Call for tenders: Communication and outreach tasks for project “SIMPLE”

About the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD): IRD is a French public scientific and technological institution under the dual supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. For 75 years, its research, expertise, and training activities have aimed to contribute to the economic, social and cultural development of developing countries.
About project “SIMPLE”: IRD in Vietnam (http://vietnam.ird.fr/), through its International Joint Laboratory ACROSS (http://across-lab.org), has recently been awarded a funding by the EuropeAid “Green Partnership with ASEAN” program to develop, with partner schools in the Lower Mekong countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam), a set of “sustainability metaverses”, i.e., educational solutions based on the integration of immersive virtual reality (VR) environments with serious games and scientific simulations. This project, called SIMPLE, will also be providing an integrated learning environment, called the Mobile Metaverse Learning Lab (M2L2), that can be deployed quickly and provide a complete virtual reality playground for classrooms, even in remote locations with limited Internet bandwidth. The virtual universes developed in SIMPLE will be based on calibrated scientific models validated in well-documented case studies, ensuring the realism of the development scenarios that participants will explore and allowing them to collaborate virtually in real time to explore solutions to sustainability issues.

The objective of the hired team will be to develop a communication and outreach strategy for project “SIMPLE”, to increase its visibility, grow interest and participation from the youth and the general public in target countries in participatory and immersive approaches for understanding and tackling environmental and climate change related issues.

Activities
● Define a communication strategy for the four years of the project, including:
○ Regional digital strategy
■ Website: Design, develop, test and launch the project website for public communication. Maintain and feed it for four years in cooperation with project staff and manage its transfer to the project team at the end.
■ Social media channels: Develop the digital communications plan, including setting up and managing social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.), content creation, analytics, user engagement, content promotion.

○ Events
■ Regional VR Contest: Organize a “SIMPLE VR Contest”, including launching the call for proposals, promoting the event, forming and guiding the jury through the selection process, monitoring and managing the applications, finding sponsors, organizing a dedicated side event at the final project meeting, writing reports.
■ National public events: Organize demonstration and outreach events – 5 in Thailand, 5 in Vietnam, 2 in Laos, and 3 in Cambodia with a reach of 30 to 300 people each. This includes designing and developing props, logistics coordination, execution and reporting.
○ Regional media outreach
■ Reach out to different media such as TV, newspapers, digital media to ensure the project’s promotion.
● Ensure that the following transversal requirements are included:
○ Produce a communication toolkit
■ With a graphical charter, proposals for corporate identity, a style guide.
■ Prepare tools and templates for presenting findings, key messages, stories and social media content covering the project’s results, highlights and other updates.
○ Support the translation of communication materials into the project languages – Vietnamese, Thai, and French initially, then Khmer and Lao in the final two years.
○ Ensure the visibility of the grant’s programme and of the donor (European Union) following their guidelines.
○ Identify opportunities for national/regional media engagement to support the project.

● A graphical charter for the project, including a logo
● A communication toolkit
● A functional and regularly updated website
● Several social media channels – platforms to be determined during the development of the communication strategy after surveying beneficiaries
● A social media plan and content calendar
● Monthly reports and analytics
● Communication and branding materials around the project
○ For each event: roll-ups, event branding, publicity materials (goodies), press/media kit, organization of press conferences, speeches, photos, videos, animations
○ On a regular basis (linked with project milestones) – stories and news, relevant outreach materials, briefing articles, fact sheets, photos, videos, press releases, press/media kits, etc.
● A translation of the main content and productions above

● 15 outreach events
● One VR contest with its sponsors and contestants

● Experience in supporting social change and environmental protection through communication, visibility and knowledge management to increase project impact.
● Experience in education and youth empowerment.
● Proven experience with the development and management of communication and awareness raising campaigns.
● Knowledge and experience/ rooting in South-East Asia, especially countries of the Lower Mekong where the project will be implemented.
● Multidisciplinary team ranging from web development, to digital marketing, as well as event management and advocacy.
● Proven reliability, responsiveness, rigorous organization.
● Creative team, offering original and rich content.

The evaluation criteria are related to the understanding of the requested mission, the detailed description of the technical and methodological approach and the budget proposal. The full proposal is available upon request from the project team (see email address for applications).
Only offers that meet the above requirements will be considered for evaluation. The award will be made to the most technically, creatively and financially advantageous offer.
Applications must include detailed CVs of the team members, a detailed methodological proposal, a provisional timetable, a portfolio containing examples of communication and awareness raising campaigns produced by the bidder and a price offer (flat fee).

Communication activities will begin in June 2023 and continue throughout the four years of the project. The maximum envelope for this activity is 106.000€.

Applications should be sent in English, by email to alexis.drogoul@ird.fr, as a PDF file entitled “SIMPLE_CFT_2023_1_ApplicantName.pdf”. Supporting materials (videos, portfolio, etc.) will be provided as links in the document.

The deadline for applications is May 1, 2023; selected proposals will be invited for an interview the first week of May, with the final answer provided mid-May.