Consultancy Services for the 2021 Virtual Commonwealth Science Conference

The 2021 Commonwealth Science Conference is part of a wider programme, led by the Royal Society, to strengthen collaborations between scientists from across the Commonwealth and aims to bring together early career researchers and some of the most eminent scientists and scientific influences from across the Commonwealth under the theme 'Science for a Sustainable Recovery'. The 2021 CSC & wider programme are funded by the UK Government's Global Challenges Research Fund, which is part of the UK's Official Development Assistance, the focus of the CSC is: 1) to improve research links between outstanding early career researchers and with leading scientists from across the Commonwealth, in order to facilitate joint work on addressing global development challenges; 2) to encourage scientific capacity strengthening in developing Commonwealth countries; 3) to influence the Commonwealth policy agenda. Due to Covid-19 and the long-term impact of the pandemic on international travel, the Society has decided to run the meeting as an entirely virtual event. The Royal Society has limited experience & resources available for the running virtual events and meetings. The Consultancy will refine our programme for the virtual CSC event and the programme to determine what event firms are be best suited to be invited to the Society's Event Management tender. The outputs require of the successful consultant are to: 1) advise the Royal Society on the best structure of the services for the CSC event based on the Society's proposed programme 2) propose what types of platforms, services & deliverables will be required for the scope of the event programme 3) proposed 4) advise if the tender should be an open or select tender 5) propose the budget required for the project based on market research of event management and similar events, and 6) identify a list of event management firms (with declaration of interests provided as part of Agreement) that could deliver the virtual CSC event