Provision for the Facilitation of Citizens Jury

The University of Strathclyde’s Social Work and Social Policy department, through its THRIVING Food Futures research team, has awarded a contract to a supplier to manage participant recruitment and coordinate the delivery of three citizens’ juries, each lasting three days.

The supplier will work with the University in the design and recruitment of three, 3-day citizens juries, each with 18-22 participants of diverse backgrounds, across the UK (exact locations to be agreed).

The juries will each hold an initial 2-day (in person) workshop in 2027. This will be followed by 6 online meetings with participants, as a means of maintaining their engagement across 2027-2029, which will be facilitated by the University of Strathclyde. The final day of each jury would be in 2029. The supplier will attend all in-person jury sessions in 2027 and 2029. This design allows jury members to shape some of the research that they will then hear the results of in the final session, which will include policymakers. The purpose is to discuss research and policy recommendations that will enable the UK’s food system to help achieve Net Zero targets while also improving population health.

Specific requirements of the contract are to:

• Work with the THRIVING Food Futures (TFF) research team to design the three citizens’ juries and to finalise the location details. This will include ensuring each jury has a main facilitator, appropriate expert witnesses, a critical friend, an ethnographer and an administrator. The research team from the University and representatives from others in the group can provide at least 5 people to help with the facilitation, critical friend and note-taking roles. The wider TFF team can provide some expert witnesses.
• Recruit 18-22 participants to each of the three juries, using a mini-public design which ensures that the participants are representative of the local populations in terms of:
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Socio-economic status
• Political/ideological preferences

A list of shortlisted participants will be provided to the University for review and acceptability no less than 4 weeks prior to each jury

• Process compensation payments to the participants to cover their time and travel. To ensure the process is as inclusive as possible, participants should be given the option to receive payments by bank transfer, cash on the day or vouchers.

The research team can also lead on the recruitment of expert witnesses

The key services to be provided by the supplier include:

A. Lead responsibility for the identification and booking of a suitable venue for each event

B. Lead responsibility for the recruitment of participants of diverse backgrounds.

C. Provide a list of shortlisted participants to the University for review

D. Lead responsibility for preparing and supporting participants

E. Supplier attendance at each jury event to welcome and assist participants on-site.

F. Lead responsibility for processing compensation payments to the participants

G. Participants will be given the option to receive payment by bank transfer (within one week of the event). Attendance at each jury event is required to process these payments

H. Assistance with the design and planning of each event.

I. Assistance with the facilitation of each event.

J. Lead responsibility for the transcription of audio data recorded at each event and provision of all other data in a format that can be analysed

K. Lead responsibility for producing a report of each event Additional information: Economic operators may be excluded from this competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.