Further strengthening the nuclear safety and radioprotection regulator in Türkiye (TR3.01/26)

The European Commission (DG INTPA) is procuring a fee-based service contract under the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation to provide technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen Türkiye's Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NDK) and its Technical Support Organization (NÜTED) in parallel with Akkuyu NPP activities. The estimated contract value is €4 million excluding VAT, with a maximum duration of 42 months and a restricted two-stage procedure that will shortlist between four and eight candidates. Eligibility and selection minima include an average annual turnover of at least €2 million over the last three years, an average of at least 25 relevant personnel, and at least three completed relevant contracts in the last four years each with a value of at least €300,000, with at least two references involving non-EU national regulators. Requests to participate must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal in English before 12 November 2026 at 12:00:59 Brussels time and shortlisted candidates will be invited to tender thereafter.

Quick summary

What is funded

A service contract under the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC) to support capacity building of Türkiye’s nuclear regulator (NDK) and its Technical Support Organization (NÜTED). Support covers nuclear safety, radiation safety and protection, radioactive waste management, transport safety, inspection and safety-security interface.

Interested candidates must submit a request to participate using the portal forms and templates; full selection and award criteria and required supporting documents are in the procurement dossier on the Funding & Tenders Portal Funding & Tenders Portal - tender details. 1

Footnotes

1. 1Procurement documents and the Additional information about the contract notice are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal tender page: ec.europa.eu

Opportunity summary

Scope of tasks and thematic focus

The services will provide technical assistance and capacity building to Türkiye's national nuclear regulator (NDK) and its Technical Support Organization (NÜTED). Key regulatory areas identified for support include nuclear safety, radiation safety and radiation protection, safe radioactive waste management, radioactive transport safety, inspection activities, and managing the interface between safety and security. Activities are intended to complement an ongoing INSC intervention that runs until end April 2027 and to follow-up on results already achieved.

Eligible applicants and participation rules

Participation is open to natural persons and legal persons (individually or in consortium) established in an EU Member State or in eligible countries or territories as defined in Article 11 of Regulation (EU) No 2021/948. International organisations may also participate. Sub-contracting is allowed. Candidates included in EU restrictive measures lists at the moment of award cannot be awarded the contract. All candidates must submit a signed declaration on exclusion and selection criteria. Only one request to participate or tender may be submitted by a natural or legal person in any form of participation. In case of lots, one request per lot is permitted.

Selection and award criteria (detailed)

Selection criteria and thresholds for requests to participate and tenderers are explicitly detailed in the procurement documents. These include economic and financial capacity, professional capacity, and technical capacity thresholds and documentary evidence requirements. Award will be based on best price-quality ratio.

Submission details, deadlines and language

Requests to participate must be submitted exclusively via the Funding & Tenders Portal eSubmission tool. A valid EU Login account and a PIC for each organisation are required. All communications and submissions must be in English. Deadline for receipt of requests to participate: 12 November 2026, 12:00:59 Europe/Brussels (UTC+01:00). Provisional invitation to tender: 01 February 2027. Provisional contract commencement: 01 July 2027. Performance location: Türkiye.

Submission templates and required documentation

Requests to participate must use the standard request to participate form available from the eProcurement/PRAG annexes page. Candidates must also submit a Declaration on Honour on exclusion and selection criteria using the prescribed template. Any additional documentation must be uploaded in the correct attachment sections of the eSubmission interface: Request to participate form under 'Other documents', the declaration referred to in point 7 under 'Other documents', and the Declaration on Honour under 'Declaration on Honour'. Brochures or unsolicited additional materials will not be considered.

