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introducing the PPI innovations into the market (e.g. contribution to standardisation,
regulation, certification), awareness raising and experience sharing/training, activities
preparing further cooperation among stakeholders and procurers for future PCPs or PPIs.
Preparation and publication of the open market consultation and call for tender
Unless the PPI is undertaken by (a) procurer(s) that has(have) conducted a PCP in line with the
requirements described in section (i) of this General Annex E, to buy the prototypes or limited first test
products/services that were developed during the PCP
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, the following market consultation and
publication obligations apply:
In preparation of the PPI calls for tenders, an open market consultation with potential
tenderers and end-users must be held to inform the market well in advance of the
upcoming PPI and broach the views of the market about the intended scope of the PPI.
Information retrieved from this consultation about the gap between perceived procurement
needs and on-going industry developments must be taken into account in the PPI tender
specifications, so that the PPI duly focuses on 'early adoption' of 'innovative' solutions.
The market must be informed well in advance
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of the target date by when the PPI is
expected to be launched. Market readiness prior to deployment can be verified through the
organisation of e.g. conformance testing, certification or quality labelling of solutions.
The PPI contract notices must be published EU wide by a public procurer in at least
English, offers must be accepted and communication with stakeholders must be enabled at
all stages throughout the procurement in at least English, and all offers must be evaluated
according to the same objective criteria.
The prior information notices for the
open market consultation,
early announcements of the
target date for launching the PPI, and the PPI contract notice must be promoted and
advertised widely using in particular also Horizon 2020 Internet sites and National Contact
Points. The Commission must be informed at least 5 days prior to the expected date of
publication of the PIN for the open market consultation and 30 days prior to the expected
date of publication of the PPI contract notice and its content. The PPI calls for tenders must
remain open for the submission of tenders for at least 60 days.
Where the WTO Government Procurement Agreement does not apply, participation in PPI
tendering procedures must be open on equal terms to bidders from EU Member States and
all countries with which the EU has an agreement in the field of public procurement under
the conditions laid down in that agreement, including all countries associated to Horizon
2020. Where the WTO Government Procurement Agreement applies, PPI contracts must
be also open to bidders from States which have ratified this agreement, under the
conditions laid down therein.
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In case of a PPI after a PCP according to the conditions described, the negotiated procedure without
publication foreseen in the EU public procurement directives can then be used (see Article 31(2)(a)
ofDirective 2004/18/EC, Article 40(3)(b) of Directive 2004/17/EC , Article 13(j) of Directive 2009/81/EC
and the EU legislation replacing those (Article 32(3)(a) of Directive 2014/24/EU and Article 50(b) of
Directive 2014/25/EU). At least three offers must be asked including from the R&D providers that
successfully completed the pre-ceding PCP.
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By means of a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the OJEU
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Tender Documentation and procurement procedure
Procurers should avoid the use of selection criteria based on disproportionate qualification
and financial guarantee requirements (e.g. with regards to prior customer references and
minimum turnover). Functional/performance based specifications must be used, to
formulate the object of the PPI tenders as a problem to be solved, without prescribing a
specific solution approach to be followed. Evaluation of the tenders must be based on best
value for money criteria (not just lowest price).
The distribution of rights and obligations between procurers and the solution provider(s),
including the allocation of IPRs, must be published in the PPI call for tender documents.
The PPI calls for tenders must be carried out in a competitive and transparent way in line
with the Treaty principles which leads to a price according to market conditions. In order
to encourage fair and wide exploitation of results, ownership rights of IPRs generated
during the execution of a PPI contract should be assigned to the party generating the IPRs,
except in duly justified cases (e.g. when that party is not able to exploit them).
Procurers must organise their procurement so as to avoid any conflict of interest, including
in the use of external experts. Potential providers of solutions sought for by a PPI cannot
be beneficiaries in an action during which this PPI is planned or undertaken.
Procurement procedures covered by the EU public procurement directives that do not
involve procurement of R&D can be used. Restricted procedures with shortened
timeframes for submission of offers for urgency reasons must not be used.
Contract implementation
Framework contracts/agreements with lots can be used. For PPIs implemented by a group
of procurers, the specific contracts for procuring specific quantities of goods/services for
each procurer can be awarded and the selected tenderers can be paid either all by the lead
procurer, or by each procurer in the buyers group individually for those quantities of
goods/services procured by each procurer individually.