Social Research Tenders and Contracts

A social research tender is a contract commissioned by a public body to study social attitudes, behaviours or the effects of a policy, rather than commercial market research for a private client. Universities and independent research institutes are common suppliers for this work.

Stotles brings together social research tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Social research is mostly called off from research and analysis frameworks such as the Government Commercial Agency research and insights dynamic purchasing system, alongside standalone evaluations and surveys.

Social research tenders are scored on methodology, sampling and fieldwork approach, team expertise, ethics and price. Many evaluations run over several years, so a strong design at the start shapes the later stages.

Research involving people must follow research ethics standards and handle participant data in line with UK data protection law, and work with children or vulnerable adults needs DBS checks. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar services at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Government departments, local authorities, health bodies and universities buy social research services to evaluate policies, understand public attitudes or assess the impact of a programme. These buyers may run the work directly or through a framework agreement.

Read departmental research and evaluation plans, programme evaluation requirements, residents survey schedules and early market engagement notices for research frameworks, which show work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Social research notices carry 79315000 (Social research services), 73110000 (Research services) and 79419000 (Evaluation consultancy services).