Background
The UK's FTAs with Australia and New Zealand entered into force on 31 May 2023 and will be critical to strengthening the UK's trading relationships across the region. These deals will set new global standards in goods and services and are expected to unlock a projected £2.3 billion boost to the UK economy from the Australia FTA and £800 million from the New Zealand FTA.
Scope of work
Both the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement and the UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) include best-in-class provisions for digital trade that will help lower barriers to trade and investment, improve efficiency in cross border trade and create new opportunities for innovative technology companies. The Australia-UK deal also includes the world's first Innovation Chapter, which will enable both countries to discuss the impact of novel discoveries on trade and how to collaborate on cross-cutting issues.
Six months after entry into force of these FTAs, the UK government is seeking to collaborate with partners to deliver a series of events to facilitate collaboration between UK and Australian & New Zealand technology companies and demonstrate the benefits of fully implementing the intentions of the following UK-AU FTA chapters:
This six month programme of activity will include (but is not limited to):
- market visits
- workshops
- roundtables
- business engagement
- reporting
Further benefit includes building bilateral business networks and raising the profile of the FTA to ensure its future utilisation.
Timelines
The bidder is required to deliver phased outputs against set timelines (subject to confirmation).
The duration of this project is likely to be six months (October 2023 to April 2024).
| No. | Deliverable | Anticipated activities (not limited to) | Milestone date |
| 1 | Accountable Grant signed with chosen bidder and start the implementation | Proposed work plan for the whole programme | 30 September 2023 |
| 2 | Programme design report | Detailed list of finalised activities for the programme | 2nd week October 2023 |
| 3 | Delivery of activity | Finalise activity events, dates, locations | October onwards |
| 4 | Final report of delivery activity and findings | Summarise delivery activity | 31 March 2024 |
Selection Criteria
Bids will be assessed against the following criteria:
- Project design: Feasibility of activities and outputs including the capacity of the implementing organisation to deliver outcomes.
- Impact: Supporting identifiable, meaningful activities to enhance impact of the project.
- Scalability: The potential for the project to act as a building block for subsequent FTA implementation activity.
- Viability and risks: Clear engagement/buy-in of key stakeholders. Robust analysis of key risks and a plan of action to manage and mitigate those risks.
- Value for money: Comparable and reasonable costs against the scale of achievable outcomes.
We draw your attention to the below key points:
- Proposals should be between £8,000 - £20,000 ($13,000 - $34,000 AUD).
- All funding must be activity-based (i.e. not for general support staff costs (admin, finance support), office rental etc.).
