European Surveys with Asylum Migrants (EU SAM)

The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) is procuring survey conduction and related research services via a single framework contract (procedure ref EUAA/MLA/2026/OP/0031) to collect quantitative data from asylum-related migrants and support situational awareness. The estimated maximum framework ceiling is €800,000 and the contract duration is up to 24 months, with award by best price-quality ratio weighted 70% quality and 30% price. Tenders must be submitted electronically through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and comply with exclusion, selection and technical requirements including sampling methodology, multilingual fieldwork, interviewer training, data protection and ethics. The notice was published 14 October 2026 and the tender submission deadline on the portal is 3 December 2026 at 16:00 Europe/Malta.

What is funded

Scope

Procurement of survey data-collection services to conduct interviewer-assisted and web-based surveys with asylum-related migrants in EU reception contexts. Tasks include sampling implementation, interviewer recruitment and training, fieldwork (CAPI/CAWI or equivalent), metadata/paradata collection, quality assurance and technical reporting.

Footnotes

1. 1Portal subscription required to access procurement documents, submit questions and upload eSubmission tenders. Guidance and system requirements are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Opportunity summary

The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has launched an open procedure to award a single framework service contract titled European Surveys with Asylum Migrants (EU SAM). The contract is for outsourced survey data collection in reception, registration and processing facilities in EU+ countries to collect first-person quantitative situational data from asylum-related migrants. The framework contract ceiling is €800,000 and its maximum duration is 24 months. The contract will be implemented through specific order forms (specific contracts) issued by the EUAA. Tenders must be submitted electronically through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal (eSubmission).

Scope, outputs and method

Key deliverables and activities

The framework contract foresees a standardised workplan for each data collection request including: inception and preparatory work, sampling implementation plan, interviewer recruitment and training materials, pre-test and pre-test report, fieldwork/data collection (scenarios of 300, 500 or 800 valid responses per country), interim and final technical reports, metadata/paradata submission and an evaluation report. All deliverables must be in English and follow EUAA templates and timelines agreed at the inception meeting.

Essential operational details

Procurement, timelines and submission

Who should apply and eligible applicant types

Eligible applicants are organisations with proven technical and operational capacity to implement interviewer-assisted and web-based surveys in reception contexts in EU+ countries. The procedure allows participation as a sole tenderer or as a group of economic operators and permits subcontracting subject to prior rules and notifications. Applicants must be able to comply with EU procurement access rules (entities subject to EU restrictive measures are excluded) and must demonstrate financial, technical and professional capacity as specified in the tender documentation.

Selection and award — what the EUAA will check

Contracting, payments and invoicing

The framework contract will be a single‑contractor framework agreement with specific contracts (order forms) issued per data collection request. Payments are in euros. Interim payment rules: contractor may claim an interim payment as specified in the draft FWC subject to delivery and approval of specified interim deliverables and achievement of interim response targets in the order form. Final payment is conditional on approved deliverables and submission of required documentation including list of any pre‑existing rights. Invoicing follows the framework contract rules and EUAA invoicing instructions; e-invoicing via the Portal may be required when activated. VAT rules: EUAA is exempt under privileges and immunities; tenderers must ensure correct VAT treatment locally.

Reporting, monitoring and quality control

The contractor must supply regular biweekly progress reports, interim and final technical reports, metadata and paradata files, and a full evaluation report for each data collection request. The EUAA reserves the right to perform monitoring visits (with or without notice). The contractor must maintain and implement a quality assurance and control plan, data protection safeguards, interviewer training and codebook and must ensure anonymisation and secure handling of all personal data as specified in the tender documents.

Geographic and sectoral scope

Key technical requirements and expectations

Application and evaluation practicalities

Submit via eSubmission on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal before the deadline. Include identification documents (SSF1), Declaration on Honour (SSF6), Standard Submission Forms (SSF2-SSF8), Financial Offer form (SSF7) and technical tender evidence. Technical tender must address the award criteria and is limited to word counts for specific sections. The contracting authority may contact tenderers for clarification and request supporting documents during evaluation.

Categorisation answers (structured extraction)

Key templates and supporting documents are published as annexes in the call for tenders and must be completed and uploaded in eSubmission as specified in Annex 1. The Financial Offer uses an Excel price grid (SSF7) where tenderers enter unit prices per survey response per country and per sample size scenario.

How the procurement manages sensitive data and ethics

Surveys address potentially sensitive topics and many respondents may be vulnerable. The contractor must follow EUAA data protection guidelines, GDPR/Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 rules for the EUAA, ensure informed consent, anonymity, secure data handling and storage inside the EU/EEA, provide training on ethics and trauma‑informed interviewing, and must not collect or store personal identifiers beyond what is strictly necessary for fieldwork metadata. The contractor will not retain personal survey responses outside EUAA platforms; metadata/paradata provided to EUAA must be anonymised as specified in the tender.

