How to bid for MOD contracts

“The MOD” buys through several organisations, each running its own procurements. Searching only for “Ministry of Defence” misses much of the market.

• Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) buys and supports equipment for the armed forces. DE&S buyer profile
• Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) buys research and technical services. GOV.UK describes its R-Cloud as “now the main place” Dstl makes opportunities available, alongside frameworks such as ASTRID and WSRF. Dstl buyer profile
• Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) buys construction, estates and facilities services. DIO buyer profile
• Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) and Defence Digital run their own procurements. AWE, SDA and Defence Digital profiles
• UK Defence Innovation (which absorbed the Defence and Security Accelerator in February 2026) funds innovative ideas through competitions rather than conventional tenders. Check its competitions page for what is currently open.

For most MOD procurements under the Act you will need two separate registrations:

• Find a Tender (the “central digital platform”). In competitive procurements under the Act, buyers ask for your core supplier information, which you hold on the central digital platform, during the procurement (guidance says before the tendering period ends). Suppliers awarded notifiable below-threshold contracts must also be registered. Procurements started under the previous rules do not use this registration. GOV.UK guidance
• The Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP). The MOD says the DSP “hosts all of MOD’s advertised requirements”. You can view opportunities there without an account. If a procurement is run through the DSP, you need to register on it as a supplier to bid. Procurement at MOD, Digital MOD

Some buyers also use their own systems. Dstl, for example, runs R-Cloud for research opportunities. The tender notice always says how and where to respond.

Under the Act, procurement notices must first be published on Find a Tender. The DSP is where you respond to an MOD requirement, and MOD opportunities are also visible there. Contracts Finder still carries notices for procurements that began under the old rules; legislation has deferred the end of those legacy publication duties to 1 May 2027. SI 2026/746

Watch the earlier notices as well as live tenders:

• Pipeline notices (UK1). Buyers expecting to spend more than £100 million in the coming financial year must publish a pipeline of contracts over £2 million expected in the next 18 months. GOV.UK guidance
• Preliminary market engagement (UK2) and planned procurement (UK3) notices signal a procurement before the tender opens. A qualifying UK3 can shorten the tender period to as little as 10 days, so missing one can cost you most of your bid time.

Our MOD tenders page lists the latest open MOD tenders from Find a Tender, and the glossary explains every notice type.

The full Procurement Act procedures apply to contracts at or above these thresholds, which have applied to procurements started since 1 January 2026. They include VAT.

Sources: PPN 023 and Schedule 1. Some official pages, including the MOD’s procurement page, still show the earlier figures (for example £139,688), which applied before 1 January 2026.

Below those thresholds, central government buyers must still publish certain notices for contracts worth £12,000 or more including VAT, and must give suppliers a reasonable time to respond, the same for everyone; there is no fixed minimum period. GOV.UK guidance

The tender notice (UK4) states the procedure: the open procedure (a single stage) or the competitive flexible procedure, which the buyer designs and may include stages such as a participation stage or negotiation.

Each tender sets its own conditions of participation. For defence work, check these early, because some take time to arrange:

• Cyber security. DEFCON 658 applies the MOD’s cyber security requirements, with controls set out in Def Stan 05-138. Since March 2026, Defence Cyber Certification (DCC) at the right level can be accepted as evidence of meeting those controls. The MOD has asked all industry partners to reach DCC Level 0 by 31 December 2026; the binding requirement for any given contract is what that contract specifies. ISN 2026/02, Defence Digital. Across central government, buyers ask for Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus where proportionate to the contract. PPN 014
• Security clearance. Not every contract needs it. Where a contract does, Facility Security Clearance (formerly “List X”) must be sponsored by a contracting authority; you cannot simply apply for it. Industry Security Assurance Centre
• Supplier assurance schemes. JOSCAR is an industry register used by many defence primes. It is not a government requirement, although a prime may ask for it in its own supply chain.

For above-threshold competitive tendering procedures under the Act, the normal minimum tendering period is 25 days where tenders are submitted electronically and all tender documents are available from the start. It is 30 or 35 days if either condition is not met, and can be as short as 10 days after a qualifying planned procurement notice or in a genuine state of urgency. Light-touch and below-threshold contracts have no fixed minimum. GOV.UK guidance, section 54

Those are legal minimums, not typical periods. See how long MOD tenders stay open for what the published notices in our dataset show.

1. The buyer assesses tenders and, in a competitive procedure, sends each bidder an assessment summary.
2. It publishes a contract award notice (UK6) before signing the contract. This usually starts a standstill period of eight working days, during which the contract cannot be entered into. There is no mandatory standstill for some awards, including call-offs under frameworks and dynamic markets, light-touch contracts and urgent direct awards. Section 51
3. Once the contract is signed, the buyer publishes a contract details notice (UK7), within 30 days of signature for above-threshold contracts.

Awards under a defence and security framework do not need a contract award notice at all, so they may not appear in public data. Section 50, GOV.UK guidance. Our guide to reading contract notices explains what each notice contains.

Procurements begun before the Act came into force, including call-offs from frameworks set up under the old rules, continue under the previous regulations, including the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011. You will therefore still see older notice formats for some time. GOV.UK guidance