Procurement

The Authority will seek expressions of interest for research projects under the broad policy themes described in the Policy Themes Section. Within each subject area there may be a number of individual research projects with particular objectives, specified deliverables and timescale. The projects may be procured as individual commissions or grouped into a package: the grouping of research topics may afford the Authority the opportunity to best target the available expertise in each of the specialist subject areas.

Procurement will generally be through the normal NRA procurement procedures. Preferred suppliers of research services will be selected on the basis of an open competition which will be advertised on the NRA website, in national and international journals and in the European Journal, as appropriate. Competition between potential suppliers, based on both quality and cost of the proposals will ensure best value for money.

In some cases it may be appropriate to use a different procurement process. Examples are:

• If the project is a continuation of previous work and continuity of personnel is necessary, it may be appropriate to commission a particular institute or individual to carry out the work
• Collaboration projects, where the Authority is a co-funder or where the Authority is providing “top-up” funds to an existing project.

In these cases approval for the proposed procurement method will be sought from the Chief Executive.