TERMS OF REFERENCE

0. ABSTRACT

Energy Cities is looking for a service provider to establish a three-year framework contract (2025-2028) for the design, development and maintenance of e-learning content hosted on several virtual learning environment (amongst which its own environment called “LTLC – Local Transitions Learning Centre”, currently based on Moodle) and developed with different authoring tools.

The appointed provider should ensure the constant update of all the software and plugins, the security of the e-learning platform, and its compliance with the GDPR. Besides, it should also support Energy Cities and its project partners, in designing, developing and rolling out e-learning content by: providing training on LMS, authoring tools and accessibility principles; advising on instructional design strategies; developing courses and courseware with different authoring tools; uploading courses on the LTLC platform as well as on third platforms that might not be using Moodle; providing technical support during the rolling out phase of the courses; and eventually by designing reporting systems on the courses to monitor learners’ engagement.

The intent of this framework contract is to agree on basic tariffs to realise the e-learning-related services (as defined in this “terms of reference”) for Energy Cities projects and initiatives without going every time for a competitive selection process. During the framework contract duration, whenever there is a need, Energy Cities will formulate a “request for proposal” (or “bon de commande”) and the appointed provider will provide the service, referring to the agreed tariffs. An invoice shall be issued for each service performed.

How to apply: send your offer to ermete.mariani@energy-cities.eu

Deadline: 23^rd May 2025, 6pm

Contract period: 01^st June 2025 to 31^st of May 2028

1. About Energy Cities

Energy Cities is a learning community for cities engaged in future proofing their economies, built around a “local & sustainable first” approach. Our members are diverse cities. There are no conditions to join other than the ambition and the commitment to share experiences. Our strength lies in our members’ strong commitment to reach climate neutrality in their territories by 2050 and to align their local strategic development with the Paris Agreement.

We are an NGO ruled by French law, and we represent more than 2000 municipalities.

Building a learning community is a tool that helps each of our members feel more confident in their own transition journey, because other cities have done it before, or because cities can test new solutions together. We foster an atmosphere of mutual trust in the dialogue between citizens, local leaders and EU & national institutions in order to accelerate the transformation towards a climate-neutral Europe. Energy Cities energises this vibrant community and ensures its visibility.

In 2023 Energy Cities developed its own virtual learning environment “Local Transitions Learning Centre: Empowering leaders. Connecting communities. Future-proofing cities” that is meant to host learning opportunities developed in the framework of EU-funded projects or of its own institutional activities.

//_ Energy Cities contact details

Ermete Mariani

Project Manager #Learning Program

Ermete.mariani@energy-cities.eu

Headquarter

4 chemin du fort de Bregille 25000 Besançon, France

Phone: +33 (0)3 81 65 36 80

https://energy-cities.eu

2. Energy Cities e-learning activities 2025-2028

Energy Cities has always been very much engaged in capacity building activities and since May 2023 it has been specialising in the production of e-learning opportunities hosted in its own e-learning space, the Local Transitions Learning Centre (LTLC). Energy Cities is engaged in producing learning opportunities (on-line, in-person, hybrid and blended) respecting the basic values of openness, accessibility and inclusivity. Besides, the learning and capacity development activities are non-commercial ones, and mainly dedicated to local authorities, municipal and regional agencies for the climate and energy transitions, and consultancy agencies.

For the period from 2025 to 2028 it foresees an increase in the production of e-learning activities in the framework of EU-funded projects and tenders in partnership with other organisations in several European languages (and alphabets). More specifically, Energy Cities is in charge of developing and coordinating digital learning opportunities for the following projects: Shine (funded by LIFE ENERCOM), EU Forum for boosting energy efficient behaviour (DG Energy), Prospect Cube (LIFE Programme), CoM East (DG Near), LIFE EUCF

(LIFE Programme), Energy Communities (ECF – European Climate Foundation), Climaborough (Horizon 2020), SUN4Ukraine (Horizon), ENERCOM (LIFE Programme), Sparkle (LIFE Programme), and SHAPE II (DG Energy).

Currently the courses are hosted on the LTLC platform managed by Energy Cities via a third service provider and under Moodle. However, in perspective, Energy Cities foresees to produce courses that will be hosted by third parties running with other Learning Management System – LMS than Moodle.

