Type of project: Capacity Building Project
Overview: CREW invites proposals for a c.7.5 month Capacity Building project to provide a national assessment of future socio-economic demands on Scotland’s water resources, identifying key drivers and patterns.
Budget: Funding available £115,000 exclusive of VAT (where applicable).
Call dates: Tuesday 24th February – Tuesday 21st April, 15:00.
For more details, please see the project specification.
To apply please use this CREW Capacity Building Application Form (Updated February 2026).
Project specification questions and responses
Q1 – Regarding abstraction data, the project specification document states the following: “While SEPA’s ongoing work will provide projections of water availability under future climate change scenarios, combined with current abstraction data, …” (p. 1). Could you please specify the spatial resolution of the current abstraction data and the timespan and temporal resolution of the record?
Response:
The steering group will work with the successful bidder to provide the appropriate level of detail at abstraction point level. Where possible, abstraction points with either eastings and northings or national grid reference may be provided. Where precise abstraction points are unavailable, the steering group will work with the successful bidder to provide a coarse resolution dataset. This approach has been used successfully in previous projects.
Information can be categorised by hydrometric area, water body and activity, e.g. agriculture irrigation. Required datasets will cover the period from 2015 to 2025 and the data will be provided at a monthly time step. There is no requirement for a data agreement as these data are available on the public register.
Q2 - According to the quoted text in Q1, the abstraction data and projections of future water availability will be supplied to the successful bidder(s). A timely start to this project will be highly dependent on the acquisition of this data. Could you please state when these data will be supplied and what the licensing terms are likely to be? Could the licensing terms negotiations with the successful bidder start prior to the beginning of the project?
Response:
The available datasets will be provided to the successful bidder at the start of the project. During the pre-contract start-up phase, the bidder will be able to discuss and agree the specific data requirements and any associated licencing arrangements. This project will run in parallel to other ongoing work and as a result final outputs from other work will not be available. However, current usage data, as described in question one, will be available.
Q3 – The project will deliver spatially varying patterns of water demands across key sectors. Are there preferred spatial regions for which future projections should be provided, e.g. administrative regions, catchment areas, grids.
Response:
Future projections may be provided at various spatial scales. Catchment based outputs and regional summaries are both suitable, and higher resolution units can be used where the data remains robust. Smaller spatial units are generally preferred when reliable, although aggregated outputs are acceptable where necessary.
Q4 – The project will deliver future predictions of water demands across key sectors. Could you please specify the future timeline envisaged: would it be up to 2050 or 2080?
Response:
The project should focus on 2050 as the primary timeline. Longer term scenarios should only be considered as additional where they add clear value to the analysis and remain proportionate to the project scope.
GUIDANCE & DOCUMENTATION
- All feedback and queries related to CREW calls should be emailed to procurement@crew.ac.uk
- All non-confidential queries and answers will be published on this website.
- All applications should be submitted by email to procurement@crew.ac.uk before the deadline.
- CREW Funding Terms and Conditions have been provided to all eligible Higher Education Institutes and Research Institutes.
Please note that this funding call is being issued in advance of formal confirmation of CREW’s Year 5 (FY2026–27) contract extension. Projects selected through this call are expected to be supported from the anticipated FY2026–27 budget; however, all awards remain subject to receipt of the final grant offer letter from Scottish Government. CREW will only issue formal award letters once funding has been confirmed.