Find a TenderAwarded

Published 6 Oct 2023, 15:00 BST

Official UK procurement notice

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Central Commissioning Facility (CCF)

Official notice

Authority: Department of Health & Social Care (Central government)

Framework agreementServices

Sectors: Administration, defence and social security services (75)Community & Cultural Services (98) Delivery: UK

Framework ceiling (notional)Value not publishedframework ceiling, not attributable revenue

Awarded 18 May 2017

Framework period 7 yrsends 31 Mar 2025 · starts 1 Apr 2018

What is being bought

Published requirement description

No description was published on the notice. See the official documents.

CPV: Administrative services of agencies · Services furnished by specialist organisations

How this framework works

From the published notice

Framework period: 7 yrs from 1 Apr 2018, N/A

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Lot #1• Established processes for commissioning R&D within NIHR and DH were set up to… 7 yrs

Established processes for commissioning R&D within NIHR and DH were set up to promote probity in spending public money and equality of opportunity. The CCF will be expected to adopt similar standards of commissioning for all its managed programmes. This is an essential requirement and bidders must demonstrate an understanding of the process and the skills required to deliver it which, crucially, include scientific secretariat skills,
The CCF will be required to provide administrative support to all systems and structures used for research commissioning, monitoring and project management.
The CCF will provide secretariat support, under the direction of a Programme Director and/or named DH staff, to expert advisory committees to advise on research proposals to be taken forward for funding.
The CCF will be required to make all necessary arrangements for commissioning and other meetings. For example, the maintenance of committee membership lists, the production and distribution of all papers necessary well in advance of meetings, the taking of minutes of meetings (which will include discussions of science and research methodology) and the prompt circulation of accurate minutes following meetings.
The CCF will be responsible for the issuing of all project and research infrastructure contracts (standard contract form) which will be sent for final signature to the DH Science, Research and Evidence Directorate (SRED).
All projects will require a detailed project timetable with milestones. The CCF will monitor projects and report on the programme or individual projects within it as required, ensuring that researchers keep to the timetable and achieve the project’s milestones. This will require a basic understanding of the science as well as strong administrative skills.
The CCF will be responsible for forecasting, profiling and reporting on annual budgets from April 1st to March 31st of each of the years covered, reporting quarterly and monitoring monthly.
Payments to R&D project and research infrastructure contractors are made by DH normally quarterly in arrears. The CCF will take responsibility for informing SRED when projects/research infrastructure contracts have started in order that scheduled payments may commence, and of alerting SRED of any adverse event necessitating suspension of payments.
The CCF will be required to set up and run, in liaison with SRED, financially sound and transparent accounting systems. The CCF will be expected to adopt information management systems that are compatible with systems already in use by other parts of NIHR. The CCF contractor will provide progress reports, including financial summaries, in respect of the managed programmes as required. Bidders must be able to demonstrate the necessary skills to deliver this aspect of their bid.
The CCF will administer the awards/contracts for the NIHR Research Infrastructure. This will involve liaison with the Directors and staff of the infrastructure, taking receipt of annual reports, performance management and making recommendations to DH on proposed changes in the event of performance issues.
The CCF will provide accurate and timely data and information on the infrastructure awards and research portfolio in response to requests from DH.
The CCF will take such steps as are necessary to ensure that accurate, well presented, peer reviewed final reports and executive summaries are forthcoming promptly from all projects funded, and that these reports and summaries are entered into appropriate database and library systems.
The CCF will provide notice and copies of forthcoming publications, press releases etc. arising from funded research at least 28 days prior to publication. Contractors will alert the Department immediately to such forthcoming publications and ensure that it receives advance copies as soon as these are available.
The CCF will use its best endeavours to ensure, as far as possible, that intellectual property rights (IPR) of value to the NHS are properly protected and managed, and agreements are drawn up to ensure the NHS receives an appropriate share of any earnings from IPR, or ensure that IP is otherwise exploited for public benefit.

Contract period: 1 Apr 2018 – 31 Mar 2025 (7 yrs)

Delivery: UK · United Kingdom

75120000 Administrative services of agencies 98113000 Services furnished by specialist organisations

What it takes to win
i
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more

What this means for your bid

“National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Central Commissioning…” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record

Legal basis: CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category: Services
Notice status: Awarded
Procurement threshold: Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime: Standard
Commercial structure: Framework agreement
Who may use this agreement: Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
Competition type: Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered: Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement: Unspecified in notice
First published: 6 Oct 2023, 15:00 BST
Last source update: 6 Oct 2023, 15:00 BST
Authority reference: C0289
FTS notice number: 2023/S 000-029562
Classification (CPV): Administrative services of agenciesServices furnished by specialist organisations
Delivery area: UK
Official registry OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-0408aa Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice

Appointment period ends: —

Timeline

1 Apr 2018 → 6 Oct 2023 · 2 dates

Contract starts
1 Apr 2018, 00:00 BST
Notice published
6 Oct 2023, 15:00 BST

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast

Suppliers appointed 1admitted to the panel · see the list ↓

Contracts signed 1latest 18 May 2017

1 suppliers are admitted to this framework without individual award values or dates, see the supplier list below.

Contracts

The Central Commissioning Facility (CCF)
Signed
18 May 2017
Value
£103,816,651
Period
1 Apr 2018 – 31 Mar 2025
Status
active
- Change This modification extends the CCF’s existing work strands to include: • Research: Expand existing research funding programmes, extend expert research funding advisory committees support and increase monitoring of impact. • Infrastructure: Manage high value strategic partnerships between the UK Government and key life science companies, support delivery of the vision for UK clinical research and coordinate stakeholder engagement across NIHR • Faculty: Support better access to Open Access publishing for NIHR funded researchers and better participant representation in NIHR funded research • Systems: Support implementation of the ongoing NIHR-wide digital transformation programme within CCF. Previous changes to the contract have been made, bringing the current contract value to 93,892,884.00 GBP (this value excludes this modification and excludes the possible 2-year extension period from March 2025 - March 2027 that is not yet exercised.), Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire: The Authority believes that the modification was permitted under Regulation 72(1)(b) of the PCR 2015 (SI 102) due to the following reasons: a)the modification was necessary to respond to a significant growth in demand for, and/or improvements in, NIHR CCF research services and associated outputs arising after the date, on which the CCF Contract had been entered into b)a change of contractor could not have been made for economic or technical reasons as such additional services required highly specialised, health and care research management expertise, reliance on extensive, established stakeholder relationships and an up-to-date working knowledge of NIHR strategy, policies and systems c) a change of contractor would have caused significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs as a result of: i)the fragmentation and duplication of existing NIHR research programmes; ii)significant, increased contractual management costs iii)significantly higher admin costs

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Department of Health and Social Care

Contracting authorityCentral Government 39 Victoria Street, London, London, SW1H 0EUContact name, email

Dispute resolution & review bodies

The High CourtMediation bodyReview body London

Framework contractors & participating bidders

1 commercial party on the notice

LGC LIMITEDFramework contractor Leeds, UK

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.