RFI - DAI

RFI No. CDI002
Issue Date: March 13, 2015
Response Date: April 10, 2015
Subject: Request for Information for Partners in the areas of Start-up support, Acceleration, Incubation, and
Innovation Ecosystem Strengthening
Dear Prospective Partner:
DAI implements a USAID contract supporting the Center for Development Innovation (CDI), to provide
technical services to support USAID’s Center for Development Innovation (Lab/DI), one of five centers
that comprise the U.S. Global Development Lab. The Global Development Lab’s overall objective is to
harness the power of science, technology, innovation, and partnership (STIP) to source and scale dramatic
breakthroughs that accelerate achievement of foreign policy and development goals. Lab/DI’s mandate
within this overall framework is to develop innovation programs and approaches that engage and
incentivize a diverse range of stakeholders and innovators to solve global challenges.
In support of its efforts to promote innovative programming within the agency, Lab/DI awarded the
Professional Management Consulting services contract to DAI in September 2014. Under this 4 year
contract, DAI will provide support to the Lab/DI and potentially other centers and offices within the Lab,
USAID Washington DC, and USAID Missions around world, to develop pipelines for new breakthroughs
by harnessing the best in American and global innovation and entrepreneurship and engaging scientific
communities. DAI will work with the Lab/DI to bring together a diverse set of partners to attract solutions
and systematically transition to scale proven solutions that can dramatically accelerate development
progress.
This solicitation is focused on the Lab’s goal of sourcing, testing, and scaling solutions to major
development challenges around the world. These solutions come from a wide variety of innovators in
multiple sectors including for-profit firms, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions. The
acceleration support provided to innovators is intended to help them design, test, and iterate more
effectively. This may lead to accelerated failure or unexpected results and subsequent pivoting, or
accelerated success and potential for wide scale growth and adoption. In order to provide the most relevant
support to any given innovator, the Lab has mapped an innovation pipeline to help segment the stages of
innovation and guide the provision of acceleration services. The pipeline is detailed in the scope of work
below.
In addition to the direct sourcing and supporting of innovations for development, the Lab has a vested
interest in strengthening local innovation ecosystems throughout developing countries and empowering
local populations to create local solutions.
The purpose of this RFI is to identify qualified and compelling partners to work with DAI and the Lab in
supporting the acceleration of innovators from development to scale. Potential activities and services might
include start-up support for early stage innovators, direct acceleration support and access to relevant
networks, strategic guidance on acceleration approaches (for consideration at the early stages of program
design as well as during implementation), tools and guides for the assessment of acceleration needs and the
provision of services, innovation ecosystem mapping and strengthening, local market assessments and
identification of potential pathways to scale, and research on the impact of various types of support given to
innovators to improve future programming. Offerors submitting responses may be invited to partner with
us on future opportunities related to these technical areas as specific needs arise. Depending on the
demands of the activity and the interest of relevant partners, we are open to a range of engagement
structures including partnerships, in-kind support, Public Private Partnerships through USAID’s Global
Development Alliance (GDA) mechanism (http://www.usaid.gov/gda), memoranda of understanding,
grants, contracts, and purchase orders. More information about the specific activities and skill sets we seek
can be found in the detailed description in Appendix A.
DAI invites firms to submit a brief expression of interest for work to be funded by USAID under the Center
for Development Services Management Consulting Contract. We would appreciate a response from
interested firms and potential partners by 4pm on April 10, 2015.
Submission of Questions – Offerors may respond with clarification questions should they require further
detail regarding the below structure or attached scope of work. Questions should be submitted no later than
4:00 pm EDT on March 20, 2015. DAI will respond to these questions within five business days.
Offeror’s Conference – DAI will host a conference call for all interested organizations This call will
provide offerors an opportunity to hear further information about the context in which this RFI is released
and the potential partnership modalities that might result from this RFI. This will also be a chance for
offerors to ask questions and share their thoughts on the RFI with DAI. The offeror’s conference will be
held on March 25, 2015 at 2:00pm EDT. Please call in to 1-800-504-8071 and enter PIN number 5171326
at this time to join.
We are seeking the following information from interested firms:
Part 1 – Technical approach
Please submit the following as documentation of the offeror’s technical relevance under this Scope of
Work:
 A brief technical description of your firm and the types of technical expertise and novel approaches
that your firm can offer to address one or more of the above technical areas with examples of past
programs and activities that your firm has undertaken to address the respective technical area(s) (25 pages).
o If applicable, please include any proposed new approaches/ activities you think would
leverage your expertise and work towards achieving the Lab’s goals as stated above. For
proposed new activities include:
 A general description of the activity
 The role of your organization, and that of DAI / USAID
 An explanation of why this new approach is relevant and if applicable, why your
organization has not tested it previously
o Stage of Innovation Targeted Services: The Lab is also interested in tailored support to
development innovators who may be at various stages in the innovation pipeline, and is
currently developing its strategy for targeting its pool of innovators. Five stages of
innovation are identified in the attached scope of work. Please detail:
 Which stage of innovation provides the highest potential for impact through
acceleration support and /or whether one or several of these stages is not
appropriate for acceleration services;
 Which stage(s) of the pipeline your organization could support, if applicable, and
what particular type of acceleration services is most appropriate for those stages.