LTLC website

https://localtransitionslearning.eu

3. Scope of the framework contract

Energy Cities is looking for a service provider specialised in e-learning activities capable of covering the following services:

3.1 Creating and maintaining a test environment

• A fully operational learning environment to give the possibility to Energy Cities team and its partners to test some activities and technological solutions. This environment should be fully hosted and managed by the appointed provider, and it is not meant to host real courses with real students and teachers, but just to test solutions that will successively be transferred into the production site.
• This test environment should be active for the whole duration of the framework contract.

3.2 Maintenance of the LMS and its plugin, and technical support

• Making sure that the LTLC LMS and all the plugins are updated to the latest stable version to ensure the greater security and performance of the learning experience.
• Assuring technical assistance for the whole duration of the framework contract to cover issues relative to all the plugins, tools and software used in all the courses hosted in the LTLC.
• Technical assistance, maintenance and updates are limited to the courses hosted on the LTLC platform for the whole duration of the contract.

3.3 Developing courseware in line with the project visual identity

• Integrating the visual identity of a project/initiative into a course’s educational resources such as: documents, Power Point presentation, infographics, video lessons, etc…
• Design and development of ad-hoc multimedia, animated and/or graphic materials to be integrated into the educational materials and/or into the pre-enrolment and enrolled course’s page.
• Customizations and/or design of Moodle themes to better adopt the projects’ visual identity and to improve the learning experience of some specific learning opportunities.

3.4 Design, development and customization of plugins and add-in

Design and development of plugins and/or customization of existing ones might be needed to satisfy specific requirements of a learning opportunity such as:

• setting personal learning goals and reminders in a specific course to keep a certain rhythm in the progression,
• facilitating the exchanges between mentors and mentees and to share a common program throughout a wider mentorship scheme,
• facilitating Community of Practices via live classrooms, collaborative teamwork, and the development of project portfolio.

3.5 Setting up of courses and upload of educational resources

• Creation (and customisation if needed) of course pages and the pre-enrolment/public page of every course with the main features and contents provided by the trainers and instructors.
• Uploading of the educational resources and interactive contents relative to a course and setting the restriction criteria to access the different activities and to obtain badges and certificates
• Advising, checking and improving the accessibility of the educational resources and the course itself, in some cases training the instructors on accessibility principles might be required.

3.6 Training on LMS, authoring tools and accessibility

• On specific occasions Energy Cities might need ad hoc training for its own staff and/or its project partners on Moodle, some authoring tools such as H5P, Genially, and others, as well as on how to apply accessibility principles in the design and development of courses and educational resources.

4. Implementation of the framework contract

Whenever Energy Cities wants to request services, it will send a detailed “request for proposal” by e-mail to the awarded service provider.

Within ten (10) working days of the request/order for services being sent, the awarded service provider shall express to Energy Cities in writing, by e-mail, their availability to carry out the services and provide a quote, estimating the workload and the price for the requested services

Within seven (7) working days of an order or specific contract being sent by Energy Cities to the supplier, Energy Cities shall receive it back duly signed and dated. The period allowed for the execution of the tasks shall start to run on the date the supplier signs the Specific contract, unless a different date is indicated on the specific contract.

5. General requirements

• As Energy Cities is always interested in delivering products of the highest quality, the vendor is requested to present any suggestions or comments on how to improve the course design as well as the presentation of content through dynamic tools, interactive concept maps, functionality and/or aesthetic touches.
• All materials developed or included in the online learning program will be under Creative Commons and the contents under the Open Education Resources conditions except for third party materials and otherwise stated. All source materials for the developed products must be delivered to the project sponsor upon completion of the project.
• Energy Cities is strongly committed in sustainability, and we appreciate to work with partners and external services providers who share our same values and engagements.
• LTLC learning environment is hosted on server directly hired by Energy Cities and managed by a third company, so the appointed provider is sharing the responsibility of the GDPR compliance and security with the organisation in charge of the management of the server hosting the services.
• The selected provider will act as a “sub data processor”, and in this capacity it should actively contribute to the security of the system and set up best practices to manage data according to the GDPR regulation as interpreted in the French legal system.

