The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is the third largest European political family, bringing together parties with common liberal, democrat and reform ideas from more than 30 European countries. The Brussels-based ALDE Party Secretariat supports the activities of the Party; organises its meetings; manages its external communication; and facilitates European policy development and networking amongst liberal parties. To support our growing activities, we are now seeking a:

Service provider on qualitative research in Three EU and One non-EU country
(with option to extend scope to add additional EU-countries)

As part of its research programme, ALDE Party is interested in conducting qualitative research in three selected EU countries and one non-EU country, to evaluate the public’s perception of European liberal actors, values and (European) policy issues. The countries will be selected to represent a geographical mix of countries from different regions including countries geographically close to Russia as a way of gaining insights into perception in countries that could join the EU and considering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This research should focus on threats to democracy, both internal and external within these the countries selection ahead of the European Election and in potential candidate EU member states. Of particular interest are the topics and associations of liberal target voters in these countries and how they compare to liberal target demographics in other European countries, to help inform the design of a uniform ALDE Party campaign and the manifesto drafting process for the 2024 European election.

As part of your offer, please provide cost estimates for conducting and analysing four focus groups each in the following countries:

• Georgia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Sweden

Depending on the offer and budget availability, the scope of the research can be extended to additional EU-countries, while keeping with the objectives of geographic balance.

The aim is to run four focus groups with liberal voter and target demographics in each of the selected countries. When submitting the offer, please also provide an estimate of additional cost required to add additional countries (up to a total of six) and additional focus groups (up to a total of six per country) or any other modes of qualitative analysis of the issue.

To support this aim, the ALDE Party is hiring a contractor to assist the ALDE Party Secretariat with the following services:

• Provide technical expertise on qualitative research on the issue of threats to democracy within the EU and in EU candidate countries
• Together with ALDE Party, selection of local research firms to run focus groups and coordination of the research with those firms.
• Conduct four focus groups with different liberal voter and target demographics in each of the four selected European countries, for a total of 16 individual focus groups.
• Drafting of focus group guidelines
• Briefing of focus group moderators
• Drafting of screening questionnaires
• Analysis of focus group outcomes
• Creation of country-specific reports on the outcomes in each of the countries and a summary report on insights relating to all.
• In-person results presentation

The timeframe for the contract will be until the completion of the research project, with an aim to be completed within the first six months of 2023.

The provider is requested to submit an offer to [email protected] by 22 January 2023.