GovWire

How to sell to or work with us via R-Cloud

1. Register in R-Cloud

Register in R-Cloud and select the capabilities and skills relevant to your organisation. Your application must be submitted on behalf of the legal contracting entity that proposes to contract with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) - and not a parent company, for example.

Your application will include your hourly maximum rates against each role. If this is 0, your application will be rejected.

You can upload supporting information. If youre a new start-up, for example, you can use this section to explain the current financial position.

The mandatory fields in the financial data section currently have a maximum limit of 10 characters. If you need more characters, please input 0 to these fields and upload the information via the supporting information section.

2. Receive application approval (creates a binding agreement with MOD)

If your application is unsuccessful for any reason youll receive feedback and have the option to re-apply.

Due to the diversity of suppliers in R-Cloud, completion of the technical narrative is flexible. This gives you scope to demonstrate your capabilities and experience in the way that best suits your organisation - you must provide clear evidence of capability and experience.

You dont need to complete an individual technical narrative for every research area you apply for.

3. Tasking

Youll receive a notification from R-Cloud when theres a capability skills match to requirements (tasks). Only the requirements that match your capabilities or skills will be pushed to you for consideration.

R-Cloud provides all the information you need to respond to the opportunity (including the tasking form or statement of requirement).

4. Clarification questions

Send clarification questions to the buyer for response via R-Cloud only.

5. Evaluated against published evaluation criteria

All bids presented in R-Cloud are evaluated against the published evaluation criteria.

6. Awarding a contract

All R-Cloud processes are completed in R-Cloud. This includes contract award which is an electronic acceptance notice. When buyers award a contract in R-Cloud, theyll provide the following:

• purchase order number
• feedback to the successful supplier
• any other relevant documents to be uploaded as part of the contract that are not already linked to the task (for example, clarification questions and responses, completed Limitation of Contractors Liability (LoCL) Annex)

If unsuccessful, youll receive a notification and feedback if you who want it. Contact the buyer for feedback as soon as possible using the email address provided on the R-Cloud tasking form.

R-Cloud policy and process

The following is a quick reference guide. Its not an exhaustive list. And so please review the R-Cloud Terms and Conditions in full before you apply and participate in tasking.

Sub-contracting

Suppliers must notify the authority of any intended sub-contracting in advance and get express approval before entering into any sub-contract (RCloud (Version 4) Terms and Conditions (clause 12.8)).

The provisions of R-Cloud (Version 4) Terms and Conditions (annex to schedule S3-3: cyber security) must be included in any relevant sub-contract.

R-Cloud and R-Cloud+ contracts must not be sub-contracted above a 50% contract value. This is to support SME engagement.

If a waiver to the 50% limit is needed, contact the buyer before the response deadline.

Limitation of Contractors Liability (LoCL)

The process for managing LoCL in R-Cloud is set out in the R-Cloud (Version 4) Terms and Conditions (schedule 3, clause 23).

Any request to include a cap on liability under an R-Cloud tasking procedure must be:

• submitted at the earliest opportunity and before the deadline for responses under the relevant tasking procedure, with sufficient time allowed for the authority to consider the request - buyers can state a deadline for any requests within the tasking form (the request must be submitted prior to the deadline)

• accompanied by a suitable risk assessment (evidence to support the request must be provided, to allow the authority to conduct a realistic and robust risk assessment and understand the potential financial liability being passed from the supplier to the authority) - the request must demonstrate that its reasonable for the authority to limit their liability against any proposed risk(s) and the authority must be satisfied that its value for money to do so

Acceptance of any request to limit liability is strictly at the discretion of the authority.

You must not include any unapproved liability cap within your response. If you do, your response could be rejected as non-compliant with the R-Cloud process.

Social value

When you join R-Cloud, you agree to identify potential social value benefits for a tasking procedure (R-Cloud (Version 4) Terms and Conditions (clause 4.8)).

You should provide any assessment of social value benefits to the buyer as part of a response or as otherwise requested.

Security in R-Cloud

Sharing information via R-Cloud

R-Cloud can be used to place tasks at any classification, but it must only be used to share information up to OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE (OS). Information classified above OS must be shared outside R-Cloud, in compliance with MOD commercial policy on the protection of information.

If you intend to share information classified above OS, you should contact the buyer for guidance.

Cyber risk assessment

A cyber risk assessment will be conducted for every contract or task placed under the R-Cloud terms. Suppliers might also have to complete a security assurance questionnaire as part of a tasking procedure.

The cyber risk level and cyber risk assessment reference (if applicable) will be included in the tasking form (part A).

Guidance will be in the tasking form, but the Defence Cyber Protection Partnership also provides further information.

The following information is guidance on security in R-Cloud, but this is not exhaustive and so suppliers must ensure that all necessary steps are taken to ensure the security of MOD data and information.

Details of the information security notices that apply when working with MOD are on GOV.UK.

Contact the relevant buyer if you have any further questions on any aspect of security that applies to an R-Cloud tasking procurement or contract.

Get further information on contractual process: placing contracts or releasing assets, and Subcontracting or Collaborating on Classified UK MOD Programmes.

Issues and updates

Login issues

Both username and password are case sensitive on R-Cloud. If entered incorrectly, you wont be able to access R-Cloud or receive password reset emails. (Were currently working on this issue.)

If passwords need to be updated manually, please em

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