The Foreign Policy White Paper identifies stepping-up Australia's support for a more resilient Pacific as one of the top five priorities for Australian foreign policy. As part of Australia's commitment to expand its strategic security training and assistance in the Pacific, the Australia Pacific Security College (APSC) will deliver tailored responses to national and regional security challenges.

The goal of the College will be to strengthen regional security cooperation in the Pacific and increase the region's capacity to manage shared security threats. The purpose of the College will be to deliver and coordinate senior executive and middle management security and law enforcement training to Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) and regional organisations.

The College will have a flexible footprint, developing and delivering bilateral and regional training across Pacific countries and agencies. A secretariat will also support delivery of security and law enforcement training by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), other Australian government agencies and close partners – under the College banner. Critical to the success of the College, the secretariat will be responsible for developing and maintaining an active alumni network.

An Investment Design Document (IDD) for the APSC is currently being finalised. Following approval of the IDD by DFAT, it is expected that the IDD will be released in September 2018.

The approach to market to implement the APSC will be a two-stage tendering process. The first stage of the tender is expected to be an Expression of Interest (EOI) through Open Tender to the market and is expected to be released to the market in July. In addition to the EOI, DFAT will invite organisations that do not have the capacity to implement the entirety of the APSC to register their interest and expertise in delivering aspects of the College. Registration details will be uploaded to the Business Notifications page in the near future.

At stage two, shortlisted organisations from stage one will be invited to bid to implement the APSC, which may include using the services of, or partnering with, organisations who have registered their interest in providing components of the College (as outlined above). The Request for Tender (step two of the tender) is expected to be released to those shortlisted at step one (EOI) in September 2018.

Subject to the final financial delegate approval, the activity budget for the initial 3.5 years of the project is estimated at approximately $18.45 million (plus GST), with two options to extend the term by up to two years each.

An industry briefing will be held on Thursday, 2 August from 1pm to 3:30pm at the DFAT offices, 255 London Circuit, Canberra. This briefing will provide an overview of the APSC and the tender process. It will also provide an opportunity for industry representatives to hear from the team designing the APSC and to provide input to this process. This briefing will be an initial opportunity for those organisations that do not have the capacity to implement the APSC in its entirety to meet with other interested parties. To register for the industry briefing please respond to APSCRFT@dfat.gov.au by 1700 (AEST), Tuesday 31 July 2018, including the name of the organisations and the names of each person attending.