TENDER ANNOUNCEMENT City Of Rome Sovrintendenza BB CC Science Museums   INVITATION TO TENDER CONTRACT TENDER FOR THE FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF ROME'S CITY OF SCIENCE 1. Contracting authority: The City of Rome, Superintendent of Cultural Resources, Organizational Unit for Science Museums, Piazza Campitelli, Rome Tel +39-6-3225122 67102359 Fax +39-6-67103811. 2. Description and category of services: Feasibility study and planning of the contents of the new City of Science in Rome., Reference number CPC 867 Presumed maximum net amount: L. 1,100,000,000 Lit. (568,103 Euro) 3. Place of performance: Rome, Italy 4. Eligible subjects: Individual or associated professionals, individual or associated companies, public entities and consortiums. 5. Variants: Permitted in order to attain objectives indicated under the terms and conditions, assuming that no costs are added beyond the presumed maximum price. 6. Time period for performance of service: 180 consecutive calendar days. 7. Partial tenders: not accepted. 8. Acquisition of the Invitation to Tender, together with the Terms and Conditions and Appendices, at the address listed under point 1. A copy of the Invitation and the Terms and Conditions is available at the Internet site http//www2.comune.roma.it/cittascienza (Acquisition of the Special Terms and Conditions of the Tender: the Terms and Conditions can be acquired at the address referred to under point 1. following presentation of a declaration by the legal representative stating that the minimum prerequisites stipulated under point 13) below are met, together with a photocopy of an ID. document, no later than 30 days from the publication of the present Invitation.) 9. Deadline for presentation of applications for participation: Suppliers of services who are interested in participating in the competition must present their applications for participation on stamped legal paper, complete with the elements referred to under point 13 below, no later than 12:00 noon on th e 1th April 2000. The envelope must be labelled " CONTRACT TENDER FOR THE FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF ROME'S CITY OF SCIENCE" For the address to which the applications should be sent, see point 1. The applications must be compiled in Italian. 10. Deadline for sending of Invitations to Tender will be communiated later. 11. Guarantees: as per the Special Terms and Conditions. 12. Groupings of Suppliers of Services: Groups of suppliers of services are also eligible to present tenders, under the provisions of article 10 of Legislative Decree no. 358/92. In such cases, as an appendix to the participation application, signed by all the service suppliers participating in the group, each supplier must present, in a separate document, a declaration in which it undertakes, in the event the contracted is awarded, to be part of the group, which is to be established under the provisions and procedures referred to under the aforementioned article 10 of Legislative Decree no. 358/92. 13. Information regarding the position of the suppliers of services and formalities to be met to evaluate the minimum economic and technical conditions to be satisfied. To participate in the competition, the suppliers of services must include with the participation application, on stamped legal paper, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion, at least two bank references demonstrating that the candidate has always met its commitments and a regular, punctual basis and possesses the financial and economic capacity to provide the service. In addition, the Firms must include with the participation application, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion, the following declarations, dated no more than six months earlier and suitable for subsequent confirmation, signed by the Legal Representative and by the chief officers of the enterprise, accompanied by a photocopy of a valid ID. document of the party making the declaration, stating: 1. that none of the conditions for exclusion referred to under article 29 of Directive 92/50/EEC apply to the firm 2. that no companies or firms with relationships of association or control with the firm in question, as determined under article 2359 of the Civil Code, are participating in the competition, either individually or in groups. 3. that the firm respects - where relevant - Law 482/68 regarding obligatory hiring 4. declaration of overall revenues, for the three-year period 1996-1998, excluding VAT, of no less than 3,000,000,000 Lit. 5. declaration listing services pertinent to those requested under the present call for tenders performed for public and/or private entities during the years 1996-1998, to be confirmed through the declarations of these same entities, or with copies of the invoices. 6. that the owner or legal representative of the firm is not subject to any of the motives for elimination, prohibition or suspension contemplated under article 10 of Law 575/1995, plus subsequent modifications, as well as Legislative Decree 490/1994 Note: Solely for information purposes, the firm is to declare that it abides by the provisions of article 9 of Law 125/1991 regarding the situation of male and female personnel on its staff. The declarations listed under points 1 to 6 must be accompanied by a photocopy of a valid ID. document of the party making the declaration, and they must be dated no more than six months earlier. In the case of consortiums or temporary associations of companies, the documents referred to in the first paragraph of this article and the declarations indicated under points 1-2-3-5 and 6 must regard each associated firm or consortium member. The requirement indicated under point 4 can be satisfied in a cumulative manner, though the head company must possess at least 50% of the prerequisites and the delegating firms must meet the same prerequisites at a proportion of at least 20%, with 100% of the prerequisites being met in any event. The documents referred to in the first paragraph of this article can be substituted by a declaration, dated no more than six months earlier, accompanied by a valid ID. document of the party making the declaration. All of the documents cited above, if signed by a foreign authority, must be duly legalized by the Italian diplomatic or consular representatives; if written in a foreign language, then a translation must be included, certified by the same Italian diplomatic or consular representatives as faithfully reflecting the foreign text. Failure or delay in presentation of even one of the elements required above, or non-conformity of the same, will result in exclusion from participation in the competition. Eligibility of firms to be invited to tender will be determined by the Administration through executive decisions. Following approval of the eligible firms, these same firms will be invited to present tenders to the SEGRETARIATO GENERALE - UFFICIO CENTRALE DI CORRISPONDENZA - Via del Campidoglio n. 4 -00186 ROME Italy in accordance with the procedures and deadlines stipulated in the letter of invitation. 14. Criteria for the award of the contract. The service will be awarded under the provisions of article 36 paragraph 1 letter a) of the Directive 92/50/EEC to the most advantageous tender, evaluated on the basis of the following parameters, in order of decreasing importance: ELEMENTS OF EVALUATION Maximum score a - planning of the activities and organization 35 (thirty-five) b - make-up of work group and professional skills employed in the service 25 (twenty-five) c - accrued experience 20 (twenty) d - sum offered 20 (twenty) Tenders with the lowest proposed price will be assigned the maximum score indicated under point d) above. The score for each tender with a price other than the minimum shall be calculated as follows Pm x Pum P Where "Pm" is the minimum price offered, "P" is the price of each of each tender and "Pum" is the score assigned to the minimum price; the results will be rounded off to the nearest thousandth of a point. Tenders with prices or technical characteristics held, respectively, to be too low or anomalous can be excluded. Considering the high degree of specialized skills required, and the likelihood that a low number of candidates will participate, the contract will be awarded even if only one valid tender is presented. In the event that only one valid tender is received, the Municipal Administration will be entitled to award the contract or to negotiate an improved tender with the party making the proposal. In the case of tenders judged to be equal, the contract shall be awarded to the tender with the lowest price. The Administrative reserves the right to refrain from approving the results of the tender competition, eventually for reasons, in addition formal irregularities, of advisability of convenience, or if the tender should prove inappropriate, without the candidates being entitled to request any indemnity or compensation whatsoever. Period of tender validity: 180 days from the deadline for presentation of the tender. 15. Requests for information and copies of terms and conditions should be sent to the address indicated under point 1. To receive a copy of the terms and conditions, send a request to the address listed under point 1, accompanied by a fee of 5,000 Lit. in favor of the Cashier's Office of the Municipal Superintendent 16. Disputes: any disputes are to be brought before the ordinary courts in Rome. 16. Date of publication of pre-information notice in the EC Bulletin: no indication. 17. Date of sending of Invitation to Tender no indication. 18. Date on which the Invitation to Tender is received by the Official Publications Office of the EEC: no indication.       The Superintendent Prof. Eugenio La Rocca City of Rome Sovrintedenza BB CC Science Museums     CONTRACT TENDER FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF ROME'S CITY OF SCIENCE SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS SECTION I Article 1 - Subject of the contract tender The present terms and conditions govern the contract tender for a feasibility study and the planning of the conceptual and material contents of Rome's City of Science, currently being established, as specified in the appendix Technical Terms and Conditions. The area to be covered by the study in question is specified under the Technical Terms and Conditions. Article 2 - Definitions In the present Terms and Conditions, and in all the documentation in general, the terminology specified below will be used: 2.1 "Contract tender" indicates the procedure followed by the Municipal Superintendent's Office for performance of the feasibility study and the planning of the contents of Rome's City of Science. 2.2 "Terms and Conditions" indicates the present special terms and conditions of tender. 2.3 "Candidate" indicates the individuals or organizations which present tenders to obtain the Contract, in the person of their legal representative. 2.4 "Winner" ("Consultant") indicates the party which wins the contract, represented by the individual legally empowered to enter into agreements, and whose title and identifying information must be specified. 2.5 "Contract" indicates the contract signed by the Municipal Superintendent's Office and the Consultant for the performance of the feasibility study of Rome's Museum of Science. 2.6 "Superintendent's Office" indicates the Contracting Administration, meaning the Municipal Superintendent's Office of Rome. 2.8 "Monitoring committee" indicates an organ created to control the progress made in the Consultant's study. Article 3 - Amount of the Contract Presumed maximum amount of the services: 1,100,000,000 Lit. (one billion and one hundred million lire) (568103 Euro) + 220,000,000 (113,621 Euro) VAT of 20 % (entirely financed by the Municipal Superintendent's Office of Rome from the "Rome Capital" funds) . Article 4 - Sources for the contract The contract must be awarded in accordance with the present Special Terms and Conditions. Secondary provisions are those stipulated under: - The General Terms and Conditions of the City of Rome approved under the Council's Resolution 6126 of 17 November 1983. - The current provisions of the law and the regulations governing the administration of public resources and general State accounting, plus whatever other measures may be issued in the future - The Civil Code and the other norms already issued, or to be issued, regarding private-law contracts, to the extent that they are not regulated by the provisions of the preceding point. - Directive 92/50/EEC, transformed into Legislative Decree 157/95, plus the measures referred to therein Article 5 - Description of the services required The City of Science which the Administration of the City of Rome intends to create is a complex structure meant to function as a major system of scientific communication on an international level, and it must represent, both nationally and within Europe, a center of excellence for the dissemination of high-level scientific and technological culture. The Municipal Administration of Rome, given the complexity of the operation, intends to draw on the services of a consultant in order to formulate a project and feasibility study on the City of Science which examines in depth the following fundamental points, in addition to those cited in the technical terms and conditions: 1. Potential demand and estimate of visitor flow 2. Evaluation of dimensions and morphology 3. Identification of the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the City of Science 3.1 comparative analysis of the most advanced reference models, 3.2 evaluation of the general contents expressed in the guidelines drawn up by the Scientific Commission (point 2 of the Technical Terms and Conditions), formulation of proposals for supplementary points, 3.3 preliminary formulation and evaluation of possible scenarios of implementation, from among which will be selected, in the course of the project, the optimal configuration for the new City of Science of Rome 3.4 final formulation of an overall study provided a detailed analysis of 3.4.1 the structure and morphology of the City of Science 3.4.2 the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the new museum 3.5 feasibility studies on the functional structures and the service centers identified 3.6 general museum studies project regarding the expositions and detailed project for the fundamental exhibits 4. general and particular specifications for the awarding of the overall architectural planning. 5. Project for the connection of the City of Science with the other nodes of the municipal and national scientific museum system, plus planning of the network structure 6. Comparative analysis of the total investment vs. the overall benefits in terms of the progress of scientific culture in the City and the nation.   Article 6 - Procedures for performance and phases of implementation. The consultant winning the contract tender is to carry out the study and the subsequent planning according to the phases listed below: PHASE 1 - Formulation and presentation of one or more operating proposals along general lines, but with recognizable and unified contents and structure. Phase 1 shall be followed by the opinion of the Monitoring Committee, which will proceed with the identification and eventual approval of the optimal scenario. At this point the Committee will requests modifications, additions, variations or reformulation of the contents and the overall structure of the system of the City of Science. PHASE 2 - Presentation of the preliminary edition of the study and approval of the same by the Monitoring Committee. Presentation of the final results of the study with regard to points 1 and 2 of article 5 above. The definitive results of points 1 and 2 shall be made available to the consultant assigned the study regarding the identification of the organizational format and the operating structure of the future City of Science. PHASE 3 - Presentation of the feasibly study and the planning of the contents in a definitive edition at the conclusion of the services. Article 7 - Contents of the tender Within the deadline indicated in the letter of invitation to the firms participating in the contract tender, a sealed envelope labelled with the following information must be sent to the Comune di Roma -Segretariato Generale- Ufficio Corrispondenza - Via del Campidoglio, 4 . 00186 Rome - Italy: - name of the candidate; - subject of the contract tender and it must contain: - the sealed envelope with the economic tender; - the sealed envelope with the technical tender; - the administrative documentation requested in the letter of initiation. All the envelopes must be closed, sealed and labelled with their contents. The name of the Form and the subject of the contract tender must be clearly written on the envelope, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion. The following must be included in the economic tender, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion: - an indication of the price bid (expressed in Italian lire) not including VAT; - an explicit declaration that the candidate accepts and agrees to respect all the responsibilities and clauses contemplated under the present Special Terms and Conditions of the Contract, as well as the other sources cited in article 3, and under the provisions of articles 1341 and 1342 of the Civil Code; - a declaration that the candidate has evaluated all the circumstances which led to the calculation of the price, as well as the contractual conditions which may influence the performance of the service. The economic tender must be binding for a period of 6 (six) months. The technical tender must contain all the elements required under article 5 of the present Special Terms and Conditions. Article 8 - Confidentiality The supplier of the services agrees the observe the maximum confidentiality with regard to information of any type whatsoever obtained in the performance of the work covered by the present Special Terms and Conditions.     SECTION II - General tender conditions Article 9 - Variants in the Technical Terms and Conditions Under the provisions of Article 24 of Legislative Decree 157/95, variants which make it possible to achieve the objectives indicated by the Contracting Authority in the Technical Terms and Conditions are permitted. Article 10 - Time period for completion of the services The deadline for completion of the services is set at 180 consecutive calendar days (one hundred and eighty days). Article 11 - Forms of guarantee To participate in the competition, the firm must include with the tender a receipt demonstrating payment of a provisional security deposit of 55,000,000 Lit. (fifty-five million lire), to be made in one of the following modes: a. in cash or in government bonds or securities guaranteed by the State at the average price quotation of the preceding week set by the Ministry of the Treasury and deposited with the Municipal Treasury; b. through the establishment of a security deposit for an equal amount with one of the banks indicated under Presidential Decree no. 635 of 22 May 1956; c. through a bank guarantee for an equal sum; d. through an insurance policy for an equal sum. The security deposits referred to under points b), c) and d) must include the following special condition, under which the banking or insurance institute unconditionally commits itself, waiving the benefit of preliminary examination contemplated under article 1944 of the Civil Code, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion. In addition, the insurance or banking institute must agree to maintain the validity of the guarantee until the formal act of release on the part of the Administration. The document must indicate the signatory powers of the insurer. To guarantee exact observation of the obligations entered into by the Firm, a final security deposit must be established , before the contract is signed, in the forms permitted under the law, and in the amount of 5% of the net sum of the award. The security deposit remains bound until the end of the contract, meaning the end of the guarantee period, or until all exceptions and disputes have been settled. Article 12 - Expenses, duties and taxes With regard to the signing of the contract, all expenses, duties and taxes involving the contract, including tax stamps, receipts, set duties, administrative fees, registrations etc., will be the responsibility of the winning service supplier. The contract will stipulate the clauses to be submitted for specific written approval, as per article 1341 of the Civil Code. Article 13 - Sub-contracting The winner is expressly forbidden to subcontract or transfer the contract, even a portion of it, to third parties, with violations leading to resolution of the contract under the provisions of article 1456 of the Civil Code, though the City of Rome will still be entitled to seek reimbursement of damages. Article 14 - Payment procedures - 25 % of the sum of the contract tender award upon approval of the progress report presented at the end of Phase 1; - an additional 25 % upon approval of the preliminary edition of the feasibility study at the conclusion of Phase 2; - an additional 35% upon approval of the feasibility study, presented in its definitive version, and completion of the services; - the remaining 15% will be settled following a declaration of proper execution, documented with a certificate; SECTION III - Competition procedures Article 15 - Eligible subjects A subject which participates individually or as a member of a candidate consortium or group cannot be part of other candidate consortiums or groups, with violations resulting in the exclusion of not only the subject, but also the candidate consortiums or groups to which it belongs. Foreign participants must present all the documents and declarations required under the present Terms and Conditions. If their home nation does not release the required documents, or any one of these, then a sworn declaration containing all the elements present constitutes sufficient proof, having been released to the interested party in the presence of an administrative or court authority, or a notary public, or any other public official authorized to receive it under the legislation of the country in question, or, in the case of countries where sworn declarations are not contemplated, a solemn declaration containing the same elements. Article 16 - Groups of service providers Also eligible for participation in the awarding of the work referred to under article 1 of the present Terms and Conditions are service providers who have purposefully and temporarily formed groups under the procedures of article 11 of Legislative Decree no. 157/95, with an indication of the group head. The joint tender must: - be signed by all the firms in the group; - specify the portions of the project to be carried out by the individual firms; - commit these same firms to observing the rules and regulations contemplated under the present article. The elements required in the Invitation to Tender under point 13, letters A) and B), and the declarations contained in points 1), 2), 3) and 4), refer to each of the associated firms or consortium members. The act of delegation of firms temporarily grouped together is to be formally presented to the Administration before the signing of the contract.   