CircularPSP: Pre-commercial procurement (PCP) to buy R&D (research and development) services to develop a Public Service Platforms for Circular, Innovative and Resilient Municipalities.

This contract award notice informs interested operators about the outcome of a tender. On 26/12/2023, a contract notice was published as part of the EU project CircularPSP to purchase R&D services from a number of R&D providers in parallel (PCP procurement). The procurement is open on equal terms to all types of operators that are established in EU Member States and Horizon Europe associated countries and that fulfil the requirements set out in section 3 of the Call for Tenders which defines the eligibility of tenderers, exclusion and selection criteria. The procurement aims to trigger new solutions to be developed and tested to address the following challenge: accelerating a digital transition towards a Circular Economy (CE). The procurers are willing to invest €5.64 million in Research and Development to address this challenge in their regions. This PCP is a joint procurement by different procurers across Europe that are all facing the same common challenge and are thus looking for similar solutions (‘Buyers Group’). The procurement will take the form of a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) under which R&D service contracts will be awarded to a number of R&D providers in parallel in a phased approach. This will make it possible to compare competing alternative solutions. Each selected operator will be awarded a framework agreement that covers 3 R&D phases. Each selected R&D provider will be awarded a framework agreement that covers the following R&D phases and a specific contract per phase. The 3 phases are: solution design (phase 1),prototyping and pilot testing (phase 2), original development, installation, validation and field testing of a limited set of first products or services (phase 3). After each phase, intermediate evaluations will be carried out to progressively select the best of the competing solutions. The contractors with the best-value-for-money solutions will be offered a specific contract for the next phase. A total budget of € 5.640.000,- was earmarked for awarding the contracts to a minimum of: - 5 contractors for phase 1 - 3 contractors for phase 2 and - 2 contractors for phase 3. Testing is expected to take place in Istanbul (TR), Berlin (DE), Dublin (IE), Maribor (SI), Guimarães (PT), Stockholm (SE), London (UK), Helsinki (FIN). This testing may also serve as a first customer test reference for the contractors. The procurement has started in 15/05/2024 and is expected to end in 31/07/2026. The selected operators will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) that they generate during the PCP and will be able to use them to exploit the full market potential of the developed solutions i.e. beyond the procurers.