Market and economic research; polling and statistics

Tender description

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are looking to establish a framework which will be used to inform energy/climate change policy across BEIS. In particular, the framework will be used to improve the implementation and design of planned policies, propose ideas for new initiatives, support with methodological design and fulfil ad-hoc behaviour change evidence needs. There is a wide variety of potential behavioural science projects which we anticipate the framework will cover, broadly including: 1) improving the design and implementation of proposed policies; 2) identifying new interventions to help deliver behaviour change; 3) upskilling and guidance; 4) methodological advice and design. The main procurement for this framework is expected to be launched at the beginning of November. It is intended that the framework will be live from January 2021 to April 2023. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are looking to establish a framework which will be used to inform energy/climate change policy across BEIS. The overarching aim of the framework is to maximise the effectiveness of energy/climate policy by ensuring that they are informed by behavioural science. BEIS wish to have access to expertise of applying behavioural science to improve policy and subject matter expertise/understanding of behavioural/societal change. The framework contract will be used to inform energy/climate change policy across BEIS. In particular, the framework and resulting contracts will be used to improve the implementation and design of planned policies, propose ideas for new initiatives, support with methodological design and fulfil ad-hoc behaviour change evidence needs. In particular, the framework will be used to improve the implementation and design of planned policies, propose ideas for new initiatives, support with methodological design and fulfil ad-hoc behaviour change evidence needs. There is a wide variety of potential behavioural science projects which we anticipate the framework will cover, broadly including: 1) Improving the design and implementation of proposed policies. We will require the contractor to develop and rapidly apply behavioural science techniques to specific policies that may be implemented. Examples could include: — providing expert behavioural review of policy proposals and/or systematically reviewing policy proposals through behavioural science techniques; — application of the behavioural science frameworks to understand behavioural barriers and interventions (e.g. the COM-B/Behaviour Change Wheel framework); — detailed user/behavioural journey mapping for different groups; — identifying how nudges and behavioural cues could improve the implementation of a policy; — trialling different communication and implementation techniques; — experiments to test different policy ideas against each other, and broader ‘Stress-testing’ of policy ideas. 2) Identifying new interventions to help deliver behaviour change. The contractor should be able to identify interventions that could help to deliver behaviour change in key policy areas relating to net zero. This could involve using behavioural insight frameworks to diagnose the key barriers and opportunities for behavioural change and developing long lists of a range of policy options to help facilitate behaviour change that can be considered for implementation by policy teams. For instance, DfT have recently carried out a similar study to this for electric vehicles which developed a list of ‘high potential’ behaviourally informed interventions which address all the key barriers to uptake, and could sit alongside economic incentives/infrastructure to accelerate EV adoption. 3) Upskilling and guidance across energy/climate policy teams and social researchers/those with more expertise in behavioural change. We envisage the contractor could provide expert training to existing social researchers to improve their skillsets as well as more basic training to wider policy teams and analysts. The contractors could also be asked to develop simple guidance and toolkits that can be used to apply behavioural insight techniques at all stages of the policy cycle. This will build understanding of where, and how, behavioural science can add value to energy/climate policy. 4) Methodological advice and design: we may require the contractor to provide expert advice, including developing methodologies to support piloting and trialling of behavioural related interventions, as well as providing peer review and expert insight into relevant analytical and social research taking place. The main procurement for this framework is expected to be launched at the beginning of November. It is intended that the framework will be live from January 2021 to April 2023.