CLIMABOROUGH Tender / FAQ
Frequently asked questions about CLIMABOROUGH Tender
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8. Pilots
CLIMABOROUGH Tender / FAQ
Frequently asked questions about CLIMABOROUGH Tender
0. Questions about the procurement instrument and process in general
No. It is a call for tender and there is no cofinancing expected from your side. You will be paid against delivery of the proposed Solutions.
Although involving 5 European Cities, the process is owned by ANCI Toscana, the Association of Tuscan Municipalities based in Florence, Italy.
You can contact us at the following email address: climab@climaborough.eu
This call is launched in the context of the CLIMABOROUGH project, coordinated by ANCI Toscana, and funded by the European Union through its agency CINEA, under the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation.
You can find more information on the project at this URL: https://climaborough.eu/
However, neither the European Union nor CINEA can be held responsible for any part of the process described herein.
The list is indeed final. It includes the following 5: Grenoble (FR), Sofia (BG), Issy-les-Moulineaux (FR), Prijedor (BH) and Pilsen (CZ).
1,2 million Euros, VAT excluded.
Yes, there will be 5 lots of the same amount, 240.000 Euros, one per participant City.
Two (provided they pass the evaluation – see Phase 4).
Yes. It is named Innovation Partnership and is described in Art. 31 of the European Directive on Public Procurement 2014/24/EU.
Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024
This Call is governed by the EU directive on public procurement, 2014/24/EU, and by the national legislation of Italy where the Contracting authority ANCI Toscana resides. In case of conflict between the European and the national legislation, the former will prevail.
During contract execution, the regulations of the country the successful Tenderer belongs to, also complemented by those of the country hosting the testing environment, shall apply to such aspects as the salaries and working conditions. In case of conflict between the two, the former will prevail.
There is no identified competent court here. In case of litigation, the arbitration will be sought of the Florence Chamber of Commerce.
The contract notice was published on the Official Journal of the European Union on 26 March 2025.
The call documents can be retrieved here: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/follower-cities-climaborough-tender
Exclusively via the following, dedicated platform: https://anci-toscana.grantplatform.com/
The competition is structured in 5 phases. For each of them, we present a separate Q&A set here.
Exclusively English.
In accordance with the GDPR, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, all data and information received during the process from every applicant, including any specific part marked as confidential, will be managed by ANCI Toscana and the Host City with electronic means, only to the purpose of awarding the competition according to its specific phases and the rules associated with each.
In accordance with the GDPR, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, you can revoke your consent to personal data management at any time. However, if you do it before the competition is finalised, it will be impossible for you to (continue to) participate. If you do it afterwards, we can’t guarantee that all data and information about you are deleted, as we need to keep the records of all the competition phases, to the purpose of transparency and to receive any external audit from the European Commission or other agencies or in case of a litigation, by the order of some Court or the Florence Arbitration Chamber.
Yes, every organizations needs to upload the ESPD and the other dedicated documents.
Please read the descriptions of the challenges in Attachment 2 and then reformulate the question if needed.
1. Questions about Phase 1 of competition
Phase 1 is the candidature phase, during which any economic operator (single or associate) can ask the Contractor to be invited to submit a Technical Offer, and to this purpose, provides a set of documents to qualify.
Candidatures can be presented until 9 May 2025 at 23:59 Brussels time, exclusively using the dedicated platform: https://anci-toscana.grantplatform.com/
Yes, provided they reside in countries holding an association agreement with Horizon Europe.
The most recent list of such countries can be retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_horizon-euratom_en.pdf
Switzerland and the UK are also included.
Yes, this is possible without limitations, provided all members reside in an eligible country.
The main condition is to run an established business under the national legislation, without any recent impediment to contract with public administration.
No, this is not required.
Not necessarily, for example not in case of public R&D institutions.
Yes, if you are a natural person. For all other entities the answer is still yes, unless the national legislation allows you to invoice us for your services without a VAT number, which some legislations allow doing (though it is pretty uncommon). This exceptional condition has to be separately examined on a case by case basis.
Only the winners of the call for tender will (see Phase 4), otherwise it is not requested for the submission of a candidature.
