| Public document to be completed by the Contracting Authority
Compulsory use for service tender procedures of EUR 200,000 or more
SERVICE PROCUREMENT NOTICE
Technical assistance to the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency in the implementation of PHARE Project BG 2005/017-353.10.06 “Support to the implementation of the Bulgarian National Innovation Strategy” Bulgaria
1. Publication reference EuropeAid/122657/D/SER/BG 2. Procedure Restricted 3. Programme Phare 4. Financing BG 2005/017-353.10.06 5. Contracting Authority Phare Implementing Agency, Ministry of Economy and Energy, Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria
CONTRACT SPECIFICATION 6. Nature of contract Fee-based 7. Contract description The contract objective is to provide support and assistance to the Bulgarian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) through: 1. Screening of the network of Bulgarian public and private institutions whose activities initiate, import and disseminate new technologies; 2. Development of a methodology for performing of a technology and innovation screening of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs); 3. Screening of existing barriers for the development of Bulgarian innovative SMEs in the field of “Research and Development”; 4. Development of innovation support instruments and procedures (operational manuals) for the management of aid schemes oriented to innovative SMEs especially in the context of Operational Programme “Development of the Competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy” and in line with the best EU practices; 4. Support for enhancing the administrative capacity of the BSMEPA on central and regional level; 5. Support in the process of implementation of a Grant Scheme for establishment of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). 8. Numbers and titles of lots N/A 9. Maximum budget EUR 350 000 10. Scope for additional services N/A
CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION 11. Eligibility Participation is open on equal terms to legal persons of the EU Member States and the countries and territories of the regions covered and/or authorised by the Regulations on access to Community external assistance and other specific instruments applicable to the programme under which the contract is financed (see also item 30 below). Participation of natural persons is directly governed by the specific instruments applicable to the programme under which the contract is financed. 12. Candidature All eligible natural and legal persons (as per item 11 above) or groupings of such persons (consortia) may apply. A consortium may be a permanent, legally-established grouping or a grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender procedure. All members of a consortium (ie, the leader and all other members) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority. The participation of an ineligible natural or legal person (as per item 11) will result in the automatic exclusion of that person. In particular, if that ineligible person belongs to a consortium, the whole consortium will be excluded. 13. Number of applications No more than one application can be submitted by a natural or legal person whatever the form of participation (as an individual legal entity or as leader or member of a consortium submitting an application). In the event that a natural or legal person submits more than one application, all applications in which that person has participated will be excluded. 14. Shortlist alliances prohibited Any tenders received from tenderers comprising firms other than those mentioned in the short-listed application forms will be excluded from this restricted tender procedure. Short-listed candidates may not form alliances or subcontract to each other for the contract in question. 15. Grounds for exclusion As part of the application form, candidates must submit a signed declaration, included in the standard application form, to the effect that they are not in any of the exclusion situations listed in Section 2.3.3 of the Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions 16. Sub-contracting Sub-contracting will be allowed up to 20% of the contract value. Sub-contracting can be used for non-key experts and for supporting the activities envisaged for the key experts. 17. Number of candidates to be short-listed On the basis of the applications received, at least 4 and at most 8 candidates will be invited to submit detailed tenders for this contract.
PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE 18. Provisional date of invitation to tender 15 September 2006 19. Provisional commencement date of the contract 15 December 2006 20. Initial period of execution and possible extension of the contract 11 months
SELECTION AND AWARD CRITERIA 21. Selection criteria The following selection criteria will be applied to candidates. In the case of applications submitted by a consortium, these selection criteria will be applied to the consortium as a whole unless specified otherwise: 1) Economic and financial capacity of candidate (based on item 3 of the application form): a) The annual turnover of the Candidate (the firm or the leading member of the consortium) for each of the last two years for which accounts have been closed shall amount at least to EUR 500 000. b) The firm or the leading member of the consortium should be operational for the last two years. 2) Professional capacity of candidate (based on items 4 and 5 of the application form) a) The Candidate has a total of at least 10 persons permanent staff currently and on average during the three year-period as per the Application Form working in the fields related to this contract. The experts shall, as a team, cover all the fields specified below: - Analysis of SMEs innovation and technology problems; - Management of grant schemes in the field of innovation and establishment of Technology Transfer Offices; - Research and Development analysis and development of methodologies for screening of SMEs that are related to the introduction of innovative processes and/or products in the market; - Assistance to public institutions to enhance its administrative capacity to manage projects under Pre-accession and/or Structural Funds of EU. 3) Technical capacity of candidate (based on items 5 and/or 6 of the application form): a) The Candidate shall have experience in at least three of the following fields of specialisation: - Technical assistance to public institutions related to the preparation and management of SME grant schemes financed through the EU budget; - Analysis of Technology/R&D barriers for the development of SMEs. - Measurement of the innovation potential of private and public companies. - Promotion and introduction of R&D instruments in the private sector.
b) The candidate shall have successfully completed at least two projects including in total activities relevant to at least two fields described under item 21. 3) a) during the last five years (02.08.2001 – 01.08.2006). For the purposes of this short-listing procedure, a project is considered “completed” if the final report has been approved. For the purposes of this short-listing procedure, a project is considered compliant with this requirement if the value of services carried out by the candidate under such project amounts to at least EUR 100 000. An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract, rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them. It must in that case prove to the Contracting Authority that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for performance of the contract, for example by producing an undertaking on the part of those entities to place those resources at its disposal. Under the same conditions, a consortium of economic operators may rely on the capacities of members of the consortium or of other entities. If more than 8 eligible candidates meet the above selection criteria, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the applications of these candidates must be reexamined to identify the eight best applications for the tender procedure. The only factors which will be taken into consideration during this re-examination are: 1) The highest number of projects compliant with the requirements of item 21. 3) b);. 2) The highest cumulative value of services carried out by the Candidate under the projects compliant with the requirements of item 21. 3) b).
The two above comparative criteria will be applied in order of precedence, i.e. all the candidates meeting the selection criteria as per 2 |
