Call for Bids: Australia Network's UK Trade Partnerships Fund FTA Utilisation
The FTA is an opportunity for the UK to engage with Australian industry, policy makers, implementers and regulators to deliver and fully implement the FTA and identify any future barriers to trade in goods and services.
Background
The UK and Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed in December 2021 and will be critical to strengthening the UK-Australia bilateral trading relationship. It will set new global standards in goods and services and is expected to unlock £10.4 billion of additional trade.
Scope of work
The FTA is an opportunity for the UK to engage with Australian industry, policy makers, implementers and regulators to deliver and fully implement the FTA and identify any future barriers to trade in goods and services. The FTA encapsulates the future trading relationship with Australia to include pioneering chapters in innovation, gender equality and the transition to net zero.
Through a scalable number of activities including (but not limited to) workshops, roundtables, trade missions, business engagement and reporting, we would like to demonstrate the benefits of fully implementing the intentions of the following UK-AU FTA chapters;
Further benefit includes building bilateral business networks and raising the profile of the FTA to ensure its future utilisation.
Timelines
The bidder is required to deliver phased outputs against set timelines (subject to confirmation).
The duration of this project is likely to be around five months (November 2022 to April 2023).
| No. | Deliverable | Anticipated activities (not limited to) | Milestone date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accountable Grant signed with chosen bidder and start the implementation | Proposed work plan for the whole programme | Last week of October 2022 |
| 2 | Programme design report | Detailed list of finalised activities for the programme | 2nd week November 2022 |
| 3 | Delivery of activity | Finalise activity events, dates, locations | November 2022 onwards |
| 4 | Final report of delivery activity and findings | Summarise delivery activity | 31 March 2023 |
Selection Criteria
Bids will be assessed against the following criteria:
- Project design: Feasibility of activities and outputs including the capacity of the implementing organisation to deliver outcomes.
- Impact: Supporting identifiable, meaningful activities to enhance impact of the project.
- Scalability: The potential for the project to act as a building block for subsequent FTA implementation activity.
- Viability and risks: Clear engagement/buy-in of key stakeholders. Robust analysis of key risks and a plan of action to manage and mitigate those risks.
- Value for money: Comparable and reasonable costs against the scale of achievable outcomes.
We draw your attention to the below key points:
- Proposals should be between £8,000 - £20,000 ($13,000 – $34,000 AUD).
- All funding must be activity-based (i.e. not for general support staff costs (admin, finance support), office rental etc.).
Process
- Project proposals must be received by 23:59 (GMT) on COB Monday 31st October 2022. Late proposals will not be considered.
- Proposals must be submitted using the attached forms only.
- Proposals must be submitted to: Australia.ProgrammeFunding@fcdo.gov.uk
Attachments