Marketing for HDR UK’s infrastructure services

Invitation to Tender

October 2021

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Introduction

This invitation to tender seeks a supplier (‘Supplier’) to partner with Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) to

carry out end to end marketing of its infrastructure services to:

• Potential new data users and data custodians

• Current data users and custodians for retention and nurture

We are currently carrying out some market research across the sector to gain a deeper understanding of our

infrastructure service users – who they are and what are their needs – and this will help to inform this work.

About Health Data Research UK

HDR UK is the national Institute for data science in health. Our UK team of experts develop and apply cutting-

edge data science approaches to clinical, biological, genomic and other multi-dimensional health data to

address the most pressing health research challenges facing the public. Our mission is to make game-

changing improvements in the health of patients and populations through data science research and

innovation.

For the first time we are bringing together the UK’s population-wide health data assets, enabling specialists

across academia, industry and healthcare to unlock knowledge and deliver new insights from molecules to

humans. By undertaking research at scale, across a population of up to 67 million people, we have an

unrivalled opportunity to use data to the highest ethical standards to drive breakthroughs in medical research.

This unleashes the potential to improve the way we are able to prevent, detect and diagnose diseases such

as cancer, heart disease and asthma.

At Health Data Research UK, we employ talented individuals who bring their own unique skills and experience

to support the vision and benefit the whole team.

HDR UK infrastructure development

As HDR UK moves into its next 5-year strategy (2023-2028) we will drive health data research discoveries

through a shared infrastructure services network of data expertise, services and standards. This includes

public involvement, the UK Health Data Alliance, the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway, training

programmes and health data research hubs

Working in close conjunction with researchers, data custodians, and industry partners, our infrastructure services will respond to the needs of health data science and drive data reuse - identifying and implementing trustworthy data services that are user-centred, applicable across research domains and technologies, scalable, and sustainable.

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Our current infrastructure enables open collaborative health data science at scale, and consists of the UK

Alliance, Hubs and Gateway:

1. UK Health Data Research Alliance – an Alliance of data suppliers committed to making an

unprecedented breadth and depth of data available for research and innovation purposes. Find out

more

2. Health Data Research Hubs – making data available, curating data, and providing expert research

services. The Hubs will be centres of expertise to get from data to insight and the location to

collaborate and co-create. Find out more

3. Health Data Research Innovation Gateway – providing discovery, accessibility, security and

interoperability to surface data, support linkage, and enable health data science safely and

efficiently. Find out more

The HDR UK infrastructure team, under the leadership of the Chief Executive, Chief Technology Officer,

Alliance Executive Director, Hub and Improvement Executive Director, and Engagement and Insights

Executive Director are responsible for delivering this infrastructure strategy, including:

• Defining the product and service roadmap for its component – the Alliance/Hubs/Gateway.

• Driving product delivery through the Alliance, Hubs and Gateway, with a team of world-class

engineers, designers and scientists.

• Identifying new capabilities to meet user needs – including new hubs, new tools, new datasets (in

the UK and internationally)

• Leading the development of sustainable business models for each part of the product, working with

the public, patient and practitioner teams to ensure these are transparent and trustworthy.

• Capturing metrics and use-cases that inform the success of products (including benefits to patients

& public)

• Understanding data user needs and undertaking research and market analysis to develop the

product to suit evolving needs.

Our Requirements

We are seeking a supplier to partner with us to promote and market the developing infrastructure (as a

coherent set of services) to both targeted and wider data users and groups in order to increase usage of

our services.

• Why: To boost the use of health data in UK research for the benefit of patients and the population. To increase uptake of HDR UK’s infrastructure services by both researchers and data custodians – shifting to insights and engagement led marketing campaign to highlight and promote the services and benefits to current and potential users and Gateway assets and content

• How: By building awareness, understanding and commitment to the infrastructure services. The focus will primarily be on the Gateway.

