Response to Call for Expressions of Interest · Knowledge Management & Website Development Services · September 2026

The brief, delivered well. And a path to something the region hasn't seen.

Sunrise Labs proposes to finalise and roll out the Ministry's knowledge management strategy, build on the KM audit and wireframe the Ministry has already begun, and deliver a secure, bilingual, low-bandwidth public website that staff can run themselves. That is Parts A to D below, priced by activity. Beyond the brief, we set out how the same platform can make Tu'anga o te Pae Moana the most transparent and useful marine ministry of any small ocean state.

Workplan & deliverables Financial proposal

Submitted to

Ministry of Marine Resources

Government of the Cook Islands · Tutakimoa, Rarotonga
EOI contact: Lisa Williams · info@mmr.gov.ck

Submitted by

Sunrise Labs

Technology research & development · Mauke, Cook Islands
Director: Vaipunu Ian Tairea · ian@sunriselabs.io · +682 57821

EOI reference

Released 31 Aug 2026 · Closes 4pm, 18 Sep 2026

This document follows the "Submissions must include" list in the EOI. EOI document

Summary

In brief

What we understood. The Ministry has a digital-first communications approach, an internal KM audit and a draft wireframe already under way, a Digital Working Group, and two consultants (Communications and IT) to work alongside. It wants a practical KM strategy that separates public from non-public knowledge, and a website on a platform its own staff can maintain, that works for Pa Enua users on slow links, and that supports the National Digital Strategy 2024–2030 and National ICT Policy 2023–2027.

What we propose. A seven-deliverable programme that starts by validating the Ministry's existing work rather than redoing it. A KM strategy with governance, roles, content standards, lifecycle and archiving, plus training. A final information architecture co-designed with the Working Group. A website on Payload CMS, an open-source, MIT-licensed platform with live preview and bilingual content built in, publishing static pages that load in seconds on satellite links. Priority content migrated and quality-checked. Launch, training and handover.

Why Sunrise Labs. We are based in the Pa Enua and live with the connectivity the brief describes. Our director has fifteen years of building websites, learning platforms and knowledge systems for Māori and Pacific organisations, schools and businesses, and has led co-design with communities, staff and students throughout. We charge a single transparent rate and own nothing the Ministry does not.

Beyond the brief. The Ministry runs a quota management system, a 24-hour Oceans Monitoring Centre, twenty years of water-quality data and a ra'ui survey programme. Section B5 shows how the same platform can publish that work: an offline fishing-rules and ra'ui guide, live lagoon health, an ocean transparency portal, online licensing. Each is a separately priced option. None is required to deliver the brief. All of them are why we want this project.

deliverables, each costed by activity and personnel

$68,320

core scope, NZD excluding VAT, at a single $70/hour rate

~$1.5k

per year in recurring platform and hosting costs, no licence fees

100%

open-source and Ministry-owned: code, content, hosting, domain

Part A

Company overviewWho we are, relevant experience, portfolio, required expertise

Part B

Technical proposalApproach, methodology and workplan, platform, compliance, beyond the brief, risk and maintenance

Part C

PersonnelProfiles and CV of the people assigned to the work

Part D

Financial proposalBy activity, by personnel, recurring costs, VAT exclusive and inclusive

Part A · Company overview

Sunrise Labs

A technology research and development lab based in Mauke, Cook Islands, established when our director moved home from Aotearoa New Zealand. We build digital systems for island contexts: learning platforms, knowledge systems, community infrastructure and public websites.

Who we are

Sunrise Labs is a new Cook Islands entity carrying forward fifteen years of work by its director, Vaipunu Ian Tairea, through Tai Collective (a charitable trust and social enterprise), SeenBros (a digital media company) and Galaxy Maps (a learning platform). The websites and platforms shown below were delivered through those organisations and are hosted and maintained by us today.

What we do

We design and build public websites, learning platforms and knowledge systems, and we run the infrastructure behind them. From Mauke we operate community servers, email and identity systems for the island's organisations, which means low-bandwidth, outer-island delivery is our daily reality, not a requirement we read about.

How we work

Co-design is our default: with staff, communities and students, in workshops and on real devices. Plain language in everything we write. Open-source software and open formats, so the client owns the result. One transparent hourly rate. Small team, direct access to the people doing the work.

Relevant work

Public-facing websites for Māori and Pacific organisations, built by our director through Tai Collective and SeenBros, and hosted and maintained by Sunrise Labs today. All are live; click through to any of them.

