Appointment of contractor for Xplore! Science Exhibition Consultancy

Tender description

Xplore! has secured Shared Prosperity funding from the UK Government that is enabling the organisation to invest in three new permanent exhibits for the current science centre footprint and to carry out RIBA stages 3+4 to produce a fully developed design for the currently vacant upstairs at Xplore! Science Discovery Centre. This contract is to appoint a consultant to work alongside Xplore! team and the appointed architects for RIBA 3+4 to select exhibits for Xplore! to go out with a design and build invitation to tender in the future. The summary of the scope of this contract will be follows: To carry out a scoping exercise with Xplore! team to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the current interactive exhibits. To produce a gap analysis report identifying opportunities to bring best practice from other science centres and explaining how Xplore! could adopt this moving forward. To support the Xplore! team in the selection of 3 permanent exhibits*, where design, build and installation will take place by September 2024. The exhibits have a total contract value of £120,000 and their brief is to enhance the Xplore! experience, bringing additional tourism into Wrexham city centre and boosting the visitor economy. To work alongside the Xplore! team and the architects to plan the exhibits for the first floor at Xplore!. This will include acting as the specialist in exhibition requirements (power sources, space needs, lighting, installation etc.) plus advising on how exhibits fit within the wider architect plans for the first floor (flow of people, location, complement the design, noise reduction etc.). This will include attending a kick-off meeting in January 2024 with the architect, market researcher and Xplore! team in Wrexham, followed by a further 5 workshops between January and March 2024 (a mixture of in-person or virtual, exact split will depend on costs supplied), and requires a written document to be produced. NB: If the contract holder for science exhibition consultancy will be tendering for the contract to design and build the 3 permanent exhibits, they will be excluded from the selection team due to conflict of interest and associated costs for this will be removed from the contract. The target contract dates will commence January 2024 and meetings with the Xplore! team can be scheduled for soon after. All work under this contract must take place by 31st March 2024 with invoices for all expenditure received by this date.