Data services

Tender description

The University of Edinburgh requires a supplier to manually transcribe between 18.7 and 25.2 million hand written Scottish vital events records i.e. births, marriages and deaths, since 1856. This has an estimated character count of 3 300 000 000 characters. Scanned images of the records will be made available to the successful supplier via a web interface. This interface will also provide a pre-existing database into which the transcribed data will be manually input by the successful bidder. This requirement is not divided into Lots as this would entail disproportionate duplication of supplier set up costs. The University of Edinburgh has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to create a multidisciplinary research database from historical vital events records. This Digitising Scotland project is looking for a supplier to manually transcribe between 18.7 and 25.2 million hand written Scottish vital events records i.e. births, marriages and deaths, since 1856. This has an estimated character count of 3 300 000 000 characters. Scanned images of the records will be made available to the successful supplier via a web interface. This interface will also provide a pre-existing database into which the transcribed data will be manually input by the successful bidder. Any supplier wishing to bid must be able to transcribe a minimum of 18 700 000 records within the Contract Budget and Timescales. Project set-up and transcription must be completed within 35 months from Contract start. Manual transcription services will be required. OCR technology will not be suitable for this work. As the data is sensitive all transcribers must be direct employees of any successful bidder, no subcontracting allowed.