Article 17 - Partial or increased tenders Tenders made in partial form, conditionally or in excess of the sum indicated under article 3 or of the completion deadline indicated under article 10 are not permitted. Article 18 - Information requests Information can be requested (exclusively by mail or telefax) from the Management of the Organizational Unit for Scientific Museums of the Superintendent's Office of the City of Rome (address, telephone and fax indicated under article 1), which will supply information regarding the tender to those making requests.. The responses will be communicated by telefax to the number indicated by the requesting party. Article 19 - Validity of the tenders Following their presentation, the tenders cannot be withdrawn or modified or supplemented. The tender and the related prices are understood to be valid or six months from the date of their receipt. Article 20 - Evaluation of the tenders The Tender Commission will proceed with the examination of the administrative documentation. The judging commission evaluating the tenders, appointed for the purpose in a subsequent measure issued by the Municipal Superintendent's Office following the deadline for the presentation of the tenders, will proceed with the evaluation of the technical tender and the economic tender.           Article 21. Criteria for the award of the contract. The service will be awarded under the provisions of article 36 paragraph 1 letter a) of the Directive 92/50/EEC to the most advantageous tender, evaluated on the basis of the following parameters, in order of decreasing importance: ELEMENTS OF EVALUATION Maximum score a - planning of the activities and organization 35 (thirty-five) b - make-up of work group and professional skills employed in the service 25 (twenty-five) c - accrued experience 20 (twenty) d - sum offered 20 (twenty) Tenders with the lowest proposed price will be assigned the maximum score indicated under point d) above. The score for each tender with a price other than the minimum shall be calculated as follows Pm x Pum P Where "Pm" is the minimum price offered, "P" is the price of each of each tender and "Pum" is the score assigned to the minimum price; the results will be rounded off to the nearest thousandth of a point. Article 22 -Awarding The Municipal Superintendent's Office will proceed with the awarding of the study to the candidate presenting the most advantageous tender, calculated in reference to the elements of evaluation indicated above. Considering the high degree of specialized skills required, and the likelihood that a low number of candidates will participate, the contract will be awarded even if only one valid tender is presented. In the event that only one valid tender is received, the Municipal Administration will be entitled to award the contract or to negotiate an improved tender with the party making the proposal. In addition, the Commission reserves the full right, at its own binding discretion, to refuse to accept the tenders presented when it holds that none of them satisfactorily meet the relevant requirements or offer the necessary technical or contractual guarantees. The Commission further reserves the option to request modifications and additions to the chosen tender, though the modifications in question must not violate the principle of equal conditions for the candidates. The Superintendent's Office will communicate the outcome of the tender to the winner. This communication will also be made to the other candidates     City of Rome Sovrintendenza BB CC Science Museums     CALL FOR TENDERS FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE OF ROME TENDER ADVERTISEMENT   SPECIFICATIONS Summary PURPOSE OF THE TENDER 1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES 1.1 Potential demand and estimate of the flow of visitors 1.2 Evaluation of dimensions and morphology 1.3 Identification of the contents 1.3.1 comparative analysis of the most advanced reference models 1.3.2 checking the general contents set out in the guidelines prepared by Scientific Committee 1.3.3 preliminary preparation and verification of the possible scenarios 1.3.4 final version of a global study 1.3.5 specific feasibility studies of the functional structures and service centres 1.3.6 museographical plan for the exhibits 1.4. General and detailed specifications for the purpose of assignment of the architectural planning. 1.5. Plan for linking the City of Science with other city science museums 1.6 Comparative analysis of the overall outlay Vs overall benefits in terms of improvement scientific culture 2. GUIDELINES PREPARED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 2.1 The philosophy behind the "City of Science of Rome" project 2.2 The international scenario 2.3 The Roman scenario 2.4 Settling the "unitary Vs multipolar" question 2.5 The reference models 2.6 The project of Rome 2.7 Indispensable characteristics of the Roman initiative 2.7.1 It must pursue the objective of the diffusion of scientific culture 2.7.2 The project must take account of the fact that our society is characterised by great innovation 2.7.3 - The project must take account of the fact that we are evolving towards a society characterised by new communication technologies 2.7.4 - The City of Science has to fit into the Roman scene and become part of it 2.7.5 - Rome has enormous scientific and technological wealth 2.7.6 - History and memory of the past 2.7.7 - Cultural dialogue and junction 2.7.8 - Universal access 2.8 Possible distinctive features 3. THE BASIC CONTENTS OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE OF ROME 3.1 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SPACE 3.2 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER 3.3 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY 3.4 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGIES 3.5 - COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 3.6 - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ROME 4. FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES AND SERVICE CENTRES OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE 4.1 IMAX cinema 4.2 Theatre - Auditorium 4.3 Workshops and laboratories 4.4 Conservation Facility 4.5 Teaching and animation centre 4.6 Experimental vegetable garden and arboretum 4.7 Media library, film library and multimedia technology education centre 4.8 The science of art 4.9 Association centre and membership 4.10 Integration with the municipal science structures 4.10.1 Museo civico di Zoologia 4.10.2 Planetario e Museo delle Scienze planetarie 4.10.3 Museo della Matematica 4.10.4 Collection of "Arte sanitaria" 4.10.5 The Children's City 5- MUSEUM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 5.1 Conservation of the collections 5.2 Management of the information 5.3 - Configuration of the new Museum based on a modular system 6. POTENTIAL DEMAND 6.1 Estimate of the flow of visitors 7. DIMENSIONS AND MORPHOLOGY 8. - ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 8.1 Project phases 8.2 Scientific Committee 8.3 Supervisory Committee 8.4 Project Co-ordinator                     PURPOSE OF THE TENDER The purpose of this tender is to find a qualified Consultant, capable of assisting the Staff of the Local Government in drawing up a Feasibility Study related to the cultural and scientific aspects and the museological and financial planning of the "City of Science of Rome" system. The call for tenders and subsequent identification follow the preparatory work already carried out by the "Committee for the drawing up of a plan of operations aimed at the creation of a Museum of Science in Rome" established by Resolution no. 2685 of the City Council of 24 July 1998. The main objective of the Tender is to achieve a plan that, on the one hand, assimilates the guidelines and recommendations produced by the Committee and, on the other, makes a substantial contribution to the planning of the characteristics of the future City of Science of Rome and its museological organisation and form. The technical specifications necessary for the execution of the Feasibility Study to which the tender refers form an integral part of these specifications The criteria for eligibility of the bids and requirements for participation in the tender are set out in the Call for Tenders and in the Special Conditions. 1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES The objective of the project is to create a City of Science in Rome. The new structure should take the shape of a great system of scientific communication, at the international level, and should constitute a centre of excellence for the propagation of high-profile scientific and technological culture in Italy and Europe. In view of the complexity of the operation, the Municipal Government of Rome wants to make use of a Consultant to carry out a feasibility study for the City of Science and plan its contents. Considering that the principal purpose of the study is to make a detailed analysis of the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the new City of Science, the Consultant will, first and foremost, analyse the potential demand for the new structure, estimating the flow of visitors, its dimensions and its morphology. The Consultant will then analyse the information produced by the research work done by the experts of the Scientific Committee during the preliminary phase of the studies and analyse all the documentation on the subject produced by Institutions and individual research worker. This will enable him or her to acquire a broad knowledge of the cultural contexts of the various projects drawn up in the past and of the background of the project. On the basis of this knowledge, the Consultant will indicate the best possible configuration for the new Museum. Subsequently the Consultant will define the strategies linked to the most important aspects of the management of the Museum (conservation, exhibition space, education, services, management and propagation of information, tourist activities). On the basis of the various configurations identified, the Consultant, in agreement with the Principal, will select the most suitable one to be developed during the next phase of the Feasibility Study and will carry out further technical investigations for the purpose of being able to draw up the plan of operations of the Project. Lastly, the Consultant will determine the impact of the proposed configuration on the physical, social and economic environment of the city. The study will also consider activities to be developed in parallel with other museums. Operationally the Consultant is required to develop the following basic points, in the order suggested below, integrating the other requests of the principal wherever the Consultant deems most suitable: 1. Potential demand and estimate of the flow of visitors 2. Evaluation of dimensions and morphology 3. Identification of the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the City of Science 3.1 comparative analysis of the most advanced reference models, 3.2 checking the general contents set out in the guidelines prepared by Scientific Committee (point 2 of the Specifications), preparing proposals for additions, 3.3 preliminary preparation and verification of the possible scenarios from among which, as the work goes on, the optimal configuration of the new City of Science of Rome will be selected 3.4 final version of a global study in which a detailed analysis is made of 3.4.1 the structure and morphology of the City of Science 3.4.1 the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the new Museum 3.5 specific feasibility studies of the functional structures and service centres identified 3.6 general museum plan related to the exhibitions and a detailed plan of the essential exhibits 4. General and detailed specifications for the purpose of assignment of the overall architectural planning. 5. Plan for linking the City of Science with other parts of the city and national museum system and a plan for a network structure 6. Comparative analysis of overall outlay Vs overall benefits in terms of improvement of the scientific culture of the City and the Nation.   2. GUIDELINES PREPARED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. Rome is almost the only capital of a great State that still has no large structure dedicated to the presentation of the basic problems of science and technology. This appears even more serious when we recall that Rome has very important collections and considerable intellectual energy, as well as a significant potential for direct interaction with the great research centres and the principle information and communication structures.   2.1 The philosophy behind the "City of Science of Rome" project The idea of starting work on a City of Science, which can rank high among international science museums, with good qualifications and specific characteristics, is a great opportunity not only for Rome, but for the whole country. Although the City of Science project contemplates the creation of a huge exhibition centre with great attraction for the public, it will also make it possible to enhance and put to use the positive experiments thus far carried out in Rome through the widespread network of conservation centres and initiatives promoted by "Musis" to respond to the increasing demand for scientific culture in this country. For the network of intellectual energy that contributed to inspiring the "Musis" Project, the future City of Science will certainly constitute a landmark, a guarantee of co-ordination and an opportunity for timely planning of initiatives, as well as adequate operational, organisational and service structures, capable of assisting persons working in the field and making the work of propagating scientific culture more effective. In other words, the City of Science is not to be conceived as an inaccessible citadel but as a powerful engine capable of transmitting impulses and stimuli far beyond the precincts of its own walls, involving, mobilising and assisting all the people who want to participate in a project of great civic importance aimed at bringing scientific culture to the citizens and making them more aware of the cognitive, economic-productive and social implications of research. 2.2 - The international scenario Very important centres for the propagation of science are already in existence in the great European capital cities, often for many year. Just as an example, we can recall that the start of the initiatives that led to the inauguration of the Science Museum of London date as far back as the eighteen-seventies, the Deutsches Museum of Munich was founded in 1903 and opened to the public in 1914, while the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris was inaugurated in 1937 and the San Francisco Exploratorium has been in full operation since 1969. There are other centres, even though smaller and less important - like Poitiers, Manchester or Helsinki - that have structures of this type and are usually known as "Museums" or "Cities of Science". Another significant fact is that all these structures were created in cities and cultural contexts that already had big Natural History Museums, some even two hundred years old. 2.3 - The Roman scenario Attempts at filling this gap have been going on for many years and one that assumed particular importance during the last ten years is the "MUSIS" project, supported by the "The Sapienza" University of Rome and the Province of Rome. This project started out as an attempted to create a great Museum of Science, along the lines of and similar in size to others on the international scene, with various proposals regarding its location and contents. Subsequently, the idea of building a "multipolar" museum prevailed, which consisted of identifying a certain number of "poles", distributed over different sites, to form an organised, integrated system into an efficient network. Rome has many small and medium Science Museums, fairly evenly distributed throughout the city. In the field of national history, the Museums of the "The Sapienza" University, connected with the scientific departments of the Faculty of Science, are mainly active in the field of research and conservation while, as far as education is concerned, they only operate in the field of university teaching and, as a whole, they have a wealth of scientific collections of an extent comparable to any large European natural history museum. On the other hand, there are other Museums active in the city that are open to the public and can carry out their mission in full. There is the L. Pigorini Ethnography Museum (State) and the Municipal Zoology Museum. Both establishments are large in size, contain many scientific collections (the Zoology Museum has five million specimens) and are strictly single-discipline. Apart from Natural History, there are other bodies (Universities, Research Institutions, Schools, Hospitals, firms, etc.) that possess a great wealth of cultural, technical-scientific and industrial property of great interest but not very usable. Then there are other structures, which have been taking shape recently, for which plans are ready and funding allocated. It is clear that the overall city scenario in which "Musis" has been working is heterogeneous and characterised by extreme fragmentariness while, at the same time, it has great vitality (also generated by "Musis"). The overall scenario of the management of scientific culture in Rome, is in any case, evolving rapidly and seething with proposals and action, which can even be seen in the organisation of the Municipal Government, which has set up a special Scientific Culture Office. 2.4 - Settling the "unitary Vs multipolar" question In the Roman situation, this type of debate arises from the existence of an important historic and scientific heritage and concerns, in particular, the relationship between the new Museum and the collections of the museums already in existence. In fact, this relationship can be based either on the assumption of partial or total presentation of the collections in the City of Science or on the assumption that they would be made use of while remaining in their existing sites. There are a number of reasons in favour of their presentation in the same place as the interactive exhibits, the temporary and permanent exhibitions and the services of the new City of Science. First and foremost, there is a typically cultural reason, since that would enable the most advanced and sophisticated aspects of contemporary technical-scientific research to be presented in a perspective of the historical development of science and technology I Secondly, there is the possibility of endowing the exhibits with a marked attraction potential, since the technical-scientific and industrial collections of Rome are composed of articles that are little known but have a great impact on the general public (including the many tourists) which hardly knows them. Thirdly, there is the advisability of locating these collections in a suitable place for their conservation and taking the opportunity of their transfer and new arrangement in a museum for making inventories, preparing catalogues and carrying out restoration and research campaigns, without which this wealth runs very high risks of being wasted and destroyed. The fact is that a significant increase in the "critical mass" of the new city or museum of science would be achieved, as well as an unprecedented enhancement and manifestation of Rome's historic-scientific wealth and make the Roman project really distinct from the "city of science" models created in other parts of the world. There are some objective difficulties in relation to the second proposal, regarding exploitation of the existing situation, but it is still believed that there is a concrete possibility of developing a project with the exploitation of the historic-scientific wealth as its the main objective. In this case the City of Science would be deployed in the area selected without having the historic collections and the research collections but it would, nonetheless, be involved in an ambitious project for their exploitation ad exhibition to the public in their various historic sites, perhaps adopting, updating and above all concretely implementing the "multipolar" network strategy conceived by "MUSIS". The Scientific Committee has therefore decided: - to settle the question of choice between a decentralised and "multipolar" museum and a single and "Museum or City of Science" by finding a solution that combines the positive aspects of both strategies, - to take the projects already under way or under preparation fully into account, with a view to possible greater involvement in the future, - to make provision for a strong network function to exploit the existing scientific wealth, - to create a communication and display structure on subjects complementary to those already existing or in any case to aim at greater integration. This series of considerations led the Scientific Committee to pursue a single, well-defined project for a great "City of Science" system, which is to consist of: - a Museum of Science operating in a complementary way to the existing system, using a conceptual approach covering six specific subjects (set out in points 3.1 - 3.6 below) which are open to integration. - a series of functional structures and supplementary service centres situated both in the City of Science and in other urban locations, - a global network system of the city science museums that, without attempting to interfere with their particular characters and fields, would link all the city structures virtually and optimise their cultural use and their ease of use.   2.5 - The reference models There are a great many significant examples of museums