NDA estate supply chain awards
Applications closed open for the 2018 Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) Estate Supply Chain Awards on 5 September.
Launched in 2012, the awards are jointly sponsored by the NDA and its businesses.
Judges are keen to hear how technical innovation and collaborating with others in the supply chain have benefitted the way the NDA delivers its mission to decommission and clean up the UK’s civil nuclear legacy, as well as how the work has had a positive impact on communities and employees.
Another important consideration for the judges will be how suppliers have developed their people and invested in their future.
A brand new award for 2018 is ‘Best Approach to Ethical Practice or Social Responsibility’ that will recognise businesses working ethically, and/or delivering social and economic benefits.
Award winners will be announced on 1 November 2018 at the NDA Estate Supply Chain Event which is free to attend in Manchester.
Who can enter
Note: entries closed on 5 September 2018.
The awards are open to organisations working in the UK’s nuclear decommissioning supply chain.
Entries should be submitted by a member of the supplier’s organisation. Their contact details should appear on the entry form. Projects can include those outside the 2017 to 2018 financial year, however, judges will expect entries to be recent and to demonstrate business benefits already achieved.
Suppliers of all sizes are invited to enter the following categories:
- Best Technical Innovation to benefit an NDA Business
- Best Approach to Ethical Practice or Social Responsibility
- Best Supply Chain Collaboration
- Best People Strategy
- Best Export of a Product, Technology or Services
How to enter
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Choose your category or categories
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Write your submission(s) and gather up to 4 pages of supporting material
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Gain endorsement for your submission from your Site Licence Company (SLC) or NDA client
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Enclose a high-resolution version of your company logo and a team photo (or other appropriate image that reflects your entry)
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Send your submission to supplychain@nda.gov.uk. Make sure you leave enough time to complete the process by the deadline. Closing date was 5 September 2018.
Best Technical Innovation to benefit an NDA Business
Technical innovation is the beneficial application of a new technology or technique, or an old technology or technique used in the NDA Estate in a new way.
This award is open to all suppliers, whatever their size, and is open to all tiers of the supply chain.
The application form should be submitted by the solution provider but it must be a joint application with the relevant NDA business that has benefited from the technology or technique.
The award recognises both the innovation and work required to take an idea through to successful implementation. The benefit can be financial, environmental, safety related, overall service delivery, or a combination of any of these.
Examples could be:
- A new technology or technique used for the first time within the Estate
- An existing technology or technique introduced from other industries or countries which is applied to the UK nuclear decommissioning mission
- Existing technologies or techniques that are used or combined in a new way
Best Approach to Ethical Practice or Social Responsibility
This award is to recognise positive behaviours of doing business ethically, or delivering social and economic benefits whilst working within the NDA Estate.
This award is open to all suppliers, whatever their size, and is open to all tiers of the supply chain.
Examples could include:
- Positive ethical behaviours demonstrated within contracting activities and throughout the supply chain
- Direct or indirect investment with supply chain partners which enhances the delivery of a project, contract or goal
- Delivery of social value or community benefits which is aligned with the NDA’s mission and or supports sustainable communities
Best Supply Chain Collaboration
Supply chain collaboration is the process of two or more organisations working together to realise or achieve something successfully, and where mutual benefit is derived by the NDA Estate and the supply chain.
Examples could be:
- Suppliers who have worked together with other similar organisations in the successful delivery of a project, contract or goal
- Suppliers who have worked together with non-nuclear sector organisations in the successful delivery of a project, contract or goal
- Suppliers who have worked together with end-users or academia in the successful delivery of a project, contract or goal
Best People Strategy
To reflect the priorities of the NDA delivered through its people strategy the category for Best Enhancement of Capability and Capacity has been rebranded to Best People Strategy.
We are looking for best practice demonstrated within our supply chain in either skills development, recruitment, or equality, diversity and inclusion.
Examples could include:
Skills development:
- How are you developing your people?
- How are skills being raised?
- What approaches are you using to help develop new skills or using innovation such as digital technologies in your approach to skills development?
Recruitment:
- What is your approach and how do you go about getting the right people at the right time? Please highlight any innovative approach undertaken.
- What is your workforce strategy? Does this include creating apprenticeship opportunities or graduate programmes, or supporting recruitment from other sectors?
Equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I):
- What is your organisation doing to support the ED&I agenda?
- What challenges have your experienced and how have you overcome these?
- How do you support your employees in areas such as mental health, wellbeing, tackling unconscious bias, creating a positive working environment and culture?
Best Export of a Product, Technology or Services
This award is to recognise organisations that have successfully exported products, technology or services either outside the UK nuclear sector or overseas from concepts, products, technology and services originally conceived or implemented within the NDA’s Estate.
Minister’s Award
Selected from applications submitted by an SME from any of the award categories.
Your submission
Your submission should be 1,200 words maximum, plus a summary of up to 100 words. You may also submit up to 4 further single-sided sheets of supporting material (such as photos, press cuttings, customer testimonials, etc.).
Template for the written submission
Your written entry is the basis for selecting the winning entries. The key criteria will be the scale, importance and clarity of the benefit(s) to the NDA Estate. Your submission should show how it meets all criteria in the chosen category. The following information must be included as an introduction to your submission:
- award category name
- project or contract title
- supplier name(s)
- contact details (address, telephone, email)
- contact details of SLC or NDA client eg Project Manager (name, telephone, email, site)
- short summary (no more than 100 words)
Every entry should outline details of benefits, which may be ‘hard’ (for example, cost savings or reduced lead times) or ‘soft’ (for example, improved supplier relations). Benefits identified should be supported by facts and figures. Entrants are strongly advised to include validation from stakeholders – clients, other suppliers, and so on.