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We seek to partner with a small team who will work closely with us to achieve the following deliverables by

no later than 1 August 2022 with reviews on deliverables in January and April 2022, as well as monthly reports

and weekly progress meetings. The reviews in January and April will determine progress and enable HDR UK

to make a decision on whether to proceed to the next stage.

Information that will be supplied by HDR UK to inform this work will include:

• A description of the services offered

• Data and reports on current use of infrastructure services (including Gateway and other website

usage, and social media engagement)

• Audience map outlining target sectors, organisations and job roles to be delivered via the market

research exercise. Final data will be supplied by the end December 2021 with interim reports

expected in November 2021

• User insights gathered by HDR UK between 2019-2021

• Innovation Gateway Target Customer Experience work completed by HDR UK in 2019

• Market research outputs including a detailed audience map (November 2021) and depth

understanding of the needs of these audiences (end December 2021)

• Detail on the potential size of the market

Target audiences

As outlined above this marketing activity will target new and existing data users and data custodians in the

UK. These cover a range of sectors including:

• Industry (e.g. pharmaceuticals, medtech, technology, biotech)

• Academia (e.g. universities, research institutes)

• Healthcare (e.g. NHS, social care, community care)

• Charities (e.g. medical research charities)

Through a rough estimate we know there are between 500-1,000 data custodians in the UK. There are

between 10,000-45,000 researchers that use/could use health data in their work.

HDR UK currently engages well with known groups in our community in the academic and health and care

sectors and some industry. We would like a focus of this marketing activity to be on industry use.

Further detail will be provided through the market research outputs.

Key Deliverables

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1. Use the data provided by the market research exercise and HDR UK’s data and insights and the suppliers own expertise in audience research to identify appropriate marketing methods for our target audiences.

2. Design, develop and produce content and assets within HDR UK and the UK Health Data Research Alliance brand identity and test these with the target audiences. Work with HDR Uk’s insights, communications and engagement team to bring patient/public voices into the development of the messaging to ensure it is appropriate and always emphasises public benefit and safety

3. Implement the marketing campaigns 4. Test, evaluate and continually improve

Outputs required

Minimum Target Target Date Baseline Data Discovery for Researchers

Increased Awareness

25% more monthly website users (across HDR UK, Alliance and Gateway sites) on Infrastructure areas (Alliance / Hubs / Gateway)

+25% by February +50% by April +65% by August 2022

Gateway: c3000

Alliance: c800

Hubs: c2000

Increased Engagement

1,000 additional registered users on the Gateway (70% increase) 1,500 Gateway monthly return users (+50%)

August 2022

+50% (1,500) by November +65% (2,500) by August

1,574 registered users currently

c800 return users

Increased Usage

50% increased outputs linked to

datasets listed on the Gateway

(including 5 Hub case studies)

150 Data Access Requests (50%

increase) on Gateway

August 2022

August 2022

337 data access requests

Data Access Request Process for Data Custodians

Increased Awareness

Growth in Alliance membership – 50% increased on Alliance members

August 2022 >60 Alliance members

Increased Engagement

Increased engagement of Alliance members with Gateway services – 10-20 (average) additional datasets from custodians per month

August 2022

676 datasets currently on the Gateway

Increased Usage

Adoption of standards and best practices by 75% of Alliance members

August 2022

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Key Relationships

The supplier will be reporting to the Digital Marketing Manager, and will work closely with the Executive

Director, Engagement and Insights and DIH Programme Manager.

Dates

The supplier is expected to work remotely with HDR UK between November 2021 and August 2022.

Whilst the final delivery date for the key deliverables is 1 August 2022, we would expect interim results to be

shared with HDR UK as work progresses in the form of:

• Deliverables and budget reviews: 7 January 2022 and 18 April 2022;

• Monthly reports;

• Monthly measurements and refinements of plans;

• Weekly project meetings;

• Live dashboard of results; and,

• Regular testing and edits.