and/or cities of science on the international scene. These models, their evolution and their ability to attract the interest of a very wide public today need to be carefully analysed by the Consultant, with particular attention to the principal dynamics of their development. These structures nearly always have very large premises and their architecture is usually impressive and striking. They present series of exhibits aimed at helping the "lay" public to understand the theoretical principles of science and the most advanced and sophisticated applications. Interaction, in other words direct participation by the public in the process of observation and discovery, is their most characteristic common feature. As early as 1963, interaction, as the best way of promoting understanding by a wider section of the public of the complex world of science and technology, was one of the cornerstones of the San Francisco Exploratorium, an institute which still best interprets its spirit and method and constantly updates it. The teaching activity that takes place in these science centres is of the hands-on type. More recently, these structures, which at the international level often do not show particularly significant type variations (anyone who has visited many will have noticed how often the same exhibits recur) have been seeking an increasingly direct and prompt link with the products of technological and industrial innovation (the exhibits are often actually promos of national and/or multinational firms active in the hi-tech field; this is also due to the need to cut down on the costs of creating exhibition structures by using the resources of private sponsors). Lastly, during the last few years, multimedia technologies have been increasingly used in these centres as a supplement or alternative to the traditional exhibits, or to support their automatic operation by means of electronic systems that allow users to program them freely. Many of these centres continue to meet with great success with the public and they are generally recognised as having an essential function in the process of transferring advanced scientific and technical subjects to the general public. It must, however, be stressed that the quest for hands-on demonstrations at all costs quite often detracts from even a basic understanding of the principles involved in some of the exhibits. In other words, it can be said that hands-on does not always mean mind-on and that amusing observation of effects, without the slightest intellectual involvement regarding the causative mechanisms and basic principles on which they operate, produces limited educational results. In recent years authorities have started pointing out the weakness or educational inadequacy of many of these structures. People are shown the results and products of research, which can be viewed in their extreme and reassuring schematism and, above all, can be freely handled but they do not even get a glimpse of the complexity and the cultural dimension of scientific and technological research. During the past ten years great efforts have been made in Italy, in some important centres, to overcome the fact that our country is lagging behind its principal international partners, by planning structures of that type. An axis of national science museums is emerging that, in addition to the few big and famous Natural History Museums of the principal cities of the North, means that important scientific and technical structures have now been established in Milan, Florence and Naples Apart from the plans and efforts made in Rome by "MUSIS", experiments aimed at achieving similar objectives (although they have not yet really taken root) have been carried out in Genoa (with a great public attendance at the Aquarium), Trieste (Immaginario Scientifico) and Turin (Experimenta). Recently, the University of Catania, in agreement with the University of Lecce, launched an ambitious City of Science project. There has also been activity and preliminary projects along these lines in Padua (on the initiative of the University) and Florence (on the initiative of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science and the Municipality). 2.6 - The project of Rome The overall picture and remarks outlined must always be kept in mind in the preparation of the project for the City of Science in Rome. The main purpose of this is to achieve a dual objective: a) to produce an organisation with a "critical mass" comparable to that of the most successful establishments already in operation on the international scene; b) make the Roman initiative something special compared to the most widely adopted models. 2.7 - Indispensable characteristics of the Roman initiative It is essential for the Roman initiative to be different from the standard types of Science Centre common on the international scene and to have its own particular identity. With regard to the distinctiveness and originality of the Roman project, the City of Science of Rome must be conceived, carried out and operated in the context of the following eight essential points: 2.7.1 - It most pursue the objective not only of scientific and technical information but, above all, that of the dissemination of scientific ad technological culture and, to use an Anglo-Saxon expression, of "an understanding of science and technology". It must therefore be a place where memory and history and change and evolution are represented. It is therefore neither a museum in the traditional sense nor a series of technological showcases. It must achieve a balance between memory and mutation, inspired by a cultural approach to science and technology and must therefore have a clear historical and critical aspect. All things considered, it must contribute to putting science and technology back into culture and culture back into science and technology 2.7.2 - The project must take account of the fact that we live, and shall in the medium term continue to live, in a society characterised by a great rate of innovation. In the design of the City of Science, both its shape and contents, a balance must be sought between structures and infrastructures, between stores, laboratories and exhibition spaces, capable of ensuring a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. In other words, it must be designed with a view to adaptability to requirements that vary as time goes by. 2.7.3 - The project must take account of the fact that we are evolving towards a society in which the ways of memorising and transmitting knowledge will change radically as a result of the use of the new communications and information technologies. The City of Science will be operating in this new context and must therefore be set up taking into account, from the moment of its conception, of the need to use new languages. To this end it is necessary, in a way, to equip the experimentation laboratories with the new technologies and the new languages, which have to be constantly updated. The City of Science of Rome must therefore not take the form of a static structure but of a dynamic space in constant movement. Nevertheless, the widespread use of everything the multimedia and networks already offer us today must be anticipated, both from the point of view of integration of the languages and of that of connection with databanks and knowledge. Lastly, provision must be made for the development of dialogue with remote users, paying particular attention to schools. 2.7.4 - The City of Science has to fit into the Roman scene and become part of an environment that has an excellent and unique memory of building techniques. The City of Science can add a scientific and technical dimension to the artistic DIMENSION of this memory. And that is in line with what, for its part, the Municipal Cultural Property Service of Rome decided to pursue in the Museum of Roman Civilisation. Ways and means need to be defined in the project for specific action in this field, envisaging co-operation with and complementariness to the Municipal Service. It is clear that, in this way, thorough cultural interaction can be established with the city and its history and the City of Science can be something really different, emphasising in particular the aspects related to the science of building 2.7.5 - Rome has enormous scientific and technological wealth, which is not just kept in the University Museums and municipal museums, and it also has a great wealth of experience acquired during so many years of work by "Musis". The project must enable the City of Science to carry out the function of helping to put this wealth "into the network" by acting as a catalyst for initiatives and joint programmes for propagating scientific cultures, equipping itself with common service infrastructures. It must also be the centre of that network, spread throughout the city, linking places where the scientific and technical wealth is kept and the activities related to making use of it take place. 2.7.6 - The City of Science sees historic memory not only as the key to the making the most of a glorious cultural past of which fundamental testimony can be found in the university museums (and not only there) but it also recognises the synergetic significance of history for a critical awareness of the present and of the profound changes that our society is going through. 2.7.7 - The City of Science of Rome must take the shape of an international place for the exchange of specific cultural experiences different from another. To that end it can constitute a junction for initiatives related to the evolution of scientific thought and to the new frontiers of innovation connected to it, closely related to the social changes triggered off and caused by that process. 2.7.8 - For this approach to develop fully it is essential to guarantee universal access to the structure, paying particular attention, during the planning phase, of equal usability by every type of public. This intent must be expressed both in the absence of any kind of architectural or communication barrier and by excluding differential lines of utilisation of the cultural material that might discriminate between the many categories of user. 2.8 - Possible distinctive features Another very distinguishing feature would be the possibility, already referred to, of devoting ample space within the boundaries of the City of Science itself to the exhibition of the extraordinary scientific, technical and industrial wealth held by many persons and bodies in the Roman area. If that could be done, the future Roman structure would be of a very distinctive type compared to the vast majority of science centres operating on the international scene. And all the more so if we succeed in developing an ambitious and skilled policy of services, exhibition proposals and original teaching methods suited for presenting extraordinary specimens, mainly unknown but interesting and significant, to the general public in a lively and non-academic manner. What is more, there would be the great advantage of being able to show easily, by presenting the historic evolution of science and technology, the extent and typically cultural implications of scientific activities, an aspect almost always totally neglected in the science centres, with the result that those structures end up by ghettoising science and technology in a typically instrumental position, thus contributing to reinforcing the popular concept of their basic difference or, at least, irremediable separateness from the world of cultural activities in the true sense. Another distinguishing objective to be pursued determinedly is to shift the emphasis from mere reproducibility by visitors of the most wonderful effects and the most amazing phenomena by direct handling of the exhibits (hands on), to understanding the heuristic processes and the epistemological and cultural implications (in the broadest sense) of the paths to the discovery and definition of scientific theories. This certainly does not mean abandoning the so successful formula of the interactive approach but making every effort to show the overall problems and the frequent lack of consistency in the processes of discovery, thus contributing to developing the visitor's critical sense and stimulating him or her to adopt a hands-and-mind-on approach. The objective pursued must not so much be merely to astonish people with the presentation of the most advanced results achieved by scientific and technological research but rather to give the visitor an idea of the complexity of this sector of human activity, of its typically cultural aspect, and perhaps give visitors, where it proves possible, an opportunity to grasp the extent of the economic and social implications attained. In addition to the requirements set out in point 2.8.4 above, for a further distinction of the new City of Science and to give it an appearance that fits in with the aspect of the city as a whole and the role it plays in the collective imagination (that of one of the most important centres because of the evidence it bears in its actual physical structures of important phases and moments of the evolution of western civilisation) the tendency should be to use the methods, exhibition techniques and tools (hands on, exhibits, multimediality, etc.) typical of the city and of museums of science, to present basic aspects of the history of Rome to visitors in a lively and effective manner: the installations (e.g. aqueducts, roads, military and agricultural organisation etc.) and the extraordinary and technically very audacious buildings (Pantheon, Coliseum, St. Peter's etc.). The same thing can be done for the presentation of the natural environment of the Rome of other times: trades and craft traditions, food habits etc. The section of the City of Science devoted to these subjects - if properly designed and put into effect (just think of the opportunities offered in this field by the skill and ingenuity of the craftspeople of the cinema industry) - will give this structure an absolutely original identity. It will also be another tool for linking the new museum plexus with the overall image of the city, as well as an opportunity to et up a "virtuous circle" between tradition and contemporariness, between science and technology on the one hand and culture and organisation of society on the other. 3. THE BASIC CONTENTS OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE OF ROME It can already be deemed indispensable to set up a certain number of areas dedicated to the presentation of developments in the outstanding sectors of scientific and technological research, paying special attention to the increasingly intrusive phenomenon of techno-science. We would like to repeat that these preliminary indications are not meant to provide an exhaustive list (in fact the City of Science will have to devote attention to many other fundamental themes), but rather to sketch out a series of exhibition areas that would already be capable, on their own, of constituting a sufficient "critical mass" (combined with the other services described in this document) of attracting a large number of public. It should also be stressed that every exhibition on these kinds of theme, which are rushing ahead in research and applications, requires constant updating if it is not to become rapidly obsolete. To sum up, these areas need to be conceived as sites where work is always in progress. This is another reason why the new Roman structure must have a strong permanent connection with the excellence centres of research to ensure the timely transfer to the general public of progress as it is achieved. At the same time a complementary relationship with the industries in the Roman area must be sought and cultivated. By way of example, some of the main subjects of choice for the City of Science of Rome are shown below: 3.1 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SPACE The subjects related to space will certainly be illustrated, on the one hand, by the presentation of the instruments, methods and purpose of exploration of the cosmos and illustration of the cognitive and material effects on humanity; and, on the other, by stressing the use of space by the big telecommunications networks, a sphere where it seems advisable to point out the many and fundamental implications at the economic and civil level. 3.2 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER A sector that should present a high level of exhibits is the sphere related to knowledge of the structure of matter and the laws that govern it. These disciplines have, on the one hand, revolutionised our concept of nature and even of the evolution of the universe while other disciplines and technology have radically changed our everyday life. Every stage of penetration into the heart of matter has opened up unexpected worlds and produced a variety of practical applications and new materials: - crystalline level: superconductivity, microelectronics, laser, - atomic and molecular level: X-rays, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, - nuclear level: sidereal evolution, advanced diagnosis and therapies, energy from fission and fusion, nondestructive tests, elementary analyses, - quark level: evolution of the universe, cosmic processes. It should be stressed that extremely complex research methods have been developed requiring collaboration between the entire world scientific community, thus accelerating technological progress, and that this kind of knowledge is only acquired by means of ongoing discussion and critical examination, defining most carefully the limits of certain knowledge and the fields still open. 3.3 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY This is where the great subjects related to the formation, structure and functioning of ecosystems have to be considered and then an analysis made of the actions of interference caused by the development of the technological civilisation and the optimal technical means and development models for maintaining them. The treatment of the biotic and abiotic components of the environment and of their levels of organisation will continue with the energy and geo-biochemical cycles and culminate at an ecosystem level of maximum integration. An exhibition sector that will be very typical of the Roman structure will be devoted to matters related to the mechanisms of the formation and maintenance of the planet's global biodiversity. Problems of such great contingency, linked to the maintenance of life itself on the earth and so closely interrelated with the development of civilisation, will be dealt with in their historic-evolutionary context and strictly related to present-day economic dynamics. 3.4 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGIES Another important exhibition space will be devoted to the important research work being carried out in the field of molecular biology, with the numerous application polarities derived from it. The aim should be to present the basic principles and applications of molecular genetics, biochemistry and genetic and cellular engineering techniques in basic biological and medical research, with an understanding of the evolutionary process, and also with regard to innovative fallout affecting health strategies and the pharmaceutical and agri-food industries. What has to be shown is how the dynamic organisation of the evolutionary process and of development is defined and studied by means of the concepts and technical instruments produced by biomolecular and cellular research. The new knowledge and techniques, especially those that emerge from the mapping and sequencing of the human genome and from studies of the genic expression and function, are also changing the frame of reference of physiopathological investigation and medical practice, moving the definition and causal explanation of disease to the genes and their control and to the mechanisms of intra- and intercellular communication and also directing diagnosis and treatment towards the cellular and genetic levels. No less important is the fallout from biotechnology on pharmaceutical and agri-food production processes where technologies of recombinant DNA and the construction of genetically modified organisms (transgenic) have not only revolutionised the preparation of drugs and vaccines but, above all, are widely diffused in agriculture and animal husbandry. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of the needs of an ethical, social and legal nature that arise from the possibility of knowing and modifying the human genetic heritage and of marketing the biotechnology and products deriving from their applications.: 3.5 - COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY Neuroscience must be well presented and also be linked to the development of research on artificial intelligence. The basic cerebral mechanisms, at every level - organisation, behaviour, sensory system, neurone circuits, nerve cells and molecules - are themes introducing a broader scenario that, proceeding from physics to the mind, leads to the cognitive models and, through informatics and electronics, arrives at the world of communication and information engineering. The theme should concentrate on the processing capacities of the mind and on the situation that is arising with the progressive development of communication technologies. It would be advisable to make it clear that the inputs reaching the brain are only a tiny part of the mind's processing capacity (from perception to memory), that the brain/mind has a heuristic capacity that, broadly speaking, adapts us to various environmental and requirements but that, in some situations and in the case of ambiguous information, may lead to mistakes. What is therefore needed is to develop a method of reasoning and checking, to assist our decisions: in other words to learn how to think and to learn. Another point to be developed is the question of the merits and problems created by virtuality: this subject deals with various aspects of the formation of the child's brain, of the relations between the concrete and the abstract, the empirical and the theoretical, and is important in the sphere of scholastic use of communication technologies. 