Te Tihi o Ruahine Whānau Ora AllianceCharitable trust of 11 health and social service providers, Manawatū
Built · hosted

Te Rōpū PakihiKāpiti–Horowhenua Māori Business Network, with member service directory
Built · hosted

Tahuri WhenuaNational Māori Horticultural Collective, a natural-resource sector organisation
Built · hosted

Te Puna Marama Voyaging Foundation website

Te Puna Marama Voyaging FoundationCook Islands foundation reviving traditional navigation
Built · hosted

Learn Cook Islands MāoriBilingual language-learning site with audio lessons
Built · hosted

Galaxy MapsOur own learning platform: structured pathways, progress tracking, cohorts. Built in the Cook Islands, used by learners in Aotearoa and the Pacific. The basis for the Learning Pathways option in Section B5.
Own product

Knowledge systems and co-design

Te Kupenga, an AI knowledge-keeper programme for Cook Islands Māori, designed with community partners around capture, consent and tiered access to institutional and cultural knowledge. In development.
Mauke community infrastructure: servers, mail, single sign-on and file sharing for island organisations, run from the island on satellite links.
Ministry of Agriculture website specification (2026): a flagship-feature specification and co-design proposal for the MoA's new public website.
Curriculum and training: developed and delivered NCEA Levels 1–3 Digital Technologies curriculum; led departments of teachers; trained rangatahi to deliver real client projects through Tai Collective.

Required expertise

EOI requirement	Evidence
Essential
Co-design experience developing and implementing projects of this nature	Co-designed websites and platforms with trusts, foundations and networks (Te Tihi, Te Rōpū Pakihi, Tahuri Whenua, Te Puna Marama) and with a school (Tai Wānanga); co-designed curriculum with teachers and students; co-designed Te Kupenga with community partners. Method set out in Section B2.
Knowledge management, information architecture, digital content systems or organisational knowledge processes	Knowledge and learning systems are our core work: Galaxy Maps (structured learning content), Te Kupenga (tiered institutional and cultural knowledge with consent), Tū Toa school portal (staff and student knowledge), and information architecture for every site listed above.
Public-facing websites for government, public sector, non-profit or service-focused organisations	Five live non-profit and service-organisation websites shown above, including a health and social-service alliance, a national horticultural collective and a Cook Islands voyaging foundation; previously the Tai Wānanga school website.
UX/UI, information architecture, plain-language content design, mobile-first responsive design	Every site above is mobile-first. Plain-language and bilingual content design demonstrated by Learn Cook Islands Māori and Te Rōpū Pakihi. Design principles and journeys in Sections B1 and B5.
Secure administration, performance optimisation and low-bandwidth access	We operate production servers, mail and single sign-on for Mauke organisations with MFA, least privilege and backups, and deliver every site above from the Pa Enua. Platform and security approach in Section B3.
Workforce training and project/activity management	Former Head of Computing and Director of Innovation; designed and delivered national curriculum; managed multi-client delivery through Tai Collective and SeenBros. Training plan in deliverables D3 and D7.
Desirable
Familiarity with Cook Islands Government systems and procedures	Cook Islands-based; prepared a website specification and proposal for the Ministry of Agriculture in 2026; familiar with the National Digital Strategy, National ICT Policy and the Cyber Security Policy.
Experience in Pacific Island Countries and Small Island Developing States	Based in Mauke, Cook Islands. Delivered Te Puna Marama and Learn Cook Islands Māori; run community infrastructure on the island.
Public sector or natural resource agencies, digital communications or knowledge systems	Ministry of Agriculture website specification; Tahuri Whenua (national horticultural collective); Internet of Agriculture, an agri-technology venture; Te Kupenga knowledge system.

Part B · Technical proposal

Understanding and approach

The Ministry has started. Our first job is to understand what has been done, validate it with the people who did it, and build the rest on top.

Build on the KM audit and wireframe

Deliverable 2 is a supported review of the Ministry's phase-one work, with agreed recommendations. We change what needs changing and keep what works, and we say which is which in writing.

Public and non-public, separated by design

The KM strategy defines the boundary between public-domain and internal institutional knowledge. The platform enforces it: public content publishes to a static site; internal knowledge never leaves the authenticated tier.

Intent first, not org chart first

Navigation and search are organised around what fishers, operators, farmers, students and partners are trying to do. Divisions still exist, one click deeper. "Priority pathways to high-demand content", in the brief's words.

Pa Enua first

Pages designed to a 300 KB budget and served as static files from an edge cache. Tested on throttled connections before release. Cook Islands Māori alongside English throughout.

Staff run it

A platform with live preview and no developer needed for news, events, vacancies, programme pages or documents. Training is a deliverable, not an afterthought, and is built into the timeline twice.

Owned by the Ministry

MIT-licensed software, content in open formats, hosting and domain in the Ministry's name, code in a Ministry repository, full export at any time. No licence fees, no vendor holds the keys.

Context we bring: the current site

We reviewed the live site and 278 archived captures of mmr.gov.ck. These are observations that shape the migration plan, not criticism.

●

Holding page since late 2024

The Coming Soon page has stood for close to two years. Enquiries it would have answered go to the phone line and front desk.

Wayback: 16 Apr 2024 full site → 27 Nov 2024 onward Coming Soon

●

Previous site organised by division

Main menu was the five divisions. Document library held nine files; legislation was a flat PDF list; news jumped from 2018 to 2023.

