SPR/260834 - Provision of genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics training

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has published an open procurement (ECDC/2026/OP/0018, SPR/260834) for a single-award framework contract to deliver interdisciplinary genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics training. The framework ceiling is estimated at €7,100,000 with a maximum duration of 48 months and specific fixed-price contracts to be issued under the framework. Bidders must submit electronically via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 26 October 2026 at 16:00 Europe/Stockholm and meet detailed technical, organisational and financial selection criteria. Award will be based on the most economically advantageous tender using a best price-quality ratio (price 40% / quality 60%).

What it funds

Scope and outputs (high level)

Framework service contract to deliver interdisciplinary training and networking to strengthen genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics capacity across EU/EEA and eligible neighbouring countries. Activities include face-to-face and virtual trainings, exchange visits, webinars, materials, evaluations and hosting/logistics to support surveillance, outbreak response and data sharing.

Estimated value and duration:Framework ceiling €7,100,000; maximum contract duration 48 months. Specific contracts awarded under the framework are fixed-price. ¹

Who can apply

Open procedure for economic operators (sole tenderer or joint tender). Subcontracting allowed; tenders may rely on other entities’ capacities. Bidders must register in the EU Participant Register (PIC) and submit via the EU eSubmission system.

How award is decided

Award by best price-quality ratio. Price weight 40% and quality 60% (methodology, team and resources, quality control, logistics). Tenders must meet minimum selection and delivery requirements in the tender specifications.

Key administrative facts

1. 1Procedure reference: ECDC/2026/OP/0018 (SPR/260834)
2. 2Submission method: electronic via EU Funding & Tenders Portal eSubmission
3. 3Opening procedure: single framework contract (no lots)
4. 4Award method: best price-quality ratio

Submission must follow the Invitation to Tender and Tender Specifications available on the Funding & Tenders Portal; electronic signature (QES) is preferred for signed declarations. See procurement documents and templates (invitation, tender specifications, draft framework contract, financial model, declaration on honour, letter of intent, needs assessment).

Where to apply / documents:All procurement documents and eSubmission are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal opportunity page: Opportunity on F&T Portal ¹

Footnotes

1. 1Procurement documents include: Invitation to tender, Tender specifications (with detailed deliverables and selection criteria), Draft framework contract, Financial offer form and templates; access requires EU Login/eSubmission and registration in the Participant Register (PIC).

Opportunity summary

What this tender is for

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is procuring a single-award framework contract (FWC) to strengthen capacity in genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics through interdisciplinary training and related activities. The FWC will cover development, organisation and delivery of virtual and face-to-face trainings, exchange visits, webinars, newsletters, coordination and evaluation activities. The aim is to build country capacity for routine use of genomic information in surveillance, preparedness and outbreak response and to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between bioinformaticians, microbiologists and epidemiologists across EU/EEA Member States and EU candidate/potential candidate countries.

Lead contracting authority:European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.

Procedure type and submission:Open procedure, electronic submission via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal eSubmission. EU Login and Participant Register PIC are required. Deadline(s) shown on the portal; publication and opening dates on TED (see procurement documents).

Key facts and figures

Estimated total procedure value:€7,100,000 (framework contract ceiling). Maximum FWC duration: 48 months. Framework concluded with one contractor. Award method: Best price-quality ratio. Nature of contract: Services; Framework agreement without reopening of competition. Maximum initial contract duration and possible renewals set out in draft contract.

1. 1Estimated overall contract ceiling: €7,100,000.
2. 2Maximum FWC duration: 48 months (initial period and possible renewals described in draft contract).
3. 3Award method: Best price-quality ratio (price 40% / quality 60%).
4. 4Place of performance: contractor premises and training sites within EU/EEA (face-to-face activities expected in EU/EEA; virtual trainings accessible more widely via ECDC Learning Portal).
5. 5Nature: Single framework contract leading to fixed-price specific contracts (order-by-order).

Scope of services and deliverables

The contractor shall plan, design, organise, implement and evaluate a portfolio of training activities to cover: interdisciplinary genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics, bioinformatics bridging courses, topic-specific face-to-face and virtual trainings, exchange visits for bioinformaticians (1- and 2-week), webinars presenting impact, information sessions, newsletters, coordination (kick-off, monthly meetings) and an evaluation report. The contractor must develop training materials, upload materials and recordings to the ECDC Learning Portal, run participant selection logistics, provide trainers and mentors, host exchange visits, provide quality control and evaluation, and ensure appropriate administrative, travel and catering arrangements for face-to-face events.