3.6 - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ROME The basic aspects of the history of Rome and the installations (e.g. aqueducts, roads, military and agricultural organisation etc.) and the wonderful and technically extremely audacious buildings (Pantheon, Coliseum, St. Peter's etc.) that characterised the amazing development of Roman civilisation in the past and enabled this city to continue for such a long time as a metropolis and an important cultural and spiritual centre for the whole world, need to be presented to visitors in a lively and effective way. In fact, all these subjects lend themselves to an approach based on the direct participation of the public in discovery, handling and reconstruction. They help people to understand what they do not realise when visiting an archaeological area: how the aqueducts worked, how the baths were supplied with water, how domes and arches were built and even what a formidable structure - powerful but light - is constituted by the combination of arches that form the Coliseum.     4. FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES AND SERVICE CENTRES OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE While leaving the definition and feasibility for the planning of the exhibition modules of the City of Science to the Consultant, we describe here some of the basic sections of the City of Science System, which it needs to have (some right from the start, others gradually) in order to present a very attractive and appealing package to the large pubic potentially interested (local, national and hopefully also international). Some structural layouts and some museum facilities capable of enhancing and improving the functionality and efficiency of the structure are mentioned here. It is stressed that the order followed in the list is not to be taken as an order of importance and that, where thought fit, some of the service structures might be located elsewhere than in the Museum. Lastly, it is pointed out that some of these structures, such as, for instance, the Workshops and the Conservation Facility could even be set up outside the City of Science area. 4.1 - Imax cinema There is not even one example in Italy of this type of cinema, where 70 mm films on technical-scientific subjects are screened, by a very sophisticated system, on parabolic screens that the range of visual of the viewer cannot fully embrace; visitors are literally "crushed" by the effects of the realistic and "overflowing" pictures and "pounded" by the sound. At present there are more than 130 Imax theatres in the world, forming a circuit usually very popular with the public where documentaries specifically made for these theatres are screened (though it must be said that the quality of these products is not always consistent). The creation of an Imax theatre is certainly an expensive undertaking but it would be hard to imagine not having one in a project of this kind. 4.2 - Theatre - auditorium An adequate space for all the Communication Science activities (theatrical events, concerts, seminars, courses etc.) 4.3 - Workshops and laboratories Workshops for the design, construction and maintenance of the exhibits. For the material construction of the exhibits, for guaranteeing their efficiency by constant maintenance, for updating and improving them, for creating the exhibition elements for temporary shows (internal and for itineration), for producing kits for sale and/or hire, a production department, staffed by technicians who are flexible and capable of working with many different kinds of material, is needed. If the workshop is efficiently organised and has skilled staff it will be able to produce exhibits, materials and travelling shows not only for the City of Science of Rome, but for other centres, schools, associations etc. all over the country; and, if the design and manufacture of products are of a high level, on the international market also, where these kinds of material and services are already available from some major science centres (e.g., the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris and the 'Exploratorium in San Francisco). It is essential that the workshop fully combine museum planning and design skills, on the one hand, with skill in material production on the other. 4.4 - Conservation Facility. The optimal conservation of any type of material of biotic or abiotic origin calls for the creation of special, climatised areas. Light, temperature and humidity are fundamental factors if the scientific collections are to last: most of them are extremely perishable. In particular, historic organic collections must not be considered as important "relics" of the past that simply need to be conserved but as essential tools for current research and it must be easy to move and manage them with absolute safety. Recent experiments on the most suitable methods for conserving this kind of scientific heritage has led big cities, both in Europe and America, to create climatised areas underground, where optimal management of collections is combined with the prevention of destructive events, whether of natural or human origin.   4.5 - Teaching and animation centre. It is essential to have staff capable of lively and effective teaching and of animating the visit in a structure to which young people will be habitual visitors and which must constantly produce temporary exhibitions, side by side with the permanent ones. These staff members must be trained and given constant refresher training. The teaching centre can play a great role (and constitute an important self-financing structure) in the task of ensuring the training and refresher training of teachers, not only of scientific subjects, in every type and level of school, on a local, regional and national scale. For this reason the Centre needs to be systematically interfaced with the school authorities of the catchment area and with the Ministry of Education. 4.6 - Experimental vegetable garden and arboretum. In the open-air areas, a sufficiently large piece of ground (with greenhouses and small covered spaces) will be devoted to the presentation of the basic techniques and principles of cultivation (sowing, reproduction, grafting etc.). Some small plots might be rented to school classes for fixed periods, for assisted experimental work. A series of environmental educational activities will be linked to this sector (monitoring the effects of pollution, acid rain etc.). Work in close synergy with the Orto Botanico (botanical garden) must be envisaged for the creation and maintenance of this particular sector. 4.7 - Media libraries, film libraries and centre for education in multimedia technologies and the function and use of the networks. A vast collection of publications, whether hard copy or not, on subjects related to scientific and technological culture, the history of science, science-society interaction etc. needs to be put together and made accessible. The media library will also be a centre for the collection, conservation and distribution of films, documentaries, CDs, books, periodicals, radio programmes etc. It should also be a centre for the production of programmes (films, multimedia products etc.), texts, booklets, and courses - also for distance learning - to meet the various needs of the City of Science, its partners and clients. It must also create and constantly improve the City's Web Site, conducting a dialogue with the remote public in the most effective way and stimulating its interest. The Media Library should periodically publish and distribute as widely as possible (including on the web) one or more periodic publications illustrating and promoting the activities in progress and describing the innovations. The Media Library will be linked to the Museum area allocated for the presentation of information-telematic and telecommunication technologies and their numerous economic and social implications.   4.8 - The science of art There must be a special space dedicated to the numerous levels of interaction between the arts, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other. Interactive exhibits and workshops should, in particular, help visitors to recognise especially the basic technical-scientific components of artistic production (how colours are produced, how the third dimension is "simulated" in painting, how a wall is prepared for the painting of a fresco etc.) This section would contribute to reinforcing the City's role as a place for presenting the pervasive and transverse aspect of science and technology, showing their often decisive presence in artistic production also. 4.9 - Association centre and membership. The presumably great public success of a City of Science conceived in this way suggests the idea of establishing an association type of link with visitors. This would mean establishing a ticketing strategy that would encourage frequent visits to the Museum during the year, particularly by young people of school age. The creation of an association among patrons of the Museum would make it possible to involve numerous persons in certain management aspects (animation, surveillance, assistance to the "disadvantaged" etc.). The association could also organise the members in a series of initiatives: lectures by experts on topical subjects, guided tours, tours of exploration or of naturalist interest guided by experts, even in other hemispheres etc. The Association should also develop a programme of activities for introducing the Museum and its offer of services outside its natural site, promoting useful "contacts" in busy places (stations, art galleries, airports etc.). 4.10 - Integration with the municipal science structures The City of Science must, as a priority, be integrated with the municipal structures, or structures where there is municipal participation, the purpose of which is to promote scientific culture. These structures (some of which created with the contribution of "Musis") are either already in operation in the city, or their action plans have already obtained financing, or their projects already finalised. In addition to being integrated into the city Network these structures also need to be strengthened and put to the best use. Particular reference is made to the following structures: 4.10.1 - Museum Civico di Zoologia (municipal museum of zoology) A structure of over 4000 sq.m, in regular operation, conserving a wealth of zoological scientific collections owned by the City and, partly, by universities. (It is one of the five principal natural history museums in Italy.) Many of the exhibition rooms have recently been fitted out along new museological and conceptual lines. Thanks to the new displays the Museum has become very popular in the city. Conservation, research and education are carried out by specialised staff. There is a global plan to transform the Zoological Museum into a "Life Science Museum", drawn up by a special Scientific Committee and adopted by the Municipal Government. 4.10.2 - Planetario (planetarium) and Museo delle Scienze planetarie (museum of planetary science) This structure is a fundamental one, in view of the popular interest in astronomy and the last-generation planetarium potentiality that combines optical projection, multimedia, stereophony etc. There is no latest-generation planetarium in operation in Italy, where even the presence of more traditional instruments is rare. Rome's new Planetarium is based on an already financed final plan and the tender call has already been launched. The planned location is within the premises of the Museo della Civiltà Romana. Space for an Astronomical Museum is also planned at the Museo della Civiltà Romana. 4.10.3 - Museum della Matematica (mathematics museum) This year a mathematics museum will be inaugurated, created thanks to municipal collections and support in spaces made available by the Mathematics Department of the '"La Sapienza" University. 4.10.4 - The "Arte Sanitaria" (health craft) collections A collection of medical instruments currently conserved at the Museo di Arte Sanitaria 4.10.5 - Children's town. It is essential for there to be a space in the Network of Science Museums specifically reserved for interaction with the pupils of nursery and primary schools. We are aware that the Museo dei bambini (children's museum) project is already in the implementation phase in Rome, on municipal land. As far as possible, it would be desirable to establish synergisms and relationships between the contents of that initiative (even though private and independently managed) with the City of Science. The structures would derive considerable reciprocal advantages. 5 - MUSEUM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES The Consultant, after first defining the Museum's functions and services, will then identify the related needs in terms of space. Functions and services, such as financial, administrative, management and marketing, management of collections, information and orientation programmes for visitors, laboratory, research, control and security systems, repairs and maintenance and other technical services, have to be identified In this way, the proposed museum system will achieve the standing of an institution of international significance and will also become a pole capable of stimulating cultural and educational activities.     5.1 - Conservation of the collections The functions of the new Museum will include exhibition and conservation. The former involves the exposure of objects to natural agents such as light, damp, dust and pollution, which can in some way pose a threat to their conservation. A balance must therefore be struck between exhibition strategy and conservation strategy. The plan for the conservation of the collections will call for adequate resources in terms of personnel, equipment, space and, obviously, funds. The Consultant will therefore identify the staff required and the operational criteria suited to the work of controlling and restoring the collections. 5.2 - Management of information It is considered that the exhibition spaces in the Museum should be planned and managed in such a way that they can be visited without assistance from Museum staff. Information material and audio-visual equipment must therefore be available to supply to visitors when they enter the Museum. This will be one of the key services of the new Museum's Information Service. Furthermore, high-level educational programmes must be proposed in order to increase the interest and participation of young people in the new Museum. 5.3 - Configuration of the new Museum based on a modular system In the light of the results of the sectorial analyses made, the Consultant must identify the criteria to be adopted for defining the architectural layout Of the area and propose the optimal configuration of the new Museum. The Consultant must also evaluate the possibilities and any implications of a future expansion of the Museum to adjacent areas. The Consultant must draw up the Feasibility Study in such a way that the configuration of the City of Science takes into account the close link existing between the Museum area and future developments in its surroundings. The Scientific Committee has suggested that the new museum complex be created gradually, in view of the amount of funding needed. For this purpose the parts to be executed in the future will be identified. The Consultant must therefore plan the new museum complex with a view to its implementation by functional lots, the first of which must guarantee enough exhibition space, even though limited, to contain selected collections and exhibits, the information services, the administration and management services. This will make it possible to present the project to the community of potential Italian and international donors and funders. It is also agreed that the definition of the cultural contents of this first unit is an extremely important matter.       6. - POTENTIAL DEMAND 6.1 - Estimate of the flow of visitors The Consultant must estimate the catchment area of users of the City of Science and the potential flow of visitors, by age, level of education, profession, purpose of the visit, nationality etc. Based on the results of this analysis, the Consultant should suggest the opening hours of the museum complex so as to favour an increase in the number of visitors (both Italian and foreign) and a consequent increase in the revenue of the Museum. At the same time, the Consultant should suggest appropriate measures for avoiding overcrowding in the museum complex. 7. - DIMENSIONS AND MORPHOLOGY Some preliminary choices have to be made to enable the dual requirements described in point 2.6, which appear to be essential to justify the economic and intellectual investment required by such an ambitious project, to be satisfied. As far as location is concerned, it is advisable, first and foremost to stress that the success, visibility and popularity (in terms of number of visitors) of the new structure will depend to a great extent on the central location (even relative) of the site selected and on the efficiency and frequency of the transport network (rail, road etc.) connecting it to the busy centres of the civic, economic, tourist and cultural life of Rome. The relative centrality of the structure will also contribute to diminish the risks of its "ghettoisation", away from the management centres of cultural life (art galleries and archaeological centres, libraries, archives etc.). Equally important is the quality of architectural design and the plan for the surrounding natural environment, which will be the subject of a specific call for tender based on the results of this feasibility study; the same goes for the spaces available, also taking into account the fact, considering the mild Roman climate, that spaces set up out of doors and/or partially covered should play an important role. As things stand, and in an emblematic way, the Municipal Government is in favour of the proposal to locate the City of Science in the Ostienze- Marconi - San Paolo sector, which is the subject of a specific Town Plan in course of completion, and in this sector, in particular, in part of the area owned by Italgas situated between the Via Ostiense and the Tiber (Gasometer) and the reutilization of abandoned industrial buildings present in the neighbourhood. The success of the negotiations in progress for acquisition of the area by the Municipal Government is an essential condition for the realisation of this location proposal. By way of example, a card describing the site is attached. Such a location would add the presence of the Tiber and its banks to the specific contents of the proposed establishment, constituting an added value for the overall profile of the whole project. The location indicated would also make it possible to aim at creating a single cultural system that would recuperate a vast area of industries and services that are no longer in use or are in the course of being given up, by including not only the City of Science but the new spaces of Rome University Three, the former Miralanza factory (Papareschi complex), intended to be a supplementary seat of the Teatro di Roma, the Montemartini Plant - an already established museum-exhibition structure - the former Slaughterhouse complex and the General Markets which will soon be moved to the new Centro Agro Alimentare (agricultural products and food centre) and will therefore become available for cultural uses and public services. It can be seen from the data set out above that to realise an operation corresponding to high international standards, several tens of square metres of useful surface are needed (and, in the case of Rome, big outdoor spaces also) viz.: exhibition services conservation 30.000 sq.m 20.000 sq.m 10.000 sq.m It can also be seen that the spaces dedicated to permanent exhibits are between 1/3 to 1/2 of the overall useful surface (in the case of the Science Museum of Boston the total useful surface is less than this average percentage but it must be remembered that it has huge spaces that are almost permanently occupied by temporary exhibitions). Naturally, such a great extension of covered area (and equipped outside areas) does not have to be fully available before the exhibition activities can start. In fact, they can be realised gradually; but this scale of dimensions must be borne in mind from the start in selecting the area and the scientific and museological model, envisaging possible breakdown into successive finished functional sections.   8. - ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 8.1 - Project phases The Consultant to whom the contract is awarded shall carry out the study and the subsequent planning in the phases listed below: PHASE 1 - Working out and submission of one or more operational proposals, very general but with recognisable and unambiguous contents and organisation. Phase 1 is followed by an opinion by the Supervisory Committee, which shall proceed with the identification and possible approval of the optimal scenario. At this point the Committee may ask for changes, additions, variations or revisions of the overall organisation and contents of the City of Science System. PHASE 2 - Submission of the preliminary version of the study and its approval by the Supervisory Committee. Submission of the final results of the study with regard to points 1 and 2 of the project objectives referred to in art. 1 of these Specifications. The final results on "Potential demand and estimate of the flow of visitors" and "Evaluation of Dimensions and Morphology" shall be made available to the Consultant appointed to make the study on the identification of the organisational form and management structure of the future City of Science. PHASE 3 - Submission of the Feasibility Study and planning of the contents in the final version and conclusion of services. 8.2 - Scientific Committee The Administration will support the Science Museums U.O. of the Municipal Service by setting up a Committee of Experts, which will be appointed on the basis of the experience thus far acquired through the work of the Committee set up in 1998 to advise the City of Rome on the project in the scientific and cultural field. 8.3 - Supervisory Committee At the time the contract comes into force the Administration will appoint a Supervisory Committee with the task of supervising the progress of the study and ensuring a balance between the consultant's independence and responsibility for planning, making the most of the work done by the Scientific Committees and the guidance activities of the Municipal Government. The function of the Committee will be to supervise and guide in the preparation of the product but it will also be available for consultation with the Consultant during the preparation of the project. 8.4 - Project Co-ordinator The Consultant shall identify a Co-ordinator of the study.   