The BNSC is pleased to announce the release of a Statement of Work related
to the setting up of a Near Earth Object (NEO) Information Centre. We would
expect bids to cover the range of work described but do not necessarily
expect a single site for all the work envisaged. Some of the detailed
activities related to the www site may need one of the listed (or other)
Universities to provide the service currently undertaken by BNSC and
QinetiQ. The site www.nearearthobjects.co.uk is written in Cold Fusion and
thus already set up for ease of update.
In the light of the agreed structure of the selected bid the contract placed
by BNSC will contain text to make clear the relationship between the Centre
and BNSC both during the time covered by the contract and afterwards. The
contractor will accept some limitations on its freedom to promote views on
space policy, and particularly on the hazard presented by NEOs, in
particular if these should be in direct contradiction of those of the
Government (sic).
The effectiveness criteria for the planned work will be based on the final
mix of activities proposed but will involve target figures related to the
different audiences addressed by the program of information transfer. For
any www related aspects of the work we would expect a 50 to 100% increase in
the base access rate from distinct internet addresses and for exhibit
visitors clear evidence of an understanding of the NEO position either from
general surveys and questionnaires that may be used by the institution from
time to time or from the use of related audio visual resources where
follow-up accesses and Q&A can be logged. For the teaching packs the
audience would depend on the share of the funding devoted to the area which
if internet based could be measured by the server statistics for that region
of the site or if larger mixed media packs for non electronic distribution
by the number dispatched and evidence of feedback from participating schools
and colleges (possibly by integrating the pack with an internet based
activity). During implementation and operation the relevant statistics will
be monitored and analysed on a three monthly basis. Access to web server
statistics should be made available to BNSC via password control.
While the Statement of Work makes a number of suggestions as to how the
centre could operate we are open to bids that achieve the overall goal of
information dissemination to a broad audience with the range of issues that
need to be covered. Achieving the objectives in a cost-effective manner
will form part of the bid assessment.
Bids should be returned to BNSC by Monday 1 October 2001
