Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2019-10-18
Buyer: Health Data Research UK
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Innovation partnership
CPV classification: 72212000: Platform-specific software programming services | 72212461 | 72212783 | 72322000
Submission deadline: 2019-11-15
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Health Data Research UK is seeking a technology partner to design, deliver and operate the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway – a web application to enable researchers and innovators to search for, request access to, and analyse UK health research data held by data custodians in Trusted Research Environments. This project will be delivered as an agile, design-led project delivered collaborative with Health Data Research UK, the Health Data Research Alliance and a wide range of external stakeholders. This work offers a unique opportunity to work in partnership to deliver a game changing portal for health research and innovation.
Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national institute for health data science. Its mission is to unite the UK's health data to enable discoveries that improve people's lives. By working in partnership with the NHS, industry, academia, patients and the public, and providing safe and secure access to rich health data, it aims to better understand diseases and discover new ways to prevent, treat and cure them. HDR UK is leading the development and delivery of the UK-wide Digital Innovation Hub Programme which is co-funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ICSF). For more information visit www.hdruk.ac.uk
As part of the digital innovation hub programme, HDR UK is seeking to create the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway (‘Gateway’), a web application that will enable researchers and innovators to find and request access to Health Research Data; supporting the analysis of data by industry and academia. The Gateway will not store or hold health data, which will be held by data custodians in secure and accredited Trusted Research Environments with all analysis conducted in these environments. The Gateway will hold the business and technical metadata associated with the datasets to support a rich data discovery experience.
Development of a minimal viable product for selected Gateway functions is underway and is scheduled to be complete in January 2020. HDR UK is now seeking a technology partner to design, develop and operate the full Gateway commencing 30.4.2020 until 30.4.2022. The partner may be a single supplier or a consortium of suppliers with a single lead organisation. The partner will have best-in-class skills in designing and developing complex solutions while working with Agile methodology, with a commitment to HDR UK’s Development Principles, in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, including patients and the public; operating web-based production environments to a service level agreement; managing health data for research and innovation while ensuring data security and full regulatory compliance; and developing solutions for search and discovery across metadata and data held by third-party data custodians.
Further information about the Gateway can be found on our website at https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/infrastructure/gateway/. Detailed requirements for the Gateway and the procurement process are provided in the Health Data Research Technology Partnership Specification https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/gateway-development-phase-2/
Suppliers that are interested in applying to undertake this work should complete the standard selection questionnaire (SQ) located at https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/gateway-development-phase-2/
Those considered a suitable match for the partnership through the evaluation of the SQ will be invited to submit a proposal document. Following the evaluation of proposals, a shortlist of no more than 6 suppliers will be invited to interview.
Following interviews, a shortlist of no more than 3 applicants will be invited to take part in a rapid development exercise. This will take place over 8 weeks and will involve the shortlisted applicants working independently to build and test a specified functional component of the Gateway. The HDR UK team will work alongside each applicant over this period and the work will be remunerated according to the contract for this task. Following completion of this task, HDR UK will select a partner based on the completed component and the experience over the rapid development period.
Suppliers are required to adhere to the development principles and milestones outlined in the specification document. This includes a requirement for ongoing patient and public engagement and involvement.