Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Technical analysis and comparison of approaches to bias identification and mitigation in decision making algorithms

UK-London: Research consultancy services.

Section I: Contracting Authority

   I.1) Name, Addresses and Contact Point(s):
       Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
       100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ, United Kingdom
       Tel. +44 2072116000, Email: commercial@culture.gov.uk
       Contact: DCMS Commercial
       Main Address: www.gov.uk/dcms, Address of the buyer profile: www.gov.uk/dcms
       NUTS Code: UKI

   I.2) Joint procurement:
      The contract involves joint procurement: No          
      In the case of joint procurement involving different countries, state applicable national procurement law: Not Provided
      The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body: No

   I.4)Type of the contracting authority:
      Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions

   I.5) Main activity:
      Recreation, culture and religion

Section II: Object Of The Contract

   II.1) Scope of the procurement

      II.1.1) Title: Technical analysis and comparison of approaches to bias identification and mitigation in decision making algorithms            
      Reference number: 101579

      II.1.2) Main CPV code:
         73210000 - Research consultancy services.


      II.1.3) Type of contract: SERVICES

      II.1.4) Short description: With particular reference to approaches within financial services and recruitment, The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) is commissioning a piece of research analysing, assessing and comparing the various approaches to bias mitigation as well as providing detailed technical standards which could be used to identify bias and means for mitigating bias. We will use the outputs produced through this work to develop our recommendations for Government themed around the areas of tools, data and governance which will be published in March 2020. We will provide an initial list of tools and approaches to guide the assessment and standards development, however further work will be needed to ensure this has sufficient coverage to capture all the key approaches available. The focus of our work in this space is financial services and recruitment. Therefore, we would expect this work to provide good coverage and analysis of tools that are explicitly aimed at these two sectors.

      II.1.6) Information about lots
         This contract is divided into lots: No
            
      II.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
          Value: 125,000
                  
         Currency:GBP            

   II.2) Description

      II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s):
            73110000 - Research services.


      II.2.3) Place of performance
      Nuts code:
      UKI - LONDON
   
      Main site or place of performance:
      LONDON
             

      II.2.4) Description of the procurement: With particular reference to approaches within financial services and recruitment, The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) is commissioning a piece of research analysing, assessing and comparing the various approaches to bias mitigation as well as providing detailed technical standards which could be used to identify bias and means for mitigating bias. We will use the outputs produced through this work to develop our recommendations for Government themed around the areas of tools, data and governance which will be published in March 2020.
We will provide an initial list of tools and approaches to guide the assessment and standards development, however further work will be needed to ensure this has sufficient coverage to capture all the key approaches available.
The focus of our work in this space is financial services and recruitment. Therefore, we would expect this work to provide good coverage and analysis of tools that are explicitly aimed at these two sectors. However, we would also want tools included which had a more general applicability. Throughout the analysis, we would expect commentary on how these approaches may differ depending on the sector in which they are applied.
Drawing on the comparison and overall assessment of tools, the Supplier should then provide separate detailed technical standards for analytical products or services, which are used to identify bias and means for mitigating bias. We would expect these standards to take into account the different decision-making contexts that bias may occur in, specifically in relation to financial services and recruitment.

      II.2.5) Award criteria:
      Quality criterion - Name: Skills, expertise and capacity / Weighting: 20
      Quality criterion - Name: Methodology / Weighting: 30
      Quality criterion - Name: Data Protection / Weighting: 5
      Quality criterion - Name: Understanding of the sector / Weighting: 15
                  
      Cost criterion - Name: Pricing / Weighting: 30
            

      II.2.11) Information about options
         Options: No
         

      II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
         The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
         

      II.2.14) Additional information: Not Provided


Section IV: Procedure

IV.1) Description

   IV.1.1)Type of procedure: Open


   IV.1.3) Information about a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system
      The procurement involves the establishment of a framework agreement: No       
      

   IV.1.6) Information about electronic auction
      An electronic auction has been used: No

   IV.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
      The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes

IV.2) Administrative information

   IV.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
       Notice number in the OJEU: 2019/S 188-457444
      
   

   IV.2.9) Information about termination of call for competition in the form of a prior information notice
      The contracting authority will not award any further contracts based on the above prior information notice: No

Section V: Award of contract

Award Of Contract (No.1)

   Contract No: 101579    
   Lot Number: Not Provided    
   Title: Not Provided

   A contract/lot is awarded: Yes


   V.2) Award of contract

      V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract: 19/03/2020

      V.2.2) Information about tenders
         Number of tenders received: 4
         Number of tenders received from SMEs: Not Provided          
         Number of tenders received from tenderers from other EU Member States: 0          
         Number of tenders received from tenderers from non-EU Member States: 0          
         Number of tenders received by electronic means: 4

      V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor

      The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
         
         Contractor (No.1)
             Faculty Science Ltd, 08873131
             54 Welbeck Street, London, W1G 9XS, United Kingdom
             Internet address: https://faculty.ai/
             NUTS Code: UKI
            The contractor is an SME: Yes

      V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
         Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot: 125,000          
         Total value of the contract/lot: 125,000
         Currency: GBP

      V.2.5) Information about subcontracting
         The contract is likely to be subcontracted: No
         
Section VI: Complementary information

   VI.3) Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.

Tenders must be submitted via the Delta e-sourcing portal to be received no later than 12:00hrs (BST), 25th October 2019 (the deadline for receipt of Tender Responses). Please ensure that you allow yourself plenty of time when responding to this invite prior to the closing date and time, especially if you have been asked to upload documents.
To view this notice, please click here:
https://www.delta-esourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=483737790

   VI.4) Procedures for review

      VI.4.1) Review body
          Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
          100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ, United Kingdom
          Tel. +44 2072116000, Email: commercial@culture.gov.uk

      VI.4.3) Review procedure
         Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures: Not Provided

      VI.4.4) Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained
         Not Provided

   VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice: 23/03/2020