The University of Strathclyde has opened a procurement for digital tools to support a mental health and substance use programme, with initial contracts running for 31 months and options to extend for up to two further 12-month periods.

The procurement sits within the university's SUMIT project, which stands for Substance Use and Mental Health Interventions using Digital Technology. The program's goal is to create and assess the digital transformation of services for a test group of 1,500 recipients. Four local demonstrator sites will be involved, each participating in a skills development programme aimed at 500 staff. A community of practice will run alongside this to support the implementation of digital products across sites.

Three lots have been defined for the procurement. The first covers digital tools that facilitate self-help and direct users to relevant information, guidance or support. The second encompasses solutions offering personalised tracking, goal-setting and peer communication. The third addresses data-sharing capabilities across services. Suppliers may bid for one or more lots, subject to meeting the eligibility requirements set out in the notice.

Those requirements include a minimum turnover of between £200,000 and £500,000 over the past three years. Selection will be made on the basis of previous experience rather than price, with bidders required to provide evidence of at least one example of service innovation in a digital context delivered within the same period. Acceptable evidence covers the successful delivery of digital solutions in healthcare settings or demonstrated collaborative working in digital product development and implementation.

The procurement comes as the government pursues a broader restructuring of mental health provision in England. A call for evidence has been launched to inform a new ten-year mental health strategy, chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy. The review is focused on shifting the system towards earlier intervention, moving away from late-stage responses dependent on formal diagnosis and towards approaches that support participation in education and employment. The call for evidence forms part of the wider 10-Year Health Plan programme of reform.

NHS trusts have separately been expanding their use of digital technologies within mental health services. Ambient voice technology is being piloted for administrative tasks, with the aim of freeing up clinical time. Virtual reality tools are under evaluation as an intervention for young people presenting with anxiety or school avoidance linked to emotional difficulties. Virtual wards for older adults with complex mental health needs are also in operation in parts of England, combining remote and community-based care to reduce hospital admissions and the disruption they can cause for that patient group.

The Strathclyde procurement is intended to generate evidence as well as deliver services. The project includes a formal evaluation of what works, with findings expected to inform both future service design and policy development around health inequality. That evaluation component distinguishes it from straightforward technology procurement and reflects an interest in producing transferable findings from the test bed model.

Digital infrastructure for mental health has attracted increasing institutional attention in recent years, driven partly by demand pressures on NHS services and partly by the expanding range of technologies available for deployment in non-clinical settings. The SUMIT project is among a number of initiatives seeking to assess how those technologies perform when applied to populations with substance use and mental health needs, where outcomes have historically been difficult to shift through conventional service models alone.

The procurement notice sets out a clear preference for suppliers with a track record in healthcare or in collaborative digital development, suggesting the university is looking for partners with operational experience rather than purely technical capability.