Frequently asked questions
In the frame of the above-mentioned tender, we would like to promote an existing service which provides for all coastal regions of the globe indicators on the potential of renewable energies. Is this an eligible choice in view of lot 14 “Global region including ORs”, given that our service is not primarily focused on the ORs? The related question is linked to the marking criteria which indicates a mark of 0 for the “global region excluding the ORs”, and our service does not deal with global coastal regions in general.
Your offer will be analysed according to the criteria defined in the Tender Regulations. The mark attributed to the “OR” criterion is not eliminatory.
According to REQ-3 of your call 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1, the coastal downstream service should be an operational service. Could you please expand on your definition of an operational service? Do you for instance consider a Client application as an eligible operational service?
All definitions are detailed in the SOW (p5). An operational service is a service which is still being provided or which can be reactivated. This service may be provided continuously or intermittently, according to user expectations. If your client application fits this definition it can be an eligible operational service.
A first question is: shall we consider as Annexes only the mentioned Deliverables and exclude the Services?
The second question is: if we have to annex the mentioned deliverables to the technical proposal, do these documents need to be completed with requested information described in the REQs about the current service or should they just be a template of contents that will be filled in when the project will be actually started?
In reply to your questions on tender 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1_EN: 1) In the Statement of Work (SoW) of DEM1, it says that “In its bid, the candidate shall: – Deliver a description of the work he intends to perform for presenting and promoting its demonstration. Deliver examples of the future attractiveness of the demonstration. Deliver evidence of its ability to activate or reactivate an operational service, and to maintain and update it.” These are the 3 annexes that should be appended to the bid. This information will allow Mercator Ocean to evaluate the bids presented by the candidates. 2) All the documents and the work specified in the REQs (7 to 23) should be delivered by the selected candidate according to the schedule provided in the SoW.
1/ The submission language (Language for procurement) is French which means that the answers to be provided in the documents in English should be written out in French. Do the documents exist in French? Can you please confirm that « mixing languages » is not a problem ? My understanding is that all deliverables should be written in English.
2/ When I open the “Price note” from your website, I have an automatic request to choose a language…. After several error messages, the English version of the “Price Note” opens. Can I use the English version or does the document exist in French?
1) You can submit an application in French or in English, the whole file has to be in the same language. If you submit an offer in English and your offer is selected, you will have to provide a sworn translation.
2) When you open the document, you must close the dialogue box (without making a choice).
I have some doubts related to them, particularly 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 and 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2. What is the difference between those 2 in terms of final results? Reference values is 700 000 € for 6 months, other is 1 050 000 € for 18 months. Are these for all lots, or are the values per lot?
– I can also see that you have different regions, with one or 2 lots per region. Do you expect to approve 1 project per lot, or more than one project per lot (e.g. 1 proposal with 900 000 € + other one with 150 000€)
– Will you accept proposals that cover 1 CMEMS region by default, and will provide answers to other regions as well? (e.g. IBI area + Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores)
– Demonstration areas should cover the whole CMEMS region, or is it acceptable to cover only representative areas where pilot cases can be implemented?
– How do you see the submission of proposals with implementation of downstream services based directly on ocean circulation from CMEMS global model (1/12), as resource solution, for instance, in areas where no other better / regional models are available? One of the examples is the Black Sea (lot 6 in 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2), where it is mentioned: “Lot 6: Promoting the demonstration of coastal, operational and existing CMEMS downstream services on the Black Sea: comprises the whole Black Sea from the Bosporus strait. For this region, existing products are observation products. Model products will be available during the first half-year of 2017.”
The difference is: one for the promotion of an existing service already done, the other is also for the promotion but includes some needed developments to finalise the downstream service, which is also why the duration is longer. The value of each call is for all lots.
Yes we do. One downstream service for each region per lot (tender divided into 7 lots) or 2 different services per lot (tender divided into 14 lots).
Yes. The proposal must be prepared for one region (1 lot) and the geographic area covered by your service can be larger than the one requested. Demonstrations are for existing services or for the finalisation of a requested one. It is acceptable if it covers only a representative CMEMS region. If it can be implemented in other regions, this has to be explained.
Yes, you’re right, for this Black Sea region, only observation products are available for the moment. We propose it as it is be possible that services use only observation products. Please note that there is a mistake in the call: the Black Sea modelling product will be available before end of October 2016 (and not the first half of 2017).
We are interested by this tender and we would like to bid. The technical description is very basic. Is an InfoDay that represents these requirements planned? Are there documents decribing theses technical requirements?
We did not plan any InfoDay (webinar) and the technical description is voluntary basic in order to get numerous offers with various application demonstrations.
After a first screening of the tender documentation it seems to me that the contracts
- 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1
- 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1
- 33-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1
Are lump-sum contracts, thus the money transfer does not require specific economic reporting, but just the remittal of an invoice (of course subject to the completion of the scheduled work). Could you please confirm? Moreover, the contracts of these 3 tenders are defined as “simple contracts” (see article 1.4 of Tender regualtions). What does that exactly mean?
As you noticed, contracts are service contracts that do not need any reporting.
Simple contract means that a contract is concluded between one (or several acting together) benificiary(ies) for one services. The opposite would be several contracts for several services linked to each other.
