£396,000 of audience research for the National Galleries of Scotland.

Source: Find a Tender notice 077364-2026, checked 17 September 2026. Read the current notice and documents before acting.

The tender

The Galleries want a partner to run audience research: who visits, who does not, what they experience, what would bring them back. Multi-year, publicly funded, culturally visible work.

Why it might appear in a communications search

Audience, research, engagement and cultural-sector terms can overlap with an agency’s search. That makes the notice worth inspecting, but it does not show that the agency can deliver the research.

Why this example is a STRETCH

For this example, the illustrative agency has communications experience but no delivered visitor-research study. That leaves a specific gap to investigate:

The fit signals are real. The agency runs audience-facing communications work and knows the cultural sector. The subject matter is not foreign. Eligibility still needs checking. The notice requires Market Research Society standards or a recognised equivalent; do not assume sector familiarity is enough.

One capability is missing, and it is the core of the contract. The buyer is not asking for communications. It is asking for research: visitor studies, methodology, fieldwork, analysis the Galleries can stand behind. The agency's profile shows audience understanding as an input to campaigns, not research as a deliverable. There is no delivered visitor study to point at.

STRETCH means there is a named gap to assess. It does not establish that a partner will satisfy the buyer or that every mandatory requirement is met.

What you do with a STRETCH

A STRETCH identifies a gap to investigate before committing to a bid. For this tender the options are concrete:

1. Partner. Bring in a research fieldwork firm and bid the combined team. Check whether the combined evidence meets the buyer’s capability and participation requirements.
2. Build the evidence first. Pass on this one, win a smaller research-adjacent lot, and be ready when the next one lands.
3. Pass and keep the day. A reasonable outcome if the requirements do not fit.

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