Enhancing JRC Modelling Tools for Active Mobility Modes and Affordability: Comprehensive Network Characterisation and Transport Poverty Indicators.

The European Commission Joint Research Centre has published a service contract tender (procedure EC-JRC/SVQ/2026/MVP/3980-EXA) to enhance modelling tools for accessibility analysis, with emphasis on walking and cycling networks, affordability and high-resolution transport poverty indicators to support the Transport Poverty Hub. The estimated contract value is €139,500 and the work is planned for approximately 12 months. Eligibility is for organisations and submission is via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal under the EXA procurement procedure. Deliverables include methodologies, scripts and documentation that will be transferred to and retained by the JRC for in-house use.

Opportunity type and objective

What it funds

A service contract to strengthen the JRC's modelling tools for accessibility analyses, improving characterisation of active mobility (walking, cycling), generating high-resolution (€100 Mx €100 M) transport poverty indicators that incorporate affordability, and supporting the Transport Poverty Hub.

Who can apply:Organisations able to deliver technical and methodological support (research institutes, consultancies, consortia with relevant modelling and GIS expertise). Submission is via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and follows a public procurement procedure EU Tender Notice ¹.

1. 1Contracting authority: European Commission, DG JRC - Joint Research Centre
2. 2Contract type: Services (public procurement tender)
3. 3Expected duration: 12 months
4. 4Key outputs: methodologies, scripts, documentation and high-resolution transport poverty indicators

Deliverables and intellectual property:methodologies, code and documentation produced under the contract will be transferred to and retained by the JRC for in-house maintenance and reuse.

Footnotes

1. 1Full tender documentation and submission are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal at the linked notice.

Summary

The European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published a service contract tender to strengthen the JRC's analytical modelling capabilities for assessing accessibility to destinations (employment, healthcare, education and similar). The work focuses on improving characterisation of active mobility modes (walking and cycling) and active-mode transport networks across the European Union; producing high-resolution transport poverty indicators down to a 100-metre-by-100-metre grid; integrating affordability dimensions (for example exposure to fuel price increases or public transport fare rises); and supporting the further development of the Transport Poverty Hub. Methodologies, scripts and documentation developed under the contract will be transferred to and retained by the JRC for in-house maintenance and reuse.

Key administrative and process facts

Detailed eligibility and procedural characteristics

Eligible Applicant Types:This is a public procurement for service contract performance. Typical eligible applicants include private companies (SMEs and large enterprises) offering consultancy, modelling, GIS and software development services; universities and research institutes; non-profit research organisations; consortia combining technical, scientific and software development partners; and public bodies acting as contractors where allowed by procurement rules. Individual natural persons are generally not the contracting party for this type of tender. The tender documentation should be consulted for explicit admissibility criteria, financial capacity and exclusion grounds.

Funding Type:Public procurement contract (service contract). This is not a grant, loan or equity instrument. The Commission will award a fee-based contract for services (procurement).

Consortium Requirement:The tender is structured as a procurement contract for which a single contracting party will be selected. Bidders may form consortia or joint ventures to meet technical requirements and demonstrate capacity, or rely on subcontracting, but the contract is awarded to a single legal entity or a legally constituted consortium able to sign the contract. Tender documents will clarify whether a formal consortium (joint tenderer) or subcontracting structure is required or preferred.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility):Scope is EU-focused in terms of subject matter (European Union transport networks and population). As an EU public procurement, eligible economic operators from EU Member States and possibly other countries allowed by the procurement rules (EEA, candidate countries or third countries adhering to EU procurement agreements) can typically participate. Bidders should consult the procurement documents on the Funding and Tenders Portal for exact nationality and location admissibility.

Target Sector:Transport and mobility (active modes: walking and cycling), spatial accessibility analysis, transport poverty and affordability, GIS / geospatial modelling, transport/environment policy support, data science and software development for policy modelling.

Mentioned Countries:No individual countries are named in the description; the geographic focus is the European Union (EU).

Project Stage / Expected maturity of work:Implementation / development and deployment of analytical methodologies, production-level modelling and indicator generation. Work requires state-of-the-art scientific and technical expertise: network characterisation, GIS and geospatial data processing, transport modelling for active modes, development of high-resolution (€100 Mx €100 M) indicator grids, integration of affordability metrics into multidimensional transport poverty indicators, and preparation of reproducible scripts and documentation for JRC operational use.

Funding Amount:Estimated overall contract amount €139,500 (budget indicated in the procurement record). The contract is planned for 12 months. ¹

Application Type and Submission:Open competitive procurement via the European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal. Submission method is eSubmission. Bidders must register on the Portal and comply with the EXA registration and tendering steps. EXA registration deadline indicated: 2026-08-19 23:59:59 (Europe/Madrid); planned call/tender publication 2026-08-27.

Nature of Support:Monetary payment for contracted services (fee-based contract). In addition to monetary compensation, the contract requires delivery of non-monetary outputs (methodologies, scripts, documentation, datasets and technical support) that will be transferred to the JRC.

Application Stages:Procurement processes typically have multiple stages: registration (EXA), tender submission, administrative and technical evaluation, possible clarifications or negotiation phases, and contract award. For this tender expect at least 2 to 3 formal stages (registration and submission; evaluation; award/contracting). Exact stages and timelines are defined in the procurement documents.

Success Rates:No success-rate data are provided in the tender notice. As a single-award service procurement with one estimated contract value, only one bidder will be awarded this contract; success rates depend on number and strength of competing bids.

Co-funding Requirement:No co-funding from the applicant is required for a procurement contract. Bidders must propose a price within the procurement budget and meet contractual and financial capacity requirements specified in the tender documents. The JRC budget covers the contracted services.

Technical and deliverable expectations (detailed)

The tender description sets clear technical expectations. Successful bidders will be expected to provide methodological and technical support to: (1) strengthen JRC modelling tools for assessing multimodal accessibility including active modes (walking and cycling); (2) characterise active-mode networks across the EU and develop reproducible procedures to derive active-mode network representations appropriate for routing and accessibility computations; (3) generate high-resolution indicators at a €100 Mx €100 Mspatial grid capturing multidimensional transport poverty, including accessibility to relevant destinations (employment, healthcare, education) and affordability metrics; (4) integrate affordability considerations into indicators, such as sensitivity to fuel price increases and public transport fare changes; (5) develop or extend software, scripts and workflows (code repositories, reproducible pipelines) for JRC operational use; and (6) support the Transport Poverty Hub and knowledge transfer to enable JRC maintenance and extension of the capability.

Expected technical components and outputs (non-exhaustive):

1. 1EU-wide active-mode network extraction and harmonisation methodologies from open or authoritative datasets (e.g., OpenStreetMap, national networks), including rules for pedestrian and cyclist network cleaning, connectivity, slope/gradient considerations and plausible routing speeds.
2. 2Methods to compute accurate walking and cycling travel times and distances at high resolution, accounting for barriers, crossings, land use and micro-level network properties.
3. 3High-resolution (€100 Mx €100 M) accessibility indicators to employment, healthcare and education destinations, computed for active modes and combined with public transport accessibility where relevant.
4. 4Definition and operationalisation of multidimensional transport poverty indicators including affordability metrics (e.g., share of income spent on mobility, vulnerability to fuel and fare increases), and guidance on thresholds and vulnerability profiling.
5. 5Sensitivity analysis frameworks to quantify impacts of scenarios (fuel price rises, fare changes, transport service reductions) on identified vulnerable population groups and geographic hotspots.
6. 6Production-ready scripts, documented code repositories and workflows that the JRC can run and maintain, plus metadata and user documentation.
7. 7Support to the Transport Poverty Hub: data products, visualisation-ready outputs, and documentation to feed the Hub.

Technical skills and expertise sought (indicative):

1. 1Expertise in transport modelling for active modes, accessibility analysis and transport poverty metrics.
2. 2Advanced GIS and geospatial data processing skills and experience handling very high-resolution grids across large areas.
3. 3Software engineering and reproducible data science practices (version control, automated pipelines, containerisation where relevant).
4. 4Experience with routing engines and network analysis tools (e.g., OpenTripPlanner, OSRM, GraphHopper, pgRouting, or custom routing solutions), and working with OpenStreetMap or national network datasets.
5. 5Ability to integrate socioeconomic datasets (income, employment, population) and model affordability metrics.
6. 6Experience in EU-wide studies, working with heterogeneous datasets, and knowledge of European transport policy context.
7. 7Ability to produce clear documentation and transfer technical capability to an institutional user (JRC).

Application logistics and practical advice

Interested bidders should register and submit via the Funding and Tenders Portal eSubmission system. Prepare: a technical proposal describing methodologies, work plan and team composition; a financial offer consistent with the estimated budget and the bidder's resource plan; evidence of relevant experience and references; CVs of key experts; and any required administrative and legal documents requested in the tender dossier. Clarify consortium arrangements, subcontracting plans and IP/ownership statements in line with the procurement instructions. Ensure compliance with exclusion and selection criteria, financial capacity thresholds and certification obligations in the tender documentation.

Templates and structure of application forms:The procurement uses the Funding and Tenders Portal eSubmission forms. Expect standard procurement submission packages: administrative forms (legal and financial identification, declarations), selection and exclusion forms, technical offer template (work plan, methodology, staffing and timeline), and a financial offer template. The Portal provides structured e-forms; bidders must complete mandatory fields and upload supporting attachments (CVs, references, certificates). No bespoke template files are attached in the scraped record; bidders must consult the call-specific CFT documents on the Portal for exact templates and templates for the technical and financial offers.

