Aquidneck Island

Climate Resilience Plan

Request for Proposals submission deadline has been extended until July 15, 2025 @ 5 pm eastern. You can download the RFP here.

Questions will be accepted until Friday, July 11th @ 12 pm eastern.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Please propose a budget not to exceed $200,000. The budget should be thoughtful and reflective of the services requested in the RFP.

  • We look forward to accepting proposals from a wide variety of consultants. Familiarity with Aquidneck Island, or coastal New England, whether personal or professional, is a plus. Please consider travel costs in the budget for being in-person for the anticipated community meetings listed in the RFP on page 4 under “Community Engagement & Stakeholder Collaboration”.

  • Aquidneck Resilience will be leading the community engagement efforts with support from the consultant in the form of materials, information, and staff at select community meetings. We anticipate being able to cover venue rental costs, food, childcare, and translation support services, as needed. However, the consultant should include printing and other materials needed for engagement in their budget.

  • No, there will be not be any DBE requirements.

  • No, we do not anticipate needing new risk data or technical modeling and ask the consultant use existing data and tools efficiently. As stated in the proposal, we realize the breadth of work that has come before us. We also realize the need to act expeditiously to address some of the island’s most pressing challenges.

  • The request of the selected consultant would be to familiarize themselves with existing data and determine if more modeling is necessary. If the conclusion is that more analysis is needed, we would discuss adding this scope to the project, if possible.

  • The consultant is not expected to participate regularly in the Working Groups. However, they may be asked to share material with Aquidneck Resilience engagement staff, who will serve as the conduit between Working Groups and the consultant.

  • The community engagement workshops will be facilitated by the Aquidneck Resilience Team, and developed collaboratively with the consultant. The consultant should have an understanding of the nuance of meeting roles.

  • No, the consultant is not responsible for developing the web-based dashboard. They will be expected to work collaboratively with a web-developer to integrate the content of the CRP to this online platform.

    However, if your team has web-development expertise, or you work regularly with a web-developer, you may indicate that in your proposal; we look forward to discussing more during the selection process. The dashboard development is a distinct scope, not to be outlined in detail in this proposal. If needed, we will go out to a separate RFP for the dashboard.

  • No, the consultant does not need to work nationally or internationally. They should be familiar with solutions from around the country and the world that might be applicable to Aquidneck Island.

  • We will consider proposals regardless of ongoing projects. Consultants must demonstrate they have the adequate capacity for this effort. As mentioned, experience working on Aquidneck Island or in coastal New England is a plus. However, we know there is also a great deal to learn from other places. We are under no obligations to spread work to different companies.

  • Yes, we are recipients of NOAA’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge.

  • As we are funded by NOAA, we are fortunate to have a technical assistance team supporting our efforts. Our municipal and non-profit partners have relationships with many other federal agencies, and we can leverage their experience as needed.

  • No, we do not currently have funding from either of those agencies. We would like to stress this Climate Resilience Plan will focus on adaptation efforts, not mitigation.

  • We carefully considered our timeline and anticipate this project generally running from Summer 2025 – Summer 2027. We would ask that submissions reflect this timeline as best as possible. If you would like to propose an alternative timeline, please present clear reasoning.

  • No, there is not a page limit, but we ask that proposals be as concise and as consistent with the RFP requirements as possible.

  • We have lots of work to build upon, and many projects already in the pipeline. The Climate Resilience Plan does not need to be completed before we pursue funding or work to further projects already identified. We have staff capacity to both oversee the completion of this plan and continue to advance other projects.