The Superintendent Prof. Eugenio La Rocca TENDER ANNOUNCEMENT City Of Rome Sovrintendenza BB CC Science Museums   INVITATION TO TENDER CONTRACT TENDER FOR THE FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF ROME'S CITY OF SCIENCE 1. Contracting authority: The City of Rome, Superintendent of Cultural Resources, Organizational Unit for Science Museums, Piazza Campitelli, Rome Tel +39-6-3225122 67102359 Fax +39-6-67103811. 2. Description and category of services: Feasibility study and planning of the contents of the new City of Science in Rome., Reference number CPC 867 Presumed maximum net amount: L. 1,100,000,000 Lit. (568,103 Euro) 3. Place of performance: Rome, Italy 4. Eligible subjects: Individual or associated professionals, individual or associated companies, public entities and consortiums. 5. Variants: Permitted in order to attain objectives indicated under the terms and conditions, assuming that no costs are added beyond the presumed maximum price. 6. Time period for performance of service: 180 consecutive calendar days. 7. Partial tenders: not accepted. 8. Acquisition of the Invitation to Tender, together with the Terms and Conditions and Appendices, at the address listed under point 1. A copy of the Invitation and the Terms and Conditions is available at the Internet site http//www2.comune.roma.it/cittascienza (Acquisition of the Special Terms and Conditions of the Tender: the Terms and Conditions can be acquired at the address referred to under point 1. following presentation of a declaration by the legal representative stating that the minimum prerequisites stipulated under point 13) below are met, together with a photocopy of an ID. document, no later than 30 days from the publication of the present Invitation.) 9. Deadline for presentation of applications for participation: Suppliers of services who are interested in participating in the competition must present their applications for participation on stamped legal paper, complete with the elements referred to under point 13 below, no later than 12:00 noon on th e 1th April 2000. The envelope must be labelled " CONTRACT TENDER FOR THE FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF ROME'S CITY OF SCIENCE" For the address to which the applications should be sent, see point 1. The applications must be compiled in Italian. 10. Deadline for sending of Invitations to Tender will be communiated later. 11. Guarantees: as per the Special Terms and Conditions. 12. Groupings of Suppliers of Services: Groups of suppliers of services are also eligible to present tenders, under the provisions of article 10 of Legislative Decree no. 358/92. In such cases, as an appendix to the participation application, signed by all the service suppliers participating in the group, each supplier must present, in a separate document, a declaration in which it undertakes, in the event the contracted is awarded, to be part of the group, which is to be established under the provisions and procedures referred to under the aforementioned article 10 of Legislative Decree no. 358/92. 13. Information regarding the position of the suppliers of services and formalities to be met to evaluate the minimum economic and technical conditions to be satisfied. To participate in the competition, the suppliers of services must include with the participation application, on stamped legal paper, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion, at least two bank references demonstrating that the candidate has always met its commitments and a regular, punctual basis and possesses the financial and economic capacity to provide the service. In addition, the Firms must include with the participation application, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion, the following declarations, dated no more than six months earlier and suitable for subsequent confirmation, signed by the Legal Representative and by the chief officers of the enterprise, accompanied by a photocopy of a valid ID. document of the party making the declaration, stating: 1. that none of the conditions for exclusion referred to under article 29 of Directive 92/50/EEC apply to the firm 2. that no companies or firms with relationships of association or control with the firm in question, as determined under article 2359 of the Civil Code, are participating in the competition, either individually or in groups. 3. that the firm respects - where relevant - Law 482/68 regarding obligatory hiring 4. declaration of overall revenues, for the three-year period 1996-1998, excluding VAT, of no less than 3,000,000,000 Lit. 5. declaration listing services pertinent to those requested under the present call for tenders performed for public and/or private entities during the years 1996-1998, to be confirmed through the declarations of these same entities, or with copies of the invoices. 6. that the owner or legal representative of the firm is not subject to any of the motives for elimination, prohibition or suspension contemplated under article 10 of Law 575/1995, plus subsequent modifications, as well as Legislative Decree 490/1994 Note: Solely for information purposes, the firm is to declare that it abides by the provisions of article 9 of Law 125/1991 regarding the situation of male and female personnel on its staff. The declarations listed under points 1 to 6 must be accompanied by a photocopy of a valid ID. document of the party making the declaration, and they must be dated no more than six months earlier. In the case of consortiums or temporary associations of companies, the documents referred to in the first paragraph of this article and the declarations indicated under points 1-2-3-5 and 6 must regard each associated firm or consortium member. The requirement indicated under point 4 can be satisfied in a cumulative manner, though the head company must possess at least 50% of the prerequisites and the delegating firms must meet the same prerequisites at a proportion of at least 20%, with 100% of the prerequisites being met in any event. The documents referred to in the first paragraph of this article can be substituted by a declaration, dated no more than six months earlier, accompanied by a valid ID. document of the party making the declaration. All of the documents cited above, if signed by a foreign authority, must be duly legalized by the Italian diplomatic or consular representatives; if written in a foreign language, then a translation must be included, certified by the same Italian diplomatic or consular representatives as faithfully reflecting the foreign text. Failure or delay in presentation of even one of the elements required above, or non-conformity of the same, will result in exclusion from participation in the competition. Eligibility of firms to be invited to tender will be determined by the Administration through executive decisions. Following approval of the eligible firms, these same firms will be invited to present tenders to the SEGRETARIATO GENERALE - UFFICIO CENTRALE DI CORRISPONDENZA - Via del Campidoglio n. 4 -00186 ROME Italy in accordance with the procedures and deadlines stipulated in the letter of invitation. 14. Criteria for the award of the contract. The service will be awarded under the provisions of article 36 paragraph 1 letter a) of the Directive 92/50/EEC to the most advantageous tender, evaluated on the basis of the following parameters, in order of decreasing importance: ELEMENTS OF EVALUATION Maximum score a - planning of the activities and organization 35 (thirty-five) b - make-up of work group and professional skills employed in the service 25 (twenty-five) c - accrued experience 20 (twenty) d - sum offered 20 (twenty) Tenders with the lowest proposed price will be assigned the maximum score indicated under point d) above. The score for each tender with a price other than the minimum shall be calculated as follows Pm x Pum P Where "Pm" is the minimum price offered, "P" is the price of each of each tender and "Pum" is the score assigned to the minimum price; the results will be rounded off to the nearest thousandth of a point. Tenders with prices or technical characteristics held, respectively, to be too low or anomalous can be excluded. Considering the high degree of specialized skills required, and the likelihood that a low number of candidates will participate, the contract will be awarded even if only one valid tender is presented. In the event that only one valid tender is received, the Municipal Administration will be entitled to award the contract or to negotiate an improved tender with the party making the proposal. In the case of tenders judged to be equal, the contract shall be awarded to the tender with the lowest price. The Administrative reserves the right to refrain from approving the results of the tender competition, eventually for reasons, in addition formal irregularities, of advisability of convenience, or if the tender should prove inappropriate, without the candidates being entitled to request any indemnity or compensation whatsoever. Period of tender validity: 180 days from the deadline for presentation of the tender. 15. Requests for information and copies of terms and conditions should be sent to the address indicated under point 1. To receive a copy of the terms and conditions, send a request to the address listed under point 1, accompanied by a fee of 5,000 Lit. in favor of the Cashier's Office of the Municipal Superintendent 16. Disputes: any disputes are to be brought before the ordinary courts in Rome. 16. Date of publication of pre-information notice in the EC Bulletin: no indication. 17. Date of sending of Invitation to Tender no indication. 18. Date on which the Invitation to Tender is received by the Official Publications Office of the EEC: no indication.       The Superintendent Prof. Eugenio La Rocca City of Rome Sovrintedenza BB CC Science Museums     CONTRACT TENDER FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF ROME'S CITY OF SCIENCE SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS SECTION I Article 1 - Subject of the contract tender The present terms and conditions govern the contract tender for a feasibility study and the planning of the conceptual and material contents of Rome's City of Science, currently being established, as specified in the appendix Technical Terms and Conditions. The area to be covered by the study in question is specified under the Technical Terms and Conditions. Article 2 - Definitions In the present Terms and Conditions, and in all the documentation in general, the terminology specified below will be used: 2.1 "Contract tender" indicates the procedure followed by the Municipal Superintendent's Office for performance of the feasibility study and the planning of the contents of Rome's City of Science. 2.2 "Terms and Conditions" indicates the present special terms and conditions of tender. 2.3 "Candidate" indicates the individuals or organizations which present tenders to obtain the Contract, in the person of their legal representative. 2.4 "Winner" ("Consultant") indicates the party which wins the contract, represented by the individual legally empowered to enter into agreements, and whose title and identifying information must be specified. 2.5 "Contract" indicates the contract signed by the Municipal Superintendent's Office and the Consultant for the performance of the feasibility study of Rome's Museum of Science. 2.6 "Superintendent's Office" indicates the Contracting Administration, meaning the Municipal Superintendent's Office of Rome. 2.8 "Monitoring committee" indicates an organ created to control the progress made in the Consultant's study. Article 3 - Amount of the Contract Presumed maximum amount of the services: 1,100,000,000 Lit. (one billion and one hundred million lire) (568103 Euro) + 220,000,000 (113,621 Euro) VAT of 20 % (entirely financed by the Municipal Superintendent's Office of Rome from the "Rome Capital" funds) . Article 4 - Sources for the contract The contract must be awarded in accordance with the present Special Terms and Conditions. Secondary provisions are those stipulated under: - The General Terms and Conditions of the City of Rome approved under the Council's Resolution 6126 of 17 November 1983. - The current provisions of the law and the regulations governing the administration of public resources and general State accounting, plus whatever other measures may be issued in the future - The Civil Code and the other norms already issued, or to be issued, regarding private-law contracts, to the extent that they are not regulated by the provisions of the preceding point. - Directive 92/50/EEC, transformed into Legislative Decree 157/95, plus the measures referred to therein Article 5 - Description of the services required The City of Science which the Administration of the City of Rome intends to create is a complex structure meant to function as a major system of scientific communication on an international level, and it must represent, both nationally and within Europe, a center of excellence for the dissemination of high-level scientific and technological culture. The Municipal Administration of Rome, given the complexity of the operation, intends to draw on the services of a consultant in order to formulate a project and feasibility study on the City of Science which examines in depth the following fundamental points, in addition to those cited in the technical terms and conditions: 1. Potential demand and estimate of visitor flow 2. Evaluation of dimensions and morphology 3. Identification of the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the City of Science 3.1 comparative analysis of the most advanced reference models, 3.2 evaluation of the general contents expressed in the guidelines drawn up by the Scientific Commission (point 2 of the Technical Terms and Conditions), formulation of proposals for supplementary points, 3.3 preliminary formulation and evaluation of possible scenarios of implementation, from among which will be selected, in the course of the project, the optimal configuration for the new City of Science of Rome 3.4 final formulation of an overall study provided a detailed analysis of 3.4.1 the structure and morphology of the City of Science 3.4.2 the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the new museum 3.5 feasibility studies on the functional structures and the service centers identified 3.6 general museum studies project regarding the expositions and detailed project for the fundamental exhibits 4. general and particular specifications for the awarding of the overall architectural planning. 5. Project for the connection of the City of Science with the other nodes of the municipal and national scientific museum system, plus planning of the network structure 6. Comparative analysis of the total investment vs. the overall benefits in terms of the progress of scientific culture in the City and the nation.   Article 6 - Procedures for performance and phases of implementation. The consultant winning the contract tender is to carry out the study and the subsequent planning according to the phases listed below: PHASE 1 - Formulation and presentation of one or more operating proposals along general lines, but with recognizable and unified contents and structure. Phase 1 shall be followed by the opinion of the Monitoring Committee, which will proceed with the identification and eventual approval of the optimal scenario. At this point the Committee will requests modifications, additions, variations or reformulation of the contents and the overall structure of the system of the City of Science. PHASE 2 - Presentation of the preliminary edition of the study and approval of the same by the Monitoring Committee. Presentation of the final results of the study with regard to points 1 and 2 of article 5 above. The definitive results of points 1 and 2 shall be made available to the consultant assigned the study regarding the identification of the organizational format and the operating structure of the future City of Science. PHASE 3 - Presentation of the feasibly study and the planning of the contents in a definitive edition at the conclusion of the services. Article 7 - Contents of the tender Within the deadline indicated in the letter of invitation to the firms participating in the contract tender, a sealed envelope labelled with the following information must be sent to the Comune di Roma -Segretariato Generale- Ufficio Corrispondenza - Via del Campidoglio, 4 . 00186 Rome - Italy: - name of the candidate; - subject of the contract tender and it must contain: - the sealed envelope with the economic tender; - the sealed envelope with the technical tender; - the administrative documentation requested in the letter of initiation. All the envelopes must be closed, sealed and labelled with their contents. The name of the Form and the subject of the contract tender must be clearly written on the envelope, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion. The following must be included in the economic tender, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion: - an indication of the price bid (expressed in Italian lire) not including VAT; - an explicit declaration that the candidate accepts and agrees to respect all the responsibilities and clauses contemplated under the present Special Terms and Conditions of the Contract, as well as the other sources cited in article 3, and under the provisions of articles 1341 and 1342 of the Civil Code; - a declaration that the candidate has evaluated all the circumstances which led to the calculation of the price, as well as the contractual conditions which may influence the performance of the service. The economic tender must be binding for a period of 6 (six) months. The technical tender must contain all the elements required under article 5 of the present Special Terms and Conditions. Article 8 - Confidentiality The supplier of the services agrees the observe the maximum confidentiality with regard to information of any type whatsoever obtained in the performance of the work covered by the present Special Terms and Conditions.     SECTION II - General tender conditions Article 9 - Variants in the Technical Terms and Conditions Under the provisions of Article 24 of Legislative Decree 157/95, variants which make it possible to achieve the objectives indicated by the Contracting Authority in the Technical Terms and Conditions are permitted. Article 10 - Time period for completion of the services The deadline for completion of the services is set at 180 consecutive calendar days (one hundred and eighty days). Article 11 - Forms of guarantee To participate in the competition, the firm must include with the tender a receipt demonstrating payment of a provisional security deposit of 55,000,000 Lit. (fifty-five million lire), to be made in one of the following modes: a. in cash or in government bonds or securities guaranteed by the State at the average price quotation of the preceding week set by the Ministry of the Treasury and deposited with the Municipal Treasury; b. through the establishment of a security deposit for an equal amount with one of the banks indicated under Presidential Decree no. 635 of 22 May 1956; c. through a bank guarantee for an equal sum; d. through an insurance policy for an equal sum. The security deposits referred to under points b), c) and d) must include the following special condition, under which the banking or insurance institute unconditionally commits itself, waiving the benefit of preliminary examination contemplated under article 1944 of the Civil Code, with failure to do so resulting in exclusion. In addition, the insurance or banking institute must agree to maintain the validity of the guarantee until the formal act of release on the part of the Administration. The document must indicate the signatory powers of the insurer. To guarantee exact observation of the obligations entered into by the Firm, a final security deposit must be established , before the contract is signed, in the forms permitted under the law, and in the amount of 5% of the net sum of the award. The security deposit remains bound until the end of the contract, meaning the end of the guarantee period, or until all exceptions and disputes have been settled. Article 12 - Expenses, duties and taxes With regard to the signing of the contract, all expenses, duties and taxes involving the contract, including tax stamps, receipts, set duties, administrative fees, registrations etc., will be the responsibility of the winning service supplier. The contract will stipulate the clauses to be submitted for specific written approval, as per article 1341 of the Civil Code. Article 13 - Sub-contracting The winner is expressly forbidden to subcontract or transfer the contract, even a portion of it, to third parties, with violations leading to resolution of the contract under the provisions of article 1456 of the Civil Code, though the City of Rome will still be entitled to seek reimbursement of damages. Article 14 - Payment procedures - 25 % of the sum of the contract tender award upon approval of the progress report presented at the end of Phase 1; - an additional 25 % upon approval of the preliminary edition of the feasibility study at the conclusion of Phase 2; - an additional 35% upon approval of the feasibility study, presented in its definitive version, and completion of the services; - the remaining 15% will be settled following a declaration of proper execution, documented with a certificate; SECTION III - Competition procedures Article 15 - Eligible subjects A subject which participates individually or as a member of a candidate consortium or group cannot be part of other candidate consortiums or groups, with violations resulting in the exclusion of not only the subject, but also the candidate consortiums or groups to which it belongs. Foreign participants must present all the documents and declarations required under the present Terms and Conditions. If their home nation does not release the required documents, or any one of these, then a sworn declaration containing all the elements present constitutes sufficient proof, having been released to the interested party in the presence of an administrative or court authority, or a notary public, or any other public official authorized to receive it under the legislation of the country in question, or, in the case of countries where sworn declarations are not contemplated, a solemn declaration containing the same elements. Article 16 - Groups of service providers Also eligible for participation in the awarding of the work referred to under article 1 of the present Terms and Conditions are service providers who have purposefully and temporarily formed groups under the procedures of article 11 of Legislative Decree no. 157/95, with an indication of the group head. The joint tender must: - be signed by all the firms in the group; - specify the portions of the project to be carried out by the individual firms; - commit these same firms to observing the rules and regulations contemplated under the present article. The elements required in the Invitation to Tender under point 13, letters A) and B), and the declarations contained in points 1), 2), 3) and 4), refer to each of the associated firms or consortium members. The act of delegation of firms temporarily grouped together is to be formally presented to the Administration before the signing of the contract.   