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GRDC National Grower Network - Coordination and administration services for the Northern Region

GRDC National Grower Network - Coordination and administration services for the Northern Region

Reference number: PROC-9177157

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Release date:: Tuesday 26 November 2024
Closing time:: Friday 31 January 2025, at 05:00 PM ACT local time
Enquiry deadline:: Friday 17 January 2025, at 05:00 PM ACT local time

Summary

The National Grower Network (NGN) program is designed to capture and respond promptly to grain grower issues and opportunities, ensure GRDC is investing in locally relevant research, and help drive adoption of R&D outputs. In doing so, the NGN also educates stakeholders of GRDC’s role and portfolio of investments and increases visibility of GRDC. The NGN helps to capture ideas, issues, constraints and opportunities for RD&E to enhance grower profitability. To achieve this, the team, with support from a service provider engage with stakeholders through forums that are open to all growers, advisers, researchers and industry parties.

Offer period

Offers will remain open for acceptance by the GRDC for a period of 6 months after the Closing Time.

Document contact and enquiries

Attention: Lyndal Gordon - Contract Administrator
Grains Research and Development Corporation
Email: Lyndal.Gordon@grdc.com.au

Make all requests for further information or clarification in relation to this procurement in writing (email) prior to 17 January 2025.

GRDC will publish all requests and responses to requests on the GRDC website under Questions and Answers at the bottom of this webpage.

Consortia response

GRDC will not accept Tenders from Consortia.

Lodgement of Tender

Submit your Tender response electronically through the Grains Investment Portal.

AusTender

TBC.

Description

GRDC is looking to engage with a service provider to coordinate and administer to continue to deliver the NGN program. Key activities will include organisation, promotion and coordination of a series of NGN forums throughout the Northern Region. This will include administration tasks associated with the events, including minute taking, evaluation and registration of attendees. Close collaboration with the Grower and Stakeholder Engagement team will ensure these activities are delivered professionally across the Northern Region.

Due to the large area of the Northern Region, the region will be broken up into 5 zones to enable better coverage. Zone 1 – SE and SW NSW, Zone 2 – CE & CW NSW, Zone 3 – NE, NW and Coast and Tablelands NSW, Zone 4 – SE and SW QLD and Zone 5 – Central QLD, Coast and Tablelands QLD.

Events for Zones 3-5 will begin in 2025 while events in Zones 1 & 2 will begin in 2026 due to overlap of current investment.

Applicants can apply for one or multiple zones.

Outcome

Outputs

Output 1.

Title: Coordination and delivery of National Grower Network forums.

Description: By 30 June 2026 (recurring annually), organise, promote, coordinate and administrate a series of a minimum of 12, but up to 16 GRDC National Grower Network forums within the Northern Region. (3-4 events per Zone per annum). In the event of multiple service providers covering the 5 zones, collaboration would be expected to ensure consistency of delivery.

For each forum the service provider is responsible for carrying out the following tasks in consultation with GRDC:

Event logistics (booking venues, catering, travel/accommodation for speakers, AV needs)
Agenda creation, including booking guest speakers for the forum where necessary– with approval by GRDC
Event promotion and must include GRDC channels, for example, website, event pages, electronic direct mail, social media, media releases) and by local promotion organised by the service provider
Registration of attendees and collection of attendee details
Set up and pack up of event
Taking minutes, collating information and drafting shortlists of prioritised issues to GRDC
Event evaluation and collation of results.

Each forum will involve the following key components:

The NGN forum will provide an engagement opportunity to collect and prioritise opportunities and constraints of local importance to growers, advisers, industry and research representatives.
Formats might involve existing GRDC NGN forums, industry led forums in conjunction with existing activities (e.g. field days, workshops) facilitated by the industry group in collaboration with GRDC, or on-line engagements.
At each NGN forum a research presentation, field walk, or similar extension activity may be conducted to facilitate peer to peer learning and group discussions to ground truth locally-relevant research outcomes.
Facilitation by a GRDC Grower Relations Manager and will include a presentation on GRDC investments relevant to the local area of delivery.
Support will be provided to GRDC staff to capture the discussions and ensure effective time management is maintained to achieve the desired forum outcomes.
After each event a report will be submitted to GRDC containing a list of opportunities and constraints raised including detailed notes on the group discussions for each issue, priorities, evaluation of the forum and registration information.
At the end of each year, lead service providers will meet with GRDC managers to ensure national consistency and explore more efficient ways to engage growers and stakeholders.

