Technical services

Tender description

5 organisations in the UK’s Space sector have agreed to form a Space Growth Partnership (hereinafter “SGP”) to accelerate growth, improve and secure the long-term health of the sector, promote actions to improve skills and diversity in the workforce and spread the benefits across the UK. The partnership currently comprises the UK Space Agency, UK space Trade Association, Innovate UK, the Satellite Applications Catapult and the Department for International Trade. The SGP is governed by a partnership board that comprises senior representatives from each of these organisations, which meets monthly. In turn the partnership board reports to the Space Sector Council, which meets quarterly. Please see continuation of the description of this requirement in section II.2.4 Description of the Procurement below. The partnership board is responsible for providing resources to the SGP such that it can function and deliver strategic benefits on behalf of the sector. Each member of the partnership contributes resources either as secondments, funding or making employees work time available to the SGP at no cost to the partnership (or a combination of these elements). The SGP has created an SGP Programme, co-owned by all the SGP Partners, to manage the direct funding element. The agency is therefore looking to contract with an organisation to hold and disburse this SGP Programme funding as directed by the partnership board. The key functions envisaged by this organisation are: — the competitive recruitment, appointment and remuneration of up to four staff to lead and deliver the day-to-day activities of the SGP. The organisation selected would be responsible for advertising for, recruiting and appointing relevant Candidates to these posts on behalf of the partnership board, with the partnership board represented on selection panels and endorsing the decisions to Candidates selected. We expect that Candidates would be offered a fixed-term contract by the organisation selected, — provision of activities to disseminate the work of the SGP effectively to a broad range of stakeholders. The organisation selected would be responsible for the selection, appointment, and remuneration of a communications company or communications team located in the selected organisation dedicated to communications activities (including, but not limited to, defining communications policy, press engagement, stakeholder consultation, publication materials), — commissioning market, industrial and research analysis (whether from external organisations or SGP members) that takes forward the SGP tasks. We would expect the organisation selected to identify, select, manage and pay specialist analysis providers against clear delivery milestones. It is fully acceptable for the selected organisation to undertake analysis ‘in house’ provided this approach is agreed with the partnership board, — the provision of specific research coordination activities on behalf of the Space Growth Partnership (including the cross-sector pilot studies to provide agreed R&D plans between the space sector and customer sectors). The selected organisation will be responsible for coordinating activity between space sector stakeholders and recognised institutions and stakeholders in other sectors of the UK economy, ensuring relevant experts from the space sector and other sectors of the economy are brought together to identify agree relevant opportunities to grow the space-enabled economy, establish R&D plans and capability demonstration plans, holding workshops to define and consult on these plans and ensuring that a wide range of inputs from these activities are used to produce a series of practical implementation plans agreed with both the space sector and relevant customer sectors. This work can be undertaken by the selected organisation itself or by selecting and managing external contractors (or a mix of the 2) providing the recommended approach is agree with the partnership board, — other budget management and funding activity as directed by the partnership board. The selected organisation will need to work on behalf of the sector by taking instructions from the partnership board and reporting on expenditure and deliverables to the same. We would envisage that the contract would run until 31.3.2020, with a provision to extend that to 31.3.2021 providing that is agreed by the SGP partnership board and the selected organisation by the 31.12.2019.