Innovation Partnership Timescales

The Innovation Partnership procedure is a two-stage process.  It is not possible to shorten the number of days.

Stage 1 - Expressions of interest
Call for competition to enable potential tenderers to express their interest in participating. The period from publication of the contract notice on Find a Tender Service for suppliers to express an interest in taking part in the tender is 30 days.

A PIN cannot be used as a call for competition.

A contract notice must also be published on Contracts Finder . This notice should not be published before it has been published on Find a Tender Service or at least 48 hours have elapsed from the receipt of the confirmation of the notice from Find a Tender Service.  The contract notice on Contracts Finder must be published within 24 hours of when it is entitled to be published as detailed above.

Stage 2 - Submission of tenders
Tenders are negotiated with the participating suppliers to improve their content. When the time comes for the final submission of tenders, there is no minimum period stipulated however, it must be reasonable and should reflect the complexity of the exercise.

Standstill Period
After informing all participants of the outcome of the award decision, a period of 10 days must elapse before entering into the contract (15 days if the notice is not sent electronically).  The 10 days commence on the date the notice is sent to all participants and ends at midnight at the end of the 10th day after the relevant sending date.

Contract Award Notice
A contract award notice must be published on Find a Tender Service within 30 days of the contract award.  A contract award notice must also be published on Contracts Finder within 90 calendar days of the contract award date but not before publication of the Find a Tender Service contract award notice.