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Minutes of briefing meeting for CORDIS call for tender

The European Commission, DG XIII, has published the minutes of the briefing meeting on the call for proposals for the provision of technical services for the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS), in the framework of the specific programme for the dis...

The European Commission, DG XIII, has published the minutes of the briefing meeting on the call for proposals for the provision of technical services for the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS), in the framework of the specific programme for the dissemination and optimization of the results of RTD activities. The meeting took place in Luxembourg on 13 June 1995. The minutes have been provided as rapidly as possible after the briefing meeting to allow the maximum amount of time for tenderers to prepare their bids. The closing date indicated in the Official Journal (OJ No S 105 of 3.6.1995) is wrong. Following EC procedures, the correct dates in the Official Journal should now read as follows: - para 8(b): Final date for receipt of requests for tenders: 7 July 1995; - para 9(a): Final date for receipt of tenders: 14 July 1995; - para 10: Opening of tenders (b) in Luxembourg: 21 July 1995. All further conditions regarding Section 4 of the call for tender document remain unchanged. Evaluation will start on 24 July 1995. Shortlisted companies should be ready at short notice to present their offers in Luxembourg on 28 July, 1 or 2 August 1995. - Questions and answers: Unless stated otherwise, references are to the CORDIS information package. Q. More information on conformance to standards (page 3) is requested. A. All documents are referenced in the call. It is up to the bidder to provide himself with these documents, which are publicly available. Q. Please clarify "financial support" (page 2). A. It is necessary to dedicate a certain amount of resources to the project in order to cope with the evolution of the existing service. The Commission will judge from the volume of dedicated resources on the seriousness of the bid. Q. Section 3, Part D: Proposed Staff & Part E: Financial Proposal: The call does not specifically state any guidelines for the number of working days per annum for full-time personnel. We know that in the past the Commission in Luxembourg has recommended 215 days per year. Could you comment what flexibility, if any, the proposed contractor has and what are the limits of the flexibility, if it exists? A. Contractor's staff who are working full time should work up to a maximum of 220 days per year. Q. Section 3, Part E: Financial Proposal. The call requires telecommunications costs to be included in the calculation of labour hour overhead. Would it be correct to assume that the overhead cost should be based on the telecommunications equipment and network access costs, while a separate expenses budget line should be exhibited for the cost of calls over the network? A. It would be helpful to get two figures: fixed cost on the average basis and variable cost with explicit documentation. Q. Section 5: Model Contract. No provision exists in the draft contract for an annual cost of living indexation increase for full-time personnel. Is this an oversight or is the contract scope as presented? A. Such a clause will be included allowing for a possible adaptation of labour cost coverage. It will be based on the EUR-15 index of the ECU-SME information, which is published by EUROSTAT of the European Commission. Q. What is the time-frame for take-over from actual contractors? A. Six weeks maximum. Q. What assumptions has the tenderer to make for the volume of research programmes to be integrated? A. No concrete figures can be given. The Fourth Framework Programme extends the mandate of the Commission enormously. Tenderers should refer to the Council Decision concerning the specific programme for the Dissemination and Exploitation of the Results of Activities in the field of Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (OJ No L 361 of 31.12.1994). Q. Are there any CORDIS products or support software systems referred to in the call, which are required to be maintained by the contractor, and which are NOT owned by the Commission? If there are any software systems not owned by the Commission, could they be declared and the contractor responsible be stated? This will enable resource estimates to be made regarding the maintenance of such products or systems. A. Yes. At present CORDIS products and services are based on software programmes which are not owned by the Commission. The CORDIS CD-ROM search engine is owned by: CD-Systems Via dei Carantani 1 I-21100 Varese Contact person: Francesco Gazillo Tel. +39-332-338204 Watch-CORDIS is based on the EATIS toolkit from: INFOPARTNERS Airport Centre 5 rue Hohenhof L-1736 Senningerberg Contact person: Mr. Farid Meinköhn Tel. +352-34981306 The Commission expects these modules will be made available to the bidders with fair conditions. The BS2000-based storage and retrieval system is cost-neutral for contractors in this call for tender. As the Commission is going towards open systems, the Commission is waiting for proposals from bidders to replace GRIPS/DIRS and BS2000. Q. Is