Key technical information and CPV references

Important procedural and legal references

Selection criteria and evidence checklist (recommended)

This opportunity is published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and the TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) system. For procurement documents, templates and the Invitation to submit a request to participate see the tender details page on the Funding & Tenders Portal. Funding & Tenders Portal - Tender details Additional information document (PDF) TED notice 1

Summary: what this opportunity is about

The European Commission (INTPA) is procuring a fee-based service contract financed under the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC) Annual Action Plan 2026 to further strengthen Türkiye's national nuclear regulatory authority (NDK) and its Technical Support Organization (NÜTED). The work will provide technical assistance, capacity building and regulatory support across nuclear safety, radiation protection, radioactive waste and transport safety, inspections and the safety-security interface. The restricted two-stage procurement will shortlist between 4 and 8 qualified candidates (single entities or consortia) based on stringent financial, professional and technical selection criteria (including turnover and prior contracts with nuclear regulators). Shortlisted candidates will be invited to tender; the award will be on a best price-quality ratio. Estimated contract value is €4,000,000 with a maximum implementation period of 42 months. All submissions must be electronic via the Funding & Tenders Portal, in English, and follow the official request to participate and declaration templates.

Footnotes

1. 1Procurement-specific details, selection and award criteria, templates for the request to participate and the Declaration on Honour are provided in the procurement documents available on the Funding & Tenders Portal tender page. Candidates must consult and follow the exact templates and instructions there when preparing submissions.

Further strengthening the nuclear safety and radioprotection regulator in Türkiye

Executive Summary

This is a European Commission service procurement, not a grant scheme. The selected contractor will provide technical assistance, regulatory support, training and related specialist services to strengthen Türkiye's Nuclear Regulatory Authority, known as NDK, and its Technical Support Organization, NÜTED, in parallel with development and operation of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. The contract is financed under the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation and has an estimated value of €4 million excluding VAT 1.

The procedure is restricted and will be conducted in two stages. Eligible candidates first submit a request to participate. Between four and eight candidates are expected to be shortlisted for the second stage, subject to the number of candidates meeting the selection criteria. Only shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit a detailed tender.

The opportunity is highly specialised and is best suited to nuclear regulatory authorities' technical support organisations, nuclear safety consultancies, engineering and technical assistance firms, research organisations, universities with substantial applied regulatory expertise, or consortia combining these capabilities. The mandatory experience thresholds make a consortium or capacity provider arrangement potentially important for organisations that do not independently meet all requirements.

Key opportunity facts

The principal facts are as follows.

Purpose and policy context

The action forms part of the 2026 Annual Action Plan of the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation, specifically the Türkiye component. It is financed from the budget line for nuclear safety, radiation protection and safeguards and supports the EU's external nuclear safety cooperation objectives 39.

NDK and NÜTED are being developed while the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is being constructed and brought towards operation. An existing INSC intervention is supporting regulatory framework consolidation and alignment with EU and international standards. This procurement is intended to complement and follow up that work rather than operate as an unrelated research project.

The wider policy rationale is to help ensure that Türkiye has sufficiently capable, independent and effective regulatory arrangements for nuclear safety, radiation protection, radioactive waste, transport, inspection and the relationship between nuclear safety and nuclear security. The continuing development of these capabilities is consistent with issues identified in international regulatory review material concerning Türkiye 45.

Expected technical scope

The published description identifies the following substantive areas of work.

The detailed technical tasks, deliverables, staffing profile, work packages and performance indicators should be taken from the invitation to tender and any subsequent procurement documents. The public description establishes the subject matter but does not provide a complete statement of work.

Who can apply

Participation is open to eligible natural persons, legal persons established in an EU Member State or in a country or territory eligible under Article 11 of Regulation Euratom 2021/948, and international organisations. Legal persons may apply individually or as members of a consortium, subject to the nationality and establishment rules in the procurement documents 39.

Türkiye is the place of performance and the intended institutional beneficiaries are Turkish public regulatory and technical support bodies. This does not mean that only Turkish entities may apply. A non-Turkish eligible operator may apply, provided it meets the applicable eligibility, exclusion, financial, professional and technical requirements.

Consortia are permitted. A consortium may be a permanent legally established grouping or an informal grouping formed specifically for the procurement. All consortium members are jointly and severally liable to the contracting authority. Each member must satisfy applicable eligibility and exclusion requirements, and the consortium's roles and contribution should be clearly documented.

Subcontracting is allowed. However, subcontracting does not remove the need to demonstrate that the candidate has access to the required capabilities, nor does it remove the eligibility and exclusion requirements applicable to relevant subcontractors and capacity-providing entities.

An organisation may submit no more than one request to participate, whether as a sole candidate, consortium leader or consortium member. Participation in more than one request can lead to exclusion of all requests in which that organisation participates.