How to apply and where to find documents

All procurement documents (Invitation to tender, Tender specifications Part 1 and Part 2, Draft Framework Contract, Standard Submission Forms, Financial Offer Form and Annexes) are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal; subscription to the call allows published updates and Q&A. Tenders must be submitted via eSubmission (EU Login account required). EU Funding & Tenders Portal Tender notice on TED EUAA tender page Technical specifications Part 2 Invitation to tender Standard Submission Forms

See procurement portal and call documentation for full legal, contractual and technical requirements, including mandatory templates and forms. For technical queries about eSubmission consult the eSubmission Quick Guide on the Portal 1.

Comprehensive summary — what is this opportunity about and how to explain it?

This EUAA tender establishes a single non‑reopenable framework contract for outsourced survey conduct services (EU SAM). The EUAA, acting as the contracting authority, will place needs-based orders (order forms / specific contracts) over the framework term requesting fieldwork in specified EU+ countries. The contractor will be responsible for all operational aspects of survey fieldwork: planning, sampling implementation, interviewer hiring and training, pre-testing, CAPI and CAWI administration, metadata and paradata collection, quality assurance and submission of interim and final technical reports. The EUAA retains ownership of the collected survey data and analysis, provides the survey instrument and platform access, and supervises access to operational sites through national authorities. The procurement is an open procedure with award by best price-quality ratio (70/30). Tenderers must demonstrate legal, financial and technical capacity (including previous survey projects) and complete Standard Submission Forms and the Financial Offer spreadsheet. The estimated ceiling is €800,000 for a maximum contract duration of 24 months. Contracts will be issued in response to specific data collection requests; typical sample sizes per request are 300, 500 or 800 valid responses per country. The tender documentation includes a draft framework contract, detailed technical specifications, standard submission forms, a financial offer model, and templates for sampling and QA deliverables. Interested organisations should prepare a compliant technical and financial offer and submit it via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal eSubmission service by the deadline indicated on the call page.

Footnotes

1. 1For portal access, subscription, eSubmission instructions and download of procurement documents see the EU Funding & Tenders Portal opportunity page.

Opportunity classification and purpose

This is a public procurement opportunity, not a grant scheme. The European Union Agency for Asylum is seeking one contractor to provide survey conduction and related research services involving asylum migrants. The procurement supports the EUAA Strategic Analysis and Research Sector in collecting evidence for situational awareness, filling knowledge gaps and responding to changes in asylum related migration in the context of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum.

The expected work combines quantitative survey delivery, sampling and respondent participation methods, interviewer training, multilingual implementation, data quality control, ethics and data protection, monitoring, reporting and project management. The detailed service requirements are set out in the technical specifications and the scenario exercise.

This report is based on the official procurement record and tender documents available at EU Funding and Tenders Portal opportunity. 1

Procurement profile

Funding and commercial structure

There is no grant contribution, reimbursement rate or co financing percentage. The successful organisation will be paid under a service contract or specific contracts issued under the framework agreement. Tenderers must price the required services using the official financial offer form and must bear their own tender preparation and submission costs.

The €800,000 amount is a maximum framework ceiling and not an automatic award or guaranteed revenue. The EUAA states that the quantities in the financial model are estimates only. Actual orders will depend on specific contracts issued during implementation, and the contracting authority is not obliged to order the full estimated volume.

The procurement documents indicate that, within one year after signature, the EUAA may use a negotiated procedure for similar services up to a maximum of 50 percent of the initial framework ceiling. This is discretionary, subject to conditions such as funding availability and satisfactory performance, and should not be treated as guaranteed contract value. If fully used, the additional potential value would be up to €400,000, distinct from the initial €800,000 ceiling.

The financial model identifies indicative survey quantities in Belgium, Germany and Ireland, including entries for 300 and 500 surveys in Belgium, 500 and 800 surveys in Germany, and 300 and 500 surveys in Ireland. These figures should be treated as planning assumptions only because the EUAA may issue specific requests with different quantities and requirements.

Who can apply

Any eligible natural or legal person that provides relevant services may submit a tender individually or as part of a group of economic operators. International organisations may also participate. Entities established in EU Member States and other persons covered by the EU Treaties may participate, together with entities established in third countries that have a special EU public procurement agreement, subject to the conditions of that agreement.

