The Invitations section on the left side navigation of the Funding & Tenders Portal under the Procurement centre tab includes invitations for the second step of 2-step procedures, negotiated procedures and requests for specific contracts under a framework contract (FWC).

The invitations are visible only to the Primary Coordinator Contact PCoCo/ Coordinator Contact (CoCo) and the LEAR / Account Administrator of the organisation to which the invitation was sent (the leader organisation in case of consortium).

If the PCoCo/CoCo does not have an EU Login account yet linked to the email address that was used by the contracting authority for the invitation, F&T Portal will automatically create it for him/her. See detailed explanation here .

In the Invitations section you can :

  1. View and follow up the invitations for the second step of 2-step procedures (restricted procedures, competitive procedures with negotiation, design contest, innovation partnership, competitive dialogue) , negotiated procedures (exceptional negotiated procedure, low and middle value negotiated procedure, competitive procedure without prior publication of a contract notice) and requests for specific contracts under a framework contract (FWC).
  2. View the submissions that have been made based on these invitations. You can perform different actions based on the status of the submission and the submission deadline. 

(info) Under the Submissions section on the left side navigation of the Funding & Tenders Portal under the Procurement centre tab, the PCoCo/CoCo or the LEAR / Account Administrator can also view the submissions that their organisation has made in public calls for tenders (open procedures, first step of the two-step procedures and planned negotiated procedures for low or middle value contracts).


View invitation(s) 

From the navigation menu on the left you will find the Invitations section. A search field is also available on the right above the list of invitations.

  

For each invitation, you will see:

  • the procedure reference number;

  • the lot (if applicable);

  • the deadline;

  • the invitation status (received, acknowledged, closed or accepted in case of requests for specific contracts);
  • the procedure type as well as the step (two-step procedures) or round (negotiated procedures);

  • the procedure title.


Clicking on the procedure reference number will take you to the invitation details page where you can click on the Details or the Consortium section.  

  

Details section 

Under the this section you will be able to: 

  • View the procedure details.
    Under the general information section you can view the information related to the procedure.
      

  • Access the restricted procurement documents
    Under the Restricted documents section, you can consult the documents of the procedure - these documents are not public but restricted to the candidates invited to the procedure. Note that this section is not shown in requests for specific contracts - the request documents should be consulted in the eSubmission screen after clicking on Acknowledge receipt.

  

 If there are several versions of a document, you will see the latest version on the screen. To view an older version, click on the dropdown menu and select the version you want to see. You can also consult the available translations (if any).

  • Access the Restricted Questions & answers (Q&A) section.  
    From this section you can ask a question concerning the procedure.
      

If the contracting authority provides the answer privately, it will appear under the 'My Q&A' section. If the answer is provided to all invited candidates, it will appear under the Restricted Q&A  section. For more information see How to create and submit a question on the Funding and Tenders portal.

Consortium section

Under this section you can view the data of the organisation to which this invitation is sent (in case of consortium you will see all consortium members).

 

 Click on the arrow to see the roles assigned to the organisation. Click on the Edit Roles button to Manage Roles.

Invitation(s) status and action 

The Funding & Tenders Portal allows you to view invitation(s) with the following status:

  • Received : an invitation has been received by the organisation or consortium to participate in the call for tenders/requests for specific contracts;

  • Acknowledged : the PCoCo/CoCo has acknowledged having received the invitation for the call for tenders/requests for specific contracts;
  • Accepted : the PCoCo/CoCo has expressed their willingness to participate in a requests for specific contracts (cascade or single FWC);

  • Closed : the invitation is closed when the allocated time for submission has expired.

You can perform different actions based on the status of the invitation(s). You can also view the submissions that have been made based on these invitations and perform different actions based on the status of the submissions and the deadlines for the call for tenders/ requests for specific contracts for which you have participated.

The actions that can be performed as per the status of the invitation(s) are described below.

Received status

For invitations in Received status PCoCo/CoCo can:

1 Login into the Funding & Tenders Portal .
2Click on Invitations on the left side of the screen.
3

Click on the menu button (three dots) and select Acknowledge Receipt: 

    

This action is a confirmation that you have received the invitation to submit a tender/request for specific contract. The status of the invitation will now change to Acknowledged.

If you are invited to a negotiated procedure, you must first click on Select Organisation from the menu button (three dots)for the invitation received - you need to select the organisation
indicated in the invitation mail as "Participant".

