PRELIMINARY MARKET CONSULTATIONS / FAQ
Frequently asked questions on the 8 preliminary market consultations scheduled in july 2023 under the common initiative entitled “Building green and climate-neutral city hubs”
Table of contents
PRELIMINARY MARKET CONSULTATIONS / FAQ
Frequently asked questions on the 8 preliminary market consultations scheduled in july 2023 under the common initiative entitled “Building green and climate-neutral city hubs”
A. Questions about the process in general
Although involving 8 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 initiative 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.
Yes. The initiative is framed within Art. 40 of the European Directive on Public Procurement 2014/24/EU.
Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024
Because the scope and purposes of each are partly, though not completely different. For more information, see Section D of this Q&A text.
The three main principles enforced here are:
a) The principle of non-discrimination: all the registered participants to each Preliminary Market Consultation will be treated on equal terms. No restriction will be applied to the possibility of participating, apart from the fulfilment of the registration process, as also explained in Section B of this Q&A text.
b) The principle of transparency: all information exchanged during the process will be made public. No single participant will gain privileged access to some contents and all contents provided by them will be shared with the others (unless specifically marked as business confidential).
c) The principle of competition: the whole process as it stands, serves to the purpose of promoting the participation of as many economic operators as possible to the next phase, after the Preliminary Market Consultation. This is the procurement phase, also explained in Section C. of this Q&A text. On the other hand, participation in the first phase does not procure any particular advantage or exclusive right that can be used in the second phase.
Yes, you can. The only condition is to register in each. Registration can only be done through Eventbrite, following the link provided in the specific event page (see also Section B of this Q&A text).
You can find all the links starting from the URL: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/
Most of them are hybrid, only one is held exclusively online (see also Section D of this Q&A text). You can choose how and how many to attend.
Yes, although every City may provide translation services to participants. All communication and information exchanges will have to be in English.
Yes, indeed. The session recordings and every other information exchanged (see also Section B of this Q&A text) will be made public in the specific event page, few days after the event. All event pages can be retrieved from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/
According to the principle of transparency, all participants upon registration will have to accept that every information exchanged during the event will be made public. However, if they also specify in writing that some contents provided are business confidential, those will never be shared openly, unless it can be easily verified, using common sense and accessible sources, that those contents in fact, already belong to the public domain.
In accordance with the GDPR, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, all data and information received during the process from every participant, including the specific part marked as confidential, will be managed by ANCI Toscana and the City hosting the event with electronic means, only to the purpose of facilitating the participant’s access to the Preliminary Market Consultation and the enforcement of the principles of non-discrimination, transparency and competition.
Such data and information also include any material submitted prior to and/or after the event, 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 will be made public, unless specific restrictions for confidentiality apply (see previous Q&A), on the various event web pages. These can all be retrieved starting from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/
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 event, it will be impossible for you to participate. If you do it afterwards, we obviously can’t guarantee that some other participant may have already had access to your personal data in the recordings of the sessions or by downloading the materials previously shared by you.
Yes, this is possible. Any entity can propose a solution (via our solution form that can be found on the single pages of the cities open calls) for more than one city. Also in the tender phase, it will be possible to provide a proposal per city (but not more than one proposal per city).
B. Questions about the registration and participation
We use Eventbrite, a free of charge platform, to generate a ticket for you, which is valid both in the case of virtual and physical participation. Please make sure to choose the URL of the “right” event(s), the one(s) you decided to attend. The collection of all URLs can be retrieved starting from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/
Yes, but you cannot join a Preliminary Market Consultation unless you have previously gotten a ticket from Eventbrite.
No, you can do it as an anonymous user of the platform.
Normally the registration closes the day before the event. Please note that the hosting City reserves the right not to admit the participation of those who are not in possession of an Eventbrite ticket.
Only your name and surname, organisation of affiliation, country/region/city, email address and website. We also ask you to tell us whom you represent, whether a university, or an SME, etc.
You will provide us the above information during the request to Eventbrite to generate a ticket for you.
You can simply state “not available”.
No please, consider this is not a “normal” workshop, but a legal procedure. It is therefore very important that every participant identifies her or himself and that the information provided is shared with all other participants.
The Eventbrite ticket holds all the information on the venue as well as the schedule of the PMC event.
Using the email address provided to us during the registration, we will send you the link to participate remotely. Please note that his link can NOT be retrieved on your Eventbrite ticket.
First of all, please check your spam folder, just in case. Otherwise, send us an email to climab@climaborough.eu from the same address you used for the registration, mentioning the event or attaching the Eventbrite ticket.
It is stored both on the specific Eventbrite URL and on the respective PMC announcement. You can retrieve the Eventbrite URLs and/or download the PMC announcements, starting from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/.
We welcome your request to talk during the PMC. To that end, send us an email to climab@climaborough.eu from the same address you used for the registration, mentioning the event or attaching the Eventbrite ticket.
The solution proposal form is not obligatory. However, you may want to use it before, during or after the event, to specify some details of an idea, prototype, of existing product/service you may want to suggest as a possible target for the future procurement phase.
The solution proposal form can be sent out at any time, before, during or after the event, but no later than 31 July 2023 eob. ANCI Toscana and the hosting City reserve the right of not considering the information received after that date as useful inputs for the next procurement phase.
There is a different email address for each hosting City, which can be retrieved both on the Eventbrite page during registration, and on the respective PMC announcement. Both the URL of the Eventbrite page and the PMC announcement can be retrieved starting from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/.
There is a different URL for each hosting City, which can be retrieved both on the Eventbrite page during registration, and on the respective PMC announcement. Both the URL of the Eventbrite page and the PMC announcement can be retrieved starting from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/.
No, it is not.
Yes, please. This is a mandatory requirement. Bear in mind that the hosting City will not be the same.
Yes, feel free.
As clarified also in Section A of this Q&A text, every data and information received from you, with the only exception of that marked as business confidential, will be made public before or after the event on the respective web page. The links to all event pages can be retrieved from: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/ .
Unfortunately you can’t, with the only exception of business confidential material. See Section A of this Q&A text for more clarifications.
You certainly can, but with the consequences described in Section A of this Q&A text.
C. Questions about the future procurement phase
The overall objective of the 8 Preliminary Market Consultations is twofold:
- On the one hand, inform the interested economic operators, anywhere residing on the EU/EEA space, that we at ANCI Toscana are planning to launch a Public Procurement of Innovation call, indicatively by the end of September 2023, with an indicative budget of €2.300.000,00 (two million three hundred thousand euros/00), VAT excluded. The purpose of the call is to identify and deploy 16 socio-technical solutions, 2 per each participant City, aiming to solve a specific challenge related to climate change adaptation in that City, which will be described in more detail during the corresponding PMC event. The average budget for every leader city will be 143.700 euros per service.
- On the other hand, ask for the advice of economic operators, public authorities, R&D institutions or individual experts and professionals, including start up entrepreneurs and SME owners, who may be aware that a suitable set of technologies already exist in the market, which may help solve one or more of the proposed challenges as they have been identified in the 8 Cities, or suggest reshaping some of them to ensure they can be fulfilled by the deployment of the envisaged socio-technical solutions.
The list is indeed final. It includes: Athens (EL), Cascais (PT), Differdange (LU), Grenoble (FR), Ioannina (EL), Maribor (SI), Sofia (BG) and Torino (IT). Each of them has identified and will describe during their PMC event a different challenge. However, some of them do have considerable overlaps or at least some common elements, which the readers of this Q&A text may want to explore further by contacting the respective event pages or the Prior Information Notice published at the following URL: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:328730-2023:TEXT:EN:HTML
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, as further explained here below, 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.
No, they are not. They will be made public by the end of September 2023, when the call for tender is published by ANCI Toscana. Please note that this is only an indicative date.
Yes, there will be 8 lots of roughly the same amount, one per participant City.
No, they are not. But ANCI Toscana will make sure that the widest possible participation from economic operators residing in the EU/EEA space is allowed.
The issue is under evaluation. Currently the answer is no, with the only possible exception of entities residing in countries holding an association agreement with Horizon Europe.
Definitely yes. There is no restriction based on nationality.
The purpose of this initiative is 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 will help ANCI Toscana shape the eventual Public Procurement of Innovation instrument.
In particular, any advice on the state of arts, market capabilities, ongoing/past R&D projects etc. will be more than welcome, although not obligatory.
This is why the fulfilment of the solution proposal form is not obligatory, though recommended. See Section B of this Q&A text for more details
This has already been identified as the Innovation Partnership, as per 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 . The advantage of this instrument is that within the time frame allocated for deployment, which expected to be roughly one year in each City, it can make room for multiple solutions (two, in our case) at the same time, being delivered in parallel. Such solutions may well 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.
At the end of the phase of deployment, all solutions will be purchased by ANCI Toscana and put at the free disposal of the respective Cities.
A special 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.
No. The future call for tender will be opened to all economic operators who fulfil the conditions to be established therein, no matter whether they have been participating to any Preliminary Market Consultation or have submitted any solution proposal or nothing at all.
The only possible advantage from participation is to get to know about the start of arts and/or suggest to ANCI Toscana a specific direction that the future Public Procurement of Innovation instrument should undertake, to procure the most feasible solution pathway(s) of one or more than one challenge(s) in the involved Cities.
The foreseen duration of the contract will be 12 months, starting from June 2024.
Yes, this is possible.
