Support for net-zero manufacturing technology in Member States

European Commission DG GROW plans a negotiated low/middle-value procurement (ref EC-GROW/2026/LVP/0139-EXA) for a six-month consultancy to map public and private financing for net-zero manufacturing across the EU-27. This is a service contract (not a grant) with an estimated total maximum value of €60,000 and an ex ante notice inviting expressions of interest via the Funding & Tenders Portal. The work requires inventorying EU and national funding schemes and private investment, distinguishing operational from planned measures and producing a concise, comparable evidence base. Expressions of interest open 21 October 2026 and close 9 November 2026 (Brussels time), and only invited candidates may submit tenders when the negotiated procedure is launched.

Opportunity snapshot

What it funds

Short, targeted consultancy to map EU and national public funding schemes and private investments that support net-zero manufacturing technologies across the EU-27, including existing and planned measures.

This notice is a publication of intent and not the call itself. Full tender documents will be published on the portal: Tender notice.

Footnotes

1. 1Budget disclosed in public Q&A on the portal where the contracting authority replied: The estimated total maximum value is 60.000,00Euros.

Opportunity summary

The European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) plans to launch a negotiated procedure (planned low or middle value procedure, reference EC-GROW/2026/LVP/0139-EXA) to procure short, targeted services to establish a comprehensive mapping of public funding schemes and private investments that support net-zero technology manufacturing across the EU-27. The contract will produce an inventory and analysis covering existing schemes and measures that are planned or under development, at EU and national levels, and will include private investment flows relevant to net-zero manufacturing technologies.

Key administrative and procedural facts

The publication is explicitly stated to be an announcement of intent and not a call for tenders. The indicative launch date for the negotiated procedure is 10/11/2026 Europe/Brussels. The start date to submit an expression of interest is 21/10/2026 and the deadline for expression of interest is 09/11/2026 22:59 Europe/Brussels (EXA registration deadline 2026-11-09T23:59:59+01:00 Europe/Brussels).

Detailed eligibility, scope and requirements

Who should consider responding

Selection criteria, contract type and classification

Project maturity, expected work and timelines

Application format, templates and evaluation stages

Success rates and competition

Additional procurement technical and policy considerations

Mentioned countries and geographic eligibility

Structured answers to the requested categorisation items

Practical recommendations for interested suppliers

Footnotes

1. 1Public Q&A entry 108274 on the Funding & Tenders Portal: contracting authority answer: The estimated total maximum value is 60.000,00Euros. Published on 22/10/2026 08:56.

Executive summary

This opportunity is a planned European Commission procurement for a short consultancy assignment concerning public and private financing of net-zero technology manufacturing across the EU-27. The contractor will be expected to identify and organise existing, planned and developing funding and investment schemes at EU and national level. It is a procurement of services, not a grant scheme, and applicants will compete for a service contract rather than receive project funding.

The contracting authority is the European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, known as DG GROW. The planned procedure is a negotiated low or middle value procedure under reference EC-GROW/2026/LVP/0139-EXA. The maximum contract duration is six months and the estimated total maximum contract value is €60,000, as confirmed in the public question and answer record 1.

Opportunity status

This publication is an ex ante notice announcing the contracting authority’s intention to launch a future negotiated procedure. It is not itself a call for tenders, does not contain the final tender specifications, and does not allow an unsolicited tender to be submitted at this stage. The detailed invitation, technical specifications, draft contract, selection conditions and award criteria are expected to be provided to invited candidates when the negotiated procedure is launched 2.

Key procurement facts

What the procurement is about

The assignment seeks short, targeted analytical support to establish a comprehensive picture of the financing landscape for net-zero technology manufacturing. The work is expected to cover both public and private sources of finance and to distinguish between measures that are already operational and measures planned or under development.

The likely analytical scope includes the following areas:

The notice does not specify a required technology list, methodology, deliverable structure, data fields, interview programme or reporting template. These details should be treated as open issues to be verified in the formal invitation and tender specifications.

Expected contractor profile

The opportunity is best suited to an economic operator with demonstrated capability in public policy research, industrial strategy, green and net-zero technologies, investment analysis, funding database development or technical consultancy. A strong bidder should be able to combine desk research with structured data collection and comparative analysis across all EU Member States.

Relevant capabilities are likely to include:

Who can apply or express interest

The immediate step is to express interest in the planned procedure, rather than submit a full tender. Participation is generally open on equal terms to eligible natural or legal persons established in an EU Member State or in a third country that has a relevant agreement with the European Union on public procurement. This includes eligible entities from the European Economic Area and countries covered by applicable stabilisation and association or other procurement arrangements 2.

An organisation may express interest individually or as part of a consortium. A consortium could be useful where one partner provides EU funding expertise, another provides financial market and private investment analysis, and other partners provide national or sector-specific coverage. However, the final tender documents may impose specific rules on consortium composition, subcontracting, economic and financial capacity, professional capacity, conflicts of interest and exclusion grounds.