/documents/ (9 items) · /legislation/ (16 PDFs) · /annual-reports/ (2014–2016)

●

Template debris was publicly indexed

Theme demo pages (case studies, cart, checkout, Spanish shop pages, a fictional staff list) were indexed by search engines. The migration plan includes redirects and de-indexing.

/case-studies/ · /cart/ · /carrito/ · /team/henry-a-smith/

●

Heavy plugin stack

Page builder, slider and theme framework on WordPress. Slow on island connections and costly to keep patched. Our platform recommendation in B3 addresses this directly.

WPBakery · Slider Revolution · Redux

mmr.gov.ck in September 2026 showing a Coming Soon page — mmr.gov.ck, September 2026Coming Soon

Archived Documents page from March 2024 — Archived Documents page, March 20249 documents

Methodology, workplan and timeline

Aligned one-to-one with the seven expected deliverables. Working with the MMR IT and Communications leads and the Digital Working Group throughout. Dates assume a start in October 2026 and are confirmed in the inception report.

Inception

Kick-off with the Digital Working Group. Read everything the Ministry has produced. Confirm scope, roles, decision-makers, dates and the costed workplan.

Validate and strategise

Review the KM audit and wireframe with their authors. Fill gaps with short interviews in each division and two island stations. Finalise the KM strategy and IA.

Co-design and build

Design sprints with the Working Group and the two consultants. Prototype on real phones. Build the platform, content model and design system in parallel.

Migrate, test, launch, train

Migrate priority content with staff, test functional, performance, security and accessibility, launch, train every division, hand over.

#	Expected deliverable	What we do	When	NZD excl. VAT
D1	Inception report and costed workplan	Kick-off workshop with the Digital Working Group, Communications and IT consultants. Confirm scope, governance, communication rhythm (fortnightly demos, shared backlog), risks and the detailed workplan. Delivered within two weeks of start.	Oct 2026	2,240
D2	Supported review of the KM audit and wireframe, with agreed recommendations	Structured review of the Ministry's phase-one documents with their authors. Gap interviews across divisions and two Pa Enua stations. A written set of recommendations, each marked keep / adjust / add, agreed with the Working Group.	Oct–Nov 2026	4,480
D3	Finalised KM strategy and initial implementation plan	Governance, roles and responsibilities; content standards and a metadata scheme; public / non-public classification; lifecycle, retention and archiving rules; practical implementation actions with owners and dates. Initial KM training for staff (two sessions, plus a recorded version for the islands).	Nov–Dec 2026	11,200
D4	Finalised website information architecture and co-design package	Site map, navigation, page hierarchy, content types and metadata, bilingual model, visual direction and design system, clickable prototype tested with staff and with island users. Three co-design sessions with the Working Group and consultants.	Nov–Dec 2026	10,080
D5	Developed and configured website ready for content migration	Platform build per Section B3: document repository with categories, metadata and search/filter; forms; staff-editable news, events, vacancies and programme pages; map embeds; analytics; hosting, domain, DNS, SSL/TLS, backups, monitoring, MFA, admin roles, audit logging. Bilingual throughout.	Jan–Mar 2027	25,200
D6	Priority content migrated and quality-checked	Migration of organisational information, publications, forms, grants, fisheries and water-quality data, news, vacancies and procurement notices, with metadata applied per the KM strategy. Quality review with content owners. Redirects from old URLs. Accessible-document guidance and remediation of priority PDFs.	Mar–Apr 2027	8,400
D7	Website launched; staff trained; handover completed	Functional, performance, security and accessibility testing with written results. Soft launch, then public launch with communications support. Training for every division and island station (editors, publishers, administrators). Handover documentation, runbooks and 30 days of post-launch support.	Apr–May 2027	6,720
	Core scope total · 122 days at $70/hour ($560/day)			68,320

Deliverable

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

D1 InceptionReport and costed workplan

Oct

D2 ReviewKM audit and wireframe

Oct–Nov

D3 KM strategyPlus initial training

Nov–Dec

D4 IA & co-designPrototype tested

Nov–Dec

D5 Build & configurePlatform, hosting, security

Jan–Mar 2027

D6 Content migrationWith content owners

Mar–Apr

D7 Launch & trainingTesting, handover

Apr–May

Working Group cadenceFortnightly demos, shared backlog

Continuous

Ministry involvement, sized honestly: about half a day a week from a nominated project officer, two hours a fortnight from a content champion in each division, and attendance at three co-design sessions and two training sessions. We do the migration; staff review it.

Recommended platform and hosting

We compared fourteen platforms against the brief's tests: staff can manage it, it is secure, it costs little to run, it works on slow links, it is open, and it is ready for the next decade, including AI-assisted search. The full comparison is available on request.

Recommendation: Payload CMS with a static front end

Payload is an open-source content management system under the MIT licence, owned since 2025 by Figma, which funds its development. Editors get live preview as they type, drafts and version history, bilingual fields, a media library, role-based permissions and a form builder, all in the free core. Content is structured and typed, which is what makes a document repository with real metadata possible, and what makes the content usable by search and AI tools later without rework.

The public site is generated as static pages every time an editor publishes, and served from an edge cache. A page is a few tens of kilobytes. On a satellite link in Pukapuka that is the difference between two seconds and twenty.

Why not WordPress. The Ministry knows it, and that counts. But the previous site shows the cost: a page-builder and slider stack that was slow, fragile and expensive to keep patched, with demo content leaking into search results. WordPress in 2026 still depends on that plugin ecosystem for anything beyond a blog. We would rather give staff a cleaner editor and give the IT consultant far less to patch.

Alternatives we considered. Wagtail (Python, used by NASA and UK government) is the strongest option if government pedigree outweighs everything else; we can deliver on it but it is outside our core TypeScript skill set. Directus has an excellent admin but its 2026 licence caps free use at three seats. Sanity and Storyblok are excellent hosted products that fail the ownership test: content lives on a vendor's servers on a per-seat subscription.

Content

Payload CMS 3 · PostgresMIT licence. Live preview, drafts and versions, bilingual fields, roles, form builder, search plugin. MFA via TOTP and passkeys. Audit trail of every change.

Public site

Astro static outputRebuilt on publish, served from an edge cache. Pages under 100 KB. Bilingual routes with proper language tags. WCAG 2.2 AA design system.

Pagefind (static)Multilingual full-text search with filters that needs no server and downloads only the index fragments it needs. Upgrade path to a server index if faceting grows.

Analytics

Umami (self-hosted)Privacy-conscious, no cookies, no personal data. Traffic, popular content, search terms, downloads and user journeys, as the brief requires.

Forms

Payload form builderAccessible online forms with submissions stored in the CMS and emailed to the right officer; downloadable forms live in the document repository.

Maps

MapLibre GLOpen-source maps embedding GeoJSON and ArcGIS feature services now; swap in the ArcGIS SDK later without touching content.

Hosting

Ministry-owned VPSOne server (NZ or AU, or in-country with OPM ICT if preferred) running CMS, database and analytics behind a CDN. Nightly encrypted backups to separate storage.

Security

Least privilege by defaultMFA for all admins, role-based access, TLS everywhere, automated patching, audit logging, monitoring and alerting, annual review. Aligned with the Cook Islands Cyber Security Policy.

Recurring cost (paid by the Ministry directly, in its own name)	NZD per year, estimated
Virtual server, 4 vCPU / 8 GB, NZ or AU provider (or in-country equivalent)	900 – 1,400
CDN and edge caching (free tier is sufficient; paid tier optional)	0 – 400
Off-site backup storage	60 – 150
Transactional email for form submissions and notifications	0 – 250
Domain (gov.ck) and DNS	0
CMS, search, analytics and map software licences	0
Total recurring platform and hosting	≈ 1,000 – 2,200

Ongoing support (patching, monitoring, quarterly reviews, improvement hours) is quoted separately in Part D so the Ministry sees hosting and support as distinct lines, as the EOI asks.

Requirements compliance

Every functional, non-functional and compliance requirement in the EOI, and how the proposal meets it.

Requirement	How we meet it	Status
Functional
1. Informed and led by the KM framework; secure public site with clear navigation, search and priority pathways to high-demand content	D3 precedes D4 and D5 by design. Intent-first navigation, bilingual search, "top tasks" on the homepage from analytics.	Core
2. Document repository with categories, metadata and search/filter	Structured document collection with the KM metadata scheme (type, year, division, island, fishery, species, language, sensitivity), filters and full-text search.	Core
3. Online or downloadable forms with accessible labels and clear submission instructions	Form builder for online forms with accessible labels and confirmations; downloadable forms in the repository with instructions on each page.	Core
4. Staff update news, events, vacancies and programme pages without developer support	Live-preview editor with content types for each; roles for authors, publishers and admins; training in D3 and D7.	Core
5. Maps and embedded geospatial content; future API-based integrations such as ArcGIS	Map block embedding GeoJSON and ArcGIS feature services; content model keeps geospatial references separate so an ArcGIS SDK swap is a front-end change only.	Core
6. Analytics on traffic, popular content, search terms and user journeys	Self-hosted Umami with custom events for search terms and document downloads; monthly report template for the Communications lead.	Core
7. Current Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on desktop and mobile	Standards-based static output; tested across all four on desktop, Android and iOS before launch.	Core
Non-functional and compliance
Comply with Cook Islands and regional digital, IT and cybersecurity rules and policies	Aligned with the National ICT Policy 2023–2027 and the Cook Islands Cyber Security Policy; hosting and data residency chosen by the Ministry; we work with OPM ICT where required.	Core
Clear pricing in NZD, VAT exclusive and inclusive, ongoing support/hosting separated	Part D shows every activity and person, VAT exclusive and inclusive at 15%, with hosting (B3) and support quoted as separate lines.	Core
Secure administration, least privilege, MFA, SSL/TLS, backups, updates, audit logging	All included in D5: MFA for every admin, role-based least privilege, TLS, nightly encrypted backups, automated patching, audit trail.	Core
Privacy-conscious analytics; avoid unnecessary collection of personal information	Umami collects no personal data and sets no cookies. Forms collect only fields the process needs. No third-party trackers.	Core
WCAG 2.2 AA where practicable; guidance for accessible documents and media	Design system built and tested to AA; automated and manual testing in D7; an accessible-documents guide and PDF remediation of priority documents in D6.	Core
Mobile-first, low-bandwidth, culturally appropriate content, attention to Pa Enua and underserved groups	Static pages under a 300 KB budget; tested on throttled links; Cook Islands Māori alongside English; content reviewed with island officers. Further options in B5.	Core
Platform staff can manage, with documentation, training and support arrangements	Live-preview editor; handover documentation and runbooks; training for every division; optional support retainer in Part D.	Core
Training that strengthens MMR's internal digital capability in line with the National Digital Strategy's talent objectives	Role-based training (editor, publisher, administrator), recorded sessions for the islands, a champions network, and a KM refresher at the end of the support period.	Core

