Request for Proposals
 

(July – August 2007)

• 18 July 2007: This round of the tender process involves Knowledge Exchange issuing a more detailed ’Request for Proposals’ on 18 July. The ’Request for Proposals’ details award criteria which can help bidders formulate their proposals. The deadline for 'Request for Proposals' is 40 days after its publication in August 2007. Only the ten successful bidders from the first round are able to participate in this second round of the tender.
• 27 August 2007: Deadline for the Request for Proposals

Finding new licensing models and platforms for research output
The Knowledge Exchange partner organisations are genuinely interested in working with the publishing and content community to find new licensing models and platforms for the output of research.

All of the proposals submitted will be reviewed and evaluated by Knowledge Exchange representatives. During September, all the proposals received will be considered and evaluated by Knowledge Exchange representatives. Selection of successful bids is scheduled to take place at a meeting in late September 2007.

Route to Market
Using this tender process, Knowledge Exchange and its partner organisations offer the publishers a route to market. In this phase, the partner organisations of Knowledge Exchange decide which bids to take forward though they do not sign the actual licensing contract(s) with the publishers. 

Knowledge Exchange will then provide publishers with access to 190 research and large teaching universities, as well as a further 1500 other affiliated higher education and publicly funded research institutions, covering the full breadth of the academic community in the four partner countries.

Working with the succesful bidders

Knowledge Exchange partners will work with successful bidders to:

• Offer the successful bids to the respective institutions across the four Knowledge Exchange partner countries
• Endorse and promote the bids to the libraries
• Provide a single point of contact for publishers, resulting in better efficiency and reduced administrative costs for bidders
• Provide central evaluation of contracts by legal experts, which will give libraries the assurance of a sound contract and encourage take-up of the offers
• Provide further efficiencies in administration costs, for example by the management of a single payment by Knowledge Exchange partners, if applicable.

For more information on the tender process please contact the Knowledge Exchange office.