PIARC has announced its intention to prepare a contract with the HDMGlobal consortium after a review of proposals for the future management of HDM 4. This will be a five-year contract commencing early next year to manage HDM-4, with exclusive rights for its distribution.

The consortium is led by the Highway Management Research Group a UK based association of the University of Birmingham, Atkins and Scott Wilson in partnership with; TRL Ltd also of the UK ARRB Transport Research Ltd, ENPC-Scetauroute from France and ICH of Chile. The main partners are complemented by the associated organisations AEPO of Spain, and the RHD of Bangladesh and close links with the CRRI of India, HRI of the People’s Republic of China, IKRAM of Malaysia, and the Tanzanian Technology Transfer Centre.

The concession will involve the consortium offering -

i)	User support and other technical assistance services for present HDM-4 version 1.3 users and to future Version 2 users
ii)	Development and management of the HDM-4 website, including a data base of user-questions and answers
iii)	Organization of the sales HDM-4 of the software and documentation throughout the world
iv)	Operation of an HDM-4 users club to facilitate contacts, feedback from applications, etc
v)	Organization of a system of labelled HDM-4 training courses
vi)	Maintenance of the protection of the software against illegal multiple copies and pirating of the software
vii)	Production of periodic up-graded versions including corrective actions and enhancements defined from user’s feedback
viii)	Regular updating of the HDM-4 documentation in the three languages English, French and Spanish
ix)	Active promotion of the dissemination of HDM-4 via Internet, articles, participation in conferences and training courses

The consortium will be required to report to a PIARC appointed review board and demonstrate its fulfilment of concession requirements, in particular the quality of services to users.

The contract will be awarded on the completion of the development work currently being undertaken on Version 2.

For further information and advice contact –

Dr Eric Stannard, Technical Manager HDMGlobal
e.e.stannard@bham.ac.uk