The governance and commitment document co-signed by a BioHub’s cohort and, where applicable, by counterparty and participant representatives. Produced by Prompt 3 of the BioConomy Value Proposition Template. Establishes what the BioHub commits to tender, on what retention terms, to which counterparties and participants.
Extended definition
The Commitment Pool operates on Ruddick’s principle that binding forward promises are the basis for coordination. The Tender Compact is the pool’s tender-facing face. Where the Founding Compact establishes what the cohort commits to each other, the Tender Compact establishes what the cohort commits to counterparties and participants.
It is a +E coordination instrument. Its authority is voluntary, commitment-based, transparent, and revisable. It does not derive authority from any counterparty’s contract or any funder’s grant condition. Specific contracts and grant agreements operate under the Compact and can reference it by co-signature.
Length is five to ten pages. Co-signed by the cohort. Where a counterparty enters into a specific tender agreement, that agreement operates under this Compact and can reference it by co-signature.
Contrast with adjacent instruments
A service-level agreement establishes what one party owes another under specified conditions. The Tender Compact establishes what the BioHub as a coordination body commits to across the portfolio of tenders it holds, and how those commitments relate to each other. The SLA is transactional; the Compact is coordinative.
A contract binds two counterparties on the terms they have negotiated. The Tender Compact binds the cohort to a standing set of retention terms that the BioHub will apply across contracts. Contracts are the specific instruments; the Compact is the standing frame.
Structural elements
- Preamble stating what the BioHub commits to tender and why.
- Committed tenders (each priority tender specified with: service, counterparty, mechanism, retention terms, pricing basis, delivery commitment).
- Counterparty commitments (what will be delivered, on what terms, with quality and verification standards named).
- Participant commitments (what participants receive, on what terms, including gainful employment provisions and pool-participation benefits).
- Retention guarantees.
- Multi-BioHub tender coordination protocols.
- Sequencing of tenders.
- Provisions for tender revision.
- Provisions for participant dissent.
- Provisions for tender dissolution.
- Co-signatures section.
Related terms
- Founding Compact
- Alignment Compact
- BioConomy Value Proposition Canvas
- Tenderable Services Portfolio
- Commitment Pool
- +E Coordination Form
- Retention Logic
Provenance
Extracted from the BioConomy Value Proposition Template v0.2 in the VoG as Patron Project Prototype knowledge base, where the Tender Compact is specified as the third of the template’s three Prompt 3 outputs.