Technical assistance in developing a Method for Producing Soil Health Indicators for England

Indicators of soil health are required by Defra and other key stakeholders, including Natural England, Environment Agency, and Forest Research/Forestry England. Additionally, these will make an important contribution to the 25 Year Environment Plan (25 YEP), both through tracking changes in soil health across England and through understanding the effectiveness of interventions. JNCC is co-ordinating a project funded by Defra to develop a method for producing soil health indicators. JNCC expertise includes developing indicators for use by policymakers, facilitating stakeholder input, and conceptual ecological models. As such, a contractor with complementary expertise - particularly technical understanding of soil systems - is required to provide a research service and form a partnership with JNCC to co-develop the method for producing soil health indicators. Key areas in which the contractor would contribute include reviewing existing soil health indicators, developing a conceptual model, and linking model outputs with soil health.

The overall project being co-ordinated by JNCC is to develop soil health indicators. A better understanding of soil health and how it can be improved is a priority within the 25 YEP because of the importance of soils to farming and forestry and because soil health underpins a range of ecosystem functions and services across all land use types. Key uses of soil health indicators include designing and evaluating interventions as well as providing national-level monitoring of trends in soil health.

1 electronic copy to be sent to [email protected] PLEASE DO NOT SEND TENDERS DIRECTLY TO HANNAH HOSKINS, LAWRENCE WAY OR DORA IANTOSCA VIA THEIR PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESSES, AS THIS WILL INVALIDATE YOUR TENDER Tender responses must be less than 10 MB in size. On receipt of your tender, you will receive an automated e-mail to confirm receipt by JNCC Support Co. If you do not receive this automated email, please contact, in the following order: Sue Wenlock (00 44 1733 866880) Chris Downes (00 44 1733 866877)