Section one: Contracting authority/entity
one.1) Name and addresses
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street,
London
WC1E 7HT
Contact
Caroline Chipperfield
caroline.chipperfield@lshtm.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 02079588328
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKI31 - Camden and City of London
National registration number
RC000330
Internet address(es)
Main address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Education
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Research Grants Management System
Reference number
LSHTM-2024-030
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 48100000 - Industry specific software package
two.1.3) Type of contract
Supplies
two.1.4) Short description
The proposed contract is for the supply and implementation of a commercial off the shelf SaaS Research Grants Management System to manage research projects from pre-award (budgeting of grants), through to ethics, contracts and post-award. This contract will replace the existing finance system module, the contract and support for which is expiring, whilst providing enhanced and extended functionality for the LSHTM research portfolio
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
Value excluding VAT: £1,086,383
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKI31 - Camden and City of London
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
The contract and support of the existing LSHTM finance system including the research costing & pricing functionality is ending in December 2025. Moving to Cloud-based solutions for core systems is in line with LSHTM IT strategy whilst the functionality needed to support LSHTM research projects means a full research grants management solution is required. The assessment of options for the Finance System has means that LSHTM will require two separate systems, one for Finance and one for research management.
Worktribe is the only vendor that offers an off-the-shelf, ready-to-use solution with end-to-end functionality and fully integrated workflows for Pre-Award, Post-Award, contracts management, due diligence, timesheets, ethics and reporting within a single, user-friendly platform.
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below
- The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the regulations
Explanation:
Under Clause 32(b) (ii) of Public Contract Regulations 2015: The negotiated procedure without prior publication may be used for works contract, public supply contracts and public service contracts in any of the following cases: - (b) where the works, suppliers or services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator for any of the following reasons: - (ii) competition is absent for technical reasons
Through review of frameworks, soft market testing and informal discussions other institutions, we have concluded that Worktribe is the only proven solution that meets all of LSHTM’s requirements below.
A single SaaS system providing one access point to manage the lifecycle of research projects. Including:
- Pre-award – budgeting, costing and pricing proposals based on TRAC/Full Economic Costing (FEC) (including UKRI and NIHR budget templates), approval workflows and managing applications
- Contracts – supporting contract negotiations with funders, partners and collaborators.
- Due diligence – create and undertake bespoke risk assessment of funders, partners, collaborators and countries. Evaluate the financial and non-financial risks, and provide an overall risk score for the organisations and countries visible across the platform
- Research ethics - management tools including bespoke question sets, workflow allocation rules, full ethics review process including for amendments, ethics committee management, automated generation of outcome letters and reports, configurable workflows for progress reports, end of study reports and safety reports, and risk allocation and visibility
- Post-award – in-built, seamless integration with the Pre-award applications/contracts, project set up, integration with finance system, monitoring of spend against budget, workflow management of budget virements, adjustments, supplements, no-cost extensions and final reconciliation and project close out
- Timesheets – sector-specific tools to record and approve actual staff time on a project and adjustments to costs incurred in compliance with the requirements of research funders and other statutory organisations
- Single SaaS platform data management for the research lifecycle, seamless links between the research lifecycle areas, and to streamline reporting
- has proven integration capability with LSHTM’s new finance system (TechnologyOne’s OneEducation system) and HR system (iTrent) for seamless transition of information for costing project proposals, setting up project codes
- is a mature, tried and tested product that does not require any significant capability development
- Proven track record with HEIs with similar integration requirements and research portfolio complexity
- enables user groups role based access through a user-friendly interface
- is offered off-the-shelf (i.e. no customisation required) delivered within LSHTM’s strict implementation timescales
Limitations of other solutions included:
- Primary capabilities were either as a Current Research Information System (CRIS), an ethics system or a timesheet system. Management of research outputs / institutional repository is outside of scope for this project and not currently of interest.
- No established FEC tool for research and innovation projects.
- No tools to manage the contracts aspect of the requirement.
- Complex, unproven integrations with other systems required to deliver the full requirement.
- Not widely proven by HEIs with similar integration requirements and research portfolio complexity.
Multiple systems would
- be detrimental to the user experience,
- increase training requirements and costs
- impact user adoption.
- Prevent a ‘one stop shop’ to monitor and view the status of a project.
- Increase complexity through integrations between multiple systems as well as implementation time and create additional costs.
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
Section five. Award of contract/concession
Contract No
LSHTM-2024-030
Title
Research Grants Management System
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract/concession
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
9 October 2024
five.2.2) Information about tenders
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor/concessionaire
Worktribe Ltd
Engineers House, The Promenade, Clifton Downs
Bristol
BS8 3NB
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UKK11 - Bristol, City of
National registration number
04576074
The contractor/concessionaire is an SME
No
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot/concession (excluding VAT)
Total value of the contract/lot/concession: £1,086,383
Section six. Complementary information
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
The Royal Courts of Justice
The Strand
London
WC2A 2LL
Country
United Kingdom
six.4.4) Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
Country
United Kingdom