AGS and ONI awarded silver at the 2020 Commonwealth Procurement Awards for Excellence

AGS and ONI awarded silver at the 2020 Commonwealth Procurement Awards for Excellence

On 14 December the 2020 Commonwealth Procurement Awards for Excellence were presented in Canberra. In a tight field of nominees the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) and AGS secured a silver award.

Partnering with ONI, the acknowledgment was received in the ‘Delivering Innovation through Procurement’ category.

The Award recognises the Space as a Service contract which establishes a model for Australian Government agencies’ procuring research and engineering services in space-based capabilities for the Commonwealth. 

The approach to market was released by ONI, through its National Intelligence Community Satellite (NICSAT) program, in May this year, for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) demonstrator for research and engineering services in space-based capabilities. The cube satellite will carry a payload to perform on-board Machine Learning (ML) and AI research and development.

Through AGS’s experience in advising Australian Government agencies on running open procurements which comply with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, we designed a bespoke end-to-end contract for the initial approach to market and tailored the contract to suit the selected satellite as a service operating model.

The Award was proudly accepted by Vanessa McBride, Senior Executive Lawyer, and Swee-Kim Tan, Senior Lawyer from AGS and representatives from ONI. 

The Department of Finance established the Commonwealth Procurement Awards for Excellence to recognise leadership and a commitment to excellence in procurement.