Tender EACI/CIP/10/01 "European IPR Helpdesk"

Transcription

1 Tender EACI/CIP/10/01 "European IPR Helpdesk" QUESTIONS SENT TO MAILBOX AND REPLIES Newly published questions and answers on 24 th t September: 16, 17,18,19,20 Question 1 We are a technology transfer office attached to a University from Italy. Could we be an eligible tenderer? According to the IPR Helpdesk tender specifications "Participation in tendering procedures is open on equal terms to all natural and legal persons from one of the EU Member States and to all natural and legal persons in a third country which has a special agreement with the Union in the field of public procurement on the conditions laid down in that agreement." If you consider that your entity meets the eligibility criteria provided for in point 11 of the tender specifications, it may send an offer. Please read also carefully the exclusion, selection and award criteria set on point 16 of the IPR Helpdesk tender specifications. Question 2 Can we have access to the Questions and 's and web content from the existing contractor for the last 3 years? At present, you may have access to the public website of the current IPR Helpdesk and its content including the 's. We would refer to the point 2 of the tender specifications which refers to that website : Question 3 The current IPR Helpdesk operates on the basis of questions asked by , with no phone service or personal visits. Is this acceptable for this new contract? The tender specifications stipulate that the task 2 includes as one of the sub-tasks : "Professional IT system supporting the Helpline that should permit to register all request coming from fax, telephone or and to follow up their handling;" (See point 3.5). Therefore, the proposal should foresee requests coming form fax, telephone or .

2 Question 4 Is English Language acceptable for the website, 's, helpline responses, reports to EACI and training and seminars? If not, which other languages may be required and under what circumstances? We would refer to point 3.3 of the tender specifications : "Given the target audience, the language of the tasks and services to be delivered is English (...) However, for individual questions, training sessions, awareness events or other services where the target audience would prefer another language, the Helpdesk could provide its services in this language, provided that the involved staff members are able to do it with the same or better quality than in English and that it does not involve additional costs to the project." We would also refer to point 3.4 of the tender specifications" The language of the tasks and services to be delivered is English" In sum, the services are to be delivered mainly in English. This concerns the setting up of a helpdesk, helpline, training and seminars. This does not exclude that if the target audience prefers another language and the contractor staff is able to respond in that language, that can be also done. For the reports, point 19 of the tender specifications states that they should be delivered in English. Question 5 The Invitation to tender dated 02/08/2010 point 2 specifies that the offer has to be submitted in quadruplicate. Is it necessary to present 4 originals or is it possible to submit one original and three copies? Tenderers should submit 1 (one) original and 3 (three) copies. Question 6 Is it necessary to submit in quadruplicate all sections, i.e. also the documents related to evidence of economic, financial and technical capacity? Tenderers should submit the offer in quadruplicate including the 3 (three) sections

3 Question 7 Could you please specify in which of the two sealed envelopes (technical and financial bid), should the tenderers include section one -administrative information? The administrative proposal could be included in the sealed envelope containing the technical specifications. The first sealed envelope should therefore contain the administrative and the technical proposals (sections 1 and 2). The other one should contain the financial proposal (section 3). Question 8 As regards the following documents: Tender validation document Power of attorney (Annex 6) Subcontractor letter (Annex 5) Declaration of the tenderer (Annex 2) Documents of selection criteria: Economic, financial capacity Documents of selection criteria: Technical, Professional capacity Could you please identify in which of the three sections should each of them be included? Tender validation document : There is no "tender validation document". All documents related to the legal entity and its authorized representative should be included in section one. Power of attorney (Annex 6) : This should be included in section one (administrative information). Subcontractor letter (Annex 5) : This should be included in section two (technical proposal). Declaration of the tenderer (Annex 2) : This should be included in section one (administrative information). Documents of selection criteria: Economic, financial capacity : This should be included in section two (technical proposal). Documents of selection criteria: Technical, Professional capacity : This should be included in section two (technical proposal).

4 Question 9 We are seeking some further information to allow us to submit the tender The current volume of traffic the helpline is handling by phone and The current % of enquires in Brands, copyright and for patents or any other Intellectual Asset The main nations with % where the enquires originate The split of enquires from sme s research and academia The tender specifications do not give details on the volume of the traffic of the helpline as the volume is highly variable and might change significantly from previous years. The percentage on the actions that the helpdesk has handled cannot serve as a basis for a proposal since, given the variability of the figures, the number of requests is difficult to predict. The tenderers are invited to submit an offer on the basis of the selection and award criteria specified in the tender specifications. Question 10 Page 10/11, Task 1 "It should contain interactive e-learning tools". What is the purpose of these tools? Are they for learning to use the website or for IPR knowledge related learning purposes? We would refer to the first line of task 1, under the heading 3.5 where it is provided that the service provider will have to set up "( ) a website including support documents, s, brochures, e-learning tools and case studies." The website should contain inter alia e- learning tools, which should be interactive and are aimed at learning IPR and/or improving its knowledge and understanding. Therefore these tools are aimed at learning IPR and/or improving its knowledge and understanding. Question 11 Page 11, Task 2, If our bid is successful, may we have access to the last 3 years of the current IPR Helpdesk's database of submitted questions and Answers? You can access the public website of the current IPR Helpdesk and its content including the 's. We would refer to the point 2 of the tender specifications which refers to that website: Since the results of the IRP Helpdesk do not belong to the EACI, access to the future contractor cannot be granted.