Mandatory selection criteria

Candidates must satisfy the following minimum criteria. For a consortium, the criteria generally apply to the consortium as a whole unless the procurement documents state otherwise.

Experience references do not necessarily need to have started and finished entirely within the four year period. Projects completed during the period, or parts of projects implemented during the period, may be considered. Only the portion completed during the reference period is counted and that portion must be supported by evidence.

Previous experience from a contract that was breached and terminated by a contracting authority cannot be used as a selection reference.

Use of other entities' capacity

A candidate may rely on the financial, professional or technical capacity of another entity, regardless of the legal relationship between them, if it demonstrates that the resources will be available for contract performance. A written commitment to make the resources available is required when requested or as specified by the procurement documents.

A capacity-providing entity must meet the relevant eligibility and nationality requirements and must fulfil the selection criteria for which its capacity is used. For technical and professional capacity, the entity must perform the tasks for which its capacity is relied upon. For financial capacity, the capacity-providing entity becomes jointly and severally liable for performance.

This mechanism may be used to assemble a compliant bid, but it should be planned carefully. The request to participate should clearly distinguish the candidate's own capacity from the capacity of each supporting entity and identify the work that each entity will undertake.

Shortlisting and second stage

The contracting authority intends to invite between four and eight eligible candidates to submit detailed tenders. If fewer than four candidates satisfy the criteria, the contracting authority may invite all candidates that satisfy them.

If more than eight eligible candidates satisfy the minimum criteria, the candidates will be ranked using additional comparative criteria. The first comparison is the number of contracts meeting the technical capacity criterion. If candidates remain tied for the final place, the cumulative value of those qualifying completed services will be used as the second comparison.

Shortlisted candidates must preserve the composition stated in their request to participate. A shortlisted candidate may not form an alliance with or subcontract to another shortlisted candidate for this procurement unless the contracting authority gives prior approval 8. This creates a significant consortium formation and conflict management issue before submission.

Funding and commercial terms

The published amount is an estimated total contract value of €4 million excluding VAT. This is the maximum commercial scale indicated by the notice for the service contract and is not a grant allocation to be distributed among applicants. The successful contractor will be paid under a fee-based service contract in accordance with the final contract and agreed deliverables.

No applicant funding rate, co-financing percentage, lump sum, grant budget or fixed award per beneficiary is specified because this is procurement of services. Applicants should price the tender in accordance with the future invitation to tender, including any requirements on fees, expert days, travel, reimbursable costs, taxes, subcontracting, deliverables and payment milestones.

The notice indicates that electronic ordering and electronic payment will be used 10. The contract has one lot and no framework agreement is indicated. The notice also describes a possible option for similar additional services up to 50 percent of the initial contract value, subject to the applicable procurement conditions and conformity with the basic project 10.

Award methodology

The award criterion is best price quality ratio. The procurement data indicates an 80 percent quality weighting and a 20 percent price weighting. Detailed subcriteria and scoring methodology are to be taken from the procurement documents.

The high quality weighting means that technical methodology, regulatory expertise, team composition, understanding of NDK and NÜTED needs, quality assurance, knowledge transfer, delivery risk management and relevant experience are likely to be decisive. A low price alone is unlikely to compensate for a weak technical offer.

Indicative timetable

The request to participate deadline is the operative deadline currently stated in the contract notice. The separate date appearing in some prepared metadata should not be treated as the submission deadline unless the portal issues a formal corrigendum.

Application and submission requirements

Requests to participate must be submitted exclusively through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Submissions by email, post or another channel will be disregarded 6.

The contracting authority states that unsolicited additional material such as brochures or letters will not be taken into consideration. The submission should therefore be complete but limited to the information and documents requested.

All written communications for the procedure and the contract must be in English. Financial information must be expressed in euros. Where historic amounts are in another currency, the procurement documents require conversion using the applicable InforEuro exchange rate for October 2026.

Clarifications and monitoring of updates

Questions concerning the contract notice or the additional information document must be submitted in writing through the Questions and Answers function of the Funding and Tenders Portal. The published instructions state that questions should be submitted no later than 21 days before the participation deadline and that clarifications should be published no later than 8 days before the deadline 7.