Risks, constraints and important contractual notes

Key contractual constraints visible in the record:the JRC retains ownership of methodologies, scripts and documentation produced under the contract (deliverables transferred to JRC). The contract is classified under CPV codes for R&D services and IT consulting; bidders should confirm requirements for data protection, confidentiality, IP and reproducibility. Budget is limited to the estimated amount; bidders must ensure proposed scope fits the available funds. The procurement record indicates an EXA registration step; failure to register by the registration deadline will prevent participation. Always consult the full tender dossier for exclusion, selection, award criteria and specific deliverable schedule.

Practical next steps for potential bidders

1. 1Access the full tender dossier and CFT documents on the Funding and Tenders Portal from the primary URL Tender on Funding & Tenders Portal and download all forms and instructions.
2. 2Register on the Portal and complete required EXA registration by 2026-08-19 23:59:59 (Europe/Madrid) to be eligible to submit an offer.
3. 3Assemble a team with proven expertise in active-mode transport modelling, high-resolution GIS work, affordability indicator design and reproducible software delivery.
4. 4Design a realistic workplan and budget aligned with the 12-month duration and the estimated budget of €139,500, ensuring transferability of deliverables to JRC.
5. 5Prepare the technical proposal, financial offer and all administrative documents; follow Portal templates and upload via eSubmission before the final submission date indicated in the CFT.

This tender is an opportunity to contribute scientific and technical expertise to EU-level policy support on transport poverty, active mobility and affordability, delivering reproducible methods and tools that will be integrated into JRC operational capabilities. The selected contractor will combine transport modelling, geospatial processing and data science to produce high-resolution, policy-relevant indicators and robust, documented code and workflows for long-term JRC use. ¹

Footnotes

1. 1Primary tender record and details are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal at the tender page: ec.europa.eu

This EU tender seeks expert support for the Joint Research Centre to enhance modelling tools for accessibility analysis, with a particular focus on walking and cycling networks, affordability, and high-resolution transport poverty indicators that can support the Transport Poverty Hub.[22][7][16]

The third-party tender listing identifies the opportunity as open, with procedure identifier EC-JRC/SVQ/2026/MVP/3980-EXA and an estimated budget of €139,500.[1]

Procurement snapshot

What the contract is about

According to the opportunity description, the contract will strengthen the JRC's analytical capabilities for assessing accessibility to employment, healthcare, and education by improving active mobility mode representation, transport network characterisation, and affordability-sensitive transport poverty indicators.

The work is meant to support analyses for vulnerable population profiles and to improve the accuracy of EU-wide policy evidence, including indicators down to a 100 metre by 100 metre scale.

The project also supports the Transport Poverty Hub, which already provides detailed spatial indicators to study access to services and opportunities by walking, cycling, driving, and public transport.[22][7]

Who can apply

The listing states that eligibility is Organisation, which means the call is aimed at legal entities rather than individuals.[1]

Based on the scope, the strongest candidates are organisations with experience in transport modelling, GIS, network analysis, accessibility metrics, active mobility, and policy-oriented indicator development.

Likely deliverables and expectations

• Methodological support for high-resolution transport poverty indicators that combine accessibility and affordability considerations.
• Characterisation of active mobility networks, especially walking and cycling, at EU scale.
• Scripts, workflows, and documentation that remain with the JRC for in-house maintenance and reuse.
• Support for the development and extension of the Transport Poverty Hub.
• Analysis approaches that can help assess vulnerability to fuel price increases or public transport fare increases.

Why this opportunity matters

The JRC has already positioned the Transport Poverty Hub as a policy tool for spatially detailed accessibility analysis, so this contract appears to deepen an existing evidence platform rather than create a standalone one-off study.[22][7]

The inclusion of affordability is important because transport poverty is multidimensional, and the JRC has an established research base on the topic, including a systematic literature review and related modelling work.[16][22]

Bidding considerations

• Treat the budget as a focused expert-services assignment rather than a large implementation contract, because the reported value is €139,500.[1][4]
• Expect the contracting authority to retain all methodologies, scripts, and documentation, so bidders should price the development work accordingly.
• Prepare evidence of comparable work on accessibility indicators, active mobility networks, transport poverty, or spatial policy tools.
• Verify all official conditions, clarification deadlines, and submission rules on the portal, because the budget and deadline currently visible in the search results come from third-party listings.[1][4]

Official portal page:Official tender notice ¹

Footnotes

1. 1The budget, status, and deadline are reported by third-party tender aggregators in the supplied search results and should be confirmed against the official EU Funding and Tenders Portal notice.