Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 30 Jul 2026, 11:40 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Industry Partnership and Sponsorship Opportunity: Dragon's Heart Institute Spread & Scale Academy 2026

Procurement agent: NHS Wales Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board·On behalf of: Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£60,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term Ends 14 Oct 2026starts 12 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Opportunity for organisations to become industry partners, sponsors and marketplace exhibitors at the Dragon's Heart Institute Spread & Scale Academy 2026, taking place from 12-14 October 2026 at St David's Hotel, Cardiff Bay.

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP), on behalf of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and the Dragon's Heart Institute, invites expressions of interest from organisations wishing to become industry partners, sponsors and marketplace exhibitors at the Spread & Scale Academy 2026, taking place from 12 to 14 October 2026 at St David's Hotel, Cardiff Bay.

The Spread & Scale Academy is a three-day intensive programme designed to support health and social care teams to spread, adopt and scale proven innovations and service improvements. Delivered by the Dragon's Heart Institute in partnership with the Billions Institute, the Academy brings together multidisciplinary teams from health, social care, local government, the third sector and partner organisations who are actively leading transformation and improvement projects.

Since 2019, the Academy has trained over 1,000 learners across 241 project teams, achieving significant impact including the spread of solutions across organisations, financial savings and environmental benefits.

This opportunity offers organisations direct engagement with more than 100 delegates including senior leaders, clinicians, managers, improvement specialists and transformation teams from across Wales. Delegates attend with active projects and are seeking ideas, expertise, technologies and partnerships that can help them accelerate improvement and innovation.

Areas of Interest

Expressions of interest are welcomed from organisations whose expertise, products or services support innovation and transformation within health and social care, including:

Digital and technology solutions

Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics

Medical technology and digital health innovation

Life sciences and pharmaceutical organisations

Improvement, transformation and implementation support services

Workforce development and capability-building organisations

Organisations operating in other relevant sectors that can demonstrate value to Academy delegates are also encouraged to express interest.

Partnership Opportunities

This notice is issued to seek expressions of interest only.

This is not a procurement exercise and does not constitute a call for competition.

Participation in the Academy as a sponsor, exhibitor or industry partner does not provide any preferential access to procurement opportunities, purchasing decisions or future contracts with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership or any other NHS body.

Any future procurement activity arising from delegate projects would be conducted separately through appropriate public sector procurement routes in accordance with applicable legislation and organisational governance requirements. This partnership opportunity is intended solely to facilitate learning, networking, collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Where expressions of interest exceed the number of available partnership opportunities, submissions will be evaluated against published criteria.

Additional Information

Further details regarding sponsorship packages, exhibition arrangements, event attendance and associated benefits will be provided to interested organisations following receipt of expressions of interest.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and NWSSP look forward to engaging with organisations that can contribute to the success of this event and support innovation, partnership working and improved outcomes across healthcare services.

Contact Details

Expressions of interest should be submitted via email to: Sarah Yellen [email protected], once EOI is received a Template will be shared for organisations to complete and submit by the closing date of Submission deadline: Friday 28 August 2026

For enquiries regarding the Academy:

Huw Griffiths

Head of the Dragon's Heart Institute

[email protected]

Further information about the programme is available at: dragonsheart.org/programme/spread-and… ↗

CPV: Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedSMEVCSE
Contract period: 12 Oct 2026 – 14 Oct 2026
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How NHS Wales Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board buys Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services (CPV 7995), and who usually turns up

NHS Wales Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services (CPV 7995) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bidWhat to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 4 of 8 known-size awards · market: no supplier sizes published
50%—

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 7 of 26 known-location awards · market: no winner locations published
27%—

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside the delivery region.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 decided notices · market: no decision dates published
86 days—

Half of these awards were announced within 86 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The buyer’s share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 13 of 21 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: no bid counts or routes published
62%—

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer14 lots with bid counts · all categories
36% had one bid
The marketNo bid counts published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
1 bid36%
Buyer: 5 of 14 lots with published bid counts.
2–364%
Buyer: 9 of 14 lots with published bid counts.
4–60%
Buyer: 0 of 14 lots with published bid counts.
7+0%
Buyer: 0 of 14 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer12 lots with estimate and award · all categories
33% below estimate
The marketNo estimate-and-award pairs published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
Below estimate33%
Buyer: 4 of 12 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%17%
Buyer: 2 of 12 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate50%
Buyer: 6 of 12 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 7995SME suitablePublished estimate£60k
Expected competition
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 113 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet27% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 113 similar lots
1 bid27%
31 of 113 similar past lots received 1 bid (27%).
2–327%
31 of 113 similar past lots received 2–3 (27%).
4–630%
34 of 113 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+15%
17 of 113 similar past lots received 7+ (15%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £60k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

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.

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
Below threshold
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
30 Jul 2026, 11:40 BST
Last source update
30 Jul 2026, 11:40 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-072097
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d769 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

30 Jul 2026 → 12 Oct 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published84 days ago
    30 Jul 2026, 11:40 BST
  2. Market engagement55 days ago
    28 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST

    This opportunity offers organisations direct engagement with more than 100 delegates including senior leaders, clinicians, managers, improvement specialists and transformation teams from across Wales. Delegates attend with active projects and are seeking ideas, expertise, technologies and partnerships that can help them accelerate improvement and innovation. The the Spread & Scale Academy 2026, is taking place from 12 to 14 October 2026 at St David's Hotel, Cardiff Bay.

  3. Contract starts11 days ago
    12 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    30 Jul 2026, 11:40 BST
    UK2

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

3 public bodies on the notice

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Procurement agentPublic authority - sub-central governmentWelsh devolved regulations apply GB-NHS: 7A1 Headquarters Second Floor, Woodland House, Maes Y Coed Road, Cardiff, Wales, CF14 3UZContact name, email, phone

Clients of the procurement agent

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure