Republic of Moldova

5 International consultants to provide mentorship and consultative support to the selected collaborative projects under the UNDP Moldova Business Innovation Lab

Vacancy Number: Pr16/01214

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	23 Feb 2016, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	01 Mar 2016
Reference to the project:	Innovative Business for Local Development
Expected Duration of Assignment:	March – December 2016
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than February 23, 2016. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: dumitru.vasilescu@undp.org. UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants. This Vacancy Announcement is also placed on the following web page http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=63897
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice BIL concept MICS Operational Manual Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Contacts:

Mr. Dumitru Vasilescu.

Background

The Business Innovations Lab (BIL) is a knowledge and collaborative facility managed by a multidisciplinary team of business experts, mentors and practitioners/businessmen from Moldova and abroad capable to provide consultative support and guide SMEs on their path to innovate and improve competitiveness. BIL will be coordinating and hosting exclusively collaborative projects initiated and run by Moldovan SMEs with at least 2 years of experience on the market and start-ups.

In essence, Business Innovation Lab (BIL) is a pre-seed SME accelerator: a modern type of business innovation incubator, with an open application process, accepting groups of SME’s with innovative business ideas coming from various sectors and supporting them with mentoring, training and preparing for investments for a short definite period. BIL is also a facility which implements the monitoring of the Innovation Grant Scheme.

Considering current state of the innovation ecosystem in Moldova and intention of UNDP to set up a framework for sustainable future streamlining of innovative SME’s,  this intervention financed within LED Project will not be required to focus on particular technology field or industry.  It is more urgent to focus on speed of bringing established companies and start-ups with global potential closer to potential investment. In this sense BIL is required to have investor and mentor base that is at their disposal to cover different fields appropriately. To that end, BIL will be managing a Board of Mentors, a community of competitively selected international and national consultants that would provide timely and highly qualitative support towards the implementation of all stages of the Acceleration Cycle.

 

Scope of work

The main objective of the assignment is to provide support to the Project and the BIL in the establishment of the BIL Board of Mentors. The Board will, on a collaborate basis, provide mentorship services to the winning collaborative projects run by SMEs and supported by BIL. Mentors will be providing highly competitive and qualitative consultancy services to the projects depending on the specific needs.

The Board of Mentors would consist of international and national experts to include at least: one innovation general expert, one innovation marketing specialist, one innovation funding/financing expert, one M&E expert, one national financial expert, and one communication specialist. Each members of the Board will be guided by the working plan of the BIL and might be ‘activated’ depending on the specific needs of the specific collaborative project or general BIL needs. Such members of the Board will be monthly or quarterly reporting on the progress and achieved results, against their specific Terms of references.

 

Requirements for experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree in Economics, Social Science or other relevant fields;

Experience:

• At least 5 years of proven experience in delivering trainings, coaching and mentorship for innovative projects led by SMEs or groups of SMEs;
• At least 3 years of proven experience in training and consulting SMEs on the specific topic of interest, as per the provided list of LOTs;
• At least 3 years of proven experience in selection and monitoring/evaluation of innovative projects run by private sector is a strong advantage;
• Familiarity with the situation in the national innovations systems in the CEE region and Moldova is a strong asset; proved by the articles, analytical reports, publications, etc in the area;
• Familiarity with major European funding programmes and projects is a strong asset;
• Knowledge of the EU regulations, including institutional, legal and policy frameworks, in the area of innovation and technological transfer is a strong advantage;
• Knowledge of impact evaluation for innovative projects.

Competencies:

•  Strong analytical, drafting and training skills.
• Ability to analyse, plan, communicate effectively with stakeholders and present ideas clearly and effectively.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
• Demonstrated interpersonal and diplomatic skills.
• Ability to enter new environments, adapt quickly and produce immediate results.
• Computer literacy - competent user of the main Microsoft Office programs.

Language requirements:

•  Fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Romanian or Russian would be an asset.

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Proposal: explaining why they are the most suitable for this position;
2. Financial proposal: in (USD, specifying a total lump sum amount and the number of anticipated working days).
3. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and the contact details of at least 3 reference persons.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including fee, taxes, travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel 

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

 

Disclaimer In case of discrepancies between the text published on the website and the contents of the supporting documents, the provisions, instructions and conditions included in the supporting documents (published as Adobe Portable Document Format files) shall prevail. In case of discrepancies between the English version and the Romanian and/or Russian versions of text, documents or other content published on this webpage, the English version shall prevail.

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