Grants4Growth – Business Engagement Contractor
The Programme Manager has identified the need to augment the existing team with additional capability to assist with identifying potentially eligible SME beneficiaries for capital and revenue grants.
Reference number: P2A
Deadline date:11/10/2013
This deadline is for… Submission of written tender
Contract value:£0 – £20,000
Location where the contract is to be carried out: East of England Predominantly focussing on the areas of: Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire Hertfordshire
Is this suitable for smaller suppliers? Yes
Is this contract suitable for a voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations? Yes
Name of the buying organisation: Breckland Council
Description of the contract
Breckland Council is seeking a contractor(s) or consortium to assist and work closely in partnership with the Grants4Growth Project team (www.grants4growth.org.uk) in the delivery of the project and its primary outcome. The Grants4Growth Project is described in Section 2.2 of the tender document. The Programme Manager has identified the need to augment the existing team with additional capability to assist with identifying potentially eligible SME beneficiaries for capital and revenue grants, carry out the initial pre-application checks and refer them to the Project team for further assistance from a Business Broker feasibility studies for specific business growth/expansion, capacity building and low carbon and cost saving initiatives/technologies to ensure that beneficiaries are able to access support. The focus, therefore, would be to identify suitable businesses located in the 3 LEP areas (Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire including Peterborough) based on suitability to apply under the capital and/or revenue grant streams. This will require the successful contractor(s) to develop and instigate their own flexible marketing and networking activities that take account of the short time scales (3-months at a time), geographical locations and the limitations of the £20,000 budget allocated (a maximum number of referrals will be allowed per 3-month period to ensure that all successful contractors are able to convert all their leads in any given 3-month contract period). Grants4Growth has been established and focuses on the distribution of these capital and revenue grants to address access to finance as a barrier to SME growth. Applications are facilitated by dedicated Business Brokers who key account manage individual SMEs. Whilst the Project team and its partners can and do attract significant interest from the SME community, it is acknowledged that other organisations have much to offer in terms of different route to market approaches. In particular, LCEGS companies in the three LEP areas are a specific Project target group for the revenue grants. Some of these SMEs require additional assistance to further develop their ideas as opportunities for investment and articulate these as fully evidenced grant applications. In these cases a Specialist Technical Support consultant will be assigned to assist with options analysis, feasibility studies, equipment specifications and obtaining quotes for capital projects relating to the purchase/installation of new plant, machinery and energy/resource efficiency technologies is available to evolve their project into a grant ready application. This Specialist Technical Support is provided to the SME by the Project. The contract must be signed-off / closed by 27 March 2015 at the latest. The value of the contract will depend upon the experience of the organisation tendering and their approach outlined in the tender submissions. The indicative budget allocated to this activity is £20,000 plus VAT (subject to the successful contractor(s) being VAT registered). This is the total budget whether one or more contactors are selected.
Documents
Classification of the contract
79000000 Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security
66000000 Financial and insurance services
72000000 IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
73000000 Research and development services and related consultancy services
Additional information
Contract type: Services – Unspecified
Is it a framework agreement? No
Is this contract related to a programme of funding? Yes : European Regional Development Fund
Contract will be awarded based on: Most economically advantageous tender in terms of: The criteria stated in the contract documents
Estimated length of contract: 21/10/2013 – 27/03/2015
Who to contact
Contact name Paul Bourgeois
Organisation name Breckland Council
Address Elizabeth House, Walpole Loke, Dereham, Norfolk, NR19 1EE
Telephone 01362 656808
Extension number:
Fax