o Staffing – Offerors must include details of illustrative personnel who might be assigned to
the various activities outlined in their proposed activities. Offeror should include their
names, potential roles, and CV as an annex which highlights any specific relevant
experience (such as experience in developing countries or in specific technical areas),
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Previous Experience: To highlight your firm’s corporate capability in acceleration services, please
provide at least three previous activities accomplished. In addition to completing the table in
Appendix B and as an annex to your technical proposal, please include a narrative outlining:
o A general description of each activity and your organization’s role in implementing it;
o How this service offering relates to the requested SOW; and
o As appropriate, how you partnered / collaborated with other organizations in undertaking
the project or activity.
In your conclusion, please also note the type of partnering mechanism(s) you are open to; DAI is
considering partnering mechanisms including, but not limited to:
o Subcontracts;
o Fixed Price Purchase Orders;
o Grant Agreements;
o Memoranda of understanding (for activities such as including USAID innovators in
existing accelerator cohorts, co-financing workshops, or co-implementing research)
o Honoraria for participation on advisory boards or at innovator events;
o Public Private Partnerships / GDA
o Labor-reimbursable independent consulting agreements; and
o Co-investment opportunities with interested partners.
As a separate document, please include a PowerPoint slide that includes your logo and summarizes
your unique approach or offering (to be used in a presentation to prospective Lab/DI clients).
Previous RFI Respondents: We recognize that some firms responded to DAI’s RFI for potential preferred
partners issued on July 7, 2014. We invite those firms to expand upon their initial responses based on this
solicitation should they wish to, however we can consider the previous submission valid for purposes of this
RFI if firms would like. If the latter, please respond to confirm your interest and your preference to
consider your initial submission valid for this solicitation. In addition, we would ask those firms to submit
the powerpoint slide described above as well as the supplier profile form below if applicable.
Interested parties may submit an expression of interest consistent with the above technical approach
structure. Proposals should be submitted no later than 4:00 pm EST on April 10, 2015 via email to
[email protected]. The subject line of the email should include the full RFI Number and Title
“RFI CDI002 Request for Start-up support, Acceleration, Incubation, and Innovation Ecosystem
Strengthening Expressions of Interest.” Please limit file submissions to 10 megabytes or less.
Issuance of this RFI does not constitute a commitment, award, or engagement on the part of DAI nor does it
commit DAI to any future commitment, award, or engagement.
Participant Notification:
For any questions regarding this Request for Information, and to submit your interest documents, please
contact Nick Brown at [email protected].
APPENDIX A
STATEMENT OF WORK
Scope of Work for Start-up support, Acceleration, Incubation, and Innovation Ecosystem Strengthening
Background
USAID’s Global Development Lab’s objective is to harness the power of science, technology, innovation
and partnership (STIP) to source and scale dramatic breakthroughs that accelerate achievement of foreign
policy and development goals. The Lab operates in support of this objective through a two-part mission:
1. Produce Breakthrough Development Innovations: Invest in both directed research and open
innovation approaches; Build a pipeline/global platform to source, test, and apply solutions;
Connect scientific and innovation staff and programs at USAID; Bring interdisciplinary teams with
specific capabilities to bear around problem sets; Build alliances and expertise to take a handful of
proven solutions to global scale.
2. Accelerate the transformation of the U.S. development enterprise: Support Presidential
Initiatives and Lead Missions in applying STIP approaches. Advance approaches that leverage the
capabilities and resources of the full diversity of stakeholders who are engaged in global problem
solving; which embrace data and evidence to drive decision making and solutions; and which
harness scientific and innovative approaches as core to problem solving. Develop, test, and refine
innovative approaches to investing and partnering- to include new forms of public-private
partnerships and multi-stakeholder alliances, open innovation platforms, prizes and grand
challenges, and pay-for-performance.
The Lab and its Center for Development Innovation (Lab/DI) utilize a broad range of open innovation
techniques to source, shape, and accelerate solutions that have the potential to end poverty and improve
human well-being. To achieve bigger development impact with fewer resources in a faster timeframe,
Lab/DI is increasingly investing in acceleration services both directly for its grantees, and indirectly through
intermediaries such as investors, accelerators, incubators, and others. These investments seek to ensure that
innovative solutions to development challenges being sourced through USAID’s programs or other
channels are having impact in the lives of direct beneficiaries as quickly, as successfully, and as widely as
possible.
Objective
We are seeking a variety of organizations that can provide services to innovators at the various stages of the
pipeling including:
 start-up support for early stage innovators,
 direct acceleration support and access to relevant networks,
 strategic guidance on incorporating acceleration approaches into program design,
 strategies for the implementation of acceleration services
 capacity building of USAID teams to deliver acceleration support
 tools and guides for the assessment of acceleration needs and the provision of services,
 assessments of local market and identification of potential pathways to scale,
 innovation ecosystem mapping and strengthening, and
 research on the impact of various types of support given to innovators.