Beyond the brief

The EOI names transparency in the marine sector and inclusive access for Pa Enua as purposes. This section is our answer to "what would it take to lead?" Every item is optional and separately priced. The core scope stands on its own without any of them.

What world-leading looks like

We reviewed the marine and fisheries agencies people point to as the best. Each does one thing exceptionally well. None does all of them, and none is small enough to try.

Agency	What they do best	What we take from it
Fisheries New Zealand	The NZ Fishing Rules app: region-by-region limits and sizes, species ID by photo, closure notices, biotoxin alerts, works offline.	An offline rules and ra'ui guide, per island, with species ID and closure status.
AFMA (Australia)	GoFish portal for licences and permits; interactive map of all fisheries; catch-data reports; illegal-fishing hotline.	Online licensing with status tracking; a public fisheries map; a clear reporting channel.
NOAA Fisheries (USA)	Species directory with regional filtering; story maps; permits, funding and data in one hub.	A species and habitat directory that doubles as school material.
Fiskeridirektoratet (Norway)	24/7 monitoring centre; open statistics for fisheries and aquaculture; real-time closures.	Publish the Oceans Monitoring Centre's outputs as open, delayed, aggregated data.
Global Fishing Watch	Public tracking of 100,000+ vessels; government partners publish their VMS data.	An ocean transparency portal: licensed vessel register, activity map, quota uptake.
FFA and the region	Electronic reporting mandated via licence conditions (May 2026); e-PSM; e-CDS in development.	Build so regional data flows into public pages without re-keying.

The gap no one has filled

Big agencies are transparent or community-based or bilingual or built for remote users. Rarely all four, because at their scale it is hard. The Cook Islands has 1.8 million km² of ocean, one Ministry, 15 islands and two languages. That is the scale at which all four can be done at once.

A Ministry that publishes its ocean data, its lagoon health, its rules in both languages and its services online, in a way an aunty in Pukapuka can use on a phone, would be a reference point for every small island state.

Transparent like Norway and Global Fishing Watch
Practical like New Zealand's rules app and Australia's portal
Community-rooted through ra'ui, island councils and Koutu Nui
Bilingual and inclusive for every island, on any connection
Aligned with FFA, WCPFC, SPC and the National Digital Strategy

Optional modules

Each builds on the core platform and can be added in any order, during the project or after launch. Prices are fixed per module at the same $70/hour rate.

01Option

Knowledge Hub Plus

Ask a question, get the paragraph and the source. Plus a private tier for institutional memory.

The core repository stores and filters documents. This adds a search that answers questions across the whole corpus and cites the paragraph it drew from, so a fisher can ask "what is the minimum size for pa'ua in Manihiki" and get the by-law. It also adds the staff-only tier of the same hub for procedures, templates and institutional memory, enforcing the public / non-public boundary the KM strategy defines. Runs on infrastructure the Ministry controls.

Legislation browser with consolidated current versions and superseded history
Tables extracted from historic reports so numbers become reusable data
Question-answering search with citations, bilingual

02Option

Pa Enua Layer

Fifteen island pages, offline caching, SMS, and officers who publish from a phone.

The core site is low-bandwidth by design. This goes further: an island page for each of the 15 islands co-owned by the local fisheries officer and island council, with by-laws, ra'ui, FAD locations, contacts and news in the island's own dialect; offline caching of rules and guides; an SMS gateway for alerts and simple queries; kiosk mode for island offices and schools; print-ready one-pagers for notice boards.

Island officers publish to their own page with light approval
Bilingual content operations: glossary, translation workflow, dialect notes in the CMS

03Option

Fishing Rules & Ra'ui Guide

Every rule for every island, in your pocket, working with no signal.

An installable web app that shows the rules that apply where you are standing: size and bag limits, protected species, gear restrictions, seasonal closures, island by-laws and the current status of every ra'ui. Species identification by photo, in both languages, with the names each island uses. Downloads once and works offline for the season.

