Invitation to Tender for Consultancy and Expert Support: Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme ERDF Ref: 03R15P00036

The University of Chester is seeking tenders for consultants/suppliers to deliver business support to SME's and Entrepreneurs in order to achieve our agreed outputs for the Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme.

The purpose of this tender is to engage with specialists with practical experience of supporting individuals and small business owners. The appointed supplier(s) will be required to offer quality and a value for money approach to this activity, supported by best practice and experience of similar work.

The tender/contract is split into 10 lots, reflecting the length/complexity of the session and the subject type. A breakdown of the lots is provided in the tender documents.

The European Regional Development Funded (ERDF) Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme is a consortium of North West based partners set up to deliver business growth activities across priority sectors from 2016-2018.

With a £2.7m investment of ERDF, this innovative programme brings together key business support providers across Cheshire and Warrington to offer businesses access to a variety of services.

The University of Chester is a delivery partner for the Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme and has a set of individual outputs to be achieved by the end of December 2018.

The programme will also utilise the specialist expertise and facilities available from other Higher and Further Education partners and Local Authority Growth Teams as well as several science and business parks within the sub-region.

Additional information: Tenderers are requested to note that the project is in receipt of ERDF grant funding to support the delivery of the programme and is therefore working to a limited budget.

As a guide the maximum budget allowed for this activity is up to £50,000, including VAT, which must be inclusive of all expenses and travel. However, the actual contract awarded depends on contracted hours agreed between the appointed contractor(s) and the University of Chester.

Please note that contract values and timescales for contract start and end dates may be subject to change.

Full details and award criteria are as stated within the tender documents.

To apply and to participate in this tender opportunity, all applicants must register on the "In-Tend" e-tendering portal to access the tender documents.

Please note that where you may have previously registered with In-Tend, please ensure that your registration does include being registered to view opportunities for the University of Chester.

Registration to this site is free for suppliers. Once registered, please download the procurement documents.

These must be completed and returned together with any supporting documents via the In-Tend e-tendering portal by 10.00am, Wednesday 1st February 2017 - www.in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofchester.

There is Help/Guidance on how to use the supplier site on the 'Help' section of the site. Alternatively, for technical questions, In-tend Support can help suppliers and is open Monday - Friday, 8.30am - 5pm (excluding Bank Holidays) - 0845 557 8079 / 0114 407 0065 / support@in-tend.co.uk.