Your submission should also include information and responses to the following questions, depending on category, as detailed below:
Best Technical Innovation to benefit an NDA Business
- What were the aims and objectives of the project, contract or goal?
- What was the technical innovation/technique and how was it developed from concept through to successful implementation within the NDA Estate?
- What challenges were envisaged or experienced and how were these overcome?
- Had this technology/technique been used previously? New to world, new to sector, new to UK, or existing technology/technique used or combined in a new way?
- What approaches or solutions had previously been used or considered which helped to lead to a more innovative solution being conceived?
- Who were the parties involved in developing and implementing the technical innovation and what were their roles?
- What benefits have been realised as a result of the successful implementation of the technical innovation?
- How will the innovation support the future nuclear decommissioning programme?
Best Approach to Ethical Practice or Social Responsibility
Ethical practice:
- What ethical behaviours or practices are consistently applied in contracting activities and throughout the supply chain which has enhanced the delivery of a project, contract or goal?
- How do these behaviours or approaches benefit the supply chain?
- What investment, either directly or indirectly, has the organisation made with supply chain partners which has enhanced the delivery of a project, contract or goal?
- What benefits have been realised by adopting good ethical behaviours either for your organisation, the supply chain, and/or NDA business?
Social responsibility:
- What social value or economic/community benefits has your organisation delivered within the NDA Estate? What is the contract (title, duration, value, and NDA site)?
- How does the social value or economic/community benefits that have been delivered align with the NDA’s mission and/or supports sustainable communities?
- How did you determine what the social value or economic/community benefit was appropriate?
- What challenges, if any, were encountered in delivering the social value or economic/community benefits and how were these overcome?
- What was the actual value (£) of social value or economic/community benefits delivered? How does this align with what was offered and committed to within the contract?
Best Supply Chain Collaboration
- What were the aims and objectives of the project, contract or goal?
- How was the collaboration successful in achieving the aims and objectives?
- How was the need for collaboration identified and established?
- Who were the parties (companies/organisations) in the collaboration and what were their roles?
- What were the main challenges to the collaboration and how were they overcome?
- What mutual benefits have been realised as a result of the collaboration?
- How will the collaboration support the future success of the organisations involved?
Best People Strategy
- What were the aims and objectives of project, contract or goal?
- What were the issues you were trying to overcome?
- How was building capability and/or capacity undertaken? Please highlight any best practice.
- Who were the parties (companies/organisations) involved in the initiative?
- What were the main challenges of the initiative?
- How were the main challenges overcome?
- What were the benefits? (KEY)
- How will this support the future success of the organisations involved?
Best Export of a Product, Technology or Services
- What were the aims and objectives of project, contract or goal where the export of products, technology or services was used?
- What was exported and to where (main products, technology or services offered and locations where you operate/trade)?
- Why was it considered the right solution?
- What were the main challenges associated with export and how were these overcome?
- Which NDA Estate site(s) had previously used the product, technology or service?
- What lessons, if any, from using the product, technology or service within the NDA Estate helped you to offer the right solution?
- How long has the business been operating, and how long have you been trading overseas?
- Approximately what percentage of turnover is attributed to trading overseas for the financial year 2017/18, and for first 6 months of 2018/19?
- What benefits or practices, if any, have been passed back within the NDA Estate as a result of exporting?
Every entry should outline details of benefits, which may be ‘hard’ (for example, cost savings or reduced lead times) or ‘soft’ (for example, improved supplier relations).
Benefits identified should be supported by facts and figures.
Entrants are strongly advised to include validation from stakeholders, clients, other suppliers, and so on.
Supporting materials
You may, if you wish, upload additional supporting material with your entry. However, this must be limited to 4 single-sided sheets of A4 and should not comprise information that is central to your case – the judges will expect to see this in your main submission.
Your supporting materials can include:
- testimonials
- endorsements from colleagues, clients or other suppliers
- press clippings
- performance figures
Any supporting material must be in Word (.doc), Excel (.xls), PowerPoint (.ppt) or PDF (.pdf) formats only.
Please also include your company logo(s) and supplier or team photo or other image that supports your entry (minimum 300dpi in jpeg format) to be used for on-screen graphics during the Supplier Event awards ceremony.
Your submission material should be cleared with your clients so it can be used for publicity purposes. If you have difficulty gaining clearance in a timely manner from SLC or NDA clients, please contact the organisers.
The judges
The joint chair of judges for 2018 is:
- Ron Gorham, NDA Head Of Supply Chain Optimisation
- Jonathan Evans, Head of Shared Services Alliance
- Prof Melanie Brownridge, NDA Head of Technology
- Plus a selected panel of other senior supply chain and procurement professionals
Last updated 14 September 2018 + show all updates
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Entries closed on 5 September 2018.
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Awards now open.
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This page is available to indicate that award submissions will be invited shortly.
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Launched 2017 applications.
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Applications closed on 9 September 2016
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Linked to blog post on "New award to recognise skills initiatives in the nuclear decommissioning supply chain"
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Updated for application for 2016 awards.
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First published.