Provision of a comprehensive publishing service for EFSA’s scientific outputs

Estimated value:Financial ceiling for the full 6-year framework contract is €6,500,000; evaluation scenario excludes offers exceeding €5,900,000 for six years 1.

Key eligibility and requirements:Minimum organisational turnover and experience criteria apply; tenderers must demonstrate platform features (open access, versioning, APIs, machine-readable metadata), editorial teams, typesetting capacity, plagiarism/AI checks, and data‑centre locations within the EEA/adequate jurisdictions. See procurement documents for full selection and exclusion rules 1.

Procurement type:Open procedure (Call for tenders). Lead contracting authority: European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). TED reference: 192/2026 685275-2026. Main CPV: 79970000 - Publishing services. Nature of contract: services. Award method: best price-quality ratio. Framework contract: single framework contract (no reopening of competition). Maximum contract duration: 72 months (up to 6 years). Estimated total value / financial ceiling for the full 6 years: €6,500,000 (financial scenario used for evaluation: offers exceeding €5,900,000 for the 6-year scenario will be excluded). Submission method: electronic via EU Login / eSubmission on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Key dates:Contract notice / TED publication date: 05/10/2026. Deadline for receipt of tenders: 26/11/2026 at 14:30 (Europe/Rome CET). Date and time of public opening (virtual): 30/11/2026 at 14:30 (Europe/Rome CET). Deadline for receipt of questions to EFSA: 18/11/2026 (EFSA not bound to reply to questions submitted after that date). Estimated notification and contract signature: February 2027 (estimated).

Core functional components requested:Editorial services (pre-adoption and proofing edits; plagiarism and AI-use detection; formatting Word manuscripts); Production services (typesetting to JATS XML, validated JSON-LD, high-quality PDFs, HTML-first proofing workflows, redaction/versioning controls, DOI registration with Crossref in collaboration with the EU Publications Office); Online hosting (branded EFSA hub, open access, machine‑readable metadata, APIs for XML/JSON/JSON‑LD, search and discoverability, mobile optimisation, CLOCKSS/LOCKSS or equivalent preservation); Promotion and discoverability (technical discoverability audits, indexing support, structured metadata optimisation, marketing campaigns in coordination with EFSA Communications); General publishing management (monthly and annual reporting, advanced article and journal metrics, DORA-aligned impact metrics, ad hoc consultancy).

Set-up and go‑live:Set-up includes pilot editorial work, backfile ingestion and platform configuration. Expected go‑live target in tender specifications: 28 October 2027. Deliverables and milestones (set-up documents, backfile loading, pilot completion, platform launch) are defined in section 1.3; a 6‑week pilot is expected ~6 weeks after the framework contract kick‑off meeting, with full backfile loading and testing in time for go‑live.

Total financial ceiling (6-year maximum duration):€6,500,000. EFSA uses a financial scenario of €5,900,000 as the evaluation scenario; any offer exceeding €5,900,000 for the maximum 6‑year scenario will be excluded from evaluation. The framework contract will be implemented by specific contracts / order forms using the unit prices submitted in Annex 1 — Financial Offer Template (Excel). Specific contracts may include interim payments (if value ≥ €100,000 and duration ≥ 12 months) and payments tied to deliverable acceptance. EFSA reserves the right to increase the FWC envelope by up to 50% under the Financial Regulation conditions and to perform benchmarking during the contract term.

Service-level expectations and performance indicators:EFSA defines minimum platform performance and production KPIs (Annex 4). Examples: platform uptime ≥ 99.0%; scheduled maintenance limited to ≤ 120 hours/year outside office hours; typesetting turnaround: typically 5 working days for a 50-page Word file (scalable to 10 working days for larger files); rapid publication when requested: 48 hours to PDF for urgent items; republication (version/redaction) turnaround: target 72 hours after receipt of change. Average allowable copyediting and typeset/tagging errors in proofs: 0.3 per page maximum. Compliance with these SLAs is monitored and can produce penalties for non-performance as described in the draft framework contract.

Eligible tenderers:economic operators established in eligible countries (EU and EEA or countries with an EC Adequacy Decision regarding personal data processing). Subcontractors may be established elsewhere but must not be used to bypass market access rules. Tenderers must supply standard declarations, meet minimum turnover criteria and demonstrate professional, technical and security capacity as described below.

Eligible Applicant Types:Suitable applicants: established commercial publishers and publishing service providers with experience in scholarly journal publishing and online hosting; SMEs and larger enterprises with journal platforms; publishing technology providers that operate an established STM journal platform; academic publishers or service providers providing a commercial publishing service; established managed services suppliers (including those supplying production, typesetting and XML/JATS conversion); subcontracting is allowed for permitted tasks. Universities, research institutes or not-for-profit publishers may apply if they meet tender requirements and commercial obligations. Individual applicants are not appropriate for this procurement. Public bodies may apply if they operate a commercial publishing service and meet access and data rules.

