Finland - Business and management consultancy and related services - EU Proposal Advisory and Grant Writing Services

The subject of the procurement is advisory and support services helping Sitra’s experts to develop  new European collaborative project proposals for Sitra, related funding roadmaps, and successful acquisition of funding for these project proposals. The service focuses on collaborative European innovation, research and development projects funded from European Union open competition funding programmes such as Horizon Europe Programme, Digital Europe Programme, CERV and Global Europe Programme. The expertise sought relates to the thematic competence areas defined in Sitra’s strategy. Sitra seeks solutions for the following challenges: Sustainable Economic Growth and Well-being; Strengthening Human Capital; Competitiveness and Resilience from the Sustainability Transition; AI as a Driver of Renewal; and Democracy and Trust. The four programme teams in Sitra International Programmes are: Circular Economy, Health and Wellbeing, Data and AI, and Democracy.  Framework Agreement in two Parts The procurement will lead to a Framework Agreement with several suppliers, divided into two Parts. During the validity of the framework, Sitra will procure expert work for Part 1 and Part 2 as detailed below. Both parts relate to all thematic competence areas. Each tenderer can give an offer to either both, or one of the parts. There is an option for additional two years which the customer decides separately during the contract period. Each order placed under the framework arrangement will relate to the planning of a single project idea and/or a single project consortium. These are envisioned to be identified by a funding call topic. The services will be bought in unit cost of consulting days. The procurement does not include travel. All meetings will be held via Microsoft Teams. A purchase for two (2) consulting-days will be made for each of the suppliers selected to the Framework Agreement to initiate the collaboration and align with the specific focus areas. Part 1 focuses on providing support services to Sitra’s experts in the coordination and drafting of project proposals. The support assignment begins when a relevant funding topic or an initial project or consortium idea have been identified by Sitra’s experts. The aim is to assist Sitra’s team in preparing and submitting competitive project proposals to EU funding calls. The support focuses on consortium projects which are coordinated by Sitra. Two (2) service providers will be selected for Part 1. It is anticipated that six to eight (6-8) assignments will be commissioned under Part 1 during the course of the Framework Agreement. Each assignment will support the development of one specific project proposal with a defined funding topic and concept. Providers for orders with an estimated value of over 30.000€ will be selected through mini-tendering process from the suppliers selected to the framework contract. This will be conducted in a lightweight email procedure. The criteria for selecting the supplier from the mini-tendering are: 1) Availability of fitting expertise to the timeline needed for the specific order. 2) Fitness of the Funding Instrument and Thematic Area expertise to the specific need (for example previous specific funding programme sub-cluster expertise, or a specific domain knowledge sought). Providers for orders under 30,000 euros are selected with consideration of who is the most suitable supplier. The service will include expert assistance for Sitra’s specialists in: - Strategy and tactics for preparing a winning proposal for this specific call  - Consortium development  - Proposal document writing, including developing all Annexes required for the call  - Facilitating co-writing of the Proposal with the Consortium  - Proposal budget planning  - Facilitating, inviting and documenting Consortium meetings  - Arranging steering meetings with Sitra team  - Guiding Sitra and consortium partners in developing their work plan, their impact pathways and excellence, and  - Uploading and submitting the proposal in the EU Funding & Tenders Portal  The purchases from the Framework Agreement will be made as a set of consulting days. The number of consulting days for each order is to be agreed with the suppliers per case. Indicatively, the work for each order in Part 1 is estimated to be between 15 and 35 consulting days.; Part 2 consists of senior advisory work that supports Sitra’s experts in developing proposal concepts, in developing strategic approach to the EU programmes in general, in identifying new strategic partnerships, and in developing funding roadmaps towards the project ideas. The goal of the work is to provide advice to Sitra’s experts on strategic options regarding the project ideas or the funding topics/programmes. Where relevant, this work includes creation of Proposal Concept Note and/or a Funding Opportunity Landscape with Sitra’s experts. Maximum of Six (6) suppliers will be selected to this part. An estimate of twenty (20) purchases will be made during the Framework Agreement. The work includes support in:  - Advisory sessions with Sitra’s experts (on-line; no travel) - Participating as a Senior Advisor to Sitra in exploratory meeting(s) with the target Consortium (on-line; no travel), and  - Designing, writing and co-creating a Project Concept Note and/or Funding Opportunity Landscape documents that   - are well fit to the funding call and Sitra’s strategic options - include description of Project Objectives, Impact Pathways, Work Package architecture  - include description of Sitra’s role, co-created with Sitra’s experts   - include a list of candidate partners for target Consortium   - Participating in introductions to the European partners   Providers for orders with an estimated value of over 30.000€ will be selected through mini-tendering process from the suppliers selected to the framework contract. This will be conducted in a lightweight email procedure. The criteria for selecting the supplier from the mini-tendering are: 1) Availability of fitting expertise to the timeline needed for the specific order. 2) Fitness of the Funding Instrument and Thematic Area expertise to the specific need (for example previous specific funding programme sub-cluster expertise, or a specific domain knowledge sought). Proveders for orders under 30,000 euros are selected with consideration of who is the most suitable supplier. The purchases from the Framework Agreement will be made as a set of consulting days. The number of consulting days per order is to be agreed with the suppliers per case. Indicatively the work for each order is estimated to be between 3 and 10 consulting days.