Award

Research Grants Management System

LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE & TROPICAL MEDICINE

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Award

09 Oct 2024 at 17:04

Summary of the contracting process

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has awarded a contract for the supply and implementation of a Research Grants Management System to Worktribe Ltd. This procurement, classified under the industry specific software package (CPV 48100000), aims to manage research projects from pre-award budgeting through to post-award processes. The contract, valued at GBP 1,086,383, was signed on 9th October 2024. As part of LSHTM's strategy to transition to cloud-based solutions, this system will replace the existing finance system module whose support ends in December 2025. This award was made under a limited procurement method without prior publication due to the unique capabilities required.

This tender opens significant growth opportunities for businesses in the software development and research management sectors, particularly those offering Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. Companies providing integrated software for pre-award budgeting, contract negotiations, due diligence, research ethics, post-award financial monitoring, and timesheet management can look to this contract as a benchmark for similar future opportunities. The detailed and specific nature of LSHTM's requirements suggests that businesses with proven and integrated capabilities tailored to research institutions will be best placed to compete for similar projects.

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Notice Title

Research Grants Management System

Notice Description

The proposed contract is for the supply and implementation of a commercial off the shelf SaaS Research Grants Management System to manage research projects from pre-award (budgeting of grants), through to ethics, contracts and post-award. This contract will replace the existing finance system module, the contract and support for which is expiring, whilst providing enhanced and extended functionality for the LSHTM research portfolio

Lot Information

Lot 1

The contract and support of the existing LSHTM finance system including the research costing & pricing functionality is ending in December 2025. Moving to Cloud-based solutions for core systems is in line with LSHTM IT strategy whilst the functionality needed to support LSHTM research projects means a full research grants management solution is required. The assessment of options for the Finance System has means that LSHTM will require two separate systems, one for Finance and one for research management. Worktribe is the only vendor that offers an off-the-shelf, ready-to-use solution with end-to-end functionality and fully integrated workflows for Pre-Award, Post-Award, contracts management, due diligence, timesheets, ethics and reporting within a single, user-friendly platform.

Procurement Information

Under Clause 32(b) (ii) of Public Contract Regulations 2015: The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for works contract, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following cases: - (b) where the works, suppliers or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons: - (ii) competition is absent for technical reasons Through review of frameworks, soft market testing and informal discussions other institutions, we have concluded that Worktribe is the only proven solution that meets all of LSHTM's requirements below. A single SaaS system providing one access point to manage the lifecycle of research projects. Including: - Pre-award - budgeting, costing and pricing proposals based on TRAC/Full Economic Costing (FEC) (including UKRI and NIHR budget templates), approval workflows and managing applications - Contracts - supporting contract negotiations with funders, partners and collaborators. - Due diligence - create and undertake bespoke risk assessment of funders, partners, collaborators and countries. Evaluate the financial and non-financial risks, and provide an overall risk score for the organisations and countries visible across the platform - Research ethics - management tools including bespoke question sets, workflow allocation rules, full ethics review process including for amendments, ethics committee management, automated generation of outcome letters and reports, configurable workflows for progress reports, end of study reports and safety reports, and risk allocation and visibility - Post-award - in-built, seamless integration with the Pre-award applications/contracts, project set up, integration with finance system, monitoring of spend against budget, workflow management of budget virements, adjustments, supplements, no-cost extensions and final reconciliation and project close out - Timesheets - sector-specific tools to record and approve actual staff time on a project and adjustments to costs incurred in compliance with the requirements of research funders and other statutory organisations - Single SaaS platform data management for the research lifecycle, seamless links between the research lifecycle areas, and to streamline reporting - has proven integration capability with LSHTM's new finance system (TechnologyOne's OneEducation system) and HR system (iTrent) for seamless transition of information for costing project proposals, setting up project codes - is a mature, tried and tested product that does not require any significant capability development - Proven track record with HEIs with similar integration requirements and research portfolio complexity - enables user groups role based access through a user-friendly interface - is offered off-the-shelf (i.e. no customisation required) delivered within LSHTM's strict implementation timescales Limitations of other solutions included: - Primary capabilities were either as a Current Research Information System (CRIS), an ethics system or a timesheet system. Management of research outputs / institutional repository is outside of scope for this project and not currently of interest. - No established FEC tool for research and innovation projects. - No tools to manage the contracts aspect of the requirement. - Complex, unproven integrations with other systems required to deliver the full requirement. - Not widely proven by HEIs with similar integration requirements and research portfolio complexity. Multiple systems would - be detrimental to the user experience, - increase training requirements and costs - impact user adoption. - Prevent a 'one stop shop' to monitor and view the status of a project. - Increase complexity through integrations between multiple systems as well as implementation time and create additional costs.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-04a747
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/032492-2024
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Limited
Procurement Method Details
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems


CPV Codes

48100000 - Industry specific software package

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
£1,086,383 £1M-£10M

Notice Dates

Publication Date
9 Oct 20241 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
8 Oct 20241 years ago
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE & TROPICAL MEDICINE
Contact Name
Caroline Chipperfield
Contact Email
caroline.chipperfield@lshtm.ac.uk
Contact Phone
+44 02079588328

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
WC1E 7HT
Post Town
Central London
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI36 Camden
Delivery Location
TLI31 Camden and City of London

Local Authority
Camden
Electoral Ward
Bloomsbury
Westminster Constituency
Holborn and St Pancras

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

WORKTRIBE

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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