5 Question 12 Page 13, Task 3, 3rd bullet point refers to "A series of regular training actions... ". How often does "Regular" mean 'once a year', 'once a month', weekly or xxxx? The tender specifications do not define how regular the training actions should be and it is up to the tenderer to indicate a time schedule for these actions in its initial training map (as defined in bullet point 2, task 3). Question 13 Also on page 20, the list of 'Planning and Deliverables' does not any require any specific training deliverables, only 'work plans for training and awareness actions'. Please clarify? See above answer to question 12 and task 3, second bullet point: "An initial training plan (including the performance indicators under point 4 below), outline and structure of trainings have to be provided in the tender. After the signature of the contract, the service provider will have 3 (three) months to elaborate on this." Question 14 Page 15, Task 5, 1st bullet point, 1st sub-bullet "Co-organisation of training events and awareness actions". Should we include the cost of room hire, supporting staff, meals and refreshments, etc. for such events, and if so for 100%, 50%, etc. in our financial costing? Task 5, 1st bullet point, provides as follows: "this task concerns co-operation mostly with Enterprise Europe Network, e.g. by setting up with the EACI and IPR training programme for the Enterprise Europe Network partners and providing relevant trainers on topics with expertise of the IPR Helpdesk". This implies that the tenderer should include in its offer the costs of the relevant trainers (and other costs necessary) in the event of a co-organization of training events and awareness actions. The co-organiser would be Europe Enterprise Network following the establishment of specific cooperation schemes. On the costs in general we would refer to point "section three: financial proposal" were it is stated as follows: " the financial offer must be formulated for the whole contract period" (fifth bullet point), "prices shall be fixed and include all expenses, such as travel expenses and daily allowances and not subject to revision" (sixth bullet point). See also points a), b), c) and d) of section For instance point d) provides "in the event of other costs, the other costs should be specified and a cost breakdown per tasks should also be provided." Finally see also Annex 4 "financial overview template".

6 Question 15 Page 17 Task 6 B, could you define the term "Market Replication Project"? We would refer to Article 44 of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) decision where market replication projects are defined as follows: "The Community shall provide support to projects concerned with the market replication of innovative techniques, processes, products or practices of Community relevance, which have already been technically demonstrated with success. These shall be designed to promote broader utilisation of such techniques, processes, products or practices within the participating countries and facilitate their market uptake" Question 16 I d like to know where can I find the technical specifications and financial bid s form. From the tender specifications I read that all tenders must be presented in 3 sections: administrative, technical and financial. The first one concerns the annex specified in the specifications but I can t find the other forms. On the web site I see only this documents: - Invitation to tender - Tender specifications - Draft service contract - Simplified financial statement - Financial overview template Could you suggest me which of them is technical specifications and the financial bid s form? A call for tenders starts with an invitation to tender that specifies the rules governing the lodging and presentation of tenders including the closing date and time of submission. The tender specifications are the main document of the call for tenders. They contain all the technical requirements of the call on the basis of which tenderers are invited to submit their offers. In this document tenderers can also find the exclusion and selection criteria (both relating to technical and financial capacity) and the award criteria with their weighting. The financial bid refers in fact to the financial proposal and is part to the tender specifications. For more details the tenderer is invited to read carefully point of the tender specifications as well Annexes 3 and 4.

7 Question 17 Our interpretation of the ToR with regards to target groups is that they include: a) Beneficiaries of EU funded programmes, including RTD project and CIP projects; b) Beneficiaries or participants of European research projects (especially when they are EEN members) that are not funded by the EU; c) Individual European SMEs needing general IP advice, contributing to their internationalization and who would normally seek such advise through EEN. Please confirm that a), b) and c) are all the intended target audience. Would there be an additional definition of target group? The definition of target group is to be found in point 3.3 of the tender specifications. This point provides that the target groups are: beneficiaries of EU funded programmes, especially: - current and potential participants in EU funded RTD projects and in particular SMEs, academia, research centres and individual researchers, - current and potential participants to CIP projects (e.g. Intelligent Energy Europe Programme, Eco-innovation), and in particular SMEs and innovation agencies, EU SMEs (including micro-enterprises) in general in the process of negotiating or concluding transnational partnership agreements, especially through the Enterprise Europe Network." In sum, the target groups beneficiaries of EU funded programmes (current and potential) as well as EU SMEs in general that are in the process of negotiating transnational partnership agreements. The scope of the target groups is thus large. Question 18 Are individual experts considered as subcontractors? If individual experts are considered as subcontractors, do we need to identify in the proposal all of these individual experts that we will engage in the next three years? The tender specifications, part , set out that "The labour cost for each category of staff engaged in the project must be specified." If the individual experts are not members of the staff of the tenderer, they would have to be listed under "sub-contracting". Part 13 of the tender specifications state that "service providers must state what parts of the work, if any, they intend to subcontract, and to what extent (% of the total contract value), specifying the names, addresses and legal status of the subcontractors. (...). Tenderers may not choose subcontractors other than those mentioned in the bids unless they obtain the prior written authorisation of the EACI."

8 Question 19 Are expenditures for workshops, e.g. venue, catering and printing costs, considered as subcontracting or are they considered incidental expenditure? Following its usual accounting practices, the tenderer should allocate expenses for workshops, e.g. venue, catering, printing costs, within the categories described under Question 20 Budget template: we could not include more than 30 units in the flight and per diem quantity cell. Does this mean there can only be a maximum of 30 flights and 30 nights of per diems? No, the number of items in the quantity cell is not restricted to 30.