Only candidates invited by the contracting authority may submit a tender once the negotiated procedure begins. An expression of interest does not automatically guarantee an invitation to tender or contract award. The contracting authority may evaluate the expressions of interest and invite a limited number of suitable candidates in accordance with the applicable procurement rules 2.

Application and submission requirements

Expressions of interest must be submitted electronically through the address provided on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. An EU Login account is required to express interest, subscribe to the notice, submit questions and use the portal’s electronic procurement functions.

Potential applicants should ensure that their organisation is registered in the Participant Register and that the relevant legal entity and contact information are current. A participant identification code may be required for electronic procurement activities. The organisation should also confirm that the person submitting the expression of interest has appropriate authority to act on its behalf.

The expression of interest should be treated as a concise capability and availability signal. Unless the portal provides additional instructions, it should normally identify the interested economic operator, relevant expertise, comparable assignments, geographical coverage, proposed team or consortium structure, and capacity to deliver within six months. It should not be assumed that a full technical or financial offer is required before the formal invitation is issued.

Schedule and deadlines

The portal indicates that the expression of interest period starts on 21 October 2026 at Brussels time. The displayed deadline is 9 November 2026 at 22:59 Brussels time. The portal data also contains a registration deadline recorded as 23:59 on the same date, creating a one-hour discrepancy. Applicants should use the deadline shown in the live electronic submission interface and submit well before the earlier time.

The indicative launch date for the negotiated procedure is 10 November 2026. This is a planned date and may change. The contract itself is expected to last no longer than six months, although the precise commencement date will depend on the award and signature process.

Financial conditions

The estimated total maximum contract value is €60,000. This is the maximum procurement value indicated by the contracting authority, not a grant allocation, project budget available to applicants, or guaranteed revenue. The amount should be understood as the ceiling for the service contract and may include all elements specified in the eventual tender documents, such as professional fees, travel, meetings, data collection, subcontracting, overheads and applicable taxes if relevant under the contract conditions.

No funding rate, co-financing percentage, advance payment rate, reimbursement formula, eligible cost category or lump-sum grant model is specified because this is a procurement contract rather than a funding call. Bidders will be expected to submit a price in accordance with the formal invitation and draft contract. The commercial offer should therefore be sized against the six-month maximum duration and the likely requirement to cover all EU-27 Member States.

The value is modest in relation to the geographical scope. Applicants should assess whether the work can be delivered by a focused expert team, whether national associates are required, and whether a consortium would provide better coverage without creating excessive coordination costs.

Likely deliverables and work packages

The final specifications will determine the binding deliverables. Based on the published objective, a credible delivery plan could include the following work packages:

Important technical considerations

The central challenge will be comparability. National schemes may differ substantially in terminology, legal form, maturity, budget presentation, eligibility rules and delivery mechanism. A robust methodology should distinguish grants, loans, guarantees, tax incentives, contracts for difference, equity, venture capital, blended finance, infrastructure support and other instruments rather than combining them into a single undifferentiated funding figure.

The bidder should define how it will treat measures that are announced but not legally adopted, schemes under consultation, programmes awaiting implementation and instruments with no publicly disclosed budget. Each record should ideally include a source, responsible authority or investor, status date, target technologies, beneficiaries, geographic coverage, instrument type, budget or investment amount, duration, eligibility and link to the underlying evidence.

The scope of net-zero manufacturing should also be defined carefully. It may encompass manufacturing capacity for renewable energy technologies, batteries, heat pumps, grids, electrolysers, biogas and biomethane technologies, carbon capture equipment and other strategic clean technologies. The final specifications may adopt a narrower or broader definition, so bidders should avoid assuming that all clean technology or all decarbonisation finance falls within scope.

Assessment of competitiveness

The opportunity appears well aligned with organisations that can rapidly produce a policy-grade market and funding map rather than undertake primary scientific research or finance physical manufacturing assets. The strongest proposal is likely to demonstrate a practical research architecture, reliable national coverage, transparent source validation and the ability to deliver decision-ready comparisons within a constrained budget.

A competitive response should emphasise:

Risks and points requiring confirmation

Recommended applicant actions

Overall assessment

The opportunity is most relevant to specialist consultancies, research organisations, economic and industrial policy institutes, financial advisory firms and consortiums combining these capabilities. Its main attraction is the strategic relevance and relatively clear analytical objective. Its main constraint is the €60,000 maximum value and six-month duration, which require a highly efficient methodology and carefully managed country coverage.

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Footnotes

1. 1The official opportunity record identifies the procedure as EC-GROW/2026/LVP/0139-EXA, states a six-month maximum duration and records the contracting authority’s public answer that the estimated total maximum value is €60,000. Source: Official Funding and Tenders Portal opportunity.
2. 2The European Commission ex ante publicity guidance explains that planned low or middle value notices are not calls for tenders, that eligible economic operators may express interest individually or in a consortium, and that only invited candidates may submit tenders. Source: EU ex ante publicity guidance.