The World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement does not apply to this procedure. The tender documents also state that the EU United Kingdom Trade and Cooperation Agreement does not provide additional access for United Kingdom entities for this procurement. Applicants should therefore verify access based on their country of establishment before preparing a tender.

A tenderer must not be subject to applicable EU restrictive measures, including asset freezes or prohibitions on making funds or economic resources available. The restriction applies throughout contract performance. Tenderers and relevant involved entities must also satisfy the exclusion and selection requirements.

The opportunity is not identified as SME specific. SMEs may participate where they satisfy the requirements, either as a sole tenderer, group member or subcontractor. The submission forms request confirmation of SME status for statistical purposes using the EU definition of fewer than 250 staff and turnover not exceeding €50 million or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million.

Participation models

Applicants may participate as a sole tenderer or as a joint tender. A natural or legal person may not participate simultaneously as a sole tenderer and as a member of another group, or as a member of more than one group in the same procedure. A joint tender must identify the role and tasks of every member and appoint a group leader.

Members of a successful joint tender assume joint and several liability towards the EUAA for the performance of the contract. The group leader acts as the single contact point and must be authorised through the required agreement or power of attorney to submit the tender, sign contractual documents and coordinate implementation.

Subcontracting is permitted. Identified subcontractors must be disclosed where they are relied upon for selection criteria or where their intended individual share exceeds 20 percent of the contract volume. The tender must explain their roles, responsibilities and expected proportion of subcontracting, and each identified subcontractor must provide the required commitment letter.

A tenderer may rely on the capacities of other entities for economic, financial, technical or professional capacity, but it must demonstrate that the necessary resources will be available. For technical and professional capacity, the relevant entity must generally perform the services for which its capacity is relied upon. Abstract or unsupported commitments are insufficient.

Eligibility and exclusion requirements

The tenderer, group members, identified subcontractors and entities whose capacities are relied upon must complete the applicable declarations on honour and provide evidence when requested. The principal requirements include the following:

The EUAA may request judicial records, tax and social security certificates, equivalent official documents or other evidence. Documents may not need to be resubmitted if they were already provided for another procedure of the same contracting authority, remain valid and the situation has not changed. The authority may also access evidence through free national databases where available.

Minimum capability areas

The exact minimum thresholds must be checked in the final version of Tender Specifications Part 1 and Part 2. The tender structure indicates that applicants will be assessed for legal and regulatory capacity, economic and financial capacity, and technical and professional capacity.

The technical tender specifically requires a project coordinator and a senior research expert. The same person cannot be proposed for both profiles. Applicants must provide the profiles and detailed CVs of the personnel assigned to the contract. Experience beyond the minimum thresholds may improve the quality score, particularly relevant research experience, number and relevance of research projects, and experience across multiple countries.

The profiles submitted by the deadline are the profiles evaluated. They cannot be added or replaced after the deadline as part of the tender. During performance, replacement requires prior authorisation by the EUAA and the replacement should be equivalent in qualifications and experience. Failure to ensure that the proposed persons deliver the services may constitute a contractual breach.

Required technical approach

The technical tender must include a detailed work programme explaining how the activities will be delivered, how deadlines and quality will be maintained, how inputs from experts will be quality assured, how risks will be mitigated and how resources will be allocated. The work programme section is limited to 700 words in the standard form.

The tender must provide a methodology for participation from the sample. The scenario exercise concerns target populations in reception facilities and requires an example of stratified quota sampling for a relevant subpopulation. The response must also address alternative sampling or inclusion methods, diversity of interviewees in each target group and country, and the procedure for switching methods where barriers arise or probabilistic sampling is not possible.

The tender must explain implementation of quantitative data collection, including the proposed collection mode such as CAPI or CAWI, respondent assistance, data quality controls, interviewee feedback, ethics, data protection, monitoring and reporting. It must also describe interviewer recruitment and training covering ethics, data protection and key thematic concepts such as international protection and push and pull factors.

The tender must set out the proposed use of target languages, including training and survey implementation in the languages listed in the technical specifications. Applicants should demonstrate how key concepts have been translated and managed consistently. Additional relevant languages may be treated as added value where permitted by the technical specifications.

The technical tender must include the required technical compliance list and description of services. Failure to provide the required technical compliance material and service description may result in the tender being considered non compliant and excluded from further evaluation.

Artificial intelligence requirements

The standard submission forms require the tenderer to state whether large language models or other artificial intelligence systems were used in preparing the technical tender or will be used during implementation. Where applicable, the tenderer must indicate the extent of use. Applicants should ensure that any proposed use complies with the technical specifications, confidentiality requirements, data protection obligations, research ethics and the contract.