Article 17 - Partial or increased tenders Tenders made in partial form, conditionally or in excess of the sum indicated under article 3 or of the completion deadline indicated under article 10 are not permitted. Article 18 - Information requests Information can be requested (exclusively by mail or telefax) from the Management of the Organizational Unit for Scientific Museums of the Superintendent's Office of the City of Rome (address, telephone and fax indicated under article 1), which will supply information regarding the tender to those making requests.. The responses will be communicated by telefax to the number indicated by the requesting party. Article 19 - Validity of the tenders Following their presentation, the tenders cannot be withdrawn or modified or supplemented. The tender and the related prices are understood to be valid or six months from the date of their receipt. Article 20 - Evaluation of the tenders The Tender Commission will proceed with the examination of the administrative documentation. The judging commission evaluating the tenders, appointed for the purpose in a subsequent measure issued by the Municipal Superintendent's Office following the deadline for the presentation of the tenders, will proceed with the evaluation of the technical tender and the economic tender.           Article 21. Criteria for the award of the contract. The service will be awarded under the provisions of article 36 paragraph 1 letter a) of the Directive 92/50/EEC to the most advantageous tender, evaluated on the basis of the following parameters, in order of decreasing importance: ELEMENTS OF EVALUATION Maximum score a - planning of the activities and organization 35 (thirty-five) b - make-up of work group and professional skills employed in the service 25 (twenty-five) c - accrued experience 20 (twenty) d - sum offered 20 (twenty) Tenders with the lowest proposed price will be assigned the maximum score indicated under point d) above. The score for each tender with a price other than the minimum shall be calculated as follows Pm x Pum P Where "Pm" is the minimum price offered, "P" is the price of each of each tender and "Pum" is the score assigned to the minimum price; the results will be rounded off to the nearest thousandth of a point. Article 22 -Awarding The Municipal Superintendent's Office will proceed with the awarding of the study to the candidate presenting the most advantageous tender, calculated in reference to the elements of evaluation indicated above. Considering the high degree of specialized skills required, and the likelihood that a low number of candidates will participate, the contract will be awarded even if only one valid tender is presented. In the event that only one valid tender is received, the Municipal Administration will be entitled to award the contract or to negotiate an improved tender with the party making the proposal. In addition, the Commission reserves the full right, at its own binding discretion, to refuse to accept the tenders presented when it holds that none of them satisfactorily meet the relevant requirements or offer the necessary technical or contractual guarantees. The Commission further reserves the option to request modifications and additions to the chosen tender, though the modifications in question must not violate the principle of equal conditions for the candidates. The Superintendent's Office will communicate the outcome of the tender to the winner. This communication will also be made to the other candidates     City of Rome Sovrintendenza BB CC Science Museums     CALL FOR TENDERS FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PLANNING OF THE CONTENTS OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE OF ROME TENDER ADVERTISEMENT   SPECIFICATIONS Summary PURPOSE OF THE TENDER 1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES 1.1 Potential demand and estimate of the flow of visitors 1.2 Evaluation of dimensions and morphology 1.3 Identification of the contents 1.3.1 comparative analysis of the most advanced reference models 1.3.2 checking the general contents set out in the guidelines prepared by Scientific Committee 1.3.3 preliminary preparation and verification of the possible scenarios 1.3.4 final version of a global study 1.3.5 specific feasibility studies of the functional structures and service centres 1.3.6 museographical plan for the exhibits 1.4. General and detailed specifications for the purpose of assignment of the architectural planning. 1.5. Plan for linking the City of Science with other city science museums 1.6 Comparative analysis of the overall outlay Vs overall benefits in terms of improvement scientific culture 2. GUIDELINES PREPARED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 2.1 The philosophy behind the "City of Science of Rome" project 2.2 The international scenario 2.3 The Roman scenario 2.4 Settling the "unitary Vs multipolar" question 2.5 The reference models 2.6 The project of Rome 2.7 Indispensable characteristics of the Roman initiative 2.7.1 It must pursue the objective of the diffusion of scientific culture 2.7.2 The project must take account of the fact that our society is characterised by great innovation 2.7.3 - The project must take account of the fact that we are evolving towards a society characterised by new communication technologies 2.7.4 - The City of Science has to fit into the Roman scene and become part of it 2.7.5 - Rome has enormous scientific and technological wealth 2.7.6 - History and memory of the past 2.7.7 - Cultural dialogue and junction 2.7.8 - Universal access 2.8 Possible distinctive features 3. THE BASIC CONTENTS OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE OF ROME 3.1 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SPACE 3.2 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER 3.3 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY 3.4 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGIES 3.5 - COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 3.6 - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ROME 4. FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES AND SERVICE CENTRES OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE 4.1 IMAX cinema 4.2 Theatre - Auditorium 4.3 Workshops and laboratories 4.4 Conservation Facility 4.5 Teaching and animation centre 4.6 Experimental vegetable garden and arboretum 4.7 Media library, film library and multimedia technology education centre 4.8 The science of art 4.9 Association centre and membership 4.10 Integration with the municipal science structures 4.10.1 Museo civico di Zoologia 4.10.2 Planetario e Museo delle Scienze planetarie 4.10.3 Museo della Matematica 4.10.4 Collection of "Arte sanitaria" 4.10.5 The Children's City 5- MUSEUM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 5.1 Conservation of the collections 5.2 Management of the information 5.3 - Configuration of the new Museum based on a modular system 6. POTENTIAL DEMAND 6.1 Estimate of the flow of visitors 7. DIMENSIONS AND MORPHOLOGY 8. - ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 8.1 Project phases 8.2 Scientific Committee 8.3 Supervisory Committee 8.4 Project Co-ordinator                     PURPOSE OF THE TENDER The purpose of this tender is to find a qualified Consultant, capable of assisting the Staff of the Local Government in drawing up a Feasibility Study related to the cultural and scientific aspects and the museological and financial planning of the "City of Science of Rome" system. The call for tenders and subsequent identification follow the preparatory work already carried out by the "Committee for the drawing up of a plan of operations aimed at the creation of a Museum of Science in Rome" established by Resolution no. 2685 of the City Council of 24 July 1998. The main objective of the Tender is to achieve a plan that, on the one hand, assimilates the guidelines and recommendations produced by the Committee and, on the other, makes a substantial contribution to the planning of the characteristics of the future City of Science of Rome and its museological organisation and form. The technical specifications necessary for the execution of the Feasibility Study to which the tender refers form an integral part of these specifications The criteria for eligibility of the bids and requirements for participation in the tender are set out in the Call for Tenders and in the Special Conditions. 1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES The objective of the project is to create a City of Science in Rome. The new structure should take the shape of a great system of scientific communication, at the international level, and should constitute a centre of excellence for the propagation of high-profile scientific and technological culture in Italy and Europe. In view of the complexity of the operation, the Municipal Government of Rome wants to make use of a Consultant to carry out a feasibility study for the City of Science and plan its contents. Considering that the principal purpose of the study is to make a detailed analysis of the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the new City of Science, the Consultant will, first and foremost, analyse the potential demand for the new structure, estimating the flow of visitors, its dimensions and its morphology. The Consultant will then analyse the information produced by the research work done by the experts of the Scientific Committee during the preliminary phase of the studies and analyse all the documentation on the subject produced by Institutions and individual research worker. This will enable him or her to acquire a broad knowledge of the cultural contexts of the various projects drawn up in the past and of the background of the project. On the basis of this knowledge, the Consultant will indicate the best possible configuration for the new Museum. Subsequently the Consultant will define the strategies linked to the most important aspects of the management of the Museum (conservation, exhibition space, education, services, management and propagation of information, tourist activities). On the basis of the various configurations identified, the Consultant, in agreement with the Principal, will select the most suitable one to be developed during the next phase of the Feasibility Study and will carry out further technical investigations for the purpose of being able to draw up the plan of operations of the Project. Lastly, the Consultant will determine the impact of the proposed configuration on the physical, social and economic environment of the city. The study will also consider activities to be developed in parallel with other museums. Operationally the Consultant is required to develop the following basic points, in the order suggested below, integrating the other requests of the principal wherever the Consultant deems most suitable: 1. Potential demand and estimate of the flow of visitors 2. Evaluation of dimensions and morphology 3. Identification of the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the City of Science 3.1 comparative analysis of the most advanced reference models, 3.2 checking the general contents set out in the guidelines prepared by Scientific Committee (point 2 of the Specifications), preparing proposals for additions, 3.3 preliminary preparation and verification of the possible scenarios from among which, as the work goes on, the optimal configuration of the new City of Science of Rome will be selected 3.4 final version of a global study in which a detailed analysis is made of 3.4.1 the structure and morphology of the City of Science 3.4.1 the conceptual, material and methodological contents of the new Museum 3.5 specific feasibility studies of the functional structures and service centres identified 3.6 general museum plan related to the exhibitions and a detailed plan of the essential exhibits 4. General and detailed specifications for the purpose of assignment of the overall architectural planning. 5. Plan for linking the City of Science with other parts of the city and national museum system and a plan for a network structure 6. Comparative analysis of overall outlay Vs overall benefits in terms of improvement of the scientific culture of the City and the Nation.   2. GUIDELINES PREPARED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. Rome is almost the only capital of a great State that still has no large structure dedicated to the presentation of the basic problems of science and technology. This appears even more serious when we recall that Rome has very important collections and considerable intellectual energy, as well as a significant potential for direct interaction with the great research centres and the principle information and communication structures.   2.1 The philosophy behind the "City of Science of Rome" project The idea of starting work on a City of Science, which can rank high among international science museums, with good qualifications and specific characteristics, is a great opportunity not only for Rome, but for the whole country. Although the City of Science project contemplates the creation of a huge exhibition centre with great attraction for the public, it will also make it possible to enhance and put to use the positive experiments thus far carried out in Rome through the widespread network of conservation centres and initiatives promoted by "Musis" to respond to the increasing demand for scientific culture in this country. For the network of intellectual energy that contributed to inspiring the "Musis" Project, the future City of Science will certainly constitute a landmark, a guarantee of co-ordination and an opportunity for timely planning of initiatives, as well as adequate operational, organisational and service structures, capable of assisting persons working in the field and making the work of propagating scientific culture more effective. In other words, the City of Science is not to be conceived as an inaccessible citadel but as a powerful engine capable of transmitting impulses and stimuli far beyond the precincts of its own walls, involving, mobilising and assisting all the people who want to participate in a project of great civic importance aimed at bringing scientific culture to the citizens and making them more aware of the cognitive, economic-productive and social implications of research. 2.2 - The international scenario Very important centres for the propagation of science are already in existence in the great European capital cities, often for many year. Just as an example, we can recall that the start of the initiatives that led to the inauguration of the Science Museum of London date as far back as the eighteen-seventies, the Deutsches Museum of Munich was founded in 1903 and opened to the public in 1914, while the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris was inaugurated in 1937 and the San Francisco Exploratorium has been in full operation since 1969. There are other centres, even though smaller and less important - like Poitiers, Manchester or Helsinki - that have structures of this type and are usually known as "Museums" or "Cities of Science". Another significant fact is that all these structures were created in cities and cultural contexts that already had big Natural History Museums, some even two hundred years old. 2.3 - The Roman scenario Attempts at filling this gap have been going on for many years and one that assumed particular importance during the last ten years is the "MUSIS" project, supported by the "The Sapienza" University of Rome and the Province of Rome. This project started out as an attempted to create a great Museum of Science, along the lines of and similar in size to others on the international scene, with various proposals regarding its location and contents. Subsequently, the idea of building a "multipolar" museum prevailed, which consisted of identifying a certain number of "poles", distributed over different sites, to form an organised, integrated system into an efficient network. Rome has many small and medium Science Museums, fairly evenly distributed throughout the city. In the field of national history, the Museums of the "The Sapienza" University, connected with the scientific departments of the Faculty of Science, are mainly active in the field of research and conservation while, as far as education is concerned, they only operate in the field of university teaching and, as a whole, they have a wealth of scientific collections of an extent comparable to any large European natural history museum. On the other hand, there are other Museums active in the city that are open to the public and can carry out their mission in full. There is the L. Pigorini Ethnography Museum (State) and the Municipal Zoology Museum. Both establishments are large in size, contain many scientific collections (the Zoology Museum has five million specimens) and are strictly single-discipline. Apart from Natural History, there are other bodies (Universities, Research Institutions, Schools, Hospitals, firms, etc.) that possess a great wealth of cultural, technical-scientific and industrial property of great interest but not very usable. Then there are other structures, which have been taking shape recently, for which plans are ready and funding allocated. It is clear that the overall city scenario in which "Musis" has been working is heterogeneous and characterised by extreme fragmentariness while, at the same time, it has great vitality (also generated by "Musis"). The overall scenario of the management of scientific culture in Rome, is in any case, evolving rapidly and seething with proposals and action, which can even be seen in the organisation of the Municipal Government, which has set up a special Scientific Culture Office. 2.4 - Settling the "unitary Vs multipolar" question In the Roman situation, this type of debate arises from the existence of an important historic and scientific heritage and concerns, in particular, the relationship between the new Museum and the collections of the museums already in existence. In fact, this relationship can be based either on the assumption of partial or total presentation of the collections in the City of Science or on the assumption that they would be made use of while remaining in their existing sites. There are a number of reasons in favour of their presentation in the same place as the interactive exhibits, the temporary and permanent exhibitions and the services of the new City of Science. First and foremost, there is a typically cultural reason, since that would enable the most advanced and sophisticated aspects of contemporary technical-scientific research to be presented in a perspective of the historical development of science and technology I Secondly, there is the possibility of endowing the exhibits with a marked attraction potential, since the technical-scientific and industrial collections of Rome are composed of articles that are little known but have a great impact on the general public (including the many tourists) which hardly knows them. Thirdly, there is the advisability of locating these collections in a suitable place for their conservation and taking the opportunity of their transfer and new arrangement in a museum for making inventories, preparing catalogues and carrying out restoration and research campaigns, without which this wealth runs very high risks of being wasted and destroyed. The fact is that a significant increase in the "critical mass" of the new city or museum of science would be achieved, as well as an unprecedented enhancement and manifestation of Rome's historic-scientific wealth and make the Roman project really distinct from the "city of science" models created in other parts of the world. There are some objective difficulties in relation to the second proposal, regarding exploitation of the existing situation, but it is still believed that there is a concrete possibility of developing a project with the exploitation of the historic-scientific wealth as its the main objective. In this case the City of Science would be deployed in the area selected without having the historic collections and the research collections but it would, nonetheless, be involved in an ambitious project for their exploitation ad exhibition to the public in their various historic sites, perhaps adopting, updating and above all concretely implementing the "multipolar" network strategy conceived by "MUSIS". The Scientific Committee has therefore decided: - to settle the question of choice between a decentralised and "multipolar" museum and a single and "Museum or City of Science" by finding a solution that combines the positive aspects of both strategies, - to take the projects already under way or under preparation fully into account, with a view to possible greater involvement in the future, - to make provision for a strong network function to exploit the existing scientific wealth, - to create a communication and display structure on subjects complementary to those already existing or in any case to aim at greater integration. This series of considerations led the Scientific Committee to pursue a single, well-defined project for a great "City of Science" system, which is to consist of: - a Museum of Science operating in a complementary way to the existing system, using a conceptual approach covering six specific subjects (set out in points 3.1 - 3.6 below) which are open to integration. - a series of functional structures and supplementary service centres situated both in the City of Science and in other urban locations, - a global network system of the city science museums that, without attempting to interfere with their particular characters and fields, would link all the city structures virtually and optimise their cultural use and their ease of use.   2.5 - The reference models There are