Call for input: Procuring citizen participation and deliberation services to support European Commission ambition for greater citizen engagement with policy

The European Commission’s Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (JRC) is seeking input from experienced organisations and services providers of citizen participation and deliberation services.

Received contributions will be analysed to map available relevant expertise across the EU, and will help determine the scope of a potential framework contract for the provision of such services.

To support a growing number of initiatives under the European Commission’s priority for a new push for the European democracy the JRC is currently considering a framework contract for the provision of citizen participation and deliberation services.

In particular, the primary objective of such a framework contract would be to provide a full spectrum of services to cover the conceptualisation, preparation and implementation of citizen participation and deliberation activities and formats, implemented in close collaboration with the European Commission.

This includes different geographical scales from local and regional through to multi-country activities.

Further details on the scope of the potential framework contract is available on the prior information notice (eTendering website) for all interested parties.

In addition, all interested service providers, and particularly those with considerable relevant expertise and practical experience in the field of citizen participation and deliberation, are invited to respond directly to an anonymous survey before 17 September 2021.

Our preliminary analysis indicates that major capacities that such a framework contract could offer as complete service package, include (without being limited to):

• Developing various methodologies to perform participant recruitment in accordance to pre-specified criteria;
• The recruitment, and interaction with, skilled facilitator teams in Member States;
• Group facilitation (in-person, online, or hybrid group interactions);
• The planning, management and evaluation of in-person, online and/or hybrid participatory formats, including relevant logistical, audiovisual, and other technical support;
• The selection, adaptation and evaluation of participatory methodologies and processes, their design, implementation and monitoring;
• Recording, transcribing and analytical processing of deliberative proceedings;
• Performing research on policy-relevant themes, as well as stock-taking analysis and situational analysis;
• Preparing and delivering high-quality analytical and technical reports;
• Aggregating insights and knowledge from participatory proceedings, etc.