The pipeline as defined by the Lab is detailed below:
Opportunities range from supporting internal program design with USAID teams to working directly with
USAID innovation grantees; developing acceleration strategies for open innovation calls, prizes and grand
challenges; conducting impact assessments and process evaluations of grantee activity; and assessing and
recommending innovation program methodologies.
We seek partners that can add value to Lab/DI’s process by helping us support the innovations and
innovators sourced through USAID programs, develop tools and approaches to providing acceleration
support to grantees at different stages of growth, provide learning and feedback loops back into the Lab/DI
teams, and increase USAID’s understanding of how to use innovation programming to accelerate
development impact.
We welcome interested organizations that can provide value to this process across a range of technical and
geographic strengths. Through this RFI, we are seeking to:
 Identify potential partners with best in class techniques and skills in acceleration, incubation,
impact assessment and innovation ecosystem and market strengthening
 Categorize particular strengths of potential partners across both technical and geographic areas
 Integrate new and creative strategies for acceleration, incubation, impact assessment and innovation
ecosystem strengthening to propose to Lab/DI
 Understand prevailing costs for these activities
 Identify appealing and flexible partnership structures that reflect the Lab/DI’s commitment to cocreation and meaningful co-investment to improve the results of its innovation programming
To assist in the response to this RFI, the following list provides illustrative activities in which we might
engage partners under this scope. This list is by no means exhaustive and we very much welcome new
ideas and approaches that will help us achieve our goal of harnessing the power of science, technology,
innovation and partnership (STIP) to source and scale dramatic breakthroughs that accelerate achievement
of foreign policy and development goals.
Types of services for innovators:
• Financing
• Assessment tools
• Guided approach to use of services
• Strategy development
• PR / media promotion
• Pitch support
• Demo days
• Co-location
Training / courses in areas of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Events
•
•
•
•
•
•
Start-up bootcamps
Marketing and communications
Business and sales plans
User/Human-centered design
Talent recruitment and management
Financing
Market research
Social behavior change / social marketing
Prototyping, testing, and evaluation
Using maker space resources / prototyping
Basic business skills
Seminars
Resident expert series
Networking functions
Social events
Promotional events
Technical events in the subject
Types of resources:
• Mentor networks
• Technical experts
• Peer communities
• User/ focus group communities
• Investor networks
• Corporate connections
• Pipeline of top talent
• Media / press visibility
• Physical hubs / incubators / office space
• Maker spaces and manufacturers
• Product testing opportunities
Access to professionals at free or reduced cost in the areas of:
• Legal and licensing
• Government and regulatory affairs
• Accounting
• Web design
• Graphic Design
• Marketing / PR
• Finance
• IT
• User/Human-centered design
• Prototyping and production
Research
• Innovation ecosystem mapping tools and assessment approaches
• Monitoring & evaluation tools for innovation programs for use by program officers
• Guides and toolkits for monitoring & evaluation for use by innovators / grantees
• Process and methodology evaluations – making the case for innovation programming
• Market, supply chain and value chain assessments
•
•
•
•
Identification of potential pathways to scale at the local, national, regional and/or global level
Demand identification and creation strategies
Development impact assessments
Creating feedback loops for data and evidence to inform and improve programming
Responses
To respond to this RFI, please describe your organization’s approach to acceleration, incubation, impact
assessment and innovation ecosystem strengthening. We are particularly keen to hear about:
 Your background, who you are, what you do, and why you are motivated to work with us
 How you might add value to these activities; what skills you bring to these activities
 Geographic or technical strengths
 New activities you have pioneered that we have yet to consider
 New activities you have not yet pioneered but would like to test with USAID/DAI
 Processes, toolkits, skills, connections, networks, access, or strategies that make your organization’s
approach particularly unique, effective, and engaging to participants
 Lessons learned and how your organization has since adapted those lessons into your business
practice
 Comparable projects in developing countries with the private sector, governments, NGOs, and/or
donors
 How you assess the effectiveness of your own work
 Whether your technical service offerings are particularly targeted toward one or several of the lab
defined stages of the innovation pipeline provided above. Additionally, we would appreciate your
comments on which stage of innovation can deliver the highest impact from an organization’s
intervention, and whether it is appropriate for acceleration services to be provided at each of these
stages of innovation.
We welcome sample diagrams, charts, process flows, agendas, toolkits, images, brochures, fact sheets, or
other work products as examples to complement your response.
RFI No. CDI002
APPENDIX B- SUMMARY OF RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE
Include projects that best illustrate your work experience relevant to this RFI (ie, similar in size, scope, application, or client), sorted by
decreasing order of completion date.
Of these assignments, Offerors should select three whom DAI can call on as references providing their names, email addresses, phone numbers.
Projects should have been undertaken in the past three years. Projects undertaken in the past six years may be taken into consideration at the
discretion of the evaluation panel.
# Project Title
1
2
3
Client Name
Reference(s) name
Contact Phone and Email Cost in
USD$
Start-End
Dates
Completed
on
schedule
(Yes/No)