Tender Advertisement #1557444

Purpose
Austroads seeks responses from appropriately experienced service providers to explore options to better assess alignment of transport projects with net zero objectives at the strategic stage, and to develop clear guidance to enable agencies to make these assessments.

Objective:
This project will guide members to:
• Facilitate consideration of net zero alignment during the strategic assessment of proposed transport projects.
• Assess the eligibility of transport infrastructure projects for sustainable finance and set targets & KPIs for the ratio of investment in net zero aligned transport infrastructure.
• Encourage a harmonised approach to assessment of net zero alignment.

Deliverables:
This project will produce the following deliverables:
• Detailed Project Plan including proposed report structure and stakeholder engagement approach
• Project Data Management Plan
• Project Synopsis including structure of the report and introduction
• Research Report including the methodology and guidance
• Concept Tool that can be used by Austroads members
• Presentation of a webinar on the findings, with published presentational materials.

Also included as part of this tender are the following documents:
• Master Services Agreement outlining our Terms and Conditions. Please note that our Terms and Conditions are not negotiable.

All submissions that are research project based must adhere to the Austroads style requirements and the Australian Government Style Manual

Summary of Austroads Publication Requirements for Research Reports:
Consultants engaged to deliver research reports for Austroads are required to use a standard report template designed to ensure clarity, consistency, and accessibility across all published outputs. While the full template will be provided upon contract commencement, the following outlines the key requirements tenderers should be aware of:

General Formatting and Style
• Reports must follow the Australian Government Style Manual, particularly in relation to:
o Inclusive and accessible language
o Grammar, punctuation, and capitalisation (e.g. sentence case for most headings)
o Referencing and attribution
• Use pre-defined Austroads styles for all headings, body text, tables, figures, and captions. Manual formatting (e.g. changing fonts or colours directly) is not permitted.
• The Table of Contents must be auto-generated and kept updated.
• The report should be:
o Logically structured: Each section must contribute to the report's purpose.
o Consistent: No conflicting information or contradictions.
o Thorough: All aspects of the agreed scope must be fully addressed and justified.
Content Development Guidelines
• The Summary and Section 1 (Introduction) are mandatory for all reports.
• Reports must include appropriate referencing for external sources, data, and studies.
• Any copyrighted material used must have documented permission and be properly acknowledged.
• A qualified editor must review the report before submission to ensure correct grammar, spelling, and readability.
Figures and Tables
• All figures and tables must:
o Be sequentially numbered
o Include a clear caption inserted using the Microsoft Word Insert Caption tool
• Images and diagrams must be clear, relevant, and referred to in the text.
Technical Details
• Specific instructions are included for each section within the template (e.g. expected content, structure, and formatting).
• Reports must avoid "style corruption" often caused by copying and pasting formatted text—authors must verify styles remain consistent with Austroads' format.
• Reports should be reviewed to ensure there is no duplication, ambiguity, or omission of scope elements.

All submissions are to be submitted as a PDF at a maximum size of 10MB.

All submissions are to include a completed Tender Proposal Coversheet.

The naming convention for submissions is: [your Company name] – [Project No.] – [any internal reference numbers].