Official UK procurement notice
Research: Multilingualism, Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa
Authority: University of Essex (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThis notice sets out the University of Essex intention to award a contract to Busara Center for Behavioral Economics for the provision of services for the Research project: Multilingualism, Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa (MCCRA)
Busara will work with The University of Essex on its MCCRA Project to carry out a survey and embedded experiment on multilingualism and conflict in five African countries (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda), with a target of N=1000 respondents, and approximate duration of 45 mins per respondent. The surveys will be translated to the three most common spoken languages in each of the countries. The services also include training of enumerators, and data preparation/extraction.
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedProcedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 16 Jun 2026, 11:50 BST
- Last source update
- 16 Jun 2026, 11:50 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-056568- Latest notice
- Transparency notice (UK5)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06b5c5Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Urgency
- Published justification
A direct award is necessary because the selected provider is the only survey organisation with the operational capacity to conduct fieldwork consistently across all required countries. No alternative supplier offers comparable multi‑country coverage.
Using multiple survey companies would introduce methodological inconsistencies that would undermine the reliability of the results. Differences in sampling, fieldwork practices, or data‑collection protocols across providers could not be disentangled from genuine cross‑country variation, rendering the findings unsuitable for comparative analysis.
Given these constraints, a competitive process would not yield a viable alternative supplier. A direct award is therefore the only practical and proportionate option to ensure methodological integrity and timely delivery of the survey.
Notice history
2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 16 Jun 2026- Transparency notice published16 Jun 2026, 11:50 BSTUK5
- Contract signature expected1 Jul 2026, 23:59 BSTscheduled
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, Inc.15 Jul 2026 – 30 Sept 2027 | £240,890 inc. VAT | — | Standstill |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, Inc.Awarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender