Official UK procurement notice
Independent Accountant's Reports (IARs) & Grant Assurance Services
Authority: ASTON UNIVERSITY (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionAston University is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform a future procurement for the provision of Independent Accountant's Reports (IARs) and Grant Assurance Services.
The University wishes to engage with suppliers active in the grant assurance, audit and accountancy sector to better understand market capability, service delivery models, pricing approaches, innovation opportunities, and routes to market.
The anticipated scope may include, but is not limited to:
Independent Accountant's Reports (IARs) for Innovate UK funded projects;
Grant assurance and certification services for UKRI funded projects;
Assurance engagements relating to Horizon Europe and successor programmes;
Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP) engagements;
Grant assurance requirements arising from charitable, governmental and other research funders;
Related advisory services associated with grant assurance and certification requirements.
The purpose of this engagement is solely to gather market intelligence and obtain supplier feedback to help shape the University's procurement strategy and future tender documentation.
Participation in this PME exercise will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in any subsequent procurement process.
CPV: Accounting review services · Accounting services · Financial auditing services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How ASTON UNIVERSITY buys Accounting and auditing services (CPV 7921), and who usually turns up
ASTON UNIVERSITY’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Accounting and auditing services (CPV 7921) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 46 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid0% / 13%
2–338% / 40%
4–638% / 31%
7+25% / 17%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate67% / 37%
Within ±2%22% / 37%
Above estimate11% / 27%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 7921Estimate not published
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 182 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid13%
2–340%
4–631%
7+17%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 2 Sept 2026, 17:12 BST
- Last source update
- 2 Sept 2026, 17:12 BST
- Authority reference
1315- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-083230- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f0bdFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
2 Sept 2026 → 11 Jan 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published53 days ago2 Sept 2026, 17:12 BST
- Market engagement40 days ago15 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
Please use the link to ProContract to access the Specification and Questionnaire to be completed by suppliers associated.
procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗
Completed questionnaires should be submitted electronically via the procurement portal. Deadline submission 15 September 2025, 12:00noon
- Today26 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 77 days11 Jan 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published2 Sept 2026, 17:12 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender