Services of project management and architecture in the field of information technology

Estimated value:Estimated total value approximately €34,190,000; maximum contract duration 48 months 1 .

Key dates:deadline for receipt of tenders 10/12/2026 13:00 (Europe/Madrid). Public opening 11/12/2026 11:00 (Europe/Madrid). See tender documents and IT security/submission rules on the Funding & Tenders portal F&T Tender details. 1

Summary:The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has published an open procedure call for tenders EUIPO/2026/OP/0017 to award framework contract(s) for services relating to programme/project management and IT architecture. The framework contract(s) cover a mix of programme and project management, project support and multiple architecture profiles across solution, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence. The estimated overall procedure value is €34,190,000 over a maximum 48-month duration. The call is managed through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and the EUIPO procurement pages. Detailed procurement documents (tender specifications, technical specifications, draft contract, SLA, standard submission form and appendices) are published by the Contracting Authority and must be used by tenderers as the primary reference for proposal preparation 1.

Key administrative facts:Procedure reference: EUIPO/2026/OP/0017; TED ref: 215/2026 771321-2026. Nature of contract: services. Contracting authority: European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Procedure: Open procedure — framework agreement, without reopening of competition. Award method: best price-quality ratio. Estimated total value: €34,190,000. Maximum contract duration: 48 MONTH. Publication date: 05/11/2026. Deadline for receipt of tenders: 10/12/2026 13:00 Europe/Madrid. Public opening: 11/12/2026 11:00 Europe/Madrid. Submissions: electronic only via EU Login/eSubmission.

Procurement documents published:The procurement documentation available on the F&T Portal and EUIPO procurement pages includes: Invitation to Tender; Annex I Tender Specifications; Annex II Technical Specifications; Annex II TS appendices (booklets, reference architecture, BYOD and security guidance, lists of systems); Annex III Draft Framework Contract and General Terms and Conditions; Annex IV Standard Submission Form (includes mandatory templates and the Financial Proposal instructions); Annex V Service Level Agreement. Tenderers must use the published Annex IV Standard Submission Form, and the Annex I and II for all mandatory compliance, selection and award requirements.

Scope:The framework contract(s) aim to provide a broad set of resources and capabilities for the EUIPO Digital Innovation Department to deliver programme-level management of cooperation and Strategic Plan actions, project management and project support, and technical architecture services across the Office’s IT landscape. The technical scope is high and includes programme / project planning and governance, project support, IT solution architecture (solution, infrastructure, data, AI/ML), design validation, cloud and microservice design, security and compliance reviews, architecture governance and standards, proof-of-concepts, and support for cooperation projects and deployed programme managers working with EU national IP offices. The Technical Specifications and appendices describe detailed profiles, minimum staffing and experience requirements, and mandatory documentation and SLAs.

Eligible Applicant Types:Suitable applicants include: SMEs, large enterprises, system integrators, consulting companies, specialised IT service providers, IT professional services firms, software engineering houses, architecture consultancies, research organisations (for AI and data architecture), subcontractors and public‑private partnerships. Individual natural persons are not appropriate as lead contractors but may be proposed as named experts in a tender. Non-profit organisations and universities may participate as consortium partners where they can demonstrate the required contractual, technical and commercial capacity.

Funding Type:This is a public tender / procurement for a services contract in the form of a framework agreement. The financial mechanism is contract procurement (no grant/loan/equity).

Consortium Requirement:The procedure allows sole tenderers and joint tenders (consortia). Joint tenders must provide the required documentation (agreement/power of representation Model A or B) and show joint and several liability. Subcontracting is permitted but identified subcontractors with an individual share above 15% must be declared and provide specific declarations.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility):Eligible economic operators are entities established in the EU and those falling within the rules of access to EU procurement procedures. The technical work includes on-site presence at EUIPO in Alicante (Spain) and deployment across EU IP offices (EU Member States) and in some international cooperation offices outside the EU when required. Tenderers must comply with EU procurement access rules and EU restrictive measures; PIC registration is required.

Target Sector:IT, ICT and Digital Transformation with emphasis on programme/project management, systems architecture, cloud and infrastructure architecture, data engineering, AI/ML/GenAI, application lifecycle and DevOps. The work supports the IP sector and public administration digital services.

Mentioned Countries:Explicit country references: Spain (EUIPO headquarters, Alicante) and Europe/Madrid timezone for deadlines. Most services are EU‑focused (Member States) with possible deployments outside Europe for cooperation work. The contracting authority is EUIPO (Alicante, Spain).

Project Stage:Required maturity ranges from medium to advanced: ongoing programme/project delivery, operations, maintenance, optimisation, research/proof of concept for new technologies and transition/scale-up. The tender requires capabilities from idea/requirements through design, development, testing, go‑live and operations (end-to-end lifecycle).

Funding Amount:Estimated total procedure value €34,190,000. The document provides an indicative yearly split: Year 1: €8,100,000; Year 2: €8,400,000; Year 3: €8,700,000; Year 4: €8,990,000. This is an estimate and the framework ceiling cannot be exceeded.

Application Type:Open call for tenders published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal (eSubmission electronic submission required via EU Login). Tenderers must register their PIC and submit proposals using the Annex IV Standard Submission Form and upload required evidence in eSubmission.

Nature of Support:Contracted paid services (monetary). The framework contract will result in Specific Contracts / Purchase Orders that are paid service contracts. The SLA and reporting are part of the contractual obligations.

Application Stages:One legal tender submission stage. After submission and public opening the evaluation phases include exclusion checks, selection criteria verification, technical evaluation and financial evaluation; award follows. For implementation, Action/Specific Contracts go through planning, solution definition, approval and execution phases per the EUIPO SDLC. The tender evaluation process is multi-step but proposal submission is a single-stage open call.

Success Rates:No historical success rate is published in the procurement notice. The award will select a maximum of 3 framework contractors; the selection will be competitive and based on best price-quality ratio. The success probability depends on the quality and competitiveness of the technical and financial proposals and compliance with mandatory requirements.

Co-funding Requirement:No co-funding from the tenderer is required by the procurement notice. The framework contract is a service contract where the contractor invoices the Office for delivered services. Tenderers must include all costs (personnel, burden, indirect costs) in their daily rates and financial proposal.

Templates:Key templates and structured documents are mandatory and published as Annex IV Standard Submission Form (includes the technical proposal and financial proposal instructions), Annex I (Tender specifications) and Annex II (Technical specifications) plus appendices. The Standard Submission Form prescribes the order and format for administrative, exclusion, selection, technical and financial documents. The IT-related annexes include detailed forms for: Statement of Qualified Staff; Reference to Similar Contracts Confirmation Form; Commitment letters; Subcontracting forms; Security and Data protection requirements. Tenderers MUST follow those templates and the eSubmission folder structure described in Annex IV.

Profiles and minimum requirements (summary):The Technical Specifications (Annex II) define multiple staff profiles with minimum education, knowledge, skills and experience. Examples: IT Programme Manager (min 12 years experience, Prince2/MSP), IT Project Manager (min 8 years experience), IT Project Support (min 1 year project support), Solution Architect (min 8 years professional experience), Infrastructure Architect (min 8 years), Data Architect (min 4 years), AI Architect (min 4 years). Mandatory certifications and insurances are stated (professional risk indemnity: minimum coverage €1,000,000). The Tender Specifications and Annex II define minimum turnover and experience thresholds (e.g., minimum yearly turnover of the last three years above €9,000,000 and minimum reference contracts demonstrating cumulative annual value of €2,000,000 for each of the last three years for Project Management and IT Architecture services).

Technical evaluation and award:The award is based on best price-quality ratio with quality weighting 70% and price weighting 30%. Technical evaluation uses the scoring scheme in Annex I and Annex II (100 points technical, minimum technical threshold 60 points overall and minimum 50% per criterion). Quality evaluation sub-criteria include management of services, IT Project Management (40 points), IT Architecture (40 points). Financial evaluation uses the Global Blended Rate (€) field of the financial proposal. The cheapest tender receives 100 points for price indicator; other tender prices are scored proportionally. The final score formula is ((Price indicator x 30%) + (Quality indicator x 70%)).

Submission platform:eSubmission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal is mandatory. A EU Login account and the organisation PIC are required. Tenders must be submitted electronically before the deadline. All attachments must follow eSubmission file format rules (files <50 MB for attachments; max 200 attachments per submission). Documents where a signature is required must be signed (hand signature scanned or qualified electronic signature). Do not send paper copies unless specifically requested later by the contracting authority. A submission receipt will be emailed by the eSubmission system and is the official proof of submission.

Required submission documents (high level):Mandatory administrative and technical folders must be uploaded following Annex IV standard submission form structure: Administrative Documents (undertakings, Legal Entity and Financial Identification Form, power of attorney), Subcontracting forms if applicable, Exclusion Criteria (Declaration on Honour and supporting evidence), Selection criteria evidence (insurance, turnover statements, quality and security certificates, registrations), Technical and Professional Capacity evidence (staff statements, references and confirmations), Technical Proposal (detailed response to Technical Specifications), Financial Proposal (Global Blended Rate € and daily rates per profile and location). All documents are listed in Annex IV and must be presented in the order and folder structure indicated.

Daily rates and blended rate:Tenderers must propose one daily rate per profile and location (on-site in Alicante, off-site, third-party deployed profiles in EU Member States and Brussels-based reference rates for deployed staff). The financial proposal must include the Global Blended Rate (€) which is used for the price evaluation. Daily rates must be all-inclusive (management, social costs, travel, equipment, licenses). For deployed staff outside Brussels, EUIPO applies a correction coefficient based on Eurostat cost-of-living indexes to convert the Brussels-based rate into the duty station rate at offer time. Tenderers must not claim any additional costs during contract execution beyond the agreed rates.

Abnormally low offers:The contracting authority will check price elements below 30% of the arithmetic mean of the corresponding elements of the admitted offers; tenderers may be asked to justify and provide breakdowns. If judged abnormally low the tender may be rejected.

Security and compliance:Tenderers must comply with EUIPO IT Security Standards (annexed appendices) and must ensure all staff who access EUIPO premises or systems pass security checks. Personal data processing must follow Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. For outsourced services and off-site access, follow the IT Security Standards for Outsourcing (Annex II Appendix). The Technical Specifications require ISO 27001 or equivalent for some selection criteria and the onboarding of deployed staff must follow BYOD and device-security guidance.

Technical completeness:Follow Annex II profiles exactly and provide supporting CVs, certificates and reference confirmations as required in Annex IV. Do not leave mandatory selection evidence out or mark as optional. Use the Standard Submission Form structure and name attachments exactly as requested. Consortiums: submit joint tender documentation (Models A or B). Subcontractors: identify subcontractors with >15% share and include committed letters and declarations. Language: The procurement documents are published in English and proposals may be submitted in any EU official language, but all documentation requested in Annex IV should follow the instructions in the Standard Submission Form. The evaluation will be performed in English; provide English translations when requested.

Full proposal and compliance checklist:ensure you include Declaration on Honour, Legal Entity and Financial Identification, professional risk insurance evidence, turnover statements, references, staff statements, quality and security certificates, System Design and Technical Proposal sections, and the Financial Proposal with Global Blended Rate and profile daily rates per location.

How to view tender documents:All procurement documentation and annexes are published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal tender-details page. Subscribe to the procedure to receive every update and download the ten items published with the call, including Annex II TS Appendices (Reference Architecture, IT standards and SDLC work instructions) and Annex IV Standard Submission Form. The eSubmission system will be used for submissions and Q&A in the Questions & Answers section available on the call page 1.

Concluding summary:This is a major EUIPO procurement for a multi-year framework for IT programme/project management and architecture services. The tender requires strict compliance with the published procurement documents (Annex I–V), demonstrates technical capacity through detailed selection criteria, and is evaluated on a price/quality basis. Tenderers must register and submit electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and must use the Annex IV Standard Submission Form and all Annex templates. The framework will be awarded to up to three contractors; specific contracts will be issued subsequently through the framework cascade mechanism.

The required services are divided into two main service families:programme and project management services, and IT architecture services. Project management services include programme management, IT project management, project support, planning, scheduling, governance, risk management, dependency management and tracking of deliverables.

The technical specifications identify the following principal staff profiles:IT Programme Manager, IT Project Manager, IT Project Support, Solution Architect, Infrastructure Architect, Data Architect and Artificial Intelligence Architect.