The main condition will be to run an established business under the national legislation, without any impediment to contract with public administration.
No, this is not required.
Yes – or equivalent, for example in case of public R&D institutions.
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 for the winners the call for tender, this will not be requested for the submission of an application.
We haven’t thought about that. However neither would be asked at the stage of presenting the bid. An insurance might be required to sign the contract, but more in the form of a performance bond. And a document from the Tax Office might be needed in case you have some pending issues there.
Definitely not. It might be a bonus (for example, in case of a tie in the evaluation criteria, this may be a preferential aspect. Same goes for e.g. gender etc.).
No, certainly not.
We consider that the shortest period for which the data should be collected is 1 (one) month. Regarding the calendar periods – It should not be before 15th of September when the school year starts – preferably in October/November.
D. Questions about the single PMC events
Please refer to the specific event page. You can find all the links starting from the URL: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
Athens has focused over the recent years on climate change using the indicator of quality of urban life as a crucial target. The need of a cultural change to understand, support, and fulfil the city’s journey for a better and healthier environment is of utmost importance. In particular, Athens aims at reducing the level of stationary energy consumption in (municipal and other) buildings targeting actions such as near zero energy buildings, smart grids etc. with a vision to expand to others as well. DAEM, as the IT Company of the City of Athens, supports the development of IT solutions and services for the city and its citizens, hence aims at supporting the CLIMABOROUGH open call solutions as partner of the project consortium.
Solution envisaged:
An application (for smartphones and tablet PCs) fostering active citizenship and provoking behavioural change. It should create a dialogue with the city and make citizens actors of environmental protection. Additional assets for the applications will be data sets creation and relevant data visualizations open for the city as well as for other entrepreneurial initiatives from citizens. Also added value will bring the aspect of gamification and locality, hence solutions that refer to specific neighborhoods of Athens.
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
EMAC – Cascais Ambiente is the municipal company for environmental management on behalf of the Municipality of Cascais. Its mission is to contribute to the sustainable development of the Cascais municipality and improve the quality of life of its residents and visitors, assuming itself as a reference in the community.
To promote carbon neutrality and reach European recycling targets, Cascais must improve the recycling rate of households by promoting sustainable consumption to favour a circular economy as well as the reduction of waste in landfill. We aim to increase waste streams for recycling purposes including biowaste, textile and others with recycling potential. This is particularly useful in door-to-door collection services or waste tracking to ensure the collected waste is properly channeled to build new products.
Solution envisaged:
Engaging citizens/households in the proper differentiation of textile waste.
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
Differdange has set the goal of producing locally and sustainably 100% of its need in electricity with the support of its population by 2030.
Data and IT platforms are essential to translate the relevance of our long-term goal to the general public in oder for the municipality to better understand the potential of renewable energy in the city and its carbon accounting. IT platforms can enable better data visualization, comparison of future scenarios and screening of the city’s existing infrastructure that could support the development of renewable energy (e.g. available rooftop surface).
Solution envisaged:
Differdange needs a socio-technical system that allows the City to better engage with available data on energy in order to increase its leverage and credibility when promoting renewable energy production to citizens and industry. Data visualisation solutions that could streamline ongoing developments and allow future simulations are envisaged. In addition, citizen engagement tools are also needed in order to create a new way of engaging the very diverse (118 nationalities) and growing population of the City.
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
Grenoble-Alpes Métropole is composed of 49 municipalities and 450.000 inhabitants. The Metropole is carrying out an ambitious development project called GRANDALPE 25 with the City of Grenoble, Echirolles and Eybens. This project concerns an area with 30.000 inhabitants and 40.000 jobs and aims to make this district an active living space, an innovative economic hub, and a leader in new mobility. The GRANDALPE project is also intended to be a demonstrator of the ecological transition and will mobilise all the assets to build a city without fossil fuels. Within this meta-project, the Metropole is developing a new way of doing the “Fabrique de la ville” with 3 main areas of work:
(a) promoting the voice of citizens in its development,
(b) mixing culture and art in the project,
(c) developing tactical urbanism.
The objective is to develop temporary activities / projects with all the resources and stakeholders (companies, SSE actors, artists, and citizens) to prefigure the transformation of the territory.
Solution envisaged:
We would need a platform allowing:
– To offer an inventory of the metropolitan territory by gathering data relating to the levels of waterproofing, vegetation, heat islands, etc.
– To open this information to all development stakeholders so that they can improve their project
– To have updated data in order to assess the impact of projects on the indicators
– To be able to model the impact of different scenarios on the indicators
– To make this information accessible and intelligible to citizens to explain the major development choices.
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
The City of Maribor is the 2nd largest city in Slovenia, with the 2nd largest University. To better address environmental issues, Maribor has set up a joint municipal administration together with neighbouring municipalities (functional urban areas) namely, Joint Environmental Protection Service (SSVO). In 2018 a new Automated Sorting Plant for municipal solid waste built by a waste utility company owned by the city, opened. This plant has the capacity of sorting 52,000 tonnes of waste per year. In the first year the plant sorted around 26,000 tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste in testing mode and since 2021 it is fully operational with full capacities. As an alternative to further upgrading the plant capacity, the City Hall is planning to reduce the mixed waste.
This means to increase the percentage of separate collection and recycling, reduce landfill waste, and therefore GHG emissions from biodegradable waste and methane emissions from older landfills.
Solution envisaged:
A socio-technical system promoting waste separation at source and appropriate dealing with gathered fractions by the citizens. This could be achieved by informing, raising awareness and communicating with people as well as using new approaches to promote behavioral change such as social imitation, gamification and other incentives.
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
Ioannina is the capital and the largest city of Epirus, a north-western region of Greece. Ioannina has a small, inhabited island within its area, which includes the so-called lake Pamvotis where there are regular transportation services, using small boats, between the island and the city, with an important presence of tourists also for short periods of time. The Municipality aims to make this lake as green as possible, in collaboration with the island’s local community, as well as other stakeholders with activities in the lakeside area, improving the behavior of various target groups (tourists, residents, businesses, etc.).
Solution envisaged:
As there is no data to monitor the impact of urban wastewater on the lake’s water quality and ecosystem, the gap to fill in is to collect this data and develop some kind of monitoring tool to assess the current situation and see how urban wastewater pollution is turning the lake into a greenhouse gas production plant. A possible solution could be a combination of data collection, environmental impact monitoring, and behavior change aimed at tourists or other stakeholders such as small boat owners, hotels, restaurants, etc. Also, based on data about the factors of human activity that turn the lake into a greenhouse gas factory, an application could be developed that will be used by tourists visiting the islet and the area surrounding the lake, restaurants, hotels, or other businesses and residents of the same place, etc. and figure out their footprint in the lake’s greenhouse gas factory, based on their choices, like waste management, transportation, food management, agricultural activities, lake sports, etc.
The gathered data could be available to the Municipality for decision-making based on data for the protection of the lake’s ecosystem and reducing the carbon footprint of the City. Also, our goal is to establish a co-creation mechanism that will support a systematic and productive collaboration of all local stakeholders.
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria and the 14th largest city in Europe with almost 1,5 million inhabitants. Some of the main problems facing Sofia are the high levels of harmful emissions and the high levels of noise pollution in the city. One of the reasons for this is car traffic, the large number of old cars, including a large number of diesel cars. The centre of Sofia is an area full of diverse activities, which naturally attracts a large amount of car traffic. At the same time, getting around and parking in the central part of the city is very difficult. Unlike most Western European large cities, where the street network is built as a structure and dimensions almost 100% adapted to cars, in Sofia this is not the case. The existing primary street network as a structure is incomplete. That is why our main goal is to put an end to the aimless wandering of personal cars in search of parking place in the city centre, which will have a positive impact on air quality and level of CO2 emissions.
Solution envisaged:
An innovative digital service that will enable citizens to plan their movements in the city only by means of public transport or other proposed green routes.
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Based on the description provided in the Prior Information Notice, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014L0024 and that will be expanded by the City representatives during the respective PMC event, we can report the following.
Challenge:
In the City of Torino, the quantity of not recycled WEEE/textile waste is still too high. On one hand, this is caused by a lack of awareness and engagement of key stakeholders (citizens, businesses) in properly disposing this kind of waste. On the other hand, it is difficult to monitor the entire waste collection journey, and to gather meaningful data the City and its delegated company can use to spot areas of intervention and define new and more efficient disposal strategies to be shared with involved stakeholders.
Solution envisaged:
A new service monitoring tool producing data helping the City Hall to better understand areas of intervention, give evidence of the value generated through proper disposal, recycling and reuse and actively engage citizens and other key stakeholders in WEEE and textile waste differentiation. Some data not available today because of its not being included in the compulsory KPIs required by law, should possibly be constructed through the engagement of citizens and stakeholders. The monitoring tool should help tackle issues and develop strategies both at district and at broad city level. As a result of the data analysis and the increased understanding of the problem, awareness-raising campaigns will be designed for the key players identified (e.g. large-scale distributors, NGO, SME, association networks, schools).
For more information on this challenge, you can make reference to the PMC announcement that is downloadable from https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/sofia/
Please refer to the specific event page. It will contain the recordings of the sessions, the list of participants and a summary report. You can find all the page links starting from the URL: https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/open-calls/ .
At the same URL, ANCI Toscana will also publish the information on the future call for tender, better described in Section C of this Q&A text.
E. 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
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