Award and evaluation

The procurement uses the best price quality ratio. The available procurement data indicates a weighting of 70 percent for quality and 30 percent for price. Quality is therefore the dominant component of the evaluation, and a technically strong methodology, credible team and robust implementation plan are likely to be more important than submitting the lowest price alone.

The quality assessment is expected to consider compliance with the technical requirements, the work programme, project management, team qualifications and experience, sampling methodology, data collection and quality assurance methodology, interviewer training, language capability and the response to the scenario exercise. The technical specifications and administrative tender documents remain controlling if there is any difference between this summary and the official documents.

Contract operation

The framework agreement will be concluded with one contractor. It creates a mechanism for repetitive future purchases through specific contracts, but signature of the framework agreement does not oblige the EUAA to issue specific contracts or purchase the full estimated quantities.

Specific contracts will be awarded under the terms of the framework agreement, with refinement or supplementation where justified by the particular assignment. The EUAA may also request quotations for similar services not initially included, subject to the applicable financial and procurement rules.

The maximum framework duration is 24 months. The exact start date, payment arrangements, deliverables, confidentiality provisions, checks, audits, liability, intellectual property, data protection and any renewal provisions must be confirmed in the draft framework contract before submission.

The contractor must support fraud prevention and detection and must pass relevant obligations to subcontractors and personnel. Environmental considerations must be taken into account throughout service delivery. The contractor must also apply equality, diversity and non discrimination principles and maintain an open and inclusive working environment.

Data protection is particularly material because the assignment concerns asylum migrants and involves survey responses, interview records, staff details and potentially sensitive personal data. The contractor will need appropriate technical and organisational safeguards, lawful and ethical fieldwork procedures, controlled access, confidentiality, secure transfers, retention management and compliant handling of any anonymised or pseudonymised data.

Submission requirements and timetable

The metadata contains an additional date of 1 January 2026, but the official call details and invitation documents identify 3 December 2026 at 16:00 Malta time as the deadline for receipt of tenders. Applicants should rely on the live portal record and any subsequent corrigendum, not the inconsistent metadata date.

Administrative submission checklist

Technical and commercial risk assessment

The main commercial risk is that the €800,000 ceiling is not guaranteed. The winning contractor must have sufficient financial resilience and operational flexibility to maintain the team and systems even if the EUAA issues fewer specific contracts than the indicative financial model suggests.

The main delivery risks concern access to asylum migrant populations, recruitment and diversity of respondents, work in reception facilities, multilingual consistency, interviewer safety and training, sensitive data handling, changing field conditions and the need to adapt sampling without undermining comparability or representativeness.

The quality weighting creates a risk for applicants that submit a generic market research proposal. The response should be tailored to asylum and migration research, demonstrate experience with vulnerable populations and cross national surveys, and provide concrete operational procedures rather than broad statements of capability.

The proposed project coordinator and senior research expert should be available for the full assignment and supported by clearly allocated fieldwork, sampling, translation, data management, quality assurance, ethics, data protection and project administration resources. Any reliance on external capacities should be documented and operationally credible.

Recommended applicant profile

The strongest applicants are likely to be established survey research organisations, social research institutes, polling organisations, universities or specialist consortiums with demonstrated experience in multi country quantitative research, migrant or asylum populations, reception settings, multilingual fieldwork, probability or quota sampling, interviewer training, sensitive data protection and rapid delivery of repeat survey assignments.

A consortium may be advantageous where one partner provides central research design and data management while other partners provide country access, language capability, fieldwork networks and local knowledge. However, consortium members will assume joint and several liability, so governance, task allocation, quality assurance and replacement arrangements should be settled before submission.

Overall assessment

This is a strategically relevant but operationally demanding EU agency procurement for a specialist survey and research supplier. It offers a potential framework ceiling of €800,000 over up to 24 months, with additional similar services potentially available at the EUAA's discretion, but it does not guarantee any minimum order value.

The opportunity is most suitable for bidders able to demonstrate high quality research delivery with vulnerable and mobile populations across several countries. Success will depend primarily on the credibility of the proposed team, the specificity of the sampling and fieldwork methodology, multilingual and ethical delivery, data quality assurance, and a compliant electronic submission rather than on price alone.

Applicants should download and review all seven current procurement documents, including the invitation letter, administrative specifications, technical specifications, standard submission forms, scenario annex, financial offer form and draft framework contract. Any amendment, clarification or published question and answer should be incorporated before final submission. 1

Footnotes

1. 1Authoritative source: EU Funding and Tenders Portal opportunity and procurement documents. The portal record and its attached procurement documents prevail over this analytical summary in case of discrepancy.