Not as an access credential, unless that can be considered as evidence of market recognition on topics related to the call for tender.
An official (or even unofficial, but signed by your legal representative as a proof of truthfulness) balance sheet for the year in question will be more than enough.
There can be no single definition, due to the heterogeneity of the services required in each lot. Yours must be the choice, and we will reserve the right to accept or deny it (or ask for more clarifications).
Contracts, invoices, payments, letters of acknowledgment by the client, etc. Yours must be the choice, and we will reserve the right to assess it.
There can be no single definition, due to the heterogeneity of the services required in each lot. Yours must be the choice, and we will reserve the right to assess it.
Exclusively the presented CVs.
Same as in every English vocabulary.
Same as in every English vocabulary.
Patents, trademarks, quality certifications, letters of acknowledgment by the client. Yours must be the choice, and we will reserve the right to assess it.
No later than 30 May 2025.
Only the economic operators (single or associate) receiving the approval of their candidatures will be invited to the next Phase 2.
At least 6 of them (provided we receive enough).
We have modified the ESPD template and added some statements at the end of it. therefore we prefer / require the form template made available on our website.
Yes, this is exact. More precisely, in the case of a consortium, or other form of temporary grouping, the turnover is calculated as the participating economic operators’ total revenues in the most recent available financial year.
The answer is yes, we do require each member of the consortium to create a separate profile on the platform and upload the ESPD + any accompanying documents. We suggest using a single acronym for the proposal, to facilitate our job of rejoining the various distinct applications, although there should be enough information in the ESPD templates of each. The acronym should be placed in the “Start here” section of the platform.
You can choose what is best for you, provided you clearly identify the person / organisation having the mandate of acting on behalf of the other consortium members.
No, there is no maximum number, however the CVs must be relevant and each can get up to 4 points with a maximum of 20 as overall score.
You can choose what is best for you, provided you clearly identify the person / organisation having the mandate of acting on behalf of the other consortium members.
The purpose of the candidature phase is to identify and evaluate all the economic operators that will ultimately, in their different roles, execute the contractual job.
Therefore, it has to be clarified upfront if all the members of the “business network” will be involved in some of the proposed activities or not.
If only one of them does not intend to participate as such, but for instance, they are only willing to offer some of their references to facilitate the candidature of other network members, then the former will fall under the category of “involved third parties” and must be identified as such. Of course in that case, the remaining network members will have to be presented as forming a consortium or “other form of temporary grouping” and the advantage of mentioning a “business network” will no longer exist.
If on the other hand, all the members of the “business network” are 1) available, 2) willing and 3) identified in their specific roles pertaining to the contractual phase (inclusive of e.g. CVs of involved people etc.) then there is no obstacle to the participation of the entire “business network” as composed of N members. However, each of the N members will have to upload the required documentation for the evaluation of their joint candidature, as specified in articles 3.3-3.4-3.5 of the tender regulations.
The lot number and name is available in the following document attached to the tender: Attachment 2 – Specific requirements.
The tenderer shall include the CVs of the staff employed in the tender proposal, being them contracts of work and contracts by project. Costs of the staff employed shall not be reported to the CLIMABOROUGH project coordinator. Nevertheless, funding provided through the CLIMABOROUGH project shall respect the EU and national labour rights and principles.
All participants need to provide the documents. Moreover, the applicant should pay attention to the FAQ n. 1.26 and 1.27.
We will need an official declaration from your State Authority certifying that there has been a disruption in your business due to the fire and that no evidence exists of turnover or any other financial information for the fiscal year in question. Otherwise you will be subject to the same requirements as any other participant in the call.
There is no need to translate any document into English, exception being made for the law of establishment of a public entity, which must be accompanied by a short summary in English.
There is no requirement for a professional risk indemnity insurance as an eligibility criterion in this Call.
If the scientist holds a VAT number, she can join as a subcontractor and upload her own ESPD – with attachments – to the system. Otherwise you may add her CV to your staff, and foresee a different agreement with her in case the Call is awarded to you, however bear in mind that she may not withdraw from the contract at a later stage.
It is enough if one of you uploads it on the platform on their profile, however please use a single acronym to make sure that we can know that you are together.
