Submitting Tenders

Sometimes UOW researchers may wish to participate in a tender process for research or consulting activities. If UOW is successful in gaining the tender, this work will be considered commercial research and UOW's Commercial Research Policy and normal approval process will apply.

The processes involved in submitting a tender are:

1. Researcher completes any documentation provided in the call for tender. If assistance is required, the Commercial Research Unit can provide advice. You may use the Commercial Research Tender Template to provide to your Client.
2. If the call for tender requires a quote, the Commercial Research Costing Pro Forma should be used to calculate costs. The Engineering Faculty should use the alternative Commercial Research Costing Proforma (Engineering). The Commercial Research Officer, extension 4983, can provide assistance to complete this form.
3. If the call for tender requires compliance to a set of standard conditions (this is common in Commonwealth calls, where the tenderer will be asked to provide a list of "con-compliance" to the Commonwealth's standard contract), a copy of the standard contract should be provided to the Commercial Research Unit (CRU). CRU will then obtain advice from the Legal Services Unit on UOW's ability to comply with the standard contract. In all tender documents, you should include the following statement: "The University of Wollongong retains the right to negotiate the terms of any contracts that may arise as a result of the University being successful in this tender". This could be inserted into a covering letter.
4. The researcher submits the tender. If an authorised UOW delegate is required to sign the tender documentation, CRU can organise this.
5. If the tender is successful, the researcher must complete a Commercial Research Approval Form and Costing Pro-Forma and follow the normal Commercial Research approval process.

What is the Difference Between a Tender and a Grant?

Tenders are managed by the Commercial Research Unit, whereas grants are managed by the Research Services Office. Sometimes it may be unclear whether a project is a grant or tender project because both involve a competitive application process. In such cases, it may be useful to consider the following:

• a tender will usually involve a competitive bid to achieve a set of outcomes that have been pre-defined by the organisation calling for tenders (e.g. a call for tenders to undertake research to develop a new material for use in medical prosthetics where the general specifications for the new materials are provided by the organisation calling for tenders). The funding is then usually provided in accordance to meeting certain milestones. Often the associated contract will be titled a “research contract”, “commercial research contract” or “consultancy contract”; whereas
• a grant will involve a competitive application for funding to support a project with activities that are mainly determined by the University (e.g. a call for applications to undertake health and medical research where UOW decides that it will focus on developing novel materials for medical prosthetics and will determine its own specifications for these new materials). The funding is not usually tied to specific milestone achievements (though there may be obligations to achieve, in a general sense, what was described in the application). Often the associated contract will be titled a “grant contract”.

Last reviewed: 31 January, 2008