a great many significant examples of museums and/or cities of science on the international scene. These models, their evolution and their ability to attract the interest of a very wide public today need to be carefully analysed by the Consultant, with particular attention to the principal dynamics of their development. These structures nearly always have very large premises and their architecture is usually impressive and striking. They present series of exhibits aimed at helping the "lay" public to understand the theoretical principles of science and the most advanced and sophisticated applications. Interaction, in other words direct participation by the public in the process of observation and discovery, is their most characteristic common feature. As early as 1963, interaction, as the best way of promoting understanding by a wider section of the public of the complex world of science and technology, was one of the cornerstones of the San Francisco Exploratorium, an institute which still best interprets its spirit and method and constantly updates it. The teaching activity that takes place in these science centres is of the hands-on type. More recently, these structures, which at the international level often do not show particularly significant type variations (anyone who has visited many will have noticed how often the same exhibits recur) have been seeking an increasingly direct and prompt link with the products of technological and industrial innovation (the exhibits are often actually promos of national and/or multinational firms active in the hi-tech field; this is also due to the need to cut down on the costs of creating exhibition structures by using the resources of private sponsors). Lastly, during the last few years, multimedia technologies have been increasingly used in these centres as a supplement or alternative to the traditional exhibits, or to support their automatic operation by means of electronic systems that allow users to program them freely. Many of these centres continue to meet with great success with the public and they are generally recognised as having an essential function in the process of transferring advanced scientific and technical subjects to the general public. It must, however, be stressed that the quest for hands-on demonstrations at all costs quite often detracts from even a basic understanding of the principles involved in some of the exhibits. In other words, it can be said that hands-on does not always mean mind-on and that amusing observation of effects, without the slightest intellectual involvement regarding the causative mechanisms and basic principles on which they operate, produces limited educational results. In recent years authorities have started pointing out the weakness or educational inadequacy of many of these structures. People are shown the results and products of research, which can be viewed in their extreme and reassuring schematism and, above all, can be freely handled but they do not even get a glimpse of the complexity and the cultural dimension of scientific and technological research. During the past ten years great efforts have been made in Italy, in some important centres, to overcome the fact that our country is lagging behind its principal international partners, by planning structures of that type. An axis of national science museums is emerging that, in addition to the few big and famous Natural History Museums of the principal cities of the North, means that important scientific and technical structures have now been established in Milan, Florence and Naples Apart from the plans and efforts made in Rome by "MUSIS", experiments aimed at achieving similar objectives (although they have not yet really taken root) have been carried out in Genoa (with a great public attendance at the Aquarium), Trieste (Immaginario Scientifico) and Turin (Experimenta). Recently, the University of Catania, in agreement with the University of Lecce, launched an ambitious City of Science project. There has also been activity and preliminary projects along these lines in Padua (on the initiative of the University) and Florence (on the initiative of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science and the Municipality). 2.6 - The project of Rome The overall picture and remarks outlined must always be kept in mind in the preparation of the project for the City of Science in Rome. The main purpose of this is to achieve a dual objective: a) to produce an organisation with a "critical mass" comparable to that of the most successful establishments already in operation on the international scene; b) make the Roman initiative something special compared to the most widely adopted models. 2.7 - Indispensable characteristics of the Roman initiative It is essential for the Roman initiative to be different from the standard types of Science Centre common on the international scene and to have its own particular identity. With regard to the distinctiveness and originality of the Roman project, the City of Science of Rome must be conceived, carried out and operated in the context of the following eight essential points: 2.7.1 - It most pursue the objective not only of scientific and technical information but, above all, that of the dissemination of scientific ad technological culture and, to use an Anglo-Saxon expression, of "an understanding of science and technology". It must therefore be a place where memory and history and change and evolution are represented. It is therefore neither a museum in the traditional sense nor a series of technological showcases. It must achieve a balance between memory and mutation, inspired by a cultural approach to science and technology and must therefore have a clear historical and critical aspect. All things considered, it must contribute to putting science and technology back into culture and culture back into science and technology 2.7.2 - The project must take account of the fact that we live, and shall in the medium term continue to live, in a society characterised by a great rate of innovation. In the design of the City of Science, both its shape and contents, a balance must be sought between structures and infrastructures, between stores, laboratories and exhibition spaces, capable of ensuring a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. In other words, it must be designed with a view to adaptability to requirements that vary as time goes by. 2.7.3 - The project must take account of the fact that we are evolving towards a society in which the ways of memorising and transmitting knowledge will change radically as a result of the use of the new communications and information technologies. The City of Science will be operating in this new context and must therefore be set up taking into account, from the moment of its conception, of the need to use new languages. To this end it is necessary, in a way, to equip the experimentation laboratories with the new technologies and the new languages, which have to be constantly updated. The City of Science of Rome must therefore not take the form of a static structure but of a dynamic space in constant movement. Nevertheless, the widespread use of everything the multimedia and networks already offer us today must be anticipated, both from the point of view of integration of the languages and of that of connection with databanks and knowledge. Lastly, provision must be made for the development of dialogue with remote users, paying particular attention to schools. 2.7.4 - The City of Science has to fit into the Roman scene and become part of an environment that has an excellent and unique memory of building techniques. The City of Science can add a scientific and technical dimension to the artistic DIMENSION of this memory. And that is in line with what, for its part, the Municipal Cultural Property Service of Rome decided to pursue in the Museum of Roman Civilisation. Ways and means need to be defined in the project for specific action in this field, envisaging co-operation with and complementariness to the Municipal Service. It is clear that, in this way, thorough cultural interaction can be established with the city and its history and the City of Science can be something really different, emphasising in particular the aspects related to the science of building 2.7.5 - Rome has enormous scientific and technological wealth, which is not just kept in the University Museums and municipal museums, and it also has a great wealth of experience acquired during so many years of work by "Musis". The project must enable the City of Science to carry out the function of helping to put this wealth "into the network" by acting as a catalyst for initiatives and joint programmes for propagating scientific cultures, equipping itself with common service infrastructures. It must also be the centre of that network, spread throughout the city, linking places where the scientific and technical wealth is kept and the activities related to making use of it take place. 2.7.6 - The City of Science sees historic memory not only as the key to the making the most of a glorious cultural past of which fundamental testimony can be found in the university museums (and not only there) but it also recognises the synergetic significance of history for a critical awareness of the present and of the profound changes that our society is going through. 2.7.7 - The City of Science of Rome must take the shape of an international place for the exchange of specific cultural experiences different from another. To that end it can constitute a junction for initiatives related to the evolution of scientific thought and to the new frontiers of innovation connected to it, closely related to the social changes triggered off and caused by that process. 2.7.8 - For this approach to develop fully it is essential to guarantee universal access to the structure, paying particular attention, during the planning phase, of equal usability by every type of public. This intent must be expressed both in the absence of any kind of architectural or communication barrier and by excluding differential lines of utilisation of the cultural material that might discriminate between the many categories of user. 2.8 - Possible distinctive features Another very distinguishing feature would be the possibility, already referred to, of devoting ample space within the boundaries of the City of Science itself to the exhibition of the extraordinary scientific, technical and industrial wealth held by many persons and bodies in the Roman area. If that could be done, the future Roman structure would be of a very distinctive type compared to the vast majority of science centres operating on the international scene. And all the more so if we succeed in developing an ambitious and skilled policy of services, exhibition proposals and original teaching methods suited for presenting extraordinary specimens, mainly unknown but interesting and significant, to the general public in a lively and non-academic manner. What is more, there would be the great advantage of being able to show easily, by presenting the historic evolution of science and technology, the extent and typically cultural implications of scientific activities, an aspect almost always totally neglected in the science centres, with the result that those structures end up by ghettoising science and technology in a typically instrumental position, thus contributing to reinforcing the popular concept of their basic difference or, at least, irremediable separateness from the world of cultural activities in the true sense. Another distinguishing objective to be pursued determinedly is to shift the emphasis from mere reproducibility by visitors of the most wonderful effects and the most amazing phenomena by direct handling of the exhibits (hands on), to understanding the heuristic processes and the epistemological and cultural implications (in the broadest sense) of the paths to the discovery and definition of scientific theories. This certainly does not mean abandoning the so successful formula of the interactive approach but making every effort to show the overall problems and the frequent lack of consistency in the processes of discovery, thus contributing to developing the visitor's critical sense and stimulating him or her to adopt a hands-and-mind-on approach. The objective pursued must not so much be merely to astonish people with the presentation of the most advanced results achieved by scientific and technological research but rather to give the visitor an idea of the complexity of this sector of human activity, of its typically cultural aspect, and perhaps give visitors, where it proves possible, an opportunity to grasp the extent of the economic and social implications attained. In addition to the requirements set out in point 2.8.4 above, for a further distinction of the new City of Science and to give it an appearance that fits in with the aspect of the city as a whole and the role it plays in the collective imagination (that of one of the most important centres because of the evidence it bears in its actual physical structures of important phases and moments of the evolution of western civilisation) the tendency should be to use the methods, exhibition techniques and tools (hands on, exhibits, multimediality, etc.) typical of the city and of museums of science, to present basic aspects of the history of Rome to visitors in a lively and effective manner: the installations (e.g. aqueducts, roads, military and agricultural organisation etc.) and the extraordinary and technically very audacious buildings (Pantheon, Coliseum, St. Peter's etc.). The same thing can be done for the presentation of the natural environment of the Rome of other times: trades and craft traditions, food habits etc. The section of the City of Science devoted to these subjects - if properly designed and put into effect (just think of the opportunities offered in this field by the skill and ingenuity of the craftspeople of the cinema industry) - will give this structure an absolutely original identity. It will also be another tool for linking the new museum plexus with the overall image of the city, as well as an opportunity to et up a "virtuous circle" between tradition and contemporariness, between science and technology on the one hand and culture and organisation of society on the other. 3. THE BASIC CONTENTS OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE OF ROME It can already be deemed indispensable to set up a certain number of areas dedicated to the presentation of developments in the outstanding sectors of scientific and technological research, paying special attention to the increasingly intrusive phenomenon of techno-science. We would like to repeat that these preliminary indications are not meant to provide an exhaustive list (in fact the City of Science will have to devote attention to many other fundamental themes), but rather to sketch out a series of exhibition areas that would already be capable, on their own, of constituting a sufficient "critical mass" (combined with the other services described in this document) of attracting a large number of public. It should also be stressed that every exhibition on these kinds of theme, which are rushing ahead in research and applications, requires constant updating if it is not to become rapidly obsolete. To sum up, these areas need to be conceived as sites where work is always in progress. This is another reason why the new Roman structure must have a strong permanent connection with the excellence centres of research to ensure the timely transfer to the general public of progress as it is achieved. At the same time a complementary relationship with the industries in the Roman area must be sought and cultivated. By way of example, some of the main subjects of choice for the City of Science of Rome are shown below: 3.1 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SPACE The subjects related to space will certainly be illustrated, on the one hand, by the presentation of the instruments, methods and purpose of exploration of the cosmos and illustration of the cognitive and material effects on humanity; and, on the other, by stressing the use of space by the big telecommunications networks, a sphere where it seems advisable to point out the many and fundamental implications at the economic and civil level. 3.2 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER A sector that should present a high level of exhibits is the sphere related to knowledge of the structure of matter and the laws that govern it. These disciplines have, on the one hand, revolutionised our concept of nature and even of the evolution of the universe while other disciplines and technology have radically changed our everyday life. Every stage of penetration into the heart of matter has opened up unexpected worlds and produced a variety of practical applications and new materials: - crystalline level: superconductivity, microelectronics, laser, - atomic and molecular level: X-rays, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, - nuclear level: sidereal evolution, advanced diagnosis and therapies, energy from fission and fusion, nondestructive tests, elementary analyses, - quark level: evolution of the universe, cosmic processes. It should be stressed that extremely complex research methods have been developed requiring collaboration between the entire world scientific community, thus accelerating technological progress, and that this kind of knowledge is only acquired by means of ongoing discussion and critical examination, defining most carefully the limits of certain knowledge and the fields still open. 3.3 - THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND BIODIVERSITY This is where the great subjects related to the formation, structure and functioning of ecosystems have to be considered and then an analysis made of the actions of interference caused by the development of the technological civilisation and the optimal technical means and development models for maintaining them. The treatment of the biotic and abiotic components of the environment and of their levels of organisation will continue with the energy and geo-biochemical cycles and culminate at an ecosystem level of maximum integration. An exhibition sector that will be very typical of the Roman structure will be devoted to matters related to the mechanisms of the formation and maintenance of the planet's global biodiversity. Problems of such great contingency, linked to the maintenance of life itself on the earth and so closely interrelated with the development of civilisation, will be dealt with in their historic-evolutionary context and strictly related to present-day economic dynamics. 3.4 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGIES Another important exhibition space will be devoted to the important research work being carried out in the field of molecular biology, with the numerous application polarities derived from it. The aim should be to present the basic principles and applications of molecular genetics, biochemistry and genetic and cellular engineering techniques in basic biological and medical research, with an understanding of the evolutionary process, and also with regard to innovative fallout affecting health strategies and the pharmaceutical and agri-food industries. What has to be shown is how the dynamic organisation of the evolutionary process and of development is defined and studied by means of the concepts and technical instruments produced by biomolecular and cellular research. The new knowledge and techniques, especially those that emerge from the mapping and sequencing of the human genome and from studies of the genic expression and function, are also changing the frame of reference of physiopathological investigation and medical practice, moving the definition and causal explanation of disease to the genes and their control and to the mechanisms of intra- and intercellular communication and also directing diagnosis and treatment towards the cellular and genetic levels. No less important is the fallout from biotechnology on pharmaceutical and agri-food production processes where technologies of recombinant DNA and the construction of genetically modified organisms (transgenic) have not only revolutionised the preparation of drugs and vaccines but, above all, are widely diffused in agriculture and animal husbandry. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of the needs of an ethical, social and legal nature that arise from the possibility of knowing and modifying the human genetic heritage and of marketing the biotechnology and products deriving from their applications.: 3.5 - COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY Neuroscience must be well presented and also be linked to the development of research on artificial intelligence. The basic cerebral mechanisms, at every level - organisation, behaviour, sensory system, neurone circuits, nerve cells and molecules - are themes introducing a broader scenario that, proceeding from physics to the mind, leads to the cognitive models and, through informatics and electronics, arrives at the world of communication and information engineering. The theme should concentrate on the processing capacities of the mind and on the situation that is arising with the progressive development of communication technologies. It would be advisable to make it clear that the inputs reaching the brain are only a tiny part of the mind's processing capacity (from perception to memory), that the brain/mind has a heuristic capacity that, broadly speaking, adapts us to various environmental and requirements but that, in some situations and in the case of ambiguous information, may lead to mistakes. What is therefore needed is to develop a method of reasoning and checking, to assist our decisions: in other words to learn how to think and to learn. Another point to be developed is the question of the merits and problems created by virtuality: this subject deals with various aspects of the formation of the child's brain, of the relations between the concrete and the abstract, the empirical and the theoretical, and is important in the sphere of scholastic use of communication technologies. 