CVs are a minimum requirement, but you have the right to propose more documents.
No, this evaluation is done on the CVs and documents requested. Some checks will be done in the negotiation phase, however please note that a CV needs to be accurate, we will make random checks. You can add on ESPD links to more documents.
As you wish
It is not necessary in this phase, it may be requested before the signature of the contract.
They need to be submitted now (phase 1).
Please do as you can, merging PDFs is a request, but you can upload more files if you have technical problems.
Option 1 is the correct one (representative of the entity)
All the documents can be provided in original language, with the exception of the law of establishment of public bodies that needs to be supported by a summary in English as per art. 3.3.
The fact that the legal representative is the same is irrelevant. What distinguishes the two companies is that they hold different VAT / registration numbers. So each company must keep its own profile. If the same company does two applications for the same lot, both will be rejected.
Yes, we will consider the group as if it was a single company
The terms are unequivocal, both in the accounting literature and in legislation. Italy adheres to the European Union’s convention, so there is no problem in using the Italian equivalents “patrimonio netto” and “totale attività”.
You will need to provide any documents that report your annual revenues and that apply to your case. In the ESPD, you will need to report the data referring to your business.
It is mandatory to disclose the identity of all subcontractors at the candidature phase.
No, to neither of them.
The reliance on capacities of other entities is not the same thing as forming a group or consortium of joint applicants. Examples are provided in Annex 1 e.g. a parent or sister company or a subcontractor. If no such a case exists, then the answer should be No.
No, we don’t want you to submit any certification, unless it is electronically available, in which case you may want to indicate the link to the relevant source.
In principle you should be able to reply NO to all questions except the last one, which is waiting for a YES. If such is the case, there is no need to upload anything. Otherwise, there is no obligation to provide any documentation, unless it is electronically available, in which case you may want to indicate the link to the relevant source.
There is no predefined length. We expect the description to be informative enough to assess the similarity of the service and allow to grade its quality and value as described in Annex 1 Tender regulations – §§ 3.5a and 3.8.
For the purposes of § 3.5a of Annex 1 the service must have been delivered in 2022 or 2023.
For the purposes of § 3.8 the year is not relevant.
The reliance on capacities of other entities is not the same thing as forming a group or consortium of joint applicants. Examples are provided in Annex 1 e.g. a parent or sister company or a subcontractor. If no such a case exists, then the answer should be No.
No, we don’t want you to submit any certification, unless it is electronically available, in which case you may want to indicate the link to the relevant source.
In principle you should be able to reply NO to all questions except the last one, which is waiting for a YES. If such is the case, there is no need to upload anything. Otherwise, there is no obligation to provide any documentation, unless it is electronically available, in which case you may want to indicate the link to the relevant source.
What counts is the turnover, thus what is reported as turnover and only in the referred periods.
You should not include the grants.
You need to provide them via goodgrants, using the option “K. Other documents not mentioned above”. Please note that in this section you can put together all documents not foreseen in the previous ones.
A bank guarantee cannot substitute for the fulfillment of the economic and financial requirements. In order for the mother company to merge its data with those of the daughter both have to upload the ESPD.
The inclusion of workers CVs is recommended to increase your chances of being selected, but it’s not obligatory.
If both companies upload their ESPD the financial figures of both will be summed up.
What matters (to you) is that the signatory must validly engage your company in the continuation of the tender procedure.
Every application is independent and must be considered as a single one.
No, it’s not.
No.
No, it’s not.
Participation is open to any legal entity (and natural person holding a VAT number) residing in an associated country to Horizon Europe.
Please make reference to the ESPD contents (Attachment 6) for the exclusion criteria. Startup companies are eligible and can join forces with other legal entities to fulfil the requirements.
There is no prescription in terms of composition of the temporary groupings.
As per Section 3.6 and Attachment 9 of the Tender Regulations, in the case of a consortium or other form of temporary grouping, one member must be appointed as the authorised representative to interact with the Contracting Authority (ANCI Toscana). The choice between appointing the SME or the large company is at the consortium’s discretion.
The authorised representative is the the person / organisation having the mandate of acting on behalf of the other consortium members and who will sign the Partnership Agreement with the Contracting Authority.
