DDaT24503 The Funding Service (TFS) Optimisation & Early Life Support (ELS)

Description

Work done so far At the point this contract will be let, TFS will be operating at expected Production volumes and all 7 Research Councils will be running their Opportunities & Awards through TFS. TFS has passed a CDDO Alpha Assessment and will have undergone a CDDO Beta Assessment at the point this contract is let. Which phase the project is in Beta Existing team UKRI will provide the following roles: • 1 x Programme Director. • 1 x Programme Delivery Manager. • 2 x PMO Support (Admin) • 2 x Product Managers. • 1 x Technical Assurance Lead (Enterprise Architect). • 1 x Interaction Designer. • 1 x User Researcher. • 1 x Content Designer. • 1 x Lead Developer • 4 x Software Developers. • 2 x Tester. There is a Helpdesk Function within UKRI that acts as First Line Support for TFS. The new Supplier will support 2nd & 3rd Line resolution. Further details can be found in the document entitled TFS Optimisation ELS Final Address where the work will be done UKRI Polaris House Swindon Wiltshire SN2 1FL The office is 2 mins walk from Swindon train station. We offer a hybrid working environment, so home working or supplier office working is also expected. Working arrangements We expect to forge a strong, open and collaborative partnership with the successful DP founded upon transparency, visibility of progress, swift discussion of barriers, mutual respect and trust. We expect to work in lockstep to achieve success. We aim to forge a ‘one team’ mindset and we expect the DP to work with us in this way too. While we make extensive use of video conferencing to collaborate, we do have access to a large open-plan Agile space at Swindon and we expect our DP to make regular and proactive use of this collaborative workspace. As stated above, we expect our DP to bring people to our Swindon HQ at least once a week (usually Tuesdays) and sometimes more often as need arises. As part of onboarding, we will agree a Contract Management Plan (encompassing budget / resource / delivery) to help us track progress together and ensure we remain within time & budget. Provide more information about your security requirements: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Provide more information about your security requirements (optional): On-site attendance at Polaris House requires basic security disclosure (BPSS). It is government policy that individuals should not be expected to hold an existing security clearance in order to apply for posts that require vetting, except where such posts are short term and need to be filled urgently. UKRI is willing to organise security clearance and sponsor the successful supplier through this process if they are successfully awarded a contract and need the BPSS. Latest start date 2025-02-10 Enter the expected contract length: 1 year, 2 months Extension period: 7 months Write the term or acronym: UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Write the term or acronym: Simpler & Better Funding (SBF) Write the term or acronym: Digital, Data & Technology (DDAT) Write the term or acronym: Funding Service Delivery Authority (FSDA) Write the term or acronym: The Funding Service (TFS) Write the term or acronym: TFS Platform Write the term or acronym: Critical Success Factor (CSF) Write the term or acronym: Delivery Partner (DP) Write the term or acronym: Full Business Case (FBC) Write the term or acronym: Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) Write the term or acronym: Enterprise Relationship Management (ERM) Write the term or acronym: DataBank (DB) Write the term or acronym: Services for HR, Accounting, Reporting and Procurement (SHARP) Write the term or acronym: Early Life Support (ELS) Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: Indicative maximum budget is up to £5,633.333 Excluding VAT Provide further information: Excluding an initial two months of onboarding and knowledge transfer, once the full team is in place and over 12 months, we expect an average monthly burn rate of £564k (inc. VAT) and a maximum monthly burn rate of no higher than £593k (inc. VAT) (this is an estimate based on the maximum available working days pcm). Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Summary of work Under its Simpler & Better Funding (SBF) Programme, UKRI has developed a new Cloud-based digital Service (The Funding Service – TFS) to simplify and harmonise the funding process for its Research Councils to support research and innovation in the UK. This transformation simplified and standardised Grant funding Opportunities & Funding Types and the Business Operations and Processes clustered around them. TFS has been delivered as a Minimum Viable Service (MVS) and at the time this contract is let, TFS will be in Public Beta with production volumes of Applications & Awards running through the new Service. UKRI is seeking a Delivery Partner (DP) to deliver a defined backlog of Optimisation for TFS, enabling the next layer of functional and non-functional enhancements to harden the new digital service in accordance with priorities specified by the technical (DDAT) and operational (FSDA) functions of the business. The DP will operate as a single provider to seamlessly encompass all elements of Government multi-disciplinary digital delivery, including User Centred Design (UCD), Delivery Management, Testing, DevOps and Software Engineering. Where the supplied staff will work South West England Why the work is being done The delivery of TFS is part of a UKRI response to Government imperatives to make Grant funding processes more transparent, less bureaucratic and easier navigate (see Tickell Review). By the time this contract is let SBF will have delivered TFS as a MVS. This allows a base level of standardisation but not all business processes associated with grant funding have been fully digitised. Over the lifetime of the SBF Programme deeper levels of digitisation have been identified that would enable additional user benefit and remove / reduce manual processes. A backlog of these Optimisations has been captured at a high level and we require a DP to work with DDAT & FSDA over 12 months to deliver these feature enhancements and harden the TFS platform from a non-functional point of view in preparation to full BAU handover to UKRI for FY 26/27 (i.e. by 1-April 2026). The DP will be accountable for delivering the full end-to-end digital elements (UCD & technical) of a suite of Optimisations, while working within a small Programme wrapper within the UKRI technology function (DDAT). The DP will also need to augment the Support of the Public Beta TFS service at 2nd / 3rd Line while delivering enhancements. This will include working alongside UKRI Developers to diagnose and resolve code level issues that are raised by the UKRI 1st Line Helpdesk, deal with events & incidents as they arise, and help manage and enhance the Development environment and deployment pipelines. Further details can be found in the document entitled TFS Optimisation ELS Final The business problem you need to solve The DP must provide the capability to support & deliver: 1. End to end support (excluding 1st Line Helpdesk) for Public Beta iteration of TFS that allows all 7 UKRI Research Councils to run all their Grants. 2. Deliver a backlog of TFS Optimisation by 31-March 26. 3. Pass a CDDO Live Assessment within 14 months (no later than Q3 FY 25/26 – Oct-Dec 25). 4. Full handover of the service into BAU by 31-March 26. In order to deliver the above Outcomes, the DP must provide the following capabilities operating as a single scaled Agile muti-disciplinary service team: • Delivery Management: Manage Agile delivery within strict time and budget allocations. • User Centred Design (UCD): Encompassing core capabilities of Service Design, User Research, Interaction Design, Content Design. • Technical Leadership: Oversight of technical design of new features within established system architecture and patterns. • Business Analysis: Business Process Mapping, requirements gathering, story refinement. • Software Engineering: Write and deploy new code to accepted standards. • DevOps: Environment (Pipeline and Hosting) and Release Management. • QA: Oversee all Testing of TFS (Test Leadership, Test Management, QA). • Service Transition: Oversee the safe transition of the service to BAU. Further details can be found in the document entitled TFS Optimisation ELS Final First user type: As an external applicant, I need to: First user type: As an external Research Office user, I need to: First user type: As an external Reviewer or assessor, I need to: First user type: As UKRI, we need: