Inter-institutional single framework contract to support the monitoring of LIFE projects, communication and other support services for the implementat...

CINEA and DG ENV invite tenders for a single-lot inter-institutional framework contract to provide monitoring of approximately 1 000 LIFE action and operating grants, communication and outreach services, and related policy and commercialization support. The estimated contract value is around €61 million excluding VAT for up to 48 months (initial 24 months plus a 24-month renewal) and will operate through service orders under the framework agreement. Submission is electronic via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 29 September 2026, and evaluation will weight quality at 70% and price at 30%. Bidders must demonstrate technical and professional capacity, multi-country and language coverage, compliance with security and data protection requirements, and provide required annexes and subcontractor commitments as specified in the tender documents.

What it funds

Scope at a glance

A framework contract to provide external support to CINEA and DG ENV for:monitoring of ~1 000 LIFE action and operating grants across thematic and national contexts; communication, outreach and promotional activities (social media, Info Days, LIFE Awards, events, newsletters, publications); and ad hoc policy events, studies, welcome meetings and commercialisation support. Activities cover EU Member States, third countries associated to LIFE and, rarely, a small number of overseas countries and territories.

Estimated contract value:€61 000 000 (estimated overall contract amount for the framework; planned duration 48 months, renewable once). ¹

1. 1Monitoring services: field and remote monitoring, issue support, multi-thematic coverage and local language expertise.
2. 2Communication services: campaign management, events support, media and publications to raise visibility and replication.
3. 3Other services: policy feedback events, targeted studies, Welcome Meetings and commercialisation support on request.

Who can apply

Legal persons and consortia (service providers, consultancies, communications agencies, monitoring teams) able to deliver multi-country monitoring and communication services; participation follows the tender documents and selection criteria in the portal.

Practical details

1. 1Lead contracting authority: European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).
2. 2Call identifier: CINEA/2026/OP/0011; single lot (LOT-0001).
3. 3Submission method: electronic via the Funding & Tenders Portal; tender deadline 29 September 2026 (17:00:59 Brussels time).

Tenders must follow the Tender Specifications and Annexes published on the Funding & Tenders Portal; contact and submission through the official tender page. ¹

Footnotes

1. 1Tender documents and submission are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: Tender details CINEA/2026/OP/0011.

Basic opportunity information

Call identifier:CINEA/2026/OP/0011. Opportunity type: Tender (procurement) published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Lead contracting authority: European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Procurement nature: services under a framework contract. Planned duration: initial 24 months renewable once (total up to 48 months). Estimated overall contract amount: €61 000 000 (estimated total procedure value / estimated overall contract amount). Main CPV codes: 71621000 (general administration services of public works), 79000000, 79952000. Tender submission method: electronic submission via the Funding & Tenders Portal (eSubmission). Tender submission deadline / closing date: 29 September 2026 at 17:00:59 Europe/Brussels time. Open tender event date: 30 September 2026 (as listed).

Tender documents and key annexes:Tender specifications (TS CINEA 2026 OP 0011 LIFE 11.06_V1) and a draft framework contract are published together with a set of annexes including: Invitation to tender, Draft FWC, Annexes on security baseline and requirements, Financial Offer form (Annex 6), Declaration on honour (Annex 2), technical and professional capacity forms (Annex 2.1), lists and commitment letters for subcontractors, and other relevant information for tenderers. Many documents were published 26 June 2026 and some document change notifications apply. Consult the portal link for the full set of files Invitation to tender.

Scope of services required

CINEA and DG ENV request external support across three broad service areas:(1) monitoring of around 1 000 LIFE grants (action grants and operating grants) across multiple thematic areas and geographies; (2) communication and outreach for the LIFE programme and projects, including social media, Info Days, LIFE Awards, events, participation in external events, project news, newsletters and publications aimed at promoting replication and positive EU visibility; (3) other related activities on request such as policy feedback events and studies, annual Welcome Meetings for new projects, support to projects facilitating commercial success, and ad hoc online or in-person activities for parent DGs ENV, CLIMA and ENER. Activities will mainly occur in the EU and in third countries associated to the LIFE programme, with occasional visits to Overseas Countries and Territories (estimated fewer than 10 visits over the framework contract lifetime).

Geographical coverage and target beneficiaries

Primary geographic scope:European Union Member States and territories. Additional eligible locations where activities may take place: third countries associated to the LIFE Programme (list of associated third countries referenced in the published guidance) and, very rarely, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). The contract will support LIFE projects implemented at local, regional and national level across the above areas.

Detailed categorisation answers

1. 1Eligible Applicant Types: The procurement is for a service contract under a framework agreement and is therefore open to organisations capable of delivering the defined services. Expected eligible applicant types include: SMEs, large enterprises, consultancies, communications agencies, monitoring/verification service providers, research institutes, universities with operational/monitoring capacity, non-profit organisations and consortia combining those entities. The procurement documents include forms for group/consortium submissions (Annex III group members share, commitment letters for identified subcontractors and third parties) indicating that consortia and subcontracting are anticipated and allowed.
2. 2Funding Type: This is a public procurement (tender) awarding a framework service contract. Financial mechanism: procurement (fee-for-service) under a framework contract. The contract will remunerate the contractor(s) for services performed according to contract rates/prices submitted in the financial offer (Annex 6 Financial Offer).
3. 3Consortium Requirement: The opportunity allows submissions by single legal entities or groups (consortia). The documents include annexes for group members and commitment letters for subcontractors and third parties, indicating that consortium bids are permitted and commonly used to assemble the broad set of capabilities required. The tender does not mandate a consortium; it is 'single or group' (both possible).
4. 4Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): Geographic eligibility is primarily EU Member States, third countries associated with the LIFE Programme and occasionally Overseas Countries and Territories. Tenderers must be able to operate across this geographic scope and ensure coverage of national/regional contexts and languages where monitoring and communication work is required. There is no indication of restriction to a single nationality; standard EU public procurement nationality and eligibility rules apply as set in the procurement documents.
5. 5Target Sector: Thematic sectors targeted by the contract are environment, climate, energy and related policy areas (LIFE programme core areas). Service areas are monitoring, communication/outreach, events management, policy feedback, and project support for commercialization. Related sectors include environment, climate action, energy, public administration and communications.
6. 6Mentioned Countries: The documents reference EU Member States collectively and refer to 'third countries associated with the LIFE Programme' (see the official list referenced) and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) examples. Specific OCTs referenced in the accompanying background (link) include Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy, St. Pierre et Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna Islands, Greenland, and others as listed on the OCT pages. No specific EU Member State is singled out in the summary text.
7. 7Project Stage: Expected project maturity and contractor responsibilities span active implementation and post-award monitoring stages: monitoring (operational monitoring and reporting of ongoing grants), communication/dissemination (mature project outputs), and support for replication and commercialization (scaling/market uptake support). Therefore the appropriate project stage coverage is development, validation, demonstration and implementation/post-award monitoring rather than early-stage research only.
8. 8Funding Amount: Estimated overall contract amount published: €61 000 000 for the full duration of the framework contract (initial 24 months plus possible 24-month renewal). The procurement documents include a Financial Offer form (Annex 6) where bidders will present pricing by lot / service items.
9. 9Application Type: Submission method: open call for tenders published on the Funding & Tenders Portal. Submission is by electronic eSubmission via the Funding & Tenders Portal following the portal's eForms and annexes. The tender is publicly advertised (open restricted neither specified) and includes deadlines for clarifications and for submission.
10. 10Nature of Support: The contract provides monetary remuneration to the contractor(s) for the delivery of services (monetary). The support to grant beneficiaries is delivered in the form of services (monitoring visits, communications, events, studies), not grants or equity.
11. 11Application Stages: Typical procurement stages inferred from the tender: 1) publication and clarification period; 2) electronic submission of tender (technical + financial) by deadline; 3) tender evaluation (compliance, technical quality and price) including potential interviews or negotiations if foreseen; 4) award decision and standstill; 5) signature of framework contract. This equates to at least 3 to 4 procedural stages. The awarding criteria weighting indicated: quality 70% and price 30% (check procurement documents for exact weighting and sub-criteria).
12. 12Success Rates: No explicit historical success rate is published in the tender notice. As a competitive EU framework procurement with a high estimated total value and requirement for extensive technical capacity, success rates depend on the number of bidders and the evaluation scores. Procurement documents may specify the maximum number of framework contractors to be selected (consult TS and draft FWC); absent that, success rates cannot be quantified here.
13. 13Co-funding Requirement: No co-funding by applicants is required because this is a procurement for contracted services. Bidders must propose a price for services; there is no applicant contribution expected as in grant co-financing. Costs should be inclusive as required by the financial offer template. Subcontracting and third-party commitments are allowed and must be declared in the annexes.

Selection and evaluation — important procedural details

Evaluation approach and award criteria:The procurement project lot indicates awarding criteria structured in two primary criteria groups: quality (weight 70) and price (weight 30). Quality is subdivided into technical and professional capacity items; tenderers must provide evidence of relevant experience, staff profiles, monitoring and communications track record, language coverage and capacity to cover EU geographies. Tender validity period: 12 months. Tenderers must submit required declarations (declaration on honour) and additional administrative documents listed in Annex 1. Security baseline and security requirements annexes apply and must be respected by the contractor (Appendix 3 Security baseline; Appendix 2 Security requirements).

