- Awarded contractPublished 1 July 2021
Barring Referral Service - Beta MVP Digital Service
£3,271,000
- Closed tenderPublished 1 July 2021
DIT Investment Support Development Team
£937,500
- Closed tenderPublished 1 July 2021
Electoral Integrity Programme Digital Service Discovery - Overseas Electors
£80,000
- Awarded contractPublished 30 June 2021
(NU/1589-28) NICRE (National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise) Website and Content Development
£33,552
- Closed tenderPublished 29 June 2021
Identity and Access Management Support Partner
£7,200,000
- Awarded contractPublished 29 June 2021
WP1964: GOV.UK account and personalisation
£835,275
- Closed tenderPublished 29 June 2021
Financial product recording and administration discovery
£185,000
- Closed tenderPublished 29 June 2021
Discovery Delivery Partner for the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme
£1,400,000
- Closed tenderPublished 29 June 2021
Identity Access Management and Directories Product Owner
£1,659,000
- Awarded contractPublished 28 June 2021
701329375 - Provision of DLMC Design Partner
£1,980,180
- Closed tenderPublished 26 June 2021
A team to improve document management capabilities and evaluate the opportunity for a products team
£250,000
- Awarded contractPublished 25 June 2021
Future of AI in Health and Social Care
£116,000
- Closed tenderPublished 25 June 2021
Further development of common tools to support case work with residents
£300,000
- Closed tenderPublished 25 June 2021
BEIS Digital User Centered Design Partner
£3,000,000
- Closed tenderPublished 25 June 2021
BEIS Digital Technical Delivery Partner
£3,000,000
- Awarded contractPublished 25 June 2021
Delivery partner for development of a digital death registration service
£4,500,000
- Closed tenderPublished 24 June 2021
Design and Develop digital resources and learning materials for social care and early years
£210,000
- Closed tenderPublished 22 June 2021
Provision of Digital Service Project Portfolio Delivery 2021-23
Value not stated
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about user research, usability testing, design research, user insight, user experience research, ux research, research participant recruitment in the UK public sector.
How do I find user research contracts in the UK public sector?
Two routes. Watch the portals for live notices, or get in earlier by following the buyers who keep commissioning this work. Stotles pulls notices from 100+ portals into one feed, so a research brief published on a Welsh or Scottish portal sits next to a Find a Tender notice. Platform-wide, 0 notices were added in the last seven days and 2,117 are open across every topic.
What sort of user research work do public sector buyers tender for?
Four recognisable shapes in the recent sample: participant recruitment agencies, usability testing on a service being rebuilt, research and design people supplied into a multidisciplinary team, and licences for a user research platform. Recruitment is the most self-contained of them, and the one most often let as a contract of its own.
What CPV codes are used for user research tenders?
There is no dedicated code, which is why this page filters on keywords rather than classifications. The three that come up most alongside the filter are 73110000 (Research services) with 125 matching notices, 79315000 (Social research services) with 43, and 72000000 (IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support) with 257. That last one is the tell: plenty of this work is procured as digital delivery rather than as research.
How many user research tenders are open right now?
Six, against 4,691 notices on record and 1,959 already awarded. That is the honest shape of the topic: a small live pipeline and a long award history. Read the awarded notices anyway. They carry the buyer, the incumbent and the contract dates you would need to time a bid for the retender. Platform-wide, 0 award notices were published in the last seven days.
Is user research bought through frameworks?
Often. The recent sample includes call-offs under the Crown Commercial Service RM6126 Research & Insights agreement and briefs run through the Digital Outcomes route, alongside notices published straight to a portal. Stotles' 2026 Supplier Benchmark Report found 44% of suppliers treat frameworks as their main route to market, so check which agreements a buyer already holds before chasing an open notice.
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