New Solutions Social Innovation Hub

The Contracting Authority invites Tenders for the establishment of a single party framework agreement with a suitably qualified service provider(s) to design, develop and operate a Social Innovation Hub to deliver a suite of supports to social innovation initiatives. The Hub will also provide ongoing case management to social innovation initiatives who receive funding under this project. The Hub will design and implement an early-stage idea generation, validation and foundational skills programme (Ideas Academy) to help individuals and groups turn emerging ideas for social change into viable, impactful initiatives. The Hub will be required to develop a detailed social innovation project plan spanning the term of the Framework Agreement as well as a series of reports outlining progress, lessons learnt and impact of the Hub’s activities. New Solutions is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the EU through the European Social Fund Plus EIST 2021-2027 Programme. The EIST Programme involves a total investment of over Eur1.08 billion (Eur508 million from the EU and Eur573 million from the Government of Ireland). Under the EIST Programme, the breakdown of co-funding specifically for New Solutions is as follows: EU allocation: 95 percent; Government of Ireland: 5 percent. The overarching objective for New Solutions is to enhance the social innovation ecosystem in Ireland by, ‘fostering active inclusion, promoting equal opportunities, non-discrimination and active participation, and to improve employability, for disadvantaged groups including through the social enterprise business model.’ This objective of the fund has been broken down further as follows: Objective 1: Support the development of a social innovation ecosystem through awareness-raising and maximising synergies with other key public policies in the areas of social inclusion, social enterprise and community led local development Objective 2: Capacity building supports for Social Innovation initiatives at national, regional, local and/or community levels Objective 3: Fund Social Innovation Pilot Programmes to address significant social and environmental challenges Objective 4: Create an enabling environment which will allow social innovation to thrive and to support scaling up of social innovations This competition is to award a single party framework agreement from which an initial contract for 39 months, with a maximum spend of Eur 2.8m including VAT, for the following five tasks: 1. Development of a Social Innovation Hub 2. Development of a blended reporting framework 3. Design, develop and roll out an early-stage Social Innovation Ideas Academy programme 4. Ongoing case management of social innovation initiatives 5. Design, develop and implement an appropriate grant funding model Note: This competition is being run in accordance with Regulation 74 of the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations 2016 and accordingly is subject only to limited aspects of the Regulations.