1. 1Work Package 1: Communication and coordination (kick-off; monthly meetings; virtual meetings with national contact points; newsletters; evaluation report; orientation sessions).
2. 2Work Package 2: Organisation and facilitation of training activities (face-to-face Bridging the gaps in bioinformatics two-week courses; Interdisciplinary genomic epidemiology one-week team courses for country teams; exchange visits for bioinformaticians 1- and 2-week; short topic-specific face-to-face trainings; virtual trainings/webinars; webinars with previous participants presenting impact).
3. 3Governance and core team required: contract project manager and deputy; overall training coordinator and deputy; lead experts in genomic epidemiology/public health bioinformatics (and deputy), instructional design (and deputy), infectious disease epidemiology (and deputy); administrative and logistics coordinator (and deputy); plus at least two project/financial assistants and three travel/logistics assistants.

Minimum and specific requirements:deliverables must meet publishable quality, British English (C1), follow ECDC templates and visual guidelines, and avoid generative AI for report production unless disclosed and justified. Contractors must ensure data protection compliance and obtain pre-existing rights clearances for training materials shared with ECDC.

Selection, eligibility and evaluation

Procedure is open. Tenderers (sole or joint) must register in Participant Register and submit via eSubmission. Exclusion, selection and award criteria are specified in the tender specifications and draft FWC. Important: declarations on honour, evidence for selection criteria and identified subcontractors/letters of intent must be provided as required.

Technical selection highlights:Required technical capacity includes: demonstrated state-of-the-art knowledge in genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics (>=5 years), at least three host institutions in three different EU/EEA countries with a pool of at least six mentors (selection criterion T2), a pool of at least 15 trainers from at least three institutions, and a named core team of at least 12 persons with specific profiles and deputies (contract project manager, overall training coordinator, lead experts, instructional design lead, infectious disease epidemiology lead, administrative/logistics coordinator) together with CVs and references. Access to computer facilities for at least 30 people at three sites, and ability to deliver advanced virtual training and streaming are required.

Economic and financial selection:consolidated average annual turnover of the last two financial years above €2,000,000 (consolidated assessment permitted).

Award and price model

Award is the most economically advantageous tender based on the best price-quality ratio. Weighting: Price 40% / Quality 60%. Quality criteria and sub-criteria are published; tenders must achieve minimum thresholds per criterion and overall quality (minimum 60% per criterion and at least 70% overall quality).

Financial model and pricing:Tenderers must complete the provided Financial Offer Form (Annex 6). Prices must be in euro, fixed for contract periods per the price revision rule, and quoted exclusive of VAT (ECDC VAT-exempt). Unit prices become part of the framework contract and will be used for the specific contract orders. The FWC ceiling is €7,100,000. Tenderers are asked to provide unit prices for all listed deliverables. Pre-financing (up to 25% capped at €250,000) and interim payments may be foreseen in specific contracts; full payment terms are in the draft FWC.

Contractual model, IP and data

Contract:single framework contract signed with one contractor. Specific contracts (fixed-price) will be concluded under the FWC when ECDC places orders. ECDC acquires ownership of results produced for it; pre-existing rights incorporated must be listed and licensed to ECDC royalty-free to enable re-use, republication, modification and distribution. Contractors must comply with ECDC publication, authorship and open-access requirements; open-access fees must be included in the financial offer. Data protection: contractor acts as processor where required and must comply with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and the contractual data protection provisions in the draft contract.

Minimum timelines and milestones (procurement)

Procurement documents published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and TED. Tender submission and public opening dates and deadlines are set in the F&T Portal/TED (dates in procurement notice). Contract signature occurs after award and verification steps. Specific contract start dates will be agreed in orders; face-to-face trainings and exchange visits expected to be organised during FWC lifetime, primarily in EU/EEA.

Documents available

Procurement documents published on the Funding & Tenders Portal (Invitation to tender, Tender Specifications and annexes, Draft Service FWC, Financial offer form Annex 6, Declaration on honour template, Letter of Intent template, 2021 needs assessment report). Tenderers must consult the portal for Q&A, document updates and eSubmission instructions.

Detailed categorisation answers

Below are the structured answers to the required categorisation questions, drawn from the procurement materials and tender specifications. These provide eligibility, funding modality, consortium rules, geographic scope, sector, project stage, funding amounts, application method, nature of support, application stages, success rates and co-funding requirements.

Eligible Applicant Types:Eligible applicants: legal entities (sole tenderers) or groups of economic operators (joint tenders). The procurement documents explicitly allow: SMEs and large enterprises, research organisations and universities, public-health institutions, training organisations, NGOs and non-profits, and consortia combining public health institutions, research centres and private training providers. Subcontracting is permitted but identified subcontractors (over 20% share or relied-on for selection criteria) must be declared. Entities from EU/EEA Member States, EU candidate and potential candidate countries may participate per the access-to-procurement rules; participation is open to economic operators from the Union and countries covered by applicable procurement access agreements as described in Section 2.2 of the tender specifications.

Funding Type:Primary financial mechanism: public procurement (tender) leading to a framework service contract (services). The FWC is a contracting mechanism; specific contracts issued under the FWC are fixed-price service contracts.

Consortium Requirement:Consortium: Not mandatory. The tender accepts single tenderers or joint tenders (consortia). Joint tenders must appoint a group leader, and all members have joint and several liability. Where selection criteria require consolidated capacity, consortia and subcontractors or third entities on whose capacity tenderers rely may be used and must be evidenced.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility):Geographic scope: Primarily EU/EEA Member States and EU candidate and potential candidate countries (explicitly listed in the tender specifications). Virtual trainings may be opened more widely via ECDC Learning Portal. Face-to-face activities and exchange visits are expected to take place within EU/EEA unless a specific contract stipulates involvement of candidate/potential candidate countries.

Target Sector:Thematic sector: Health (public health, infectious disease surveillance), specifically genomic epidemiology, public health bioinformatics, laboratory capacity and training, microbiology, epidemiology, and related ICT/compute infrastructure for public-health analytics.

Mentioned Countries:Explicitly mentioned: EU/EEA Member States; EU candidate and potential candidate countries including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo (as per UN resolution phrasing in tender), Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine; inclusion of Georgia subject to Commission approval. Lead authority location: Sweden (ECDC, Solna).

Project Stage:Expected maturity: operational implementation and capacity building across TRL/TRL-equivalents. Activities assume trained staff and functioning laboratory/genomics pipelines in some settings, ranging from intermediate (training/adoption) to demonstration and scale-up (routine surveillance use). Training and exchange visits support transition from research/development into sustained surveillance practice (validation, demonstration and scale-up).

Funding Amount:Rough funding scale: Framework contract ceiling €7,100,000 over up to 48 months. Specific contracts will be issued under the FWC and priced using the unit prices submitted by the contractor; Annex 6 sets the evaluation scenario and estimated volumes for each deliverable. No guarantee of minimum order volume beyond the FWC ceiling.

Application Type:Method to apply: Open call for tenders via EU Funding & Tenders Portal (eSubmission). Electronic submission required. Not an open grant call but a procurement tender requiring a technical and financial offer, declarations and supporting evidence.

Nature of Support:Beneficiaries will receive a paid contract (monetary payments) for services rendered under fixed-price specific contracts issued against the framework, plus non-monetary services (training materials, capacity building, networks, knowledge transfer). The contracting authority acquires the results and related IP rights as specified in the draft FWC.

Application Stages:Number of application/evaluation stages: 1 main procurement submission stage (technical and financial tender) followed by evaluation (administrative compliance, exclusion check, selection criteria verification and quality/price award evaluation). For the presumed winner, post-evaluation verification of declarations and supporting documents is performed before contract signature. After FWC award, specific contracts follow individual ordering procedures (request for specific contract, contractor reply, award and signature).

Success Rates:Success rates: Not published. As a competitive procurement open to all eligible economic operators, success depends on meeting strict selection criteria and scoring highest on best price-quality ratio. No guaranteed number of awards; single FWC to be awarded to the most economically advantageous tenderer.

Co-funding Requirement:Co-funding: No requirement for co-funding by the contractor; the procurement is for service delivery against agreed unit prices and fixed-price specific contracts funded by ECDC under the FWC ceiling. Contractors must price all items inclusive of their costs; any third-party contributions or in-kind resources should be declared but are not mandatory for eligibility.

Application materials and templates

Tenderers must use the procurement documentation available on the Funding & Tenders Portal. Required forms and templates provided by ECDC include: Invitation to tender, Tender Specifications (with annexes), Draft Service FWC (special and general conditions and annexes), Financial offer form (Annex 6 — Financial tender and Financial evaluation spreadsheet), Declaration on Honour template (exclusion and selection declarations), Letter of Intent template (Annex 8) to be used by host institutions and trainer institutions, and guidance on eSubmission.

1. 1Technical tender: narrative addressing all technical requirements and award criteria, detailed workplan, governance, CVs and references for required core team and trainers/mentors, letters of intent for host institutions and trainer institutions (Annex 8), descriptions of facilities and ICT/virtual training capacity, quality assurance and continuity plans, sample training materials or outlines, and data protection measures.
2. 2Financial tender: completed Annex 6 Financial proposal (unit prices for each deliverable), Financial evaluation sheet, prices in EUR excluding VAT. Prices must be free of duties and VAT (ECDC exempt).
3. 3Legal and administrative: Declaration on Honour (Annex 2), Agreement/Power of Attorney for joint tenders (Annex 3), List of identified subcontractors (Annex 4) where applicable, commitment letters from subcontractors (Annex 5.1) or third entities on whose capacity the tenderer relies (Annex 5.2).