Both non-profit organisations and academic institutions can fully participate as members of the consortium. As stated in Section 3.3 and 3.6, each partner must individually submit the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) and provide the required documentation.
Please note that the selection of the category CLIMABOROUGH Phase 2 is not an issue, as it does not affect the eligibility or assessment of your submission. The important aspect is that you submit your application by the Phase 1 deadline, according to the Tender regulations.
Please note that both electronic and ink signatures are deemed acceptable for the submission of such documents, provided they are legally valid in the country of issuance.
Yes, provided that provided they reside in countries holding an association agreement with Horizon Europe.
Section C of the ESPD is related to the reliance on capacities of other entities, which means that an economic operator can use the financial capacities of third parties, such as subcontractors, parent or sister companies, or consortium members, to meet the minimum requirements set out in the tender.
The request is to upload the CVs of your team in an EU format. Please note that all CVs should be merged in a single PDF document.
The definition of solvency ratio is provided in paragraph 3.4 point 2) of the Tender regulations. A formula is provided in a bullet point at the bottom of the same page (p.7).
The request is to upload the CVs of your team in an EU format. Please note that all CVs should be merged in a single PDF document.
2. Questions about Phase 2 of competition
Phase 2 is the negotiation phase, during which selected Candidates are invited to submit a Technical Offer only, which will be discussed bilaterally with representatives of the Contractor and the Host City.
By socio-technical solution we mean a solution that combines technological aspects (such as those related to hardware, software, communication networks, data availability etc.) with social ones (i.e. related to people, groups and communities).
Such solutions may exist at any maturity stage – from idea to prototype to full product/service – or if one prefers so, hold any possible TRL (Technology Readiness Level) from 0 to 9 as a point of departure. However, the final TRL expected at the end of the procurement should be no lower than 7 (“system demonstrated in an operational environment”). This should be taken into careful account, considering that the duration of the solution deployment phase onsite will hardly be longer than one year.
The socio-technical solutions envisaged are clustered in two thematic hubs, one focused on the transition “from waste to circularity”, the other addressing the shift “from isolated energy and mobility systems to integrated services”.
They should assist citizens and/or urban policy makers in taking climate friendly decisions and actions supported by specific data and information on the carbon footprint of human activities in the selected operational environments.
Yes, they are, in the form of minimum requirements to be fulfilled by every Solution proposal (in the form of a Technical Offer) that is submitted by the deadline.
Technical Offers can be presented until 27 June 2025 at 23:59 Brussels time, exclusively using the dedicated platform: https://anci-toscana.grantplatform.com/
A bilateral negotiation will take place, with full respect of business confidentiality, to improve the quality of received Technical Offers above the minimum requirements.
During the month of July 2025.
Negotiations will occur bilaterally and the other participants will not be kept reciprocally informed about their respective dates and outcomes. No information exchanged during the talk will be made public, although the session may be recorded.
Yes, we confirm that only the technical offer is needed.
The negotiation phase will follow the submission of the technical offer. Please refer to the Art. 4 of the Tender Regulations.
Yes, we confirm that you will need to use again the goodgrants platform.
Yes, we confirm.
Yes, we confirm.
Please send immediately a communication in writing to climab@climaborough.eu.
No letters of support are needed.
No, it won’t be possible.
In relation to your request to join forces with another applicant, we’d need a formal request from you and the other applicant motivating the reasons of the merge. The request will have to be evaluated and possibly approved by the Single Responsible Person (RUP) via a formal decision.
The information you mention shall be included in the part II section B “Information about the other economic operators (only in case of a consortium or other form of temporary grouping)” of the attachment 10.
We have carefully checked and there is no redundancy, each criterion has to be commented in separate by the applicant.
Please find the definition of Base Price and Contract Price in §1 of Annex 1 – Tender regulations.
It’s the maximum duration allowed, then it will be up to you to decide which activities should be included in that time frame.
The two solutions are considered as separate projects.
In this phase we don’t need the financial offer to be filled in and submitted by you, only the technical offer needs to be submitted. That’s because after the deadline a negotiation process will start and the technical offer could be modified as a result of this process.
