UK SBS CR20033 Strategic Priorities Fund Evaluation- Supplier engagement day

**Please note this is not a call for competition**

This is a PIN notice for an event UK Research and Innovation have a requirement for Strategic Priorities Fund evaluation.

The Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) is one of UKRI's flagship cross-cutting National Productivity Investment Funds. The SPF builds on Paul Nurse's vision of a 'common fund' to support high quality multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research programmes, which could have otherwise been missed through traditional funding channels. Its objectives are to: drive an increase in high-quality multi and interdisciplinary research and innovation; ensure that UKRI's investments link up effectively with government research priorities and opportunities; and ensure the system responds to strategic priorities and opportunities. The SPF consists of a diverse range of research and innovation activities at various stages of maturity. An overview of some of the SPF programmes can be found here: https://www.ukri.org/research/themes-and-programmes/strategic-prioritiesfund/

UKRI is committed to rigorous evaluation of its key programmes and would like to commission an independent evaluation of its investments in the SPF Wave 1 and 2 portfolio, with process and impact elements. The aim of the evaluation is to inform ongoing and future improvements of the fund, to maximise the value of public funding (in particular, the possibility of future growth of the SPF), to demonstrate what the fund delivered for taxpayers, and to help UKRI build the evidence base on 'what works' in successfully supporting high-quality multi- and interdisciplinary research and innovation, and ensuring that research and innovation responds to strategic opportunities and priorities. The expected maximum budget for the evaluation is £900,000. We expect to go out to tender in March 2020.

We would like to invite prospective bidders to attend a pre-market engagement session on Friday 20th March at 1pm - 3pm at 58 Victoria Embankment. The session will be led by: the SPF's Monitoring and Evaluation lead, the SPF programme lead and UK Shared Business Services lead.

The agenda for the day is as follows:

• Introductions
• Overview of the SPF
• Evaluation expectations
• Procurement overview
• Discussion / Q&A

Additional information: A pre-market engagement session will be held on Friday 20th March at 1pm - 3pm at 58 Victoria Embankment London. This will provide an opportunity for potential providers to find out more about the aims of the procurement and the process. Providers wishing to attend need to RSVP by Thursday 19th March 2020 at 14.00 stating their name, title, email and phone numbers- please note there is a restriction of 1 attendee per organisation.

This information should be sent to the following email address: Research@uksbs.co.uk

Please ensure that the subject heading for the email is as follows: CR20033 Market Engagement Event. It is anticipated that the tender documentation will be released in March