REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UGANDA COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (UCC) DATA SCIENCE & ANALYTICS PROJECT – PHASE 01

1.   INTRODUCTION
The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) was established by the Uganda Communications Act of 2013 as an independent Communications sector regulator, with oversight of telecommunications, broadcasting, radio communication, postal communications, data communication and infrastructure. Among others, the Commission is mandated to monitor, inspect, license, control, and regulate communication services in Uganda.

In pursuit of this mandate as provided under the law, and its vision of “An Inclusive Digital Economy”, the Commission is desirous of studying and analysing meaningful and relevant data available to the Commission, and developing reliable data models for prediction, visibility, informing business decisions and regulatory interventions and (or) initiatives.

In line with its mandate to promote specialised education in the field of communication, the Commission is looking to collaborate with Academia to conduct a multi-phased in-depth data science and analysis on several data sets available to the Commission, as provided for under section 7.2 of the Research Support and Collaboration Framework.

2. OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of this project is to construct the means for extracting organisation-focused insights from data sets available within the Commission. This will involve clearly understanding how value and information flows in the Commission, and the ability to use that understanding to identify key industry, regulatory and organisational trends & insights.

Generally, this project seeks to identify key data assets that can be turned into data pipelines that feed maintainable tools, models, and solutions for identifying key organisational, industry and (or) regulatory trends and insights.

More specifically, the project seeks to:

1. understand the different data sets available to the Commission through its internal processes and external collaborations.
2. categorize and prioritize the available data sets and assess the analytical information that can be derived from these data sets.

• develop templates or formats for routine – automated collection of these data sets.

1. identify and implement methodologies for collection, analysis, and reporting on the different data sets available to the Commission.
2. carry out the necessary data inspection, integration, transformation, reduction, and cleaning of the available data sets to the necessary data formats.
3. study and analyze the available data sets and develop meaningful and empirically supported forecasts, reports, insights, trends, and recommendations for the Commission.

• develop consistent data models and tools for continuous analysis of the available data sets and development of the required reports, trends, and insights.

3. PROJECT PHASES

The Data Science & Analytics project shall be implemented in three phases:

1. Phase 01: Data identification, classification, and development of guidelines   for data collection, storage, advanced analytics, predictive modeling, reporting and visualization.
2. Phase 02: Data consolidation (including mapping, cleaning & transformation, integration, and validation), validation, warehousing, slicing, advanced data analytics, predictive modeling, and reporting & visualization.
3. Phase 03: Business Intelligence (BI) system integration, automation, and optimization.

4. SCOPE

• Phase 01 Scope

This phase shall include the following:

1. data identification – including determining what data is required to provide insights relevant to the commission and the industry by clearly understanding the objective, determining data requirements, identifying data sources, assessing data availability and accessibility, defining data identification criteria, cataloging, and documenting data sources.
2. data classification – organizing data into categories for effective and efficient use as well as improving data quality, and compliance with data privacy .

• developing data collection guidelines – defining methods for data collection from the different sources and recommend procedures for data collection, processing and storage while considering data privacy requirements, quality at source, and available data storage systems.

1. recommending procedures for importing data from various sources into the data storage systems.
2. developing data quality management guidelines – including data cleaning and validation routines to maintain the integrity of the data.
3. identifying relevant models and recommending tools required for advanced analytics, slicing, predictive modeling, business intelligence reporting and visualization.

• training and capacity building
• reporting and dissemination of the outcomes.

• Available Datasets

The datasets to be considered shall not be limited to:

1. operator (telecom, postal & broadcasting) industry and coverage reports
2. consumer services and devices usage data.

• licensing and regulatory compliance data.

1. internal resources and utilities usage data.
2. information technology and cyber intelligence data.
3. consumer complaints/redress data.

• spectrum authorization & compliance data.
• Financial records (budgets, income & expenditure).

1. information from the Uganda Communications Universal Services Access Fund (UCUSAF).
2. research data sets.

5. DELIVERABLES

The team (academia) shall submit the following deliverables to UCC for approval.

1. an inception report with a proposed work plan, proposed data sets to be considered, methodologies to be applied, tools to be used and clear timelines for each activity.

1. guidelines for data collection, storage, advanced analytics, predictive modeling, business intelligence reporting and visualization.
2. a report on the workshop organized to present and validate findings of the analysis,
3. an overall composite report on the analysis/ study with clear and relevant recommendations.
4. dissemination of study outcomes to key stakeholders.

6. ELIGIBILITY & QUALIFICATIONS

The following qualifications shall be required:

1. demonstration relevant experience working in such areas of data science, analytics, and modelling.
2. being knowledgeable in communications infrastructure and services.
3. the team should comprise of at least two key technical members each with at least five years of demonstrated experience in the fields of telecommunications engineering and data science.
4. the team should comprise of a member from academia, with affiliation to a recognized tertiary institution in Uganda.
5. the team leader should have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in data scienc
6. the team should have experience in ICT services with a focus on organizational data analytics like data mining, data ware housing or related field.
7. demonstrate ability to engage with the relevant stakeholders.
8. demonstration of experience in implementation of similar projects.

7. EVALUATION CRITERIA

In evaluating the relative merits of applicant proposals for the project, the evaluation team will consider:

1. experience of the team members and (or) the firm.
2. affiliation of some members to a recognized tertiary institution in Uganda.
3. profile of the team leader and innovative approaches to addressing the terms of reference.
4. demonstrated experience and sample projects carried out by the applicant(s) related to information communications technologies and (or) private and public sector businesses.
5. professional qualifications and relevant experience of the applicant(s) in data science and ICTs.
6. understanding of the terms of reference, the suitability of the proposed approach and methodology to be applied by the applicant(s).
7. overall quality of the proposal including the proposed approach in handling each objective and attainment of the deliverables.

8. TIMELINE AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The following timelines shall apply:

9. REPORTING

The team shall report to the UCC designated project management team, which shall be responsible for monitoring the progress, and make quality assurance of the deliverables, including the tools.

10. COPYRIGHT, PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE

All data collected, tools and other deliverables of the study shall remain the property of the Uganda Communications Commission during and after the contract implementation period and shall therefore, not be reproduced without express permission from the Commission.

All project activities shall be implemented in compliance with the Uganda Data protection and Privacy Act, 2019.

11.        APPLICATION TIMELINE
Applications should be submitted before 10:00am on 26^th June 2023 and should be submitted in duplicate hard copies (2 Copies), addressed to:

The Executive Director

Uganda Communications Commission

Plot 42-44, Spring Road Bugolobi

P.O. Box 7376, Kampala

A soft copy of the proposal should also be sent to the following email addresses by the deadline: registry@ucc.co.ug and research@ucc.co.ug

For any required clarification or guidance on the grant application process, please contact telephone +256-41-2339000/+256-41-2339000 or email research@ucc.co.ug