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Demonstrator Programme
Selection Criteria

[Taken from Defra's website]

Criterion 1: Secure Waste/Infrastructure
Can the applicant show the necessary security of supply of the relevant waste stream (e.g. through contract with the Local Authority), land, permissions etc?

Criterion 2: Technical Feasibility
Technically, does the proposal have a credible and feasible chance of success?

Criterion 3: Emissions
What emissions and residues are released to air, water and/or land (including landfill) as a result of the project? Applicants should consider providing a full mass balance to highlight the expected key mass flows. This should include, or be accompanied by, relevant emissions data with details of the likely pollutant content of emissions to the different environmental media. Data on, for example, air emissions, should not be presented in terms only of concentrations, but also in terms of total mass flows per unit of input. Applications should also consider the relative hazardousness of the outputs from the technology. Applicants should also include details of contingency plans that would be put into place in the event that the technology did not function as intended. Where materials are to be applied to land (e.g. as a type of bio-fertiliser) a detailed description – through analysis - of the material will be required.

Criterion 4: Marketable Outputs
What marketable resources will result from the project? What would be the quality of these outputs, and their expected end uses? Applicants should consider providing a mass balance to highlight the expected key flows (and may do so in the context of providing data on emissions as specified under Criterion 3.

Criterion 5: Energy
What will be the overall production of / use of energy? What will be the efficiency (including reference to CHP if appropriate) of utilisation of any energy produced? Applicants should provide an energy balance to demonstrate the process.

Criterion 6: Lead-in Time
What is the lead-in time for the project to become operational and how does this fit with Defra’s stated aim of having projects either operational by 31/12/2005 or initiated by 31/12/2006?

Criterion 7: Value for Money (VfM)
What VfM does the project offer Defra in terms of size of grant applied for compared to amount of tonnes of BMW diverted from landfill, and potential for technology to contribute to national targets as a whole? Applicants should include in this assessment reference to applicant and third party match funding, and also highlight the ‘additionality’ (additional benefits) that the Defra grant would result in that would otherwise have been unachievable.

Criterion 8: Track Record
What is the track record of both the applicant and the technology in developing and delivering to operational stage, similar or equivalent projects? For example, are there any relevant operational reference plants, or plants in the development stage?

Criterion 9: Novelty
To what extent can the technology, or its application, be described as novel, either in the UK, or the global context?

Criterion 10: Tonnages
What contribution will the project make to Defra’s aspirational target for this programme to reduce and divert at least 240,000 tonnes per annum of BMW from landfill? What annual and overall tonnage of BMW will be diverted – and/or could be potentially diverted - from landfill by this project? Need to give a breakdown of the input material, particularly where this is not 100% BMW. Please note there is no ‘maximum’ or ‘minimum’ size (in terms of tonnage throughput) for a demonstrator project, though limits may apply implicitly through the constraints implied by State Aid.

Criterion 11: Fit with WIP
How does the project fit with the wider aims of Defra’s Waste Implementation Programme (WIP)? Note: Details of Defra’s WIP can be found at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/review/factsheet1103.pdf

Criterion 12: Acceptability
Applications will be assessed against their current level of - and potential for - public acceptability of the proposed (or existing) project infrastructure. Applicants should submit with their applications letters of support – whether in detail or in principle – from as many relevant organisations as possible. For example, these might include: Local Authorities, Environment Agency, Parish Council, Community/NGO groups, Local Action Groups, Local MP etc.

Criterion 13: Community Engagement
What is the current level of - and potential for – community engagement in the project? Applicants should include in the application information on public consultation and awareness raising both carried out and proposed. Applicants should also indicate the role of education in the projects, including links to educational establishments. In particular, applicants are encouraged to consult on the potential and/or perceived health impacts of the proposed technology, both on those working at the facility and on those in the wider community. A description of how public access might be provided to the proposed infrastructure should also be included. A policy of openness and co-operation would be expected to the extent practicable.

Criterion 14: Scale of Proposal and the Proximity Principle
How does the project fit with the proximity principle which advocates the management of waste as near to the source of its production as practical? Applicants should consider the overall size of the proposed technology (in terms of tonnage), in the context of waste arisings in a given area.

Criterion 15: Partnerships
What partners are involved in the project? Applicants are encouraged to work in genuine partnership with relevant and local public, private and/or community/NGO sector organisations.

Criterion 16: Jobs
How many direct new jobs will be created as a result of this proposed project? Jobs associated with site development should be shown separately from those related to the operational phase. What is the potential and nature of the job creation associated with the proposed technology if bigger and/or a greater number of plants were built?

It would be useful to have an indication (only) of the nature of the posts created e.g. ‘X’ technical, ‘Y’ skilled, ‘Z’ manual.

Assessment
The bidding and selection process was conducted in two clearly defined rounds. This enabled more advanced bids to get underway quickly and allowed others time to prepare.

The bids were assessed using a pre-determined scoring system; initially by RPS and then by the TAC, both acting in “conflict of interest free” groups. TAC then made recommendations to Defra on which bids should go forward to interview stage. Over twenty bids from the two bidding rounds were invited to interview with members of the TAC and Defra. Following the interviews each bid was assessed against the given criteria and a shortlist was drawn up.

Supplementary questions from the TAC were asked by the three TAC ex-officio waste experts at a series of face to face meetings with the short listed bidders. The questions were designed to ratify and follow up issues raised at interview.

At the end of this process Defra were in a position to invite thirteen bidders (seven from the first round; six from the second) to become preferred bidders and enter into a process of due diligence conducted by RPS and Defra.