We expect to receive one single technical offer per each invited economic operator, single or associate. In case of consortium / grouping you shall include the other economic operators in the Attachment 10 – Technical Offer, in the same way as done for Phase 1.
The public event in January 2025 and the current procurement procedure are completely disconnected from each other. That was clarified in the official documents supporting both of them. You must respect the tender requirements as indicated in attachment 2 and the related documents.
There can be no single activity described in your technical offer that is not completed in the (maximum) duration of 12 months.
The activities you will describe in your technical offer – if awarded.
The 9 months will refer to the deployment of the solution according to the workplan described in the Technical Offer.
3. Questions about Phase 3 of competition
Phase 3 is the proper tendering phase, during which Candidates are invited to submit a revised Technical Offer accompanied by a Financial Offer, which the Contractor will evaluate in the next phase of competition.
The Technical and Financial Offers can be presented until 31 March 2024 at 23:59 Brussels time, exclusively using the dedicated platform: https://anci-toscana.grantplatform.com/
No later than 30 April 2024.
The two best ranked Tenderers per lot will be awarded (see next Phase).
Because we expect those solutions to imply diverse methodological approaches and hold different degrees of initial maturity (as measured by the TRL – Technology Readiness Level), while it is required that they should converge to a minimum TRL of 7 by project’s end.
If the licence is bought from a third party, please use “Other costs”. If the licence costs are related to one of your products, they need to be included in profits.
4. Questions about Phase 4 of competition
Phase 4 is the award phase, at the end of which two Solution proposals per Host City, showing the highest quality vs price ratios, will be awarded by the Contractor and the Tenderers will be invited to sign a Partnership Agreement.
A contract with the two best ranked Tenderers per lot will be signed (see next Phase) until 30 December 2025 and an advance payment of 50% of the Financial Offer will be paid until 31 December 2025.
5. Questions about Phase 5 of competition
Phase 5 is the Solution deployment phase in the Host City environment, initiated by an advance payment paid by the Contractor.
The foreseen duration of the Partnership Agreement will be 9 months, starting from December 2025 and until end of August 2026, without the possibility of any extension.
At the end of the phase of deployment, all solutions are purchased by ANCI Toscana and will be put at the free disposal of the respective Cities.
The Partnership agreement will regulate the post-project phase in such a way to ensure that the City will continue using the deployed solutions and the respective proposers may transform them into market products or services on a larger scale at their ease.
The Partnership agreement explains that better. It refers to the post-deployment phase, when the City hosting the experimentation will have the right (not the obligation) of buying copies of the final Solution at a specified price, which will be determined through the calculations shown in that Annex.
6. Questions about the Preliminary Market Consultations
The purpose of those events was not the reception of offers, but the discussion of the challenges posed by the 8 Cities and the reception of ideas, suggestions and recommendations that have helped ANCI Toscana shape this Call for tender. In particular, advice on the state of arts, market capabilities, ongoing/past R&D projects etc. was more than welcome.
These can all be retrieved starting from: hhttps://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/preliminary-market-consultations-of-follower-cities/
Contents include any material submitted prior to and/or after the event, the final list of participants, as well as the audio/video recordings of the online and onsite sessions, which may include specific questions made and answers received. All such data and information are made public, unless specific restrictions for confidentiality apply, by request of the participants themselves.
It is not necessary, but it can be advisable, to stay tuned with the immediate antecedents of this call for tender. Generally speaking, although some details have been changed, the challenges presented by the City representatives during the 5 Preliminary Market Consultations are still interesting to hear from the voices of those who will host the experimentations of the proposed Solutions.
No. The call for tender is open to all economic operators who fulfil the conditions established herein, no matter whether they have been participating to any Preliminary Market Consultation or have submitted any solution proposal or nothing at all.
7. How to make further inquiries
Not at all. Please contact us every now and then to check for updates.
You can contact us at the following email address: climab@climaborough.eu
8.1 Grenoble-Alpes (FR)
8.2 ISSY-LES-MOULINEAUX (FR)
8.3 PILSEN (CZ)
8.4 Prijedor (BH)
8.5 Sofia (BG)
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