Tenderers should consult the Tender Specifications for precise evidence and documentation requirements, the submission checklist in Annex 1, system requirements for eSubmission and the deadlines for submission and questions (Q&A submission cut-off published in the call).

How to prepare a competitive bid (practical checklist)

1. 1Register in Participant Register, obtain PIC and EU Login account, and subscribe to the call in the Funding & Tenders Portal.
2. 2Download and read all procurement documents (Invitation, Tender Specifications, Draft FWC, Annex 6 Financial form, Declaration on Honour template, Letter of Intent template, and results of 2021 training needs assessment).
3. 3Assemble a core team fulfilling the required profiles and include CVs and signed declarations of interest; ensure all named members have the required experience and English C1 level evidence.
4. 4Compile evidence for technical selection criteria: letters of intent from host institutions, pool of mentors, list and CVs of trainers, access to training computer labs, and references for previous training delivery.
5. 5Complete the Financial Offer Form (Annex 6) with unit prices for all deliverables, ensure the reference price does not exceed FWC ceiling scenario requirements, and include contingency assumptions as requested.
6. 6Prepare legal and administrative declarations (Declaration on Honour, proof of legal status, letters of commitment from subcontractors or third parties if applicable) and ensure signatures comply with eIDAS or include handwritten originals where necessary.
7. 7Upload documents to eSubmission well before the deadline, check system requirements for supported browsers and file sizes (attachments < 50 MB recommended), and retain originals for possible verification requests.
8. 8Prepare for potential evaluations: be ready to supply supporting documents within short deadline if requested, and be prepared to attend the virtual public opening session if desired.

Summary: What is this opportunity about and how to explain it

This procurement is an ECDC framework service contract to provide a multi-year training programme and related coordination activities in genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics. It is designed to strengthen national and regional capacity across the EU/EEA and nearby candidate/potential candidate countries so that genomic data can be routinely and effectively used for infectious disease surveillance, outbreak detection and response. The contract covers a broad portfolio: multi-format trainings (virtual and face-to-face), exchange visits, trainer/mentor networks, evaluation and dissemination. Bidders must demonstrate strong technical expertise in genomic epidemiology, educational design and delivery, host institutions and mentors for exchange visits, and organisational capacity to run international training events. The procurement is competitive and awarded on the best price-quality ratio; the FWC ceiling is €7.1M over up to 48 months. Applicants should prepare comprehensive technical and financial offers using the templates in the procurement documents, evidence selection criteria compliance, and submit electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Footnotes

1. 1All official procurement documents, annexes, templates and the eSubmission interface are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal opportunity page and the Tender Electronic Daily (TED) notice; bidders must consult the portal for the full and authoritative set of documents, deadlines and Q&A.

This is an open service tender launched by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for a framework contract estimated at €7,100,000, with a maximum duration of 48 months and tender submission due by 26 October 2026 at 16:00 Europe/Stockholm.[1]

What the contract is about

The objective is to strengthen genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics capacity through interdisciplinary training that supports pandemic preparedness, outbreak response, surveillance, routine use of genomic information, data sharing with ECDC, and cross-border collaboration.[1]

The training is designed for public health professionals with computational biology or bioinformatics backgrounds and for public health professionals without those backgrounds, with content covering skills development, interpretation of genomic and traditional data, common microbial genomics conventions, bioinformatic tools and pipelines, and data storage, management, and sharing for sequencing data and metadata.[1]

Who can apply

The notice is an open procedure, so interested economic operators should examine the procurement documents and submit electronically through the Funding and Tenders Portal; the portal also states that an EU Login account is required and that a PIC is mandatory for a sole tenderer or consortium member.[1]

In practical terms, the strongest bidders will be organisations able to design and deliver high quality public health and bioinformatics training, ideally with experience in microbiology, epidemiology, genomic epidemiology, instructional delivery, and collaboration with public health institutions.

Commercial terms and evaluation

Additional applicant information

• The procurement documents published on 10 September 2026 include the invitation letter, tender specifications, draft contract, financial offer form, declaration on honour, a letter of intent template, and a background document on external bioinformatics training needs.[1]
• There were no public questions and answers listed in the portal extract.[1]
• The contracting authority states that it is not bound to reply to questions submitted after 16 October 2026 at 23:59 Europe/Stockholm.[1]
• This is a procurement service contract rather than a grant, so there is no grant funding rate; pricing will be assessed through the tender evaluation.[1]

The portal metadata indicates that the opportunity is not SME suitable, which suggests the contracting authority expects bidders with substantial delivery capacity and relevant institutional experience.

The draft contract context indicates an initial contract period of 24 months with the possibility of two renewals, which is consistent with the 48 month maximum duration reported on the portal.