ERDF Project Description
Allia has received assistance through the 2014-2020 ERDF Programme for the Serious Impact project, receiving a 50% contribution towards a £1.7M capital and revenue programme.
The purpose of the project is to launch and deliver a comprehensive business support project, driving impact venture and environmental business start-up, survival and growth by maximising the use of existing innovation and incubation spaces. Through a series of targeted interventions it will stimulate entrepreneurial activity; support business start-ups; accelerate early stage businesses to improve survival and success rates; and incubate those with potential to scale and create both economic and social impact. It will also deliver an Innovation Lab – a test, prototype and demonstration facility for SMEs developing hardware.
The project is being delivered in line with the ESIF objectives and investment priorities under Priority Axis 3 (to increase the growth capacity of small and medium enterprises), specifically:
Promoting entrepreneurship, in particular by facilitating the economic exploitation of new ideas and fostering the creation of new firms, including through business incubators.
The use of summative assessments
ERDF grant funding agreements place a requirement on grant recipients (Allia) to undertake summative assessments of funded programmes. Specifically, the summative assessments are intended to:
- Provide insights into project performance to enhance their implementation
- Provide reliable evidence of their efficiency, effectiveness and value for money,
- Provide insights into what and why interventions work (or not) and lessons for the future.
They also provide project level evidence which, when combined with national evidence of progress and impact, will result in stronger evidence of the overall impact and effectiveness of the ERDF operational programme across England. The evidence will also be particularly helpful for you in making the case for delivery approaches in the future or making the case for future funding.
In line with latest ERDF guidance published in August 2017, Allia is now seeking tender proposals from highly experienced and qualified suppliers for the provision of the summative assessment for the Serious Impact programme.
ERDF Guidance
ERDF has recently published updated guidance on the project evaluation summative assessments which all suppliers must comply with – see links below for latest guidance:
- ESIF GN-1-033 – ERDF Summative Assessment Guidance
- ESIF GN 1-034 – ERDF Summative Assessment Guidance – appendices
- ESIF Form 1-014 – Summative Assessment Report Summary – to be provided on contract award
The supplier will be expected to undertake a summative assessment and provide a full report together with a final summary in line with the requirements of this document and above ERDF guidance.
(Note the above guidance is subject to change – suppliers are expected to check and comply with latest ERDF guidance as amended.)
Scope
The assessment will need to cover the following themes
- Relevance and consistency
- Review of the project for continued relevance in light of changes in policy progress
- Review progress against contractual targets and reasons for over/under performance
- Delivery and management
- Explore the experience of implementing and managing the project and any lessons learned.
- Impacts
- Explore the economic impact attributable to the project, including both the intended and actual outcomes and impact.
- Value for money assessment
- Analyse the cost-effectiveness of the project in light of its intended and unintended outcomes and impacts, and hence its value for money.
Report Structure:
The report must follow the format specified in the Summative Assessment Guidance Appendix F. See details through the links above.
In addition to the final report the supplier should also provide a summary document, in a standard format which will be provided.
The final report must be submitted to DCLG no later the 30th October 2018. There will be a requirement for an addendum to this report encompassing the final four months of delivery to the end January 2019. This should be factored into your submission.
Submission
Would interested suppliers please submit a detailing the following:
- Understanding of the required task (Scored out of 10)
- A clear methodology outlining milestones, timelines etc, based on the final report being completed and submitted to DCLG no later than 30th October 2018 (Scored out of 10)
- Evidence of the skills and experience required to complete the task including recent examples of similar work/case studies (Scored out of 10)
- Value for money (Scored out of 10)
Please submit tenders no later than 14th March 2018 via email to David Broach – david.broach@allia.org.uk. Interviews will be conducted w/c 19th March 2018 with the winning contract commencing on 1st April 2018.
Further details: https://seriousimpact.co.uk/tenders/