Proposed Budget

Proposed Contract & Term

GRDC will contract under the terms of the Services Contract.

The schedule(s) attached to the contract will detail the project details: the outcomes, outputs, milestones, budget, participating personnel and required intellectual property.

The template contract containing the proposed Terms and Conditions is available on the Application resources page on the GRDC website.

It is anticipated that any resultant contract in relation to this procurement will commence with a proposed term of three years.

Conditions for Participation

The following are mandatory conditions with which a Tenderer must comply to participate in this procurement process:

The Tenderer must be a single legal entity or recognised firm of partners.
The Tenderer and any proposed subcontractor must be compliant with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, the Modern Slavery Act 2018 and any other applicable labour laws and standards in the jurisdiction in which they operate.
The Tenderer and any subcontractor must not have a judicial decision against it (not including decisions under appeal) relating to employee entitlements and who have not paid the claim.
The Tenderer and any subcontractor must not be named on the Consolidated List, being the list of persons and entities who are subject to targeted financial sanctions or travel bans under Australian sanction laws, as maintained by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Minimum Form and Content Requirements

The following are the mandatory content and format requirements that the Tenderer must complete and provide to participate in this procurement process:

Submit Tenders using the Grains Investment Portal.
Write Tenders in English and express any measurements in Australian legal units of measurement.
Budget details must be submitted on the ‘GRDC Budget Template’ provided in the Grains Investment Portal.

Evaluation Criteria

In the table below are the Evaluation Criteria that the Tender Evaluation Team will use to assess the value for money of all Tenders.

No	Type	Weighting
1	Technical – Qualitative evaluation criteria related to non-price factors such as methodology, project plan, track record, experience.
1a	A clear and thorough plan to achieve the project outputs, specifying: a) specific information, products and/or services to be delivered with an outline of delivery approach b) proposed milestones c) budget (defining the funds sought in each year of the project and the potential investment from all parties) d) project structure and management arrangements	50%
1b	Demonstrated track record of the project team, with evidence, including: a) relevant achievements of the project leader in providing leadership, co-ordination, management, monitoring and evaluation and the timely delivery of high quality outputs b) relevant technical knowledge and experience of all key personnel (including proposed subcontractors) in the project area c) ability of the project team to collaborate with the relevant organisations and industry personnel to build on the delivery already undertaken in this area	50%
2	Price - The tendered budget.	N/A
3	Risk - Risks inherent in the application including the degree of compliance with the draft contract and any actual or perceived conflict of interest.	N/A
4	Australian economy - The economic benefit of the procurement to the Australian economy.	N/A

Lodging a Tender

Questions and Answers

Q1. Could you please clarify the anticipated start and end date for the services eg 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026? Or three years?

A1. The contract will be for 3 years.

Q2. Is the anticipated whole of region budget, $520k, per annum or over three years or other?

A2. The budget indicated is for the entire region for the 3 years.

Q3. Given that for Zone 1 and 2 the Forums have normally been held in August, that we are only talking about 2026 & 2027?

A3. Yes, Zones 1 and 2 will be just 2026 and 2027.

Q4. In our budget should we continue to itemise expenses for professional time paid in advance, separated from operating expenses which have been paid in arears?

A4. Yes, provide split between professional fees and expenses.

Q5. The budget mentioned of $520,000, is that to cover both ‘out of pocket expenses’ plus professional and operational costs of the successful tender in fulfilling the contract or just the later?

A5. The $520,000.00 covers both the professional fees and operational expenses which includes event costs such as catering and room hire.