PROVISION OF 'WRITING ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH' AND/OR 'MEDIA TRAINING' COURSE

The Royal Society is the national academy for science in the UK. It is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world's most distinguished scientists who are elected based on their scientific work. The Society is over 350 years old and its Fellowship includes names such as Newton, Darwin and Hawking as well as current names such as Uta Frith, Julia Higgins and current Royal Society President, Sir Venki Ramakrishnan. The Fellowship embraces the work of discovery scientists and applied scientists and covers the full range of scientific disciplines.

The purpose of this tender is to provide training in how to write about research to a lay audience, and how to communicate the aims and approaches to their research projects to the media for all research scientists in the UK, including those placed in industry. The training is tailored to early career researchers or late stage PhD students who require skills in discussing their research to a lay audience and lack experience in talking to the media about their work.

The courses currently provided at the Royal Society by the Scientific Programmes department aim to help improve the way in which scientists engage with the public and media on their research projects and areas of expertise. The Royal Society currently offers 3 different communication courses and seeks to engage a new Supplier to continue this training program on our behalf for a period of 3 years with an option to extend for a further 1 year maximum. The courses that we seek a tenderer to provide are: A. 1-day Writing about your Research; B. 1-day Media Skills training; and C. 2-day residential Communication and Media skills. Both the Writing about your Research and Media skills courses shall take place at the Royal Society. The residential Communications and Media Skills course shall be held at Chicheley Hall. The Society shall pay for the accommodation and catering costs separately to this contract. The courses shall be designed for individuals at late-stage PhD/post-doc level and above.

The training courses are for any scientists and Royal Society-funded research fellows and the cost is covered by the Royal Society. For non-Royal Society funded research fellows, there is a fee to attend the courses.

Tenderers shall provide their proposed costs for each course and advise the Royal Society on chargeable rates as part of their tender submission.

The Society may award the Services to multiple suppliers and all bids that will involve sub-contractors, must include Tender Declaration form signed by all parties to the Offering.

Additional information: For Suppliers seeking to bid for the services, we ask that you please complete the attached Registration Form and send to [email protected] after which we will provide the full tender pack.