Better policies and instruments in support of world class clusters TERMS OF REFERENCE for Subcontracted activities - Support and development of the European Cluster Alliance: project secretariat

Oseo, the French national innovation agency, is the coordinator of a project entitled TACTICS which brings together seven of Europe’s leading national and regional innovation and cluster policy organisations which are committed to improving policy making and mutual learning in Europe in the field of clusters. The project is funded under the EU CIP initiative PRO INNO Europe. One of the main objectives of this project is to facilitate the further development of the European Cluster Alliance launched in 2006 and to ensure its management.

To this end a specific work package is foreseen in the work programme of this project involving the establishment of a secretariat which will be responsible for supporting the management of the European Cluster Alliance activities over the next 3 years.

In order to facilitate the delivery of this task Oseo Innovation is seeking the support of an external subcontractor. The precise nature of the tasks and support required are described in the call below.

The TACTICS project partners have identified the following key areas where support will be required:

• ECA membership logistical support including the maintenance of the ECA members’ database, managing the process for accepting new members, and communication and provision of information to ECA members;
• Organisation of 2 Annual Assemblies of the European Cluster Alliance in different EU countries, preferably as side events to international conferences on clusters.
• Contribution to the preparation of the planned 6 ECA workshops and dissemination of their results;
• Facilitate the liaison and flow of information between the ECA members with the European Cluster Policy Group,the European Cluster Cbservatory, the ECA Executive Board and TACTICS Policy Reflection Group;
• Disseminate the concept of the European Cluster Alliance and TACTICS Reflection group main recommendations and provide content to the PRO INNO Europe web site such as news, announcement of events, deliverables etc;
• Preparation of the TACTICS deliverables and reports which are related to the activities of the European Cluster Alliance;
• Identification of synergies (events, reports etc) with other EU, national and regional cluster – related policy initiatives ( Europe Innova , Regions of Knowledge, structural funds, Interreg etc.);
• Support to the management of the ECA /ECA executive board including the preparation , and definition of the ECA business plan approach in order to ensure ECA sustainability.

Project Duration

The expected duration of the TACTICS project is 36 months.

Proposal Requirements

Those willing to respond to this call for tender should provide information on the following matters:

• Presentation of a methodology to deliver the tasks identified above;
• Provide their understanding of the ECA and its future development, and effective management;
• Provide a budget breakdown (by key personnel categories and other costs)
• Presentation of the company and individual team CVs and relevant and similar experience demonstrating a proven track record of professional experience in innovation policydevelopment or implementation of innovation support schemes over the last three years in the field of clusters;
• Proposals must not exceed 15 pages in Arial 12 print;
• Only legal entities are eligible participants;
• Tender responses should be in English.

The estimated budget for this subcontracted activity is up to 133000 €. The award of the tender will be selected on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender according to the CIP programme financial regulation and grant agreement model.

Evaluation of the proposals

After submission, proposals will be evaluated by the Oseo selection Committee. No meetings will be organised with potential bidders during the selection process.Selection will be based only on written applications.

Selection Criteria and relevant experience

Candidates should be able to demonstrate the following experience:

• Good knowledge of the EC/ DG Enterprise PRO INNO Europe cluster policy initiatives and the ECA;
• Good knowledge of national and regional cluster support programmes and activities;
• Capacity to manage networks and animate policy debates;
• Experience on producing quality dissemination outputs and reports;
• Ability to communicate fluently (oral and written) in English and French languages allowing them to contribute to discussions and preparation of reports with the Oseo Innovation team and the rest of the TACTICS project team.
  

Summary and weighting of selection criteria:

• Knowledge about the EC PRO INNO Europe cluster policy initiative and other cluster initiatives : 30%
• Experience in supporting similar EU innovation networks : 30%
• Capacity to deliver outputs : 20%
• Price 20%

The candidate will be chosen on the basis of these criteria and the overall analysis of the proposed methodology in terms of the most economically advantageous tender in terms of the best price quality ratio according to the CIP programme financial regulation and Grant agreement model by an OSEO selection committee, the coordinator of the INNO-Net TACTICS represented by Mr Michel GANOOTE, OSEO , International Department, European Delegate, Strategy and development.

Call publication and proposal deadline

The call is open from the date of publication on the PRO INNO web site http://www.proinno-europe.eu , namely from Thursday 1st of October 2009 until the call deadline on the Monday 2nd of November 2009 at noon.

Address for information and electronic submissions

Requests for information should be e mailed to tactics@oseo.fr with the following subject: TACTICS ECA secretariat, request for information

Only electronic submissions e mailed in PDF format to tactics@oseo.fr will be accepted.

Proposals should be e mailed in PDF format to tactics@oseo.fr with the following subject: TACTICS ECA secretariat submission.

Oseo reserves the right to relaunch or to cancel the call if no proposals are deemed acceptable or in case of force majeure.