maintenance of Watch-CORDIS and of CD-ROM software included in this call for tender? A. Yes. It is: Part of Lot 2, section 5.4. Q. Who has the ownership of CPS software? A. The CPS application and the hardware on which it runs belongs to the European Commission. The maintenance of the CPS will become part of Lot 1. Q. How is service availability >99% going to be achieved? A. This is a global target. If the host is one that is not being provided by the contractor (which is the case today), the 99% target is measured against a 100% base which is the actual time that the host is available. Q. Should tenderers bid for administration of the CPS? A. The CPS is integrated into the Commission. Either the Commission continues to operate hard- and software (which is probable) or the contractor should operate/administer the system. Tenderers may bid for this part of the work if they wish. Such an optional bid should be separated from the main part. Q. Data collection documents arriving may be presented in different languages. Who is doing the translations? A. Currently CORDIS contents are in English. If information from the source is provided in another language, the contractor is responsible for the presentation of the relevant, for the CORDIS databases, part of information in English. This work needs to be covered under the normal data management tasks (Lot 1, II.4). Q. The tendering document asks quoted proposals for the implementation and regular update of CORDIS databases in other languages (Lot 1, II.4). Is this work part of the mandatory work? A. No, these proposals need to be presented separately as options. Analytical cost tenders, as stated above, are requested for these proposals. It is understood that the work includes translation of the contents (new information and updates) of some or all of the CORDIS databases into major Community languages. Q. Is the contractor responsible for the translation of the CORDIS user interfaces in other languages? A. Yes. The tenderer should make a separately costed optional part of the bid (Lot 2) for translation of the user interfaces of CORDIS. Q. Should a delay between original and translated versions be given? A. Yes, but it is not mandatory. Q. Is data collection to be made in Brussels and Luxembourg? A. Yes, but collection will mainly take place in Brussels. Q. What kind of rented machinery is to be indicated? A. Normal office equipment is not to be stated, only exceptional equipment (e.g. needed for exhibitions). Q. Which formats will new data have? Only text as is the case today or multimedia format such as sound, images, video? A. Please refer to the tender document (see Lot 2, section 5.2.1 page 17 and Lot 1, II.3 and II.6). Q. Is index compression foreseen on the CD-ROM? A. As the CD-ROM should be limited to one volume for as long as possible, this might be taken into consideration. Q. Will the Commission publish a schedule for cost to fill in? A. No. Approaches may be very different and so the cost distribution may also be structured very differently. Q. How will sections II.7 and II.8 be evaluated? A. The Commission will negotiate with the contractor on these optional proposals. Maximum flexibility is needed. The Commission wants to see in the bid the competence and experience of the tenderer. Q. In Lot 2: Are different offers expected for the two possible host scenarios? A. Not physically separate bids but separately costed parts of the bid. Q. Regarding the relation CORDIS-ECHO, as a different host for CORDIS becomes possible, how will transition be going on concerning freephone, Internet, host? A. As there are different solutions, firms should make a bid for freephone, Internet equipment and host. Q. How long are the transition periods? A. Six weeks take-over from the actual contractor to the new one. For migration to open systems, the period will be much longer. The Commission is waiting for proposals from the bidders. Q. Are other sources of information (apart from Commission and Member States) envisaged like universities, etc.? A. Currently the main sources of information are the Commission services and by extension, where appropriate, the organizations participating in the Community-funded research. Exceptions relate to RTD-Partners and RTD-Results, which are open databases for interested organizations. Q. Is the data collector responsible for the quality of data coming from outside bodies? A. The Commission has overall responsibility, which is operationally delegated to the future contractor. The contractor is responsible for the quality assurance of the CORDIS information contents during the collection, production and post-dissemination phases. However, the contractor cannot be held responsible within reasonable limits for the scientific and factual accuracy of the source data. Q. Who has the copyright responsibility for the data? A. The Commission. Q. Are there links forward to similar services outside the European Union envisaged? A. The Commission is on the leading edge and always in contact with similar projects and service providers. In the short to medium term the Commission will give priority to linking up with R&D information services and databases within the EU, rather than outside.

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