Ra'ui map with open, closed and partial status maintained with Koutu Nui and island councils
Species cards with legal sizes, a printable ruler and the regulation linked
Closure notices pushed to devices when they next connect

04Option

Lagoon & Ocean Health Live

Twenty years of monitoring data, published as living dashboards instead of filed away.

The Ministry has sampled streams, lagoons and groundwater since 2004 and surveyed ra'ui sites for two decades. This publishes that record: a map of monitoring sites with latest readings, trends by site and parameter, plain-language health ratings, public-health advisories when thresholds are crossed. Every chart links to its dataset and method.

Site pages for Muri, Avarua, Aitutaki, Manihiki and other lagoons
Ra'ui survey results over time, so communities see the effect of their own management
Open data downloads and a simple API for researchers, schools and partner agencies

05Option

Ocean Transparency Portal

Show the world how 1.8 million km² of ocean is managed. Few states can. The Cook Islands could.

A public register of licensed vessels and licence status; a delayed, aggregated activity map of fishing effort in the EEZ from the Oceans Monitoring Centre or a Global Fishing Watch partnership; quota allocation and uptake for albacore and bigeye; observer coverage; annual offshore fisheries reports as interactive data. The Ministry decides what is published and at what delay; commercially sensitive detail stays internal.

Vessel register with flag, gear, licence period and MSC status
Shark and whale sanctuary boundaries, Marae Moana zones and maritime limits on one map

06Option

Licensing & Services Portal

Apply, pay, track and renew online. For operators in Taipei and farmers in Manihiki alike.

Guided online applications for the Ministry's services: longline and purse seine licences, annual quota purchases, pearl farm and aquaculture permits, export permits, laboratory test requests, FAD requests, research permits. Applicants see status at every step; officers get a triage queue instead of an inbox. Designed to plug into the national digital identity when it arrives, and to exchange data with FFA electronic licensing standards.

Smart forms that ask only what the regulation requires, pre-filled on renewal
Internal case view with assignment, notes and turnaround reporting against the Service Charter

07Option

Signals & Alerts

Hear from the reef early, and speak to every island instantly when it matters.

Signals: anyone reports a fish kill, ciguatera cases, a suspected illegal vessel, crown-of-thorns outbreak, pa'ua deaths or a stranded whale, with photo and location, in under a minute; reports land in an officer triage view. Alerts: a crisis mode the Ministry switches on that takes over the homepage during cyclones, tsunami warnings, biotoxin events or lagoon closures, and pushes the same message by SMS and social media, targeted by island.

08Option

Learning Pathways

Turn the Ministry's knowledge into the country's marine curriculum.

Structured, self-paced learning built from Ministry content on our Galaxy Maps platform: Our Ocean for schools aligned with Marae Moana; Fishing Safely and Legally for new fishers; Pearl Husbandry for Manihiki and Penrhyn; Becoming an Observer and Understanding the QMS for careers and industry. Teacher packs in both languages; certificates that mean something.

09Option

Leadership Insight Dashboard

Know what the public needs before they ring.

Core analytics report traffic and search terms. This adds the leadership view: searches with no good answer, service turnaround against the Service Charter, Pa Enua reach by island, report volumes by type, and a monthly summary generated automatically for the Secretary and directors. Aggregate only, internal only.

Where the options sit

Plotted by impact on the public and effort to build. Hover a dot for its name; click to jump to it. The top-left quadrant is where we would start if the Ministry chooses to go beyond the brief: Knowledge Hub Plus, the Pa Enua Layer, Signals & Alerts and the Rules & Ra'ui Guide together make the site a daily tool rather than a reference.

The Licensing Portal and Transparency Portal are the two big lifts, and the two that change how the Ministry is seen by industry and by the world.

Three journeys, with the options in place

🎣

Tere, fisher in Mauke

Is the ra'ui at Anaraura open? What size pa'ua is legal?

Opens the Rules & Ra'ui Guide installed last season. No signal at the passage; it works anyway.
Anaraura shows closed until December, set by the island council last week.
Taps pa'ua: size, limit, the by-law it comes from, in Māori and English.

Outcome: compliance without a phone call. Options 02, 03.

🦪

Mama Ngametua, pearl farmer in Manihiki

Worried about lagoon conditions after a hot spell

The Manihiki island page shows this month's lagoon readings from the MMR station.
An advisory from the pearl biologist is pinned and sent by SMS to registered farmers.
Reports unusual oyster mortality through Signals with a photo; the station officer replies the same day.

Outcome: early warning both ways. Options 02, 04, 07.

🧭

The Secretary

Preparing a WCPFC briefing

Links the Transparency Portal in the briefing instead of attaching a 60-page PDF.
The Insight Dashboard shows a spike in ciguatera reports from the southern group.
Exports Service Charter turnaround data for the budget submission.

Outcome: evidence at hand, credibility abroad. Options 05, 09.

