Invitation 99/10

Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs): Bids for funds 1999-2000

Executive summary

1. Purpose

2. This publication invites further bids for funds to provide or expand Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) - high-speed electronic links between institutions in a region.

   Key points

3. HEFCE 98/17 announced that funds of up to £7 million were being made available over two years for new MANs and extensions to existing MANs, and that we would contribute 75 per cent of the total costs of successful proposals.
4. Following evaluation of the proposals received, we awarded funds of £2 million to successful projects. We now invite bids for the remaining £5 million allocated to the initiative.
5. All higher education institutions are eligible to bid, whether or not they have been funded under previous MAN initiatives, including consortia which bid for funds under the first phase of the current initiative.

   Action required

6. Bids should be sent to the HEFCE, to arrive by midday on 17 May 1999.
   

   Background

7. We are providing £5 million for this phase of the MAN initiative nominally to be spent within the 1999-2000 academic year. However, we recognise that it may not always be possible for consortia to fit all expenditure into this period while ensuring that the procurement and installation of facilities are properly managed. In such cases, the bid should contain an estimate of the expected expenditure profile within the 1999-2000 academic year and beyond. It is not expected that expenditure arising from this phase of the initiative will extend beyond 31 March 2001.
8. The aim of this phase is to enable institutions or consortia to develop new MANs, and to enhance facilities within existing MANs.
9. We will consider all bids solely on the basis of the evaluation criteria set out in paragraph 21 below. We will not distinguish between institutions or consortia which received funds in previous phases and those which did not.
10. Since the initiative may be over-subscribed, institutions or consortia should not expect a disproportionate share of the funds available.

    Relationship between the HEFCE, the JISC and UKERNA

11. This is an HEFCE initiative administered on our behalf by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association (UKERNA) will provide technical advice by assessing each bid against the technical evaluation criteria, but will take no part in the funding decisions.
12. Institutions and consortia are strongly encouraged to contact UKERNA to discuss the technical aspects of any proposals, in particular to allow UKERNA to offer informal advice on how the bid might fit into the strategic development of the SuperJANET backbone. In this way we expect that the overall quality of bids can be improved, and that there will be a good fit of the bids into this strategic development. However, consultation with UKERNA will not necessarily improve a bid's chance of success, which will depend entirely on its performance against the evaluation criteria.

    Guidance on bids

13. Priority will be given to bids seeking to establish new MANs.
14. Where a MAN already exists, we would expect proposals to build on it. We will only consider a proposal to develop an alternative infrastructure to an existing MAN in exceptional cases, and where significant additional benefit can be demonstrated. A bid may include proposals to increase the resilience of an established MAN against failure of the infrastructure and consequent loss of service by its users. However, the ongoing recurrent costs of such provision are unlikely to be met from JISC funds in cases where an agreement has already been reached with UKERNA for recurrent funding of the existing infrastructure.
15. The JISC will meet the recurrent costs of a single connection to each HEI within a MAN where this is technically and financially sensible. Consortia wishing to establish a new MAN should discuss their proposal with the JISC to ensure that it builds upon any funding they are likely to receive from the JISC.
16. Consortia may bid to connect a site of an institution to a MAN in cases where that institution already has a site connected to another MAN, or is bidding to do this as part of this invitation. In such cases the bid should explain why the second MAN connection is justified. In particular, where there is already a broadband connection between the two sites as part of the institution’s internal network, the bid should explain why this connection, the existing MAN connection and the SuperJANET backbone cannot be used as a means of reaching the second MAN.
17. It will be a condition of grant that such connections will not be used to build an alternative to the SuperJANET backbone for transit between the MANs concerned (for example by setting up transit across any internal network that might already connect the sites of the institution). The JISC and UKERNA maintain a policy that the SuperJANET backbone should be the sole provider of transit between MANs. This is to ensure that a consistent and reliable service, in accordance with the JANET service level agreement, can be provided to all users of each MAN, and to allow the prediction of traffic requirements across the backbone for planning.
18. In all cases, institutions must show that significant additional benefits would be provided by funding under this initiative. In particular, institutions must, as a condition of funding, provide evidence of collaborative ventures with other members of their consortia. We welcome the inclusion of further education (FE) institutions in consortia, but the connection of FE colleges will not be funded under this phase of the initiative.
19. Bids should include details of the arrangements in place, or to be put in place, for the management of the MAN. All HEIs connected by the MAN must be appropriately and adequately represented by the management arrangements.
20. We accept that MAN proposals will make use of innovative and developing technology, and do not wish to prescribe particular approaches. Therefore awards are likely to specify the locations to be connected to the MAN, and to give collaborating institutions a fair degree of freedom in the way the MAN is configured. However, it will be a condition of all MAN awards that the consortium reaches contractual agreement with UKERNA on the provision of SuperJANET services across the infrastructure. The bid must be technically sound.
21. MAN proposals should be submitted from one lead institution, which should undertake to co-ordinate communication with UKERNA on behalf of the consortium.