Funding Type:This opportunity is a public procurement framework contract for services (not a grant). Payment is by contract (service fees based on unit prices and specific contract/order forms).

Consortium Requirement:Procedure expects a single framework contractor (single FWC). Joint offers are permitted (consortium) and must designate a lead partner. The framework will be concluded with one contractor. Where a joint tender is used, all partners are jointly and severally liable unless otherwise stated and a lead partner is identified in the offer.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility):Eligible applicants must be established in the EU or EEA, or in countries benefiting from an EC Adequacy Decision for data protection. Data residency for EFSA content is required in the EEA or in an Adequate country; any transfer to third countries requires legal safeguards (SCCs or equivalent) and prior EFSA approval.

Target Sector:Thematic sector: publishing services for scientific outputs in the life sciences / food safety / risk assessment domain. Targeted technology sectors: scholarly publishing platforms, XML/JATS production, academic publishing services, open access publishing and metadata services, API development for content discovery, indexing and TDM support.

Mentioned Countries:Explicitly mentioned regions/countries in the documents: European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland. References to Member States (EU Member States) and the European Commission appear in the text. Data centre/hosting locations must be in the EEA or in countries judged adequate by the European Commission. No single other third country is specifically listed for eligibility.

Project Stage:Expected maturity of the project: operational service delivery and continuous development (industrialised production). EFSA seeks an established provider with an existing live journal platform (operational) and proven production/hosting capacity. The contract includes an initial set-up and migration phase and ongoing operations, innovation and roadmap enhancements.

Funding Amount:Total procurement financial ceiling: €6,500,000 (for up to 6 years). Evaluation scenario price cap for financial offer assessment: €5,900,000 (offers exceeding this scenario cap will be excluded). Specific contracts will be ordered against the framework at unit prices submitted in Annex 1 financial offer template.

Application Type:Submission method: open call with electronic submission on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal via eSubmission (EU Login required). This is an open, competitive public tender (not rolling nor invitation-only). Questions and clarifications must be submitted through the portal Questions & Answers tab by registered users.

Nature of Support:Beneficiaries will receive financial compensation under a services procurement contract (money). The framework also requires non-monetary services: technical platform, editorial and production labour, reporting, training, migration and handover services. Payments will be made against accepted deliverables and order forms.

Application Stages:Application evaluation stages (as per tender): 1) compliance and eligibility checks (exclusion, selection and minimum requirements), 2) technical evaluation against quality award criteria (methodology, production workflow, platform quality, marketing/impact, development roadmap), 3) financial evaluation (price within scenario cap and formal validation), 4) combined scoring to identify best price-quality ratio and contract award. In addition, post-award set-up and pilot phases are governed by the framework deliverables and acceptance tests.

Success Rates:EFSA does not publish a numeric success rate for this specific procurement. As an open public tender with a single framework award, success depends on meeting all exclusion/selection criteria and competing successfully on the technical quality score and price. Historically, open tenders for specialised services are competitive with several qualified bidders; however no formal success rate is provided in the procurement documents.

Co-funding Requirement:No co-funding by the tenderer is required. This is a fee-for-service procurement: all costs for providing the services must be covered by the prices offered in the financial tender. Any additional ad hoc services requested by EFSA will be ordered by quote and require prior approval by EFSA.

Templates and application structure:Tenderers must upload: administrative forms and business partner form (participant register / PIC), signed Declarations on Honour (sections A, B and C), technical tender responding in detail to the Technical Specifications and Quality Award Criteria, CVs or staffing declarations as requested, security and certification evidence (ISO 27001, SOC2 etc.), and the completed Annex 1 Financial Offer (Excel template). The financial template requires unit prices for a defined set of items and a scenario total for a 6-year duration. Any price exceeding the scenario cap is excluded.

Opportunity summary:EFSA seeks a single full-service publishing contractor to deliver end-to-end publishing (pre-submission checks, editorial services, high-volume typesetting, JATS XML and JSON-LD generation, a modern open access hosting platform with robust versioning and APIs, promotion and discoverability services, advanced metrics and reporting), including backfile migration and ongoing platform development. The contract is a framework agreement for up to six years with a total ceiling of €6.5M and an evaluation scenario cap of €5.9M. Responses must be submitted electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by the stated deadline and must include all administrative declarations, the technical offer addressing the award criteria, the financial offer using the provided template, and evidence of security and production capacity.

How to apply:1) Register or reuse your organisation’s Participant Identification Code (PIC) via the Participant Register. 2) Subscribe to the call on the Funding & Tenders Portal. 3) Prepare and upload all required documents via eSubmission (EU Login required). 4) Use the Annex 1 Excel financial offer template and ensure the scenario total does not exceed the evaluation cap. 5) Submit before 26 November 2026 14:30 Europe/Rome via eSubmission. 6) Monitor the portal for clarifications and Q&A. See invitation to tender and tender specifications for detailed conditions.

Main takeaway:EFSA is seeking a specialist publishing partner rather than a general communications vendor, and the technical platform requirement appears central to the award decision.1