Risk and maintenance approach

Security, backups, updates and long-term support, and the project risks we see and how we manage them.

Security

MFA for every admin. Role-based least privilege (author, publisher, admin). TLS everywhere. Automated dependency and OS patching, with a monthly review. Audit log of every content and permission change. Firewall, rate limiting, monitoring and alerting. Incident plan agreed with the Ministry. Aligned with the Cook Islands Cyber Security Policy.

Backups

Nightly encrypted backups of database and media to separate off-site storage, retained 30 days with monthly snapshots for a year. Restore tested quarterly and documented in the runbook. The static site itself is reproducible from the repository at any time.

Updates

Security patches within 72 hours of release; routine platform updates monthly on a staging copy first, then production. Editors are never blocked by an update. Release notes in plain language to the IT lead.

Long-term support

30 days of post-launch support included in D7. Optional annual retainer (Part D): patching, monitoring, quarterly KM and analytics review, 40 hours of improvements. Full documentation and handover means the Ministry can also engage any other provider; nothing depends on us.

Risk or assumption	How we manage it
Staff time for review, co-design and content	Sized in B2. We do the migration; staff review it. Sessions scheduled at inception around the Ministry's calendar.
Quality and completeness of the phase-one KM audit and wireframe	D2 is a supported review with the authors, not a rewrite. Gaps are filled with short interviews. Recommendations are agreed before D3 and D4 begin.
Bilingual content quality	Cook Islands Māori content written or reviewed by fluent speakers engaged for the project, with a glossary agreed with the Ministry and dialect notes for the islands. Machine translation is never published unreviewed.
Connectivity in the Pa Enua during delivery and after	Static, cached output; a 300 KB page budget; testing on throttled links; training recorded for island staff.
Access to data held in Ministry systems (for D6 and any options)	We work from exports first, live integration second. The Ministry controls what is published and at what delay.
Marae Moana now sits with the National Environment Service	We link to and share data with NES rather than duplicate; an alignment session is proposed at inception.
Scope growth	Fixed prices per deliverable and per option. New ideas go to the shared backlog and are priced as options or delivered within retainer hours.
Key-person dependency on a small provider	Everything documented and in the Ministry's repository from week one. Open-source platform with a large community. Handover is a deliverable, and the Ministry could continue with any capable provider.

Part C · Personnel

People assigned to the work

A small team with one accountable lead. Specialists are engaged for the project under the same rate.

Project and technical lead

Vaipunu Ian Tairea

Director, Sunrise Labs · Technologist and educator · Mauke, Cook Islands

Fifteen years building websites, learning platforms and knowledge systems for Māori and Pacific organisations, and leading the people who use them. Founder and lead developer of Galaxy Maps. Founder and director of Tai Collective, a charitable trust where rangatahi deliver creative and technology projects for real clients. Former Director of Innovation (senior leadership) at Tai Wānanga, where he developed and delivered a leading NCEA Levels 1–3 Digital Technologies curriculum, and former Head of Computing at Freyberg High School. Co-founder and CEO of SeenBros, a digital media company whose clients included Massey University and UCOL. Co-founder and CTO of Internet of Agriculture, an agri-technology venture that grew out of winning the Manawatū AgTech Hackathon.

Education: Graduate Diploma of Education with Distinction (QUT); Bachelor of Business, E-Commerce and Marketing (QUT); 42 Silicon Valley.

Role on this project: single point of accountability; leads inception, KM review and strategy, information architecture, platform build and training. Full-time on the project from October 2026.

Download CV (PDF)

Role	Who	Responsibilities	Days (core)
Project & technical lead	Ian Tairea	Accountability, inception, KM strategy, IA, build, training, handover	70
KM practitioner	Engaged for the project; Pacific public-sector experience	KM audit review, governance, content standards, lifecycle and archiving, KM training	22
Design & bilingual content	UX designer plus fluent Cook Islands Māori speakers, engaged for the project	Design system, prototype testing, accessibility review, Māori content and glossary	18
Developer	Sunrise Labs	Platform configuration, migration tooling, testing, hosting setup	12
Core scope · all roles at $70/hour			122

References

Referees for the work shown in Part A are available on request and will be provided at shortlisting, with their consent:

Te Tihi o Ruahine Whānau Ora Alliance (website, ongoing hosting)
Te Rōpū Pakihi, Kāpiti–Horowhenua Māori Business Network (website, member directory)
Te Puna Marama Voyaging Foundation, Cook Islands (website, ongoing hosting)

What we ask of the Ministry

A named project officer (about half a day a week)
A content champion in each division (two hours a fortnight)
A fisheries officer contact on each island for the Pa Enua review
The Digital Working Group at three co-design sessions and fortnightly demos

Part D · Financial proposal

Investment

New Zealand dollars. One rate for everyone: $70 per hour, $560 per eight-hour day. Broken down by activity, by personnel, and by recurring platform and hosting cost, shown VAT exclusive and inclusive at 15%. The core scope is fixed. Options are added or removed below, and the totals update.