    Evaluation criteria

22. All bids will be evaluated by scoring them against the criteria below. Although a bid may meet all the criteria, it will not be successful if the initiative is oversubscribed and other bids score more highly. The criteria are:
    1. The strategic importance of the bid to the institutions connected to the MAN, and to other higher education institutions in the region.
    2. Examples of existing and planned collaboration between the institutions forming the MAN. This criterion is particularly important for bids to expand existing MANs.
    3. Whether the proposal uses reliable technology that is appropriate to the needs of the institutions and the applications proposed for it, has an adequate projected useful service life, and can work with current and likely future SuperJANET technologies.
    4. Whether the costs are reasonable compared with alternative methods of connection, and whether the bid offers good value for money.

    Eligible and ineligible costs

23. Funding under this initiative relates only to activities funded by the HEFCE under section 65(2) of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. In particular it excludes costs relating to services which should be self-financing under paragraph 60 of the Financial Memorandum between the HEFCE and institutions (Circular 15/97). An example of a self-funding activity would be halls of residence. Any costs for which an institution has previously received specific public funding are also ineligible for funding under this initiative. The cover sheet for the bids includes a declaration that the bid does not relate to self-financing activities or to costs for which the institution has previously received specific public funding. This declaration must be signed by the head of the institution.
24. The following costs are also ineligible:
    1. All recurrent charges, such as recurrent charges for telecommunications services, and maintenance contract charges.
    2. Staffing costs and associated training.
    3. Applications software, including network management software.
    4. Equipment dedicated to video services and telephony services.
    5. Free-standing computer systems, including servers, workstations, network interface cards, and peripherals.
    6. Costs relating to a site which was not part of an institution within the consortium on 1 April 1999.
25. Subject to these exceptions, all capital costs, plus the irrecoverable VAT incurred by institutions on those costs, are eligible for funding.
26. MAN consortia may bid for project management costs only if they can demonstrate that they do not have the necessary knowledge and experience within the consortium.
27. Institutions may bid for funding for any project where contracts have not been signed. However, they are unlikely to be able to demonstrate that Council funds would provide significant additional benefits to a project that is in an advanced stage of development.

    Extent of HEFCE contribution

28. We will fund 75 per cent of the total cost of the proposal. The contributions from collaborating institutions to a MAN will be a matter for the institutions to agree between themselves. This information should be disclosed in the bid.
29. In deciding whether to support a proposal, we will also assess whether the institutions in the consortium can afford both their share of the 25 per cent contribution and the recurrent costs of the project.
30. We may attach conditions to any funds awarded under this initiative if, for example, the proposed approach depends on any external factors, or if there are any uncertainties in the total financial package.

    Timetable

31. The deadline for the receipt of bids is midday on 17 May 1999. No proposals will be accepted after this date. Recommendations will be made to the HEFCE Board at its meeting on 10 June 1999. Institutions will be informed of the outcome as soon as possible after that meeting.

    Structure and submission of bids

32. The lead institution should submit a concise, structured bid which addresses all the points in the evaluation criteria. As not all the evaluation will be done by UKERNA, the bid must be explained in non-technical language so that the non-technical criteria can be evaluated.
33. Bids should have the following structure:
    • cover sheet, including an executive summary; a copy is attached as Annex A
    • brief details of the current networking infrastructure
    • proposed networking enhancements
    • use to which the enhanced network will be put, and the applications that will be run on it
    • a justification of the strategic importance of the bid to the institution
    • any uncertainties in the total financial package, and any external factors on which the proposed solution depends
    • letters of support signed by the head of each institution making up the MAN consortium
    • the arrangements for management of the MAN.
34. The bid must not exceed 12 sides of A4, including a one-page cover sheet. However it can be supported by the following appendices:
    • relevant extracts of the institution's strategic plan and IT strategy
    • relevant costing information.
35. The bid should also include a summary table of costs incurred against the following categories of equipment/services, with an estimate of the annual recurrent cost (including maintenance and any rental charges) associated with each category:
    • fibre optic links (materials, trench/ducting, termination)
    • active network equipment (repeaters, switches, routers, transceivers)
    • wide area network links (leased circuit installation, radio/infra red links)
    • project management costs
    • other (anything not included above, please specify).
36. Institutions should submit six copies of their bid to Joseph Hutcheon at the HEFCE, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QD, to arrive by midday on 17 May 1999. Faxes and e-mails will not be accepted.

    Further information

37. Enquiries on the running of the initiative should be addressed to:

    Joseph Hutcheon, tel 0117 931 7251, e-mail j.hutcheon@jisc.ac.uk

    or

    Dr Malcolm Read, JISC Secretary, tel 0117 931 7230, e-mail m.read@jisc.ac.uk.

    Enquiries relating to the technical content of a proposal should be addressed to:

    Stephen Percival or Bob Day,
    UKERNA Atlas Centre,
    Chilton
    Didcot
    OX11 0QS
    tel 44 (0)1235 822200 (switchboard)
    fax 44 (0)1235 822399
    e-mail s.percival@ukerna.ac.uk or r.day@ukerna.ac.uk
    

Annex A

HEFCE MAN Initiative 1999-00