Research and development consultancy services

Tender description

Jisc wishes to establish a multi-supplier, multi-lot framework agreement to supply research and development consultancy to support Jisc’s work in the higher and further education and skills sectors. The lots include: — Lot 1: Developer services, — Lot 2: User-centred design services, — Lot 3: Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) services, — Lot 4: Scholarly communication, information management and library consultancy services, — Lot 5: Data and analytics services, — Lot 6: Research and research data management services, — Lot 7: Teaching, learning and the student experience consultancy services, — Lot 8: Data, text mining and data visualisation services, — Lot 9: Testing services, — Lot 10: EdTech start-up services. In Lot 1, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to deliver technical services that range from mobile applications to large web services and include scalable middleware. Specific skills will be required for this Lot: — requirements and feasibility analysis, — mobile development, — scalable middleware, — web development, — data processing and analysis. In Lot 2, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to deliver professional services for user-centred design to ensure our products and services meet our members’ and customers’ needs in efficient, engaging and usable ways. We welcome applications from agencies that cover the full range of design skills (including front-end web development) and individuals specialising in key skills. In Lot 3, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to deliver services and support in relation to immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), also sometimes referred to as mixed or extended reality (MR or XR). Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to commission consultancy services support in the development and review of new forms of scholarly communication (including teaching and learning), information management and related library technical solutions. Experts should be familiar with 1 or more of the following: Business, licensing and economic/financial modelling; related requirements of the research and education sectors, new forms of scholarly communication and associated metrics and analytics; as well as the related cultural and organisational issues. Manipulating large datasets to derive trend data, scenarios and new models, with the ability to quickly change those if required to incorporate new data sets or reflect changes to policy, rules, etc. or in response to market intelligence or quantitative and qualitative data. The technical aspects of information management in terms of associated architectures, frameworks, technical standards (including schemas, vocabularies and protocols) and approaches used to support creation, curation, preservation, access, reuse and analysis of digital assets; or technical solutions to better manage and access analogue resources. In Lot 5, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders who are experts with a broad knowledge of analytics in both the HE and FE sectors, as well as expertise in 1 or more of the areas listed below. The experts should be familiar with the technical aspects of learning analytics including data extraction, transform and load, data warehousing, data analysis and visualisation. Experts should be familiar with the commercial products that offer these functions and with the systems that data will need to be extracted from. As well as technical information the experts should have a good grasp of the ethical and organisational issues involved in exploiting analytics. Experts should also be aware of the kind of interventions that institutional staff can make as a result of issues identified via learning analytics. Experts should understand how learning analytics overlaps with related areas such as business intelligence, intelligent campus and student health and wellbeing. Experts should be comfortable writing and producing materials that explain complex issues to an audience made up of a variety of institutional roles. In Lot 6, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to commission expert support in the use of technology in all aspects of the research lifecycle. Experts will need to understand the research process and the technical systems that support it. Experts should be familiar with current pain points for researchers, librarians, IT staff and research managers, the legal and ethical issues involved and future horizons. In Lot 7, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to commission expert support for research and development activities in the use of technology for learning, teaching, assessment, educational and staff development and the support of the overall student experience. We are interested in expertise in all aspects of supporting the student experience with technology. Experts will understand the pedagogy underpinning technology enhanced learning and will be familiar with practice, processes and challenges in 1 or more of higher or further education or apprenticeships. They should be aware of the issues that institutional managers and leaders face in providing an excellent learning and teaching experience for all types of students and modes of delivery, including the need for staff and student digital capabilities. We seek experts who are familiar with the leading systems across the broad picture of technology-enhanced learning and are aware of how they are used in the sectors, with an understanding the potential impact of new and emerging technologies on this area. An awareness of new horizons in technology use in education is desirable. Knowledge of the use and application of assistive technologies and the use of technology to support inclusion will be an essential component of the knowledge of consultants engaged in this lot. Experts should be comfortable writing and producing materials that explain complex issues to an audience made up of a variety of institutional roles. In Lot 8, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to commission consultancy services to work with experts in the use of text and data mining (TDM) and data visualisation to support research in higher and further education. This could involve advising Jisc on how to best organise Jisc services to enable TDM and exploit data for visualisation purposes. Bidders should understand the technology involved as well as the legal issues and the practical and organisational issues involved in aggregating diverse data sources and engaging in TDM. In Lot 9, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to deliver consultancy services relating to software testing. Experts will need a broad knowledge and experience of software testing across a range of software products. Experts should be experienced in working with internal teams to: — develop and execute test plans, — undertake and evaluate unit and regression tests, — undertake and evaluate User Experience (UX) testing with 3rd parties, such as users from a college or university, — undertake and evaluate User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with 3rd parties, such as users from a college or university, — adopt automated testing tools, — conduct accessibility testing against common standards (e.g. WCAG 2.0) and legislative requirements, — perform cross-browser testing, including mobile devices, — perform functional and non-functional testing, — provide consultancy and testing expertise, — share best practice to help improve efficiency. In Lot 10, Jisc wishes to establish a framework agreement with bidders to commission EdTech start-up experts to offer support our EdTech activity, accelerating the growth of EdTech start-ups companies.