Candidates should subscribe to the opportunity and monitor the portal for corrigenda, revised documents, clarifications and changes to the submission arrangements. The contracting authority also reserves the ability to extend the deadline if electronic communication systems are unavailable or disrupted during the final five calendar days before the deadline, subject to the notice conditions.

Key compliance risks

Applicant positioning and recommended preparation

A strong candidate should demonstrate not only general nuclear engineering expertise but also direct experience supporting an independent nuclear regulator or its technical support organisation. Experience in regulatory decision making, licensing, inspection, radiation protection, radioactive waste, transport safety and safety and security interfaces should be mapped explicitly to the opportunity scope.

Before the deadline, applicants should prepare a reference matrix showing for every proposed contract the client, country, regulatory beneficiary, contract dates, completed value, candidate's precise role, services delivered, evidence available and relevance to each selection criterion.

Potential consortium partners should be selected to cover the full technical scope rather than merely increase turnover. A practical structure may combine a lead nuclear regulatory consultancy, one or more EU nuclear safety authorities or technical support organisations, specialists in radiation protection and radioactive waste, inspection and transport experts, and training or organisational development capacity.

The staffing plan should demonstrate access to at least 25 relevant personnel for the professional capacity test and should also identify senior experts capable of working in English with Turkish institutions. The eventual tender will likely require a credible balance between international experts, local understanding, regulatory independence and sustainable transfer of knowledge.

Overall assessment

This is a strategically significant but technically demanding procurement with a moderate contract value and a narrow eligible supplier market. The principal barriers to entry are the required annual turnover, minimum specialist personnel base, three qualifying nuclear regulatory references, two eligible non EU regulatory references and the restricted two stage procedure.

The opportunity is most attractive to established nuclear safety organisations and consortia with documented regulator support experience. Organisations without the required references may still participate as subcontractors or capacity-providing entities, but they should not assume that subcontracting alone will remedy every selection deficiency. Their role, resources, eligibility and responsibility must be structured in accordance with the procurement documents.

The immediate priority is to confirm eligibility, secure any consortium or capacity provider commitments, collect documentary evidence for the three reference contracts, register all entities and submit a compliant request to participate through the portal before 12 November 2026. The official documents should be treated as controlling for any discrepancy between the prepared metadata, the portal record and later clarifications 123.

Footnotes

1. 1Official Funding and Tenders Portal opportunity page: Further strengthening the nuclear safety and radioprotection regulator in Türkiye. The official notice and procurement documents prevail over this analytical summary.
2. 2Official contract notice published in TED under reference 696701-2026: TED contract notice.
3. 3Additional information about the contract notice, including eligibility, selection criteria, submission requirements and indicative timetable: Additional information document.
4. 4The previous INSC intervention in Türkiye addressed regulatory frameworks, nuclear power plant safety, commissioning, inspections, radioactive material transport, emergency preparedness and radiation safety. It is expected to be completed in 2027: Previous Türkiye INSC intervention.
5. 5The IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service material identifies Türkiye's continuing need to strengthen its legal, regulatory and institutional arrangements for nuclear and radiation safety, including regulation of the first nuclear power plant: IAEA review material.
6. 6The tender documents state that requests for participation must be submitted exclusively through the Funding and Tenders Portal and that each participating organisation must have a Participant Identification Code. The portal's eSubmission system provides the official submission timestamp.
7. 7The tender documents state that clarifications may be requested through the Funding and Tenders Portal no later than 21 days before the submission deadline and that clarifications are expected to be published no later than 8 days before that deadline.
8. 8The tender documents state that shortlisted candidates may not form alliances with or subcontract to other shortlisted candidates for this procurement unless prior approval is obtained from the contracting authority.
9. 9The procurement is governed by the European Instrument for International Nuclear Safety Cooperation legal framework, including Council Regulation Euratom 2021/948 and the applicable European Commission Practical Guide for external action procurement.
10. 10The notice specifies electronic ordering and electronic payment. It also indicates that similar additional services may, subject to the applicable conditions, be entrusted to the initial contractor by negotiated procedure without prior publication up to 50 percent of the initial contract value.