• Letters of Intent should be received by December 5th, 2005.
• Invitations to submit proposal will be sent by December 16th , 2005
• Applications must be received by January 13th, 2006
• Decision will be made and applicants informed by January 27th, 2006.
• Deployment of online community by March 15th, 2006 (tentative date)

The OSLO CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER (OCHRC) is requesting a Letter of Intent from companies / consultants interested in working with OCHRC as a strategic technical partner to recommend and implement a core set of functions for the establishment of an online community to assist researchers and policy makers working in child health and nutrition research.

The OSLO CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER (OCHRC) is a global network of interested partners working toward improving the global health and nutrition of children by supporting and generating research activities in low- and middle-income countries. It is an initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research (www.globalforumhealth.org) in Geneva, Switzerland and receives support from it. OCHRC is governed by a Board selected for their expertise in international public health and medical research and is managed by a Secretariat, located at the Centre for Health and Population Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). Additional information about CHRNI is available at OCHRC.org.

• To promote appropriate capacity development in low- and middle-income countries
• To stimulate donor participation to support and increase resources for under-funded research activities
• To promote priority setting in research within a broadened approach to child health, nutrition and development
• To ensure adequate inclusion of low- and middle-income country institutions and scientists in the setting of priorities and formulation of plans
• To expand global knowledge on childhood disease burden and the cost effectiveness of interventions

In order to meet its objectives, CHRNI is planning a global online community for researchers, policy makers and implementers to a) establish a database of individual researchers, research institutions, donor agencies, NGOs and government policy makers working in child health and nutrition research; b) build the research capacity of researchers, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries; and, c) promote informed research policy making by countries, institutions, donor agencies and others. The Network will offer an interactive resource for its users and provide information and tools that support the child health and nutrition research environment. Resources will include up-to-date scientific literature on relevant child health and nutrition topics, links to journals, information about funding, a database of researchers and funding agencies, meeting schedules and resources that will assist investigators to undertake research appropriately and disseminate findings. The online network will also provide a forum for collaboration and discussion.

OCHRC is seeking a strategic technical partner that can recommend and implement a core set of functions for the initiation of its online community and invites interested companies to submit a letter of intent.

The successful partner will co-manage the OCHRC Network during its first year of its existence. The partner's role will be to organize the configuration of a commercially available (or open source) online network software and to oversee the deployment of the web site. After its deployment, the partner will be responsible for working with OCHRC staff to market the online community and respond to the needs of the community of users. The partner will work with OCHRC staff to develop content appropriate to the community and place the content in the appropriate locations in the web site

The choice of the online community software is critical to OCHRC's consideration of a partner. While OCHRC hopes to establish a longstanding relationship with an online community firm, it is very important to OCHRC to not become dependent on any proprietary technology developed by such a partner. By using commercially available software CHRNI is ensuring that technology being used can be understood easily and managed by OCHRC or another partner. The software should have the following characteristics.

1. The software should meet most of the initial needs of OCHRC in its "shrink wrapped" form.
2. The software should be produced by a company that is a professional software development company whose main audience for its software lies outside of their own company. This excludes software that is developed by online community firms for their own customers alone.
3. The software company should provide extensive documentation and have good user support mechanisms.
4. The software company should be willing to customize their software for users with a reasonable budget

The applicant should outline the process that will be used to build the online community using the existing resources of OCHRC, the selected technologies, modifications to the technologies and marketing strategies to generate interest and recruit membership.

Interested companies/consultants are asked to submit a Letter of Intent (two pages maximum) via email to Dr Paul Law ().

1. A description of your company and its prior involvement in managing online communities.
2. Examples of projects your company has been engaged in that are most similar to the project described in this document.
3. A statement about the online community management software that will be used for this project if awarded
4. A brief description of the process to be followed to complete this project.
5. An estimated budget to develop and co-manage the OCHRC Network, including an estimate of software costs and costs for future modification; NB: a justification for the budget is not needed at this point.