Business and management consultancy and related services

Tender description

Supplier briefing will take place with the North East LEP’s Innovation Team on Monday 5th October, 10.00-13.00 GMT via Zoom. Registration is via Eventbrite using this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/economic-markets-foresight-analysis-north-east-england-tickets-121515196223 The deadline for registrations is 8.00 on Friday 2 October 2020. The supplier briefing is being held to: • engage with the supplier market to assist the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) to form the specification for the project; • discuss openly the outcomes needed by the North East LEP with suppliers working in the field of economic foresight; and • stimulate innovation in the design and delivery of the project. The outcome of the supplier briefing discussions will assist the North East LEP to: • understand options for creativity in undertaking the project; • be specific about high-level boundaries, and how we describe our requirements regarding the approach to and methodology for the project; and • be clear about limitations on delivering the scope of work and including resource constraints; in order to • finalise the specification. The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) (www.northeastlep.co.uk) is committed to creating competitive advantage and improving productivity by developing and realising the potential of new ideas in regional, national and international markets. Global economic, technological, social, environmental, political and legal drivers of change and associated trends have accelerated industrial and economic shifts across the world in recent years. In 2020, the pace of change has rapidly increased in some economic markets in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. We believe that these changes bring significant opportunities for innovation and growth in North East England's economy, preparation and action for which require us to: • understand how well the region’s capabilities and capacities are positioned in relation to new or nascent market opportunities that emerge from global drivers and economic, social, technological, environmental and political trends; and • identify whether the region can innovate, transform and excel in order to maximise the economic prospects arise from emerging market opportunities. The North East LEP and its partners support the region’s business community to boost our competitiveness, manage the impact of the pandemic and plan for economic recovery. Our work is guided by the North East Strategic Economic Plan, which sets out our ambition to create more and better jobs. To complement and run alongside the North East Strategic Economic Plan, we want to delve deeper into the how global drivers of change and future trends will dominate the UK and global economies and to examine how the region can prosper from economic activity in the associated developing, nascent or new markets. What are the drivers and areas of industry that will provide the greatest economic growth opportunities in the future? Which are most relevant to the North East’s innovation and other capabilities? And how can the North East capitalise on future opportunity by supplying into the value chains of the cross-sector economic markets and industries that are at the forefront of global transformation? To help us answer these questions, the North East LEP wishes to appoint an appropriately qualified and specialist supplier to undertake an independent economic markets foresight analysis (the Project) on behalf of the North East. We want to identify the short, medium and long-term opportunities our region should focus on to support our immediate economic recovery, and those that will help grow our economy in the future too; creating jobs for local people, attracting investment in the region, and improving our economic activity rates and productivity. O Further information on our requirements: Please note that the following is a statement of our intent for the project and will be subject to change following the supplier briefing. Our anticipated approach to the project: The project is focused on the evolution of the North East LEP economy in the context of changing global markets and trends. The project will be used by the North East LEP to understand further, and as far as possible within time and budget constraints, which industrial or economic markets to prioritise in the medium and longer-term (2 to 5 to 10 years), how to choose a path to realising such growth opportunities and the critical threats that can be avoided through action in the present. In undertaking the project and recommending independent specific actions for the North East LEP to take forward in future partnership with sector bodies, industry partners and other stakeholders, the appointed supplier is expected to consider multiple alternative economic futures, using their analysis of global drivers of change and trends, that enable the region to capitalise upon developing, nascent or new economic markets taking into account the implications to the region of: • a broad understanding of the global and national drivers of change in society, technology, economy, environment and policy and a high-level understanding of their inter-connectedness; • the related trends, technological and other developments, or new phenomena in industries, sectors and society including the climate crisis, the impact of Covid-19, an aging population and EU transition and their potential medium to long-term impacts. In undertaking this work, the appointed contractor is expected to: • use their understanding of global drivers and trends, of wider market insight analysis and potentially of specific technology applications to consider, expand and reframe the range of plausible economic market opportunities that present some degree of growth certainty for the North East LEP’s economy given the region’s economic capabilities (technological, industrial, skills, infrastructure and business profile); • profile the most probable futures for this portfolio of emerging (developing, nascent or new) economic opportunities; • identify and explain any potentially detrimental assumptions and expectations that are built into current and planned regional activity including the North East Strategic Economic Plan (January 2019); • consider the deliverability of growth, from the perspective of what’s possible and realistic for our economy. Whilst we do not expect the chosen supplier to be North East experts, the concepts put forward must be rooted in the context of the North East’s capabilities and capacities; By pointing to how the region could or should respond to and exploit these opportunities, the outcomes of the project will help us to: • establish where North East England is competitively positioned with respect to global economic opportunities and identifiable markets such that our potential to be at the forefront of new economic frontiers can be the subject of future strategy work; • shape clear and timely strategic interventions that transition the region into new economic markets (industries and sectors) and growth curves; • consider future options for investment in the expertise, facilities and conditions needed to accelerate the transformation or emergence of capabilities and capacity that maximise our economic growth.