UK SBS IT18171 UK Research and Innovation REF Website Migration and Hosting for Research England

The final date and time for the submission of bids is 21/08/2018 at 14:00.

DO NOT apply directly to the buyer.

Brief Description of Requirement:

The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 established Research England as a Council of UK Research and Innovation and alongside the other existing Councils (the seven Research Councils and Innovate UK).

Research England is responsible for funding, engaging with and understanding English higher education institutions (HEIs). As autonomous and diverse organisations, HEIs play a distinctive role in the research and innovation system, justifying a Council which challenges them to deliver to national agendas and supports them in achieving that. The diversity of individual university strategies, shaped by their many partners, will complement the level of strategic direction provided by UK Research and Innovation.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). It was first conducted in 2014, and replaced the previous Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008). The REF is undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies. In 2008 and 2014, the funding body for England was the Higher Education Funding Council England, who managed the REF on behalf of the other funding bodies: the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland (DfE).

Under the current service level agreement, the REF team receive support from the Office for Students and the REF website continues to be hosted on the HEFCE server. The current contract for the CMS expires at the end of September. The server on which the site is run will also be decommissioned by the end of September.

The REF team therefore requires a third party to host the REF website. It also requires a content management system that offers a high degree of control of the REF 2021 site to make regular updates to it.

The initial contract period will be for two years with the option to extend for an additional two years.

The aim of this sourcing activity is to find a supplier who can:

• migrate the content of the existing REF 2021 website to a new content management system by 28 September 2018;
• provide a content management system for the REF 2021 website from end September 2018;
• host the website.

Please ensure you review all attached information to ensure a full understanding of this requirement. All attachments can be found via the RFx attachments tab within the Emptoris System.

This contract will be awarded based on the evaluation criteria set out in the ITQ document.

How to Apply:

As part of the strategic alliance between UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS) and Crown Commercial Service (CCS), UK SBS will be using the CCS eSourcing Suite for this procurement.

To register on the CCS eSourcing portal please follow the details contained within the Additional Information section.

Additional information: DO NOT APPLY DIRECTLY TO BUYER - Please disregard any content in this notice that requests your organisation "to apply directly to the buyer" as this unfortunately a system generated error, that is outside of the Contracting Authorities control.

Responses must be received by the date in the tender documentation; responses received outside of the deadline or not sent via the eSourcing portal will not be accepted or considered further for this opportunity.

How to Register on the CCS eSourcing Suite

If you have not yet registered on the eSourcing Suite, this can be done online at https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk by following the link 'Register for CCS eSourcing'.

Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so.

Once you have registered on the eSourcing Suite, a registered user can express an interest for a specific procurement. This is done by emailing expressionofinterest@crowncommercial.gov.uk.

Your email must clearly state:

Crown Commercial Service will process the email and then enable the Bidder to access the procurement online via the e-Sourcing Suite. The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done. The Sourcing documents can then be accessed on the eSourcing Suite at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in the Specification documents within Contracts Finder.

As a user of the e-Sourcing Suite you will have access to Emptoris email messaging service which facilitates all messages sent to you and from you in relation to any specific RFX event.

Please note it is your responsibility to access these emails on a regular basis to ensure you have sight of all relevant information.

For technical assistance on use of the e-Sourcing Suite please contact Crown Commercial Service Helpdesk: Telephone: 0345 010 3503

Training documents to support Bidders to utilise Emptoris CCS eSourcing are available in the Contracts Finder Tender documents section.

About UK Shared Business Services

UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS) brings a commercial attitude to the public sector; helping our contracting authorities to improve efficiency, generate savings and modernise.

Where UK SBS is not named as the Contracting Authority within the documentation, UK SBS will be acting as an agent on behalf of the Contracting Authority.