Suggested project timeline:

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Creative, Channels & Presentation

Suppliers are expected to design and provide a suite of creative content to use for both digital and print

marketing across all channels. This includes but is not limited to:

• Website assets

• Social media assets

• Display assets

• Infographics

• Print (brochure / leaflets designs)

• Email templates

Suppliers are expected to use both digital and offline tools for the marketing.

Digital channels could include (but are not limited to):

• Social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube)

o Please note: Facebook and Instagram are out of scope

• Google (Search, Display, Google Grant Account)

• Email marketing (HubSpot)

• Digital media Advertising (for example: HTN website, Nature.com)

• Community platforms (Discourse, LinkedIn)

• Training (HDR UK Futures)

Offline marketing channels could include (but are not limited to):

• Events (HDR UK Events / Open Doors, Conference sponsorship, exhibitor opportunities)

• Partners (partner toolkits, community champions, co-branding)

• Print (brochures, leaflets)

Suppliers are expected to provide reports, reviews and dashboards and could be in the following formats

(but are not limited to):

• Powerpoint presentation

• DataStudio dashboard

Project Management

• Kick-off meeting to clarify HDR UK requirements;

• Weekly meetings to track progress, trouble-shoot and keep the project aligned to HDR UK requirements;

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• Monthly report meetings to go through deliverables and updates; and,

• Two deliverables review meetings.

Location It is anticipated that the majority of the work will be delivered remotely using video conferencing facilities.

Some travel or on site work may be required but would be discussed with the Supplier on an as-needed basis.

Budget

The total budget, including both supplier and marketing costs, will be no more than £100,000 exclusive of

VAT, (£120,000 total).

Payments will be made in increments and tied to the delivery reviews in January and April 2022, with a

breakdown as follows:

• £25,000 budgeted (November-January 2022

• £25,000 budgeted (February-April 2022)

• £25,000 budgeted (May-July 2022)

• £25,000 budgeted (August 2022)

Tender Response Format Please provide your Tender by 5pm on 22 October 2021 by email to procurement@hdruk.ac.uk

If you have any questions before submitting your Tender, please use the same email address to submit

questions.

Your Tender should comprise:

• A completed Appendix 1: Application Response Template:

• Where requested, separate attachments, clearly labelled with supplier name and requirement

reference.

• No additional material other than that requested.

Selection Criteria (& Weightings)

Suppliers will be selected based on the following criteria:

• 1.1 Supplier details (pass/fail)

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• 2.1 Your proposed approach to meeting our requirements; (20%)

• 2.2 Initial thoughts on marketing strategy and suggestions; (10%)

• 2.3 A project plan; (5%)

• 2.4 The key delivery risks and how you will mitigate these; (5%)

• 2.5 Your expertise and track record; (15%)

• 2.6 Your knowledge of data research infrastructure; (5%)

• 2.7 An introduction to the team proposed for this requirement; (5%)

• 2.8 Two reference case studies; and (10%)

• 3.1 A fully detailed cost model (20%)

• 3.2 Alignment with HDR UK’s values. (5%)

The scoring for each requirement above is provided beneath each requirement for clarity. The (weightings

%) will be applied once the responses have been scored to determine and overall score. HDR UK reserves

the right to clarify Tender content and to invite the top 2 or 3 scoring Tenderers to interview stage.

Contracting

HDR UK will need to move forward with contracting swiftly following selection of a supplier in order to

commence the services promptly. This engagement will be on HDR UK’s standard services contract terms

and conditions. Suppliers may request a copy of this agreement as part of the tender process.

Timing

Stage of process Date Location

Deadline for response 5pm Friday 22 October Procurement@hdruk.ac.uk

Interview Monday 1 & Thursday 4 November Zoom link

Contract start date Monday 8 November Remote working

Delivery of final report Monday 1 August 2022

Contract end date Friday 5 August 2022

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Appendix 1: Application Response Template

1.1 Supplier Details

Name of Organisation:

Address:

Company Registration Number:

Primary Contact Name:

Primary Contact Email Address:

Secondary Contact Name:

Secondary Contact Email Address:

Scoring Criteria:

REJECTED if incomplete

2.1 Please describe your proposed approach to meeting our requirements.

(max 1000 words)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about the credibility of

approach

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about the credibility

of approach

10 – Excellent response detailing a credible approach to meeting the requirements.

