Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2020-05-08
Buyer: The City of Edinburgh Council
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Innovation partnership
CPV classification: 33157400 | 33199000 | 34990000 | 35113000: Safety equipment | 35113400
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: The Driver Innovation Safety Challenge (DISC) aims to support the development and delivery of a solution to identify and alert when a driver or operator is at risk of losing focus or consciousness when in charge of a vehicle or machinery. If a risk is detected, the solution is expected to alert the control room through a Green/Amber/Red alert system.The DISC project is an Innovation Partnership procurement offering up to GBP 20 000 of funding per partner, to up to five partners for R&D and testing over a project life of up to 18 months which, if successful, may award a framework agreement for up to a 3-year period to a single partner.
To increase safety measures implemented across public sector vehicles (bus, bin lorries, tram, etc.), the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) and Edinburgh Trams (ET) aim to implement measures to reduce and mitigate the likelihood of fatigue and health related incidents such as the Bin Lorry accident and Sandilands Junction tram crash. The solution should be suitable for multiple forms of public transport.
Emergency braking systems are installed in all UK trams. If a driver loses consciousness, the tram will automatically stop. Through DISC, the authorities intend to be not only reactive, but pre-emptive: DISC aims to support the development of a solution able to capture early-signs of loss of focus, consciousness/alertness/paralysis or similar, to mitigate incidents before they occur.
Bidders to DISC are expected to develop a consolidated solution, which can monitor and analyse driver biometrics so that the early signs of loss of consciousness, in an operator in charge of a vehicle or machinery can be picked up immediately and interventions made by the control centre.
(iii) prediction of (i) and (ii) based on previously captured data; with the solution able to provide a real-time alert to both operator and control room.
For common health conditions that may lead to unconsciousness, the project is not prescriptive regarding the range of acute or chronic disturbance/incidence monitored which may lead to a reduction in the ability of an operator to manage a vehicle or machine safely. The solution must be able to provide a real-time alert to both driver and control room.
The DISC solution is not required to be a medical grade device and is not expected to lead to a diagnosis, but instead alert the control room if the driver has a reduced capability to operate the vehicle safely. Bidders are expected to develop a green/amber/red alert scoring methodology reflecting the risk.
If a sufficiently ‘high risk’ profile or incident is detected, it is anticipated that an appropriate message/alarm will be displayed both to the driver and to the control room, making the control team aware in real time of risks to passengers (citizens) from changes in the drivers’ ability to operate the vehicle safely and allowing for a timely intervention to be taken. The authorities’ service management must be able to extract in a report the fatigue and health data collected by the device, underlying the alert system, to share as appropriate with medical staff.
A preliminary market analysis in 2018 indicated that no solution is available in the market integrating both health and fatigue data-analytics facets into a consolidated system.
To support the bidders, companies selected to be part of the innovation partnership may receive up to a maximum of GBP 20 000 per bidder in CAN DO Innovation Challenge Funding.
The successful innovation partner will be awarded a single supplier framework agreement for a duration of 3 years. The estimated framework value is estimated at up to GBP 3-GBP 3.5 million.
Bidders may have up to 18 months to develop a fully operational and integrated, solution and demonstrate its performance through testing. The ESPD/Tender process is estimated to run up to 31 March 2020 with the innovation partnership up to December 2020. The framework agreement will be for a period of 36 months.
The estimated framework value is estimated at up to GBP 3-GBP 3.5 million. The named authorities are as follows: Edinburgh Trams Ltd Lothian Buses PLC, Transport for London, Nottingham Trams Ltd, West Midlands Combined Authority, South Yorkshire Supertram Ltd, North East Combined Authority, Transport for Greater Manchester, Blackpool Transport Services Ltd, Glasgow City Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Fife Council, East Ayrshire Council, Shetland Islands Council.
All background intellectual property is and shall remain the property of the originating party or its licensors. All foreground IPR shall be assigned by the partner to the Council on creation and shall be assigned by the Council to the partner on termination or expiry of this agreement, subject to conditions as stated within the innovation partnership agreement (to be issued at tender stage).
Price is subject to a pass/fail based upon maximum costs and agreement to complete the R&D for a maximum of GBP 20 000 can do funding. Quality evaluation will form 100 percent of the scored content including the demonstration day, with negotiations and down-selection taking place throughout the process.