Key submission deadlines and timelines:Deadline for clarifications / additional information request period ends: 21 September 2026. Tender submission deadline: 29 September 2026 at 17:00:59 CET (Brussels). Open tender event: 30 September 2026 (public opening/online event as indicated).

Application templates and required forms (structure and guidance)

The procurement package provides a set of standard and bespoke templates that tenderers must complete and upload via the eSubmission system. Key templates include:

1. 1Annex 6 Financial Offer (Excel): pricing template where bidders fill in unit prices, rates, and produce a total estimated financial offer. Bidders must follow the format and breakdown required by Annex 6 and may be asked to provide cost justification in notes.
2. 2Annex 2 Declaration on honour (tender): standard signed declaration for administrative eligibility and compliance with exclusion and selection criteria.
3. 3Annex 2.1 Technical and professional capacity: structured template where tenderers present relevant contracts, CVs of key staff, organisation charts, evidence of past performance, language capabilities and geographic coverage.
4. 4Annex 3 Agreement Power of attorney: template to demonstrate signatory authority where applicable.
5. 5Annex 4 List of subcontractors: template to list subcontractors and percentage of subcontracted services; required where subcontracting is planned.
6. 6Annex 5.1 / 5.2 Commitment letters: templates for commitment letters from identified subcontractors or third parties confirming availability and role.
7. 7Annex III (SC) Group members share - VAT: template for consortia to indicate members, shares and VAT treatment if bidding as a group.
8. 8Draft FWC and Draft Contract Annexes: tenderers must review contractual clauses, security requirements and accept contractual conditions or note reservations as specified in the TS. The draft FWC includes provisions on contract management, service orders, reporting, liability and confidentiality.
9. 9Annex 7 Relevant information for tenderers: additional guidance on how to prepare the tender and specific requirements that must be fulfilled.

Recommended approach to completing templates:follow the order and naming conventions in Annex 1 List of documents; ensure all required administrative, technical and financial documents are included; use CVs and evidence of past performance to address quality criteria; ensure security requirements are met and declare subcontractors and third parties accurately. The portal eSubmission eForms will include the application envelope structure (technical and financial parts) which must match provided templates.

Operational and technical requirements (summary of expected skills and services)

Tenderers must be able to provide a multi-disciplinary team and services including, but not limited to: monitoring officers with thematic expertise (nature, biodiversity, climate adaptation and mitigation, energy efficiency, circular economy, environment policy), familiarity with EU grant management and LIFE programme grant conditions, multi-lingual capacity to conduct monitoring across Member States and associated third countries, communications specialists experienced in EU-level campaigns and local outreach, event management for Info Days and awards, digital and social media content production, editorial capability for newsletters and publications, policy analysts to support policy feedback events and studies, and commercial advisors to support projects seeking market uptake or commercialization. Tenderers must demonstrate logistical capacity to manage travel and in-person visits (including rare OCT travel), robust quality assurance and data/reporting systems, and security compliance as per published appendices.

Performance, reporting and contract management:The framework contract will operate via service orders placed under the FWC. Contractors will be required to report regularly, attend coordination meetings, manage subcontractors, adhere to security and confidentiality clauses, and comply with EU procurement reporting and invoicing procedures. Electronic ordering and electronic payment usage are indicated as part of the post-award process.

Risks, constraints and other notable points

Key constraints include strict compliance with the draft framework contract provisions and security baseline, the need to provide multi-lingual and geographically distributed monitoring teams, and the requirement to be flexible to ad hoc tasks requested by DGs. The estimated overall contract value is large but may be divided into service orders and tasks; the tenderer should be prepared to deliver at scale and manage multiple simultaneous tasks. Competition may include multi-entity consortia combining communications and monitoring expertise. Tenderers should carefully review the procurement documents for exclusion/selection grounds and detailed award sub-criteria as these determine technical scoring.

References and links:Primary tender notice and document repository are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal (Tender details page CINEA/2026/OP/0011). The list of third countries associated to the LIFE Programme and the Overseas Countries and Territories background material are referenced in the tender and available via the Commission pages Tender details Overseas Countries and Territories profiles List of third countries associated to LIFE (guidance referenced) CINEA website. ¹

Summary — what is this opportunity about and how to interpret it

This is a large-scale EU public procurement to establish an inter-institutional framework contract for service provision to support the LIFE programme. The contractor(s) will deliver extensive monitoring services for approximately 1 000 LIFE grants, communications and outreach services to promote LIFE project results and replication, and a range of ad hoc policy, event and commercialization support services for the parent DGs (ENV, CLIMA and ENER). The contract is multi-year (initial 24 months with a possible 24-month renewal), has an estimated overall value of €61 million and will operate through service orders placed under the framework agreement. The call is publicly advertised; tenderers must submit an electronic bid via the Funding & Tenders Portal by 29 September 2026 and must use the provided templates and comply with security and contractual annexes. Both single organisations and consortia may bid; the evaluation will strongly weight quality (70) over price (30). Interested bidders should assemble multidisciplinary teams covering monitoring, thematic expertise, communications, event management, policy analysis and commercialization support, ensure geographic and language coverage for EU Member States and associated third countries, and carefully complete all administrative, technical and financial templates included in the tender dossier.

