External evaluation of the ESF funded Circular Economy Innovation Communities (CEIC) Progra

Tender description

Swansea University, as lead applicant for the CEIC programme, seeks an experienced external evaluator to undertake a formative and summative evaluation to investigate and report on the delivery and impact of this ESF funded programme. The evaluation will verify where appropriate the findings of the internal monitoring and evaluation activity and benchmark the activity against other known practice. This known practice will include executive education type offers, and other interventions commissioned by public service organisations to enhance their innovation and CE knowledge and skills. The work should evaluate the impact of the programme in terms of what it was funded to deliver and achieve, and its success in designing and delivering an intervention for the target organisations (public and third sector entities). We expect the evaluation outputs (for the formative and summative elements) to include written reports, and case studies with participants including in video and audio formats. If possible, at least two case studies should be with Welsh speaking participants. The purpose of the formative element is to gather data on the performance of the operation in terms of: • Fit with the intentions and delivery profile stated in the Business Plan and fulfilment of the requirements in the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (both living documents) • Performance with relation to the expectations of the funders. • Benchmarking against other known effective practice. Evaluation of CEIC is required to: a) Measure the progress towards CEIC’s outputs, aims and objectives, and the effectiveness of management and operational processes during the lifetime of the project. b) Understand the mechanisms and impact of the CEIC operation. The outcomes of the formative evaluation will be to make suggestions to improve the operation during the remainder of the funded period. The timing of this evaluation will allow any amendments to the expenditure and outputs profile to be evidenced. The final or summative external evaluation is designed to report on the final contribution that the operation has made to the intended target audience (i.e. public and third sector organisations in the Swansea Bay and Cardiff Capital regions), and on regional collaboration, as well as to benchmark the performance against other comparative operations in terms of value for money, return on investment, sustainability of the impact and wider benefits (such as wellbeing, or increase in CE take up).