2.2 Please provide your initial thoughts on marketing strategy and suggestions set out by HDR UK.

(max 500 words)

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Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about the credibility of

feedback on HDR UK marketing strategy and suggestions.

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about the credibility

of feedback on HDR UK marketing strategy and suggestions.

10 – Excellent response detailing excellent feedback and critique on HDR UK marketing strategy and

suggestions.

2.3 Please provide a detailed project plan covering all activities and deliverables – (please attach to

this application as a separate file in an appropriate format)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about the proposed

project plan.

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about the proposed

project plan.

10 – Excellent response where proposed project plan fully meets requirements covering all deliverables

and management milestones.

2.4 Please provide a fully considered risk register and mitigation plan focussing on subject matter

specific delivery risks – (please attach to this application as a separate file in an appropriate format)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about key delivery risks

and how these will be mitigated

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about key delivery

risks and how these will be mitigated

10 – Excellent response detailing key delivery risks and how these will be mitigated, fully meeting

requirements.

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2.5 Please provide evidence of your proven expertise and track record of successfully delivering

against the requirements listed.

(max 500 words)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about the expertise of

the supplier in delivering these services.

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about the expertise

of the supplier in delivering these services.

10 – Excellent response demonstrating clear expertise and track record of the supplier in delivering these

services..

2.6 Please describe your previous experience and knowledge of data research infrastructure.

(max 500 words)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about the supplier’s

experience and knowledge of data research infrastructure.

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about the supplier’s

experience and knowledge of data research infrastructure.

10 – Excellent response demonstrating the supplier’s clear experience and knowledge of data research

infrastructure.

2.7 Please introduce the team you have identified to fulfil the services proposed to deliver this

contract if awarded. Please include brief biographies and their directly relevant experience.

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, the team details are either incomplete or

unrelated, or causes major concern.

7 – Response is good, with complete and relevant team details causing only minor concerns.

10 – Excellent response with complete and relevant team details providing full assurance.

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2.8 Please provide two reference case studies for comparable work – (please attach to this application

as a separate file in appropriate format)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, the reference case studies are either

incomplete or unrelated, or causes major concern.

7 – Response is good, with complete and relevant reference case studies causing only minor concerns.

10 – Excellent response with complete and relevant reference case studies providing full assurance.

3.1 Please provide a fully detailed cost model to maximise the impact of the budget set.

Please including any day rates, or project management and administration costs as well as clearly

stating any appropriate discounts for public sector clients, or other VFM aspects worth highlighting.

Please note this will be a fixed budget contract (£100,000 excluding vat) and value for money must be

assessable from the response and a comparative assessment of the scope of work and services included

for the budget will be made in assessing VFM offered.

(please attach to this application as a separate file in an appropriate format)

Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement the breakdown is vague or lacking detail and

requires significant clarification.

7 – Response is good and the breakdown is reasonably detailed and transparent, or requiring little

clarification, but lacks clear VFM assurance directly or comparatively.

10 – Excellent response which provides detailed, line-item pricing, fully transparent assumptions, clear

on treatment of VAT, and describing any charitable or public sector discounts applied or alternative VFM

aspects of the commercial offer either directly or comparatively.

3.2 Please provide evidence of your alignment to HDR UK’s values.

(max 100 words)

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Scoring Criteria:

0 – Response incomplete or does not substantively address the requirement

3 – Response poor and whilst addresses the requirement, causes major concern about the expertise of

the supplier working to similar values

7 – Response is good, addressing the requirement and causing only minor concerns about the expertise

of the supplier working to similar values

10 – Excellent response demonstrating clear expertise and track record of the supplier working to similar

values