Consultant for NEK Vitality Project: Systems Modeling for Regional Decision Making

The Northeast Kingdom Collaborative is seeking a consultant to design, develop, and deliver a system‑dynamics modeling and simulation tool that will help regional leaders, businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom make data‑driven economic‑development decisions. The consultant will lead stakeholder engagement, collect and synthesize data, build and calibrate a dynamic model, run scenario analyses, and produce an interactive simulator with accompanying documentation, training, and scenario briefs. The finished tool and all related assets will be transferred to the NEK Collaborative for long‑term use in planning, grant applications, and coordinated investment strategies. • Scope: system‑dynamics model design, data collection, stakeholder facilitation, model calibration, scenario analysis, interactive simulator development, technical documentation, training materials, and knowledge transfer. • Geographic focus: Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties (Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom). • Timeline: Open 10/1/2026 – close 10/16/2026; project kickoff after award, with a public launch at the NEK Together conference on 11/4/2026; final deliverables due after a series of stakeholder reviews (exact end date not specified). • Deliverables: fully functional simulation tool, scenario briefs, technical documentation, staff training sessions, and all underlying data/models. • Funding: No dollar value listed; the effort is a consulting contract funded by the NEK Vitality Project.