NCC1819 Business Northumberland Investment Fund (BNIF) – Fund Manager – Preliminary Market Engagement Survey 

Northumberland County Council (NCC) is looking to conduct a procurement exercise to appoint a fund manager to manage the Business Northumberland Investment Fund (BNIF).

To inform the development and future delivery of this fund, we are undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise which will be in the form of a survey.

We wish to gain information from the market regarding a number of areas relating to the potential procurement exercise. Specifically, this engagement is being carried out to better understand:
• market capacity and capability.
• commercial norms and delivery models.
• risks, opportunities and barriers to entry; and
• how a future procurement (if progressed) can be designed to be fair, proportionate and accessible.

Suppliers are invited to respond to as many questions as they feel able to. Concise, qualitative responses are welcomed, particularly where they reflect experience of delivering SME investment in rural, place‑based or publicly backed contexts.

All responses should be provided by completing the survey which can be downloaded via OPEN Portal system https://www.open-uk.org/. Your responses will also be via the OPEN portal.