Footnotes

1. 1Tenderers must consult the full set of procurement documents published with the invitation to tender for binding requirements, templates and detailed award/selection criteria. The draft framework contract and annexes contain the contractual and security clauses that are part of the tender obligations.

Opportunity Summary and Scope

This tender seeks an inter-institutional single framework contract to provide external support for monitoring LIFE projects, communicating programme achievements, and delivering related implementation services for the LIFE programme ¹. The contract is managed by CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) and DG ENV (Directorate-General for Environment) ².

Core Service Areas:The scope includes three main pillars: (1) Monitoring approximately 1,000 LIFE grants (action and operating) across diverse thematic and geographical areas; (2) Communication activities such as social media, Info Days, LIFE Awards, newsletters, and publications to promote EU environmental benefits; and (3) Other activities including policy feedback events, Welcome Meetings for new projects, and support for commercial success facilitation ³.

Contract Value and Duration

Who Should Apply (Eligibility)

Applicants must be entities capable of providing a team of monitors with knowledge of national/local contexts, languages, and thematic areas relevant to LIFE projects ⁴. The tender is suitable for service providers, consultancies, or consortiums with expertise in environmental monitoring, communication, and project management. SMEs are not explicitly excluded, but the contract suitability indicator is marked as false, suggesting a preference for larger, experienced providers ⁵.

Key Requirements:Tenderers must demonstrate technical and professional capacity, including experience in monitoring grants, communication strategy, and event management. They must also comply with security requirements (Appendix 2) and data protection standards ⁶. Subcontracting is allowed but requires prior commitment letters for identified subcontractors ⁷.

Geographical Scope and Locations

Activities will primarily take place within the EU and in third countries associated with the LIFE Programme ⁸. Very rarely (fewer than 10 visits over the contract duration), work may extend to Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) such as Aruba, Greenland, or French Polynesia ⁹.

Submission Deadlines and Process

1. 1First Deadline: January 1, 2026, at 15:00:59 UTC (likely for initial information or pre-qualification)

1. 1Final Submission Deadline: September 29, 2026, at 17:00:59 UTC (Brussels time)

1. 1Submission Method: Electronic submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal

1. 1Award Criteria: Quality (70%) and Price (30%)

Important Documents and Resources

Key procurement documents include the Draft Framework Contract (FWC), Tender Specifications (TS), Financial Offer Form (Annex 6), and Security Requirements (Appendix 2) ¹⁰. All documents are available on the official EU Funding & Tenders Portal under reference CINEA/2026/OP/0011 ¹¹.

Footnotes

1. 1Official Tender Description: CINEA and DG ENV require substantial external support in monitoring, communication, and related activities Primary URL.
2. 2Lead Authority: European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) CINEA Website.
3. 3Scope Details: Monitoring 1,000 grants, communication via social media/awards, and policy feedback events Search Result 1.
4. 4Team Requirements: External monitors with knowledge of national/local contexts and languages Search Result 2.
5. 5SME Suitability: Contract suitability indicator is false, suggesting preference for experienced providers Search Result 3.
6. 6Security Requirements: Appendix 2 Security requirements CINEA 2026 OP 0011 [[Document List|Appendix 2 Security requirements CINEA 2026 OP 0011_V1.pdf]].
7. 7Subcontracting: Annex 4 List of subcontractors and Annex 5.1 Commitment letter required [[Document List|Annex 4 List of subcontractors CINEA 2026 OP 0011_V1.docx]].
8. 8Third Countries: List of third countries associated with LIFE Programme [[Third Countries List|ec.europa.eu.
9. 9OCTs: Overseas Countries and Territories profiles and EU association details [[OCTs Info|international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu.
10. 10Key Documents: Draft FWC, TS, Financial Offer, Security Requirements [[Document List|Draft FWC CINEA 2026 OP 0011_V1.pdf, TS CINEA 2026 OP 0011 LIFE 11.06_V1.pdf, Annex 6 Financial Offer V6_V1.xlsx, Appendix 2 Security requirements CINEA 2026 OP 0011_V1.pdf]].
11. 11Portal Reference: CINEA/2026/OP/0011 on EU Funding & Tenders Portal [[Portal Link|ec.europa.eu.