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Industry News
ScotGov: Ambitious companies are getting access to a new Virtual Trade Centre to help them boost exports and Scotland's economic recovery. Scottish Development International is launching a new online toolkit which will be the first in a range of services delivered through SDI.co.uk to encourage & assist businesses as they move into international markets.
STFC: With the UK Space Agency now fully operational, arrangements have been made to ensure continuity of support for the UK Science Programme including training & development of instrumentation. Arrangements for the distribution of responsibilities for the previously wholly STFC supported programme have been agreed, under a ‘Dual Key process’ and regulated within a Service Level Agreement with the UK Space Agency.
STFC: Teams of scientists and engineers have been awarded contracts worth more than £500,000 to develop new satellite technologies for observing the Earth from space. The Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI), with funding from the UK Space Agency, has awarded contracts to 8 industrial & academic teams around the UK.
The 2 largest projects will develop technologies for measuring the makeup of the Earth’s atmosphere, providing data for use by climatologists and for the next generation of weather forecasting satellites. The first will be led by the STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the second by Astrium Ltd.
LSN: The Learning and Skills Network have announced that their unique e-ILP (Electronic Individual Learning Platform) tool will now be implemented into several colleges from September 2011, creating an accessible platform for over 30,000 learners:
The e-ILP (electronic individual learning platform) provides a collaborative, accessible but personal environment to enable tutors and the wider course team to communicate and engage more effectively with learners. e-ILP does a lot more than just fulfil your ILP support requirements. It has been designed specifically for and by FE colleges to be simple to use, flexible but powerfully effective in supporting their tutorial provison.
STFC: A breakthrough in the fight against drug-resistant infections is one step closer following the discovery of the structure of NDM-1: a vicious bacterial bug that is resistant to the most powerful antibiotics currently available. Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists at the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH) in Oxfordshire, have produced a model of NDM-1: a model that will now enable researchers and pharmaceutical companies to progress towards potential new treatments.
WAG: A major €14m initiative which will bring experts from across North West Europe together to develop the potential of algae as a source of sustainable energy has received a Welsh Government funding boost, Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, has announced.
The 4-year transnational Energetic Algae - or EnAlgae - project, led by Swansea University, is a strategic initiative funded by the INTERREG IVB North West Europe Programme and backed with £629,000 from the Targeted Match Fund through the Welsh Government, together with a range of co-sponsors. It involves 19 Partners & 13 Observers across 8 EU member states.
AC: The Audit Commission has formally launched the process for outsourcing the work of its Audit Practice. They have issued the Contract Notices for the procurement of audit services for principal bodies & limited assurance audits. The Contract Notices include the details of the contract areas or lots and are available on the Commission's website.
DfT: The Department for Transport is pleased to announce a new contract to provide day to day Bikeability support services. This follows a commitment given earlier this year by the DfT to support & provide funding contributions for Bikeability for the remainder of the parliament.
£11m has been made available for cycle training during financial year 2011/12. This is helping to deliver up to 275,000 cycle training places to school children aged between 10 - 11. Transport Consultancy firm Steer Davies Gleave have won a competitive tender process to manage the day to day running of the Bikeability programme. Previously this work was shared between 4 different contracts. Using a single supplier to provide support will save an estimated £1.2m over the next 3.5 years.
BS: Do you have a requirement for Environmental and Sustainability Services for the Built Environment? If the answer is yes, you may be interested in the opportunity to take part in a procurement Buying Solutions are currently working on.
Working with Defra, Natural England and the Environment Agency, BS are developing a framework agreement for Environmental and Sustainability Advice, Support and Delivery which will cover a wide range of areas: air, biodiversity, climate change, land & seascapes, noise and statutory nuisances, waste, water, sustainability, built environment, statistics and economics.
They are seeking customer stakeholders who have a future requirement for Environmental & Sustainability Services in relation to the Built Environment (for example, contaminated land requirements, environmental impact assessments and planning) to take part in developing and reviewing the Invitation to Tender (ITT) documentation.
