Calls to tender
From time to time the OSPAR Commission seeks contractors to develop work streams where there is a need to support our team with additional human resources. This page details all current calls to tender offered by OSPAR.
Development and Maintenance of the OSPAR Riverine Inputs and Direct Discharges (RID)+ Database
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 15 October 2024
START DATE: 15 November 2024
The OSPAR Commission is an international intergovernmental organisation established to protect the marine environment in the North-East Atlantic. It is the mechanism by which 15 Governments and the EU cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. The Contracting Parties are: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union. The Commission is administered by a Secretariat based in London. The working languages are English and French.
Monitoring and assessment data are collected by Contracting Parties to fulfil obligations under the OSPAR Convention to deliver joint assessment and monitoring products. Data are analysed for annual committee assessments, periodic evaluations as well as contributing to decadal integrated assessments on the quality of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic (e.g. Quality Status Report 2023). The OSPAR Riverine Inputs and Direct Discharges (RID) programme aims to monitor and assess all inputs and discharges of selected contaminants to the OSPAR Maritime Area and its regions that are carried via rivers into tidal waters, or are discharged directly into the sea, for example through sewage pipelines or activities like aquaculture inputting substances directly.
The RID programme currently focuses on mandatory monitoring and reporting of the concentrations and loads of the metals cadmium, copper, lead, mercury and zinc, the organic pollutant lindane, nitrogen and phosphorus species, and suspended particulate matter. Monitoring of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mineral oil, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous substances, especially organohalogens, are recommended for voluntary monitoring. Furthermore, it is mandatory to monitor flow, and to make estimates of both flow and load from unmonitored areas.
OSPAR is seeking proposals for a fully costed, technical specification for the build, implementation, deployment and on-going maintenance of a renewed OSPAR RID Database to meet the needs of OSPAR Contracting Parties (CPs). The response to this request should build on work undertaken to date, where appropriate, and decisions taken by the OSPAR Commission. A new RID Database, named the “RID+ Database” (RID Plus) is envisioned as a replacement for the current RID Database, addressing shortcomings of the latter and providing enhanced functionality to meet the evolving needs of OSPAR and its Contracting Parties.
Further background on hazardous substances can be found in the thematic and indicator assessments provided for OSPAR’s 2023 Quality Status Report here.
Further information about the OSPAR Commission can be obtained from the Commission’s website at www.ospar.org.
Name, addresses and contact point(s):
Official name: OSPAR Commission
Contact point: Tarquin Dorrington, Deputy Secretary, OSPAR
Postal address: Aspect House, 12 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1AS
Telephone: +44 (0)20 3848 9685
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet address(es): www.ospar.org