6. Contract period

Starting date of the assignment: 1^st June 2025 Finishing date of the assignment: 31^st May 2028

7. Who should apply

The tender is open to companies and organisations who has the following characteristics:

• The appointed provider appointee’s team must be comprised of qualified experts, with a demonstrated track record in developing quality online learning platform. Overall experience of firm should be more than 5 years;
• It is expected that the team have experience developing online learning projects with Moodle as well as other LMS and in implementing accessibility measures and best practices in the design of the e-learning platform.

8. How to apply

Offers should include:

8.1 CVs of relevant staff members(s) who will directly design, develop implement and maintain the e-learning platform;

8.2 reference projects and examples of past work and experiences proving the capacity to fulfil the ToR are required and should be included in the proposal;

8.3 a document presenting a set of recommended actions that the appointed provider should offer to the client to make the e-learning platform accessible as defined by the European Commission in the “Web Accessibility Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/2102)”;

8.4 a document presenting the engagement of the bidder in measuring, reducing and/or compensating for the environmental footprint;

8.5 all-inclusive daily rates and total costs of different professional figures needed to execute the tasks defined in chapter 3. The professional figures are the following with an indicative number of days needed per year.

		Analysis & Design	Programming & Graphic Design	Learning Content Delivery	Technical Assistance	Advisory Activities
	Days per year*
BUSINESS ANALYST	5	X				X
LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER	15		X		X	X
INSTRUCTION AL DESIGNER	10			X
WEB & LEARNING CONTENT SPECIALIST	45		X	X		X
GRAPHIC DESIGNER	15	X	X
TRAINER	5					X

Deadline for receipt of offers: 23^rd May 2025, 6pm

Applications should be sent in English by mail to: ermete.mariani@energy-cities.eu

9. Selection Criteria

Scores for this call will be evaluated in accordance with the best value for money principle and according to the following:

COMPONENT	CRITERIA	WEIGHTING
Capacity of fulfilling the technical requirements of the ToR	8.1 CVs of relevant staff members(s) who will directly design, develop, implement and maintain the e-learning platform	20%
	8.2 Portfolio of reference projects and examples of past work and experiences proving the capacity to fulfil the ToR are required and should be included in the proposal	30%
Accessibility	8.3 A document presenting a set of recommend actions that should be implemented by the appointed provider to make the e-learning platform accessible	10%
Sustainability	8.4 A document presenting the engagement of the bidder in measuring, reducing and compensating for the environmental footprint	10%
Economic offer	8.5 A detailed financial offer for the implementation of the tasks	30%

Scoring methodology for the quality components will be as follows:

0	1-2	3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10
Unacceptable	Poor	Inadequate	Satisfactory	Good	Excellent
The information is either omitted or fundamentally unacceptable to evaluating officers	The information submitted has major omissions or does not demonstrate compliance with requirements	The information submitted has some omissions or demonstrates only limited compliance with requirements	The information submitted meets requirements in demonstrating compliance with requirements	The information submitted provides strong evidence of compliance with requirements	The information submitted meets all expectations and/or exceeds them; and provides strong evidence of compliance with requirements to a very high standard

Price will be evaluated with the lowest VAT-inclusive price scoring 30%, and other bids scored using the following formula:

(Lowest total VAT-inclusive cost) divided by (your total cost) multiplied by 10 (highest score).

The offer should be with prices quoted in EUR and must be presented in the following format:

Description	Unit: yearly / daily cost	Total days/ years	Total cost
Creation and maintenance of a test environment		3 years
Maintenance, technical assistance and “sub data processor” for the LTLC		3 years
Business analyst		15 (days/ 3 years)
Lead software engineer		45 (days/ 3 years)
Instructional designer		30 (days/ 3 years)
Web & learning content specialist		135 (days/ 3 years)
Graphic designer		45 (days/ 3 years)
Trainer		15 (days/ 3 years)
TOTAL

The total price must include all costs and expenditure incurred directly and indirectly by the contractor in performing the tasks.

N.B. Energy Cities reserves the right of asking further clarification to the bidder who will submit an offer more than 20% lower of the second lowest offer received.

10. The debriefing

Both successful and unsuccessful contractors who wish to have the opportunity of debriefing should contact Ermete Mariani (ermete.mariani@energy-cities.eu) after award of the contract.