In the call 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 there are 14 lots. In the Tender Regulations it is stated that “As an indication, the contract is for an amount of 700 000 euros”. My question is whether this amount applies for each of the lots separately (per contract), or is it the total sum for all lots in the call?
This amount corresponds to the global budget of the tender (all lots together).
For each call, in the Tender Regulation it is stated:
§ 1.3 Allotment: “This consultation is made up of NN lots, with each lot leading to the conclusion of a contract”
§ 1.8 Amount of the contract: “As an indication, the contract is for an amount of XXX euros”
Is the amount mentioned in each Tender Regulation under §1.8 related to the whole tender, or does it refer to a single lot/contract within the tender?
You are right. The amount indicated in 1.8 in the tender’ s regulations is the amount for the whole tender and not for each lot.
About the User-uptake open Calls.
I see that for each tender, in the “tender regulation file” paragraph 1.8 the amount of the contract is specified (namely 600k for DEM3, ~1M for DEM1 and DEM2).
It is not clear to me if the declared amount is per bid or must be shared by the number of selected bids.
Furthermore how many bids will be selected per lot?
Amounts corresponds to the sum of the call (not for each lot). One bidder will be chosen for one lot.
31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 (Promotion of demonstrations of CMEMS downstream services) vs. 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2 (Development and promotion of demonstrations of CMEMS downstream services): I think the difference between one and the other is exactly the development – if something is more consolidated, it seems that should go through 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1; if it is more subject to development prior to implementation, it should go for 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2 – is this right?
- Allotment and amount of the contract: We can see different lots for each tender. For instance: 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2 has 7 lots, each one will have a contract. We can see an indicative amount of 1 050 000 euros per contract: do you confirm that this is the indicative amount per lot, or is it to be shared by all lots?
- If the previous answer is 1 050 000 per contract and per lot, do you think that ideas with small budgets in relation to 1 050 000 euros (for instance, 100 000 or 150 000 euros) may also have any chance of approval?
- Lot 7 in 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2: this lot is “On Global Zones and Outermost Regions (OR’s)”. Can a bid cover only 2 or 3 OR’s?
Yes it’s right.
The sum of the 7 lots have a cumulative maximum of 1 050 000€.
Lot 7 has to use the global CMEMS products.
It has to be on coastal regions of the global ocean with a priority for the Outermost Regions.
The bid will cover one service on 1 or several different regions.
Regarding procurement 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 for the promotion of demonstrations of CMEMS downstream services.
Can a private individual who is not registered as an sole trader or similar economic operator framework, bid for this procurement?
Your question required some legal investigations. French public procurement law allows physical persons to bid for an offer without any condition but the tax regulations forbids contracting and paying someone who is not registered as a professional.
So I’m afraid that the answer to your question is no.
In section 3.2 of the Technical Proposal Guidelines I read:
[…] and detailing the existing part and the one to be developed. […]
What is it meant by “the one to be developed”? Isn’t the focus of the present call on demonstration of existing services ONLY, without any development?
Isn’t the development foreseen for call 32 -UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2? Is this requirement meant for D32, or maybe the development meant here is for what concerns the demonstration portal?
The “Technical Proposal Guidelines” document was drafted for DEM1, DEM2 and DEM3.
Indeed there is no development for DEM1. The document should say “and detailing the existing part” (for DEM1) instead of “and detailing the existing part and the one to be developed” (which is valid only for DEM2 and DEM3).
Do you confirm that our offer can be sent by electronic transmission OR paper version by surface mail (or hand delivery)?
In the case we choose the electronic transmission, how can we send 2 original copies of the Deed of Commitment (see §3.4.2 and Appendix I p22 of the Tender regulations document)?
We can confirm that you can send your offer electronically or by surface mail.
If you choose electronic transmission, and if your offer is selected, we will then ask you to send the 2 original copies of the Deed of Commitment by surface mail.
Can entities that are not from European Union Bid?
It is possible for non-EU entities (SMEs) to bid to these calls.
Has an Info Day taken place describing the requirements?
No, no Info Day has taken place.
Can you confirm that since 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1, 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 et 33-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 are lump-sum contracts, the money transfer does not require specific economic reporting, but just the remittal of an invoice (of course subject to the completion of the scheduled work)?
As you noticed, these contracts are service contracts that do not require any reporting.
What does “simple contract” mean (see article 1.4 of Tender regulations)?
Simple contract means that the contract is concluded between one (or several acting together) benificiary (ies) for one services. The opposite would be several contracts for several services linked to each other.
In the Tender Regulations it is stated that “As an indication, the contract is for an amount of 700 000 euros”. My question is whether this amount applies for each of the lots separately (per contract), or is it the total sum for all lots in the call?
This amount corresponds to the sum of the call (not for each lot).
Is the difference between 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1 (Promotion of demonstrations of CMEMS downstream services) vs. 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2 (Development and promotion of demonstrations of CMEMS downstream services) the stage of development?
– if something is more consolidated, it seems that should go through 31-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM1; if it is more subject to development prior to implementation, it should go for 32-UU-DO-CMEMS-DEM2 – is this right?
Yes it’s right.
