Study to Define the Scope and Framework for Maryland’s Long-Term Innovation Competitiveness Strategy – Request for Proposals

ABOUT

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (“TEDCO”) is seeking services from a qualified firm (“Firm”) that can collect data, perform analyses, and generate a final report on several specific areas associated with the impact of Maryland’s current economic development strategy or actions, especially as it applies to ensuring Maryland’s long-term leadership in building an inclusive, advanced, technology-based, innovation and entrepreneurial culture across the State.

The goal of this RFP is to receive proposals from potential Firms, to evaluate those submittals, and to select the Firm best suited to provide the Services. The Firm will deliver the final written report to TEDCO by December 30, 2022.

All information included in this RFP is considered confidential and intended only for use by responders. No information included in this document, or in discussions related to TEDCO’s Firm selection efforts, may be disclosed to another party or used for any other purpose without TEDCO’s express written consent.

Minority business enterprises, as defined in Section 14-301(f) of the State Finance and Procurement Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, are encouraged to respond to this RFP.

Key Dates

View RFP

Deadline: August 1, 2022 at 5:00 PM

Q&A

It is our understanding that stakeholder engagement has already been performed as part of the process to create TEDCO's Strategic Plan T³IME for Maryland. That being said, do you expect limited stakeholder engagement in the form of a number of roundtable discussions to take place? Despite the study being primarily quantitative, we would find value in meeting with industry leaders and gathering qualitative insights.

The TEDCO Strategic Plan, T³IME for Maryland, was developed with a specific focus on TEDCO and its role in supporting the innovation economy in Maryland over the next five to ten years.  As part of this effort, TEDCO did interview TEDCO’s stakeholders as part of its process.  The published report is all that is currently available.  Background information is available in the ‘References’ section.  Please understand that the focus of the study described in the RFP is much broader in scope – the State of Maryland’s innovation ecosystem – and not just TEDCO’s role in it.  Moreover, the results of the study described in the RFP will be used to initiate a strategic planning effort for the State with a scope of 10 – 25 years.

Various studies have already been conducted on the Maryland innovation ecosystem and associated reports are available to the public.  We expect that the selected firm will identify and analyze these reports, other relevant reports with a national scope, and other publicly-available data as an initial step in their data collection process and use this data to address the questions identified in the RFP.  While we do not necessarily expect stakeholder engagement in the form of roundtable discussions, we leave it up to the responding firm to propose the best way to address all the questions identified in the RFP.

Do you expect the study to include recommendations based on the research? If so, would these be considered as revisions to the Strategic Plan?

Several of the Study Requirements listed in Exhibit A include recommendations, so there is an expectation that recommendations based on the research will be included in the final study report.  

These recommendations will not be considered revisions to TEDCO’s current strategic plan but could influence its evolution in future years.  As stated above, the scope of the study described in the RFP is broader than TEDCO’s strategic plan.

We have been able to access the TEDCO Strategy Brief but not the detailed Strategic Plan. If you are able to share it, we would very much appreciate that.

As mentioned above, the TEDCO Strategic Plan, T³IME for Maryland, is all the documentation that is available.  The Plan contains several references that might be useful.

Along with minority business enterprises, are Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses encouraged to respond to TEDCO’s RFP under the State Code of Maryland?

TEDCO is by law exempt from Division II of the State Finance & Procurement Article ("MD General Procurement Law"), so the procurement provisions of the MD Code generally do not apply to this RFA. Procurements which are subject to the MD General Procurement Law do include a preference for veteran-owned and disabled veteran-owned small businesses- see Sections 14-206 and 14-601-606 of the State Finance & Procurement Article of the MD Code. In any event, TEDCO strives to ensure full and open competition, and welcomes and encourages disabled veteran-owned small businesses to respond to this RFA, although no percentage preferences are established since, as noted, the MD General Procurement Law does not pertain to this RFA. 

Can you please confirm that the terms and conditions in Exhibit B: TEDCO Procurement Contract Standard Terms and Conditions are subject to negotiation, including section 12. Ownership of Documents, Equipment, and Materials?

TEDCO works to ensure that: (i) a level playing field is maintained for all contractors; and (i) State-required provisions are included in its procurements. As a result, the terms and conditions of its Procurement Contracts are provided to potential contractors in advance, and are generally not negotiable. Nevertheless, requests for subtle revisions are entertained to the extent necessary to accommodate the reasonable concerns of vendors who raise legitimate issues regarding terms such as those addressed in Section 12.