3.6 - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ROME The basic aspects of the history of Rome and the installations (e.g. aqueducts, roads, military and agricultural organisation etc.) and the wonderful and technically extremely audacious buildings (Pantheon, Coliseum, St. Peter's etc.) that characterised the amazing development of Roman civilisation in the past and enabled this city to continue for such a long time as a metropolis and an important cultural and spiritual centre for the whole world, need to be presented to visitors in a lively and effective way. In fact, all these subjects lend themselves to an approach based on the direct participation of the public in discovery, handling and reconstruction. They help people to understand what they do not realise when visiting an archaeological area: how the aqueducts worked, how the baths were supplied with water, how domes and arches were built and even what a formidable structure - powerful but light - is constituted by the combination of arches that form the Coliseum.     4. FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES AND SERVICE CENTRES OF THE CITY OF SCIENCE While leaving the definition and feasibility for the planning of the exhibition modules of the City of Science to the Consultant, we describe here some of the basic sections of the City of Science System, which it needs to have (some right from the start, others gradually) in order to present a very attractive and appealing package to the large pubic potentially interested (local, national and hopefully also international). Some structural layouts and some museum facilities capable of enhancing and improving the functionality and efficiency of the structure are mentioned here. It is stressed that the order followed in the list is not to be taken as an order of importance and that, where thought fit, some of the service structures might be located elsewhere than in the Museum. Lastly, it is pointed out that some of these structures, such as, for instance, the Workshops and the Conservation Facility could even be set up outside the City of Science area. 4.1 - Imax cinema There is not even one example in Italy of this type of cinema, where 70 mm films on technical-scientific subjects are screened, by a very sophisticated system, on parabolic screens that the range of visual of the viewer cannot fully embrace; visitors are literally "crushed" by the effects of the realistic and "overflowing" pictures and "pounded" by the sound. At present there are more than 130 Imax theatres in the world, forming a circuit usually very popular with the public where documentaries specifically made for these theatres are screened (though it must be said that the quality of these products is not always consistent). The creation of an Imax theatre is certainly an expensive undertaking but it would be hard to imagine not having one in a project of this kind. 4.2 - Theatre - auditorium An adequate space for all the Communication Science activities (theatrical events, concerts, seminars, courses etc.) 4.3 - Workshops and laboratories Workshops for the design, construction and maintenance of the exhibits. For the material construction of the exhibits, for guaranteeing their efficiency by constant maintenance, for updating and improving them, for creating the exhibition elements for temporary shows (internal and for itineration), for producing kits for sale and/or hire, a production department, staffed by technicians who are flexible and capable of working with many different kinds of material, is needed. If the workshop is efficiently organised and has skilled staff it will be able to produce exhibits, materials and travelling shows not only for the City of Science of Rome, but for other centres, schools, associations etc. all over the country; and, if the design and manufacture of products are of a high level, on the international market also, where these kinds of material and services are already available from some major science centres (e.g., the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris and the 'Exploratorium in San Francisco). It is essential that the workshop fully combine museum planning and design skills, on the one hand, with skill in material production on the other. 4.4 - Conservation Facility. The optimal conservation of any type of material of biotic or abiotic origin calls for the creation of special, climatised areas. Light, temperature and humidity are fundamental factors if the scientific collections are to last: most of them are extremely perishable. In particular, historic organic collections must not be considered as important "relics" of the past that simply need to be conserved but as essential tools for current research and it must be easy to move and manage them with absolute safety. Recent experiments on the most suitable methods for conserving this kind of scientific heritage has led big cities, both in Europe and America, to create climatised areas underground, where optimal management of collections is combined with the prevention of destructive events, whether of natural or human origin.   4.5 - Teaching and animation centre. It is essential to have staff capable of lively and effective teaching and of animating the visit in a structure to which young people will be habitual visitors and which must constantly produce temporary exhibitions, side by side with the permanent ones. These staff members must be trained and given constant refresher training. The teaching centre can play a great role (and constitute an important self-financing structure) in the task of ensuring the training and refresher training of teachers, not only of scientific subjects, in every type and level of school, on a local, regional and national scale. For this reason the Centre needs to be systematically interfaced with the school authorities of the catchment area and with the Ministry of Education. 4.6 - Experimental vegetable garden and arboretum. In the open-air areas, a sufficiently large piece of ground (with greenhouses and small covered spaces) will be devoted to the presentation of the basic techniques and principles of cultivation (sowing, reproduction, grafting etc.). Some small plots might be rented to school classes for fixed periods, for assisted experimental work. A series of environmental educational activities will be linked to this sector (monitoring the effects of pollution, acid rain etc.). Work in close synergy with the Orto Botanico (botanical garden) must be envisaged for the creation and maintenance of this particular sector. 4.7 - Media libraries, film libraries and centre for education in multimedia technologies and the function and use of the networks. A vast collection of publications, whether hard copy or not, on subjects related to scientific and technological culture, the history of science, science-society interaction etc. needs to be put together and made accessible. The media library will also be a centre for the collection, conservation and distribution of films, documentaries, CDs, books, periodicals, radio programmes etc. It should also be a centre for the production of programmes (films, multimedia products etc.), texts, booklets, and courses - also for distance learning - to meet the various needs of the City of Science, its partners and clients. It must also create and constantly improve the City's Web Site, conducting a dialogue with the remote public in the most effective way and stimulating its interest. The Media Library should periodically publish and distribute as widely as possible (including on the web) one or more periodic publications illustrating and promoting the activities in progress and describing the innovations. The Media Library will be linked to the Museum area allocated for the presentation of information-telematic and telecommunication technologies and their numerous economic and social implications.   4.8 - The science of art There must be a special space dedicated to the numerous levels of interaction between the arts, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other. Interactive exhibits and workshops should, in particular, help visitors to recognise especially the basic technical-scientific components of artistic production (how colours are produced, how the third dimension is "simulated" in painting, how a wall is prepared for the painting of a fresco etc.) This section would contribute to reinforcing the City's role as a place for presenting the pervasive and transverse aspect of science and technology, showing their often decisive presence in artistic production also. 4.9 - Association centre and membership. The presumably great public success of a City of Science conceived in this way suggests the idea of establishing an association type of link with visitors. This would mean establishing a ticketing strategy that would encourage frequent visits to the Museum during the year, particularly by young people of school age. The creation of an association among patrons of the Museum would make it possible to involve numerous persons in certain management aspects (animation, surveillance, assistance to the "disadvantaged" etc.). The association could also organise the members in a series of initiatives: lectures by experts on topical subjects, guided tours, tours of exploration or of naturalist interest guided by experts, even in other hemispheres etc. The Association should also develop a programme of activities for introducing the Museum and its offer of services outside its natural site, promoting useful "contacts" in busy places (stations, art galleries, airports etc.). 4.10 - Integration with the municipal science structures The City of Science must, as a priority, be integrated with the municipal structures, or structures where there is municipal participation, the purpose of which is to promote scientific culture. These structures (some of which created with the contribution of "Musis") are either already in operation in the city, or their action plans have already obtained financing, or their projects already finalised. In addition to being integrated into the city Network these structures also need to be strengthened and put to the best use. Particular reference is made to the following structures: 4.10.1 - Museum Civico di Zoologia (municipal museum of zoology) A structure of over 4000 sq.m, in regular operation, conserving a wealth of zoological scientific collections owned by the City and, partly, by universities. (It is one of the five principal natural history museums in Italy.) Many of the exhibition rooms have recently been fitted out along new museological and conceptual lines. Thanks to the new displays the Museum has become very popular in the city. Conservation, research and education are carried out by specialised staff. There is a global plan to transform the Zoological Museum into a "Life Science Museum", drawn up by a special Scientific Committee and adopted by the Municipal Government. 4.10.2 - Planetario (planetarium) and Museo delle Scienze planetarie (museum of planetary science) This structure is a fundamental one, in view of the popular interest in astronomy and the last-generation planetarium potentiality that combines optical projection, multimedia, stereophony etc. There is no latest-generation planetarium in operation in Italy, where even the presence of more traditional instruments is rare. Rome's new Planetarium is based on an already financed final plan and the tender call has already been launched. The planned location is within the premises of the Museo della Civiltà Romana. Space for an Astronomical Museum is also planned at the Museo della Civiltà Romana. 4.10.3 - Museum della Matematica (mathematics museum) This year a mathematics museum will be inaugurated, created thanks to municipal collections and support in spaces made available by the Mathematics Department of the '"La Sapienza" University. 4.10.4 - The "Arte Sanitaria" (health craft) collections A collection of medical instruments currently conserved at the Museo di Arte Sanitaria 4.10.5 - Children's town. It is essential for there to be a space in the Network of Science Museums specifically reserved for interaction with the pupils of nursery and primary schools. We are aware that the Museo dei bambini (children's museum) project is already in the implementation phase in Rome, on municipal land. As far as possible, it would be desirable to establish synergisms and relationships between the contents of that initiative (even though private and independently managed) with the City of Science. The structures would derive considerable reciprocal advantages. 5 - MUSEUM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES The Consultant, after first defining the Museum's functions and services, will then identify the related needs in terms of space. Functions and services, such as financial, administrative, management and marketing, management of collections, information and orientation programmes for visitors, laboratory, research, control and security systems, repairs and maintenance and other technical services, have to be identified In this way, the proposed museum system will achieve the standing of an institution of international significance and will also become a pole capable of stimulating cultural and educational activities.     5.1 - Conservation of the collections The functions of the new Museum will include exhibition and conservation. The former involves the exposure of objects to natural agents such as light, damp, dust and pollution, which can in some way pose a threat to their conservation. A balance must therefore be struck between exhibition strategy and conservation strategy. The plan for the conservation of the collections will call for adequate resources in terms of personnel, equipment, space and, obviously, funds. The Consultant will therefore identify the staff required and the operational criteria suited to the work of controlling and restoring the collections. 5.2 - Management of information It is considered that the exhibition spaces in the Museum should be planned and managed in such a way that they can be visited without assistance from Museum staff. Information material and audio-visual equipment must therefore be available to supply to visitors when they enter the Museum. This will be one of the key services of the new Museum's Information Service. Furthermore, high-level educational programmes must be proposed in order to increase the interest and participation of young people in the new Museum. 5.3 - Configuration of the new Museum based on a modular system In the light of the results of the sectorial analyses made, the Consultant must identify the criteria to be adopted for defining the architectural layout Of the area and propose the optimal configuration of the new Museum. The Consultant must also evaluate the possibilities and any implications of a future expansion of the Museum to adjacent areas. The Consultant must draw up the Feasibility Study in such a way that the configuration of the City of Science takes into account the close link existing between the Museum area and future developments in its surroundings. The Scientific Committee has suggested that the new museum complex be created gradually, in view of the amount of funding needed. For this purpose the parts to be executed in the future will be identified. The Consultant must therefore plan the new museum complex with a view to its implementation by functional lots, the first of which must guarantee enough exhibition space, even though limited, to contain selected collections and exhibits, the information services, the administration and management services. This will make it possible to present the project to the community of potential Italian and international donors and funders. It is also agreed that the definition of the cultural contents of this first unit is an extremely important matter.       6. - POTENTIAL DEMAND 6.1 - Estimate of the flow of visitors The Consultant must estimate the catchment area of users of the City of Science and the potential flow of visitors, by age, level of education, profession, purpose of the visit, nationality etc. Based on the results of this analysis, the Consultant should suggest the opening hours of the museum complex so as to favour an increase in the number of visitors (both Italian and foreign) and a consequent increase in the revenue of the Museum. At the same time, the Consultant should suggest appropriate measures for avoiding overcrowding in the museum complex. 7. - DIMENSIONS AND MORPHOLOGY Some preliminary choices have to be made to enable the dual requirements described in point 2.6, which appear to be essential to justify the economic and intellectual investment required by such an ambitious project, to be satisfied. As far as location is concerned, it is advisable, first and foremost to stress that the success, visibility and popularity (in terms of number of visitors) of the new structure will depend to a great extent on the central location (even relative) of the site selected and on the efficiency and frequency of the transport network (rail, road etc.) connecting it to the busy centres of the civic, economic, tourist and cultural life of Rome. The relative centrality of the structure will also contribute to diminish the risks of its "ghettoisation", away from the management centres of cultural life (art galleries and archaeological centres, libraries, archives etc.). Equally important is the quality of architectural design and the plan for the surrounding natural environment, which will be the subject of a specific call for tender based on the results of this feasibility study; the same goes for the spaces available, also taking into account the fact, considering the mild Roman climate, that spaces set up out of doors and/or partially covered should play an important role. As things stand, and in an emblematic way, the Municipal Government is in favour of the proposal to locate the City of Science in the Ostienze- Marconi - San Paolo sector, which is the subject of a specific Town Plan in course of completion, and in this sector, in particular, in part of the area owned by Italgas situated between the Via Ostiense and the Tiber (Gasometer) and the reutilization of abandoned industrial buildings present in the neighbourhood. The success of the negotiations in progress for acquisition of the area by the Municipal Government is an essential condition for the realisation of this location proposal. By way of example, a card describing the site is attached. Such a location would add the presence of the Tiber and its banks to the specific contents of the proposed establishment, constituting an added value for the overall profile of the whole project. The location indicated would also make it possible to aim at creating a single cultural system that would recuperate a vast area of industries and services that are no longer in use or are in the course of being given up, by including not only the City of Science but the new spaces of Rome University Three, the former Miralanza factory (Papareschi complex), intended to be a supplementary seat of the Teatro di Roma, the Montemartini Plant - an already established museum-exhibition structure - the former Slaughterhouse complex and the General Markets which will soon be moved to the new Centro Agro Alimentare (agricultural products and food centre) and will therefore become available for cultural uses and public services. It can be seen from the data set out above that to realise an operation corresponding to high international standards, several tens of square metres of useful surface are needed (and, in the case of Rome, big outdoor spaces also) viz.: exhibition services conservation 30.000 sq.m 20.000 sq.m 10.000 sq.m It can also be seen that the spaces dedicated to permanent exhibits are between 1/3 to 1/2 of the overall useful surface (in the case of the Science Museum of Boston the total useful surface is less than this average percentage but it must be remembered that it has huge spaces that are almost permanently occupied by temporary exhibitions). Naturally, such a great extension of covered area (and equipped outside areas) does not have to be fully available before the exhibition activities can start. In fact, they can be realised gradually; but this scale of dimensions must be borne in mind from the start in selecting the area and the scientific and museological model, envisaging possible breakdown into successive finished functional sections.   8. - ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 8.1 - Project phases The Consultant to whom the contract is awarded shall carry out the study and the subsequent planning in the phases listed below: PHASE 1 - Working out and submission of one or more operational proposals, very general but with recognisable and unambiguous contents and organisation. Phase 1 is followed by an opinion by the Supervisory Committee, which shall proceed with the identification and possible approval of the optimal scenario. At this point the Committee may ask for changes, additions, variations or revisions of the overall organisation and contents of the City of Science System. PHASE 2 - Submission of the preliminary version of the study and its approval by the Supervisory Committee. Submission of the final results of the study with regard to points 1 and 2 of the project objectives referred to in art. 1 of these Specifications. The final results on "Potential demand and estimate of the flow of visitors" and "Evaluation of Dimensions and Morphology" shall be made available to the Consultant appointed to make the study on the identification of the organisational form and management structure of the future City of Science. PHASE 3 - Submission of the Feasibility Study and planning of the contents in the final version and conclusion of services. 8.2 - Scientific Committee The Administration will support the Science Museums U.O. of the Municipal Service by setting up a Committee of Experts, which will be appointed on the basis of the experience thus far acquired through the work of the Committee set up in 1998 to advise the City of Rome on the project in the scientific and cultural field. 8.3 - Supervisory Committee At the time the contract comes into force the Administration will appoint a Supervisory Committee with the task of supervising the progress of the study and ensuring a balance between the consultant's independence and responsibility for planning, making the most of the work done by the Scientific Committees and the guidance activities of the Municipal Government. The function of the Committee will be to supervise and guide in the preparation of the product but it will also be available for consultation with the Consultant during the preparation of the project. 8.4 - Project Co-ordinator The Consultant shall identify a Co-ordinator of the study.   The Superintendent Prof. Eugenio La Rocca