Call for Projects

Tauw Foundation puts out tenders, or challenges, to invite proposals for dream projects that wish to qualify for (financial) support. Selection takes place through a tender procedure.

At least once a year, Tauw Foundation puts out a tender, or challenge, to invite proposals for dream projects that wish to qualify for (financial) support. Selection takes place through a tender procedure. The Foundation Board in cooperation with the program office ultimately selects proposals that qualify for funding from the full list of submitted proposals.

Invitation to tender

The call for projects is published on this website and will be distributed among the shareholders of Tauw Holding. We will also use internal communication channels within the Tauw organisation. If deemed useful, the Board may decide to publish the invitation through other communication channels including Tauw.com

Prior to the call for projects, Tauw Foundation establishes the following aspects:

The total amount of budget available for approved proposals
The tender process, including (timely communication of) important dates
The assessment criteria (or terms of reference).

Should the Foundation have sufficient remaining budget after a first invitation, the board may decide to put out a second invitation in the same year.

Tender process : clear and simple

Tauw Foundation does not ask bidders to make a huge effort if they only have a small chance of success. We want to keep things clear, honest and straightforward. This is why, in order to limit the efforts, the initial calls for projects are put out within the Tauw organisation rather than through launching large marketing campaigns and invitations outside the Tauw organisation.

The tender process therefore is as follows:

Tauw Foundation asks Tauw to organise and coordinate the invitation process with the aim of receiving 10 to 15 high-quality proposals.
The proposals will then be assessed by the program office, which aims to approve approximately 5 of these proposals (30-50% success rate).
The general idea is to provide funding up to EUR 50,000 on average. However, high-impact smaller proposals may also be approved.
In principle each proposal requires a multiplier, and therefore additional funding.

A step-by-step tender procedure

The current tender procedure is composed of the following steps:

Tauw Foundation draws up the Terms of Reference containing information on the essential focus and or context, the criteria and the tender procedure. (The current terms of reference and proposal criteria can be found here)
Tauw organises a so-called “Ideation” process, which includes a pre-selection of 10 detailed ideas and provides the Foundation Board with information about any major steps taken in this pre-selection process.
The Foundation Board then still has the opportunity to give (any) idea that was not selected the benefit of the doubt, if so desired. This may mean that further information is obtained for selection in the current call or that this idea is benched for a subsequent call.
The bidders now specify and submit their proposals to the Foundation Board .
The next step is that bidders pitch the submitted proposals.
Tauw Foundation assesses the proposals. This assessment will be based on a combination of (a) an objective score based on the set criteria, and (b) the intuition of the individual members of the Foundation Board (the latter to avoid selection of proposals that look good on paper but do not match or are simply not suitable.
Tauw Foundation announces which proposals will be approved (possibly at a public meeting).
Tauw Foundation draws up contracts.

Approval and contracting projects

Once a proposal is selected, the Tauw Foundation’s program office will set up contract agreements.

The contract includes:

Financial reports (multi-annual projects require annual reporting).
A communication plan: all external communications related to the project should reference to Tauw Foundation’s contribution.
A testimonial of results: to finalise a project, the initiators are required to submit a testimonial containing project results and the impact of the Tauw Foundation’s support. This is a prerequisite for the payment of the final instalment.
Our role: Tauw Foundation broadly monitors the project’s progress but does not play an active role during implementation.

Naturally, Tauw Foundation communicates about approved projects, which will be published on this website, for example. Project results will be actively communicated within the Tauw organisation as well as to Tauw’s shareholders.