By activity

The brief

Scope A

Core scope

Deliverables D1 to D7 exactly as the EOI describes them. Nothing else.

Scope B

Core + daily tool

Adds Knowledge Hub Plus, the Pa Enua Layer, Signals & Alerts and the Rules & Ra'ui Guide. The site becomes something fishers and officers use every week.

Scope C

Core + full vision

Everything in B5. The reference implementation for small ocean states.

Include	Activity	Scope	NZD excl. VAT
Core scope · the EOI deliverables · Oct 2026 – May 2027
	D1 · Inception report and costed workplan4 days	Kick-off, scope and governance confirmed, detailed workplan	2,240
	D2 · Review of KM audit and wireframe8 days	Supported review, gap interviews, agreed recommendations	4,480
	D3 · KM strategy, implementation plan and training20 days	Governance, roles, standards, lifecycle, actions, two training sessions	11,200
	D4 · Information architecture and co-design package18 days	Site map, content types, bilingual model, design system, tested prototype, three sessions	10,080
	D5 · Website developed and configured45 days	Platform, repository, forms, maps, analytics, hosting, security	25,200
	D6 · Priority content migrated and quality-checked15 days	Migration with metadata, redirects, accessible-document guidance	8,400
	D7 · Launch, training and handover12 days	Testing, launch, training for every division, documentation, 30 days support	6,720
Optional modules · beyond the brief · Section B5
	01 · Knowledge Hub PlusQuestion-answering search with citations, staff tier, legislation browser	≈ 21 days	12,000
	02 · Pa Enua Layer15 island pages, offline caching, SMS, kiosk mode, printables	≈ 18 days	10,000
	03 · Fishing Rules & Ra'ui GuideOffline installable guide, species ID, ra'ui map and status	≈ 25 days	14,000
	04 · Lagoon & Ocean Health LiveMonitoring-site map, trends, advisories, open data	≈ 21 days	12,000
	05 · Ocean Transparency PortalVessel register, delayed activity map, quota uptake, interactive annual report	≈ 27 days	15,000
	06 · Licensing & Services PortalOnline applications, renewals, status tracking, officer case management	≈ 43 days	24,000
	07 · Signals & AlertsPublic reporting, officer triage, crisis mode, island-targeted alerts	≈ 18 days	10,000
	08 · Learning PathwaysFive pathways on Galaxy Maps, teacher packs, certificates	≈ 25 days	14,000
	09 · Leadership Insight DashboardUnanswered questions, Service Charter turnaround, Pa Enua reach, monthly summary	≈ 7 days	4,000
Ongoing support · separate from hosting (see B3)
	Support and continuous improvement retainerPatching, monitoring, backup tests, quarterly KM and analytics review, 40 hours of improvements	Per year, from public launch	8,000
	Selected total, VAT exclusive		$0
	VAT at 15%		$0
	Selected total, VAT inclusive		$0

Core deliverables are fixed-price and invoiced on acceptance of each deliverable. Optional modules are fixed-price and can be contracted at any time. Travel to two Pa Enua islands for co-design and review is included in D2 and D4; additional island visits are billed at cost. Recurring platform and hosting costs (estimated NZD 1,000 to 2,200 per year, Section B3) are contracted by the Ministry directly and are not included in the figures above.

By personnel (core scope)

Role	Rate / hour	Rate / day	Days	NZD excl. VAT	NZD incl. VAT
Project & technical lead (Ian Tairea)	70	560	70	39,200	45,080
KM practitioner	70	560	22	12,320	14,168
Design & bilingual content	70	560	18	10,080	11,592
Developer	70	560	12	6,720	7,728
Core scope			122	68,320	78,568

Summary

Line	NZD excl. VAT	VAT 15%	NZD incl. VAT
Core scope · deliverables D1–D7, fixed price	68,320	10,248	78,568
Optional modules · as selected above	0	0	0
Support retainer · optional, per year	0	0	0
Recurring platform and hosting · per year, contracted by the Ministry (B3)	≈ 1,000 – 2,200	—	≈ 1,150 – 2,530
Selected total (excluding hosting)	0	0	0

Indicative scope

Selected activities

Indicative total

NZD $0

VAT exclusive · $0 VAT inclusive · hosting excluded

Ministry of Marine Resources

Signature · Name / Title · Date

Sunrise Labs

Signature · Name / Title · Date

Signature blocks are provided for convenience should the Ministry wish to indicate a preferred scope at shortlisting. They do not form a contract; a formal statement of work follows scope confirmation.

Contact

Vaipunu Ian Tairea · Director, Sunrise Labs
Mauke, Cook Islands
ian@sunriselabs.io · +682 57821 · sunriselabs.io

Submission

Response to the Call for Expressions of Interest, Knowledge Management & Website Development Services, released 31 August 2026. Submitted to info@mmr.gov.ck before 4pm, 18 September 2026. Meitaki ma'ata for the opportunity.