A pop-up window will appear where you will have two options:

      • My organisations - you can select an organisation among those for which you have a role: role for the organisation (e.g. self-registrant, LEAR, LSIGN) or for a project (submission/invitation/contract/grant). If your organisation is not yet registered, then you need first to register it in the Participant Register to obtain a PIC (Participant Identification Code). Read more here.

        After your organisation is registered, you can select the newly created PIC.             
         
      • Other organisation - you can search the organisations registered in the F&T portal by entering either the organisation name or PIC number.

         

Only after you have selected your organisation, you will be able to see the invitation details and documents.

The EU Login account linked to the email address to which the invitation has been sent receives the role Primary Coordinator Contact (PCoCo) for the invitation.

Via the 'Manage Roles' button (see below) the PCoCo can add other persons from their organisation as Coordinator Contact(s) (CoCo) for the invitation.

The Contact Person indicated in the submission of the tender receives the PCoCo for the submission and the invitation for subsequent round(s) (for negotiated procedures). The user submitting the tender (if different from the Contact Person in the submission) receives the role Coordinator Contact (CoCo) for the submission and the invitation for subsequent round(s)(for negotiated procedures), unless the role has been removed by the PCoCo/another CoCo of the submission in the period between the opening of the tender by the contracting authority and the receipt of the invitation for subsequent round(s).

All of the actions described above (see Invitation(s) status and actions section) can be performed by the PCoCo or CoCos of the respective item (invitation or submission). Please note that there can be only one PCoCo per invitation or submission.

To add/remove roles on a submission follow the steps below:

1

Under the menu button(three dots) dropdown on the right of the submission of the initial tender, click on the Manage Roles option. 

2

Click on Edit Roles button. 

  

3

To add a new CoCo click on Add Roles button.

  

Add the contact details and click on Save.

The details of the added CoCo are shown under the Roles for the organisation.


4

To delete a CoCo, click on the delete Icon next to their name.

  

For requests for specific contracts this action can be performed by the PCoCo/CoCo whenever it is required during the workflow.

See detailed explanation on Economic Operator roles related to a procedure or contract.

Acknowledged status

For invitations in Acknowledged status PCoCo/CoCo can:

1 Login into the Funding & Tenders Portal.
2Click on Invitations on the left side of the screen.
3

Click on the menu button(three dots) and select Start New Submission.  

 

This action enables you to access eSubmission to submit a tender/requests for specific contracts.

To view and manage the submissions against an invitation, click on the Submission(s) link.

The menu button (three dots) on the right of each submission (unless the submission has been deleted) allows the PCoCo/CoCo to perform different actions depending on the submission status.

For submissions in Draft status:

    • Edit: eSubmission opens the screen you were in when you left the application. You can now edit your submission in eSubmission.
    • View: eSubmission opens the screen you were in when you left the application. It is not possible to edit the submission as you are viewing it in read-only mode. 
    • Delete: the draft submission will be deleted from the Funding & Tenders Portal.

For submissions in Submitted status:

    • View Receipt: the submission receipt is displayed.
    • Withdraw (available only before the deadline for submission):  provide the reason to withdraw the submission and confirm by clicking on the Withdraw button. Once you have withdrawn a submission, you cannot view, edit or submit it again.

For submissions in Withdrawn status:

    • View Withdrawal Receipt: the withdrawal receipt is displayed.

For submissions in Deleted status:
      The menu button (three dots) is not available for the tenders with the status Deleted. Once a draft tender has been deleted, it cannot be retrieved by the tenderer. 

The steps that should be taken to perform the actions related to submissions have been explained in detail under the section Submission status and actions of the Submissions wiki page.

Accepted status

For invitations for requests for specific contracts (cascade or single FWC) if the contractor indicates their willingness to participate the status of the invitation changes to Accepted and PCoCo/CoCo can:

1 Login into the Funding & Tenders Portal.
2Click on Invitations on the left side of the screen.
3

Click on the menu button(three dots) and select View Willingness. 

  

The contractor can change the willingness response at at any time before the submission deadline.

Click on View willingness in the menu button (three dots) next to your invitation and then Change Willingness on the next screen.

If the willingness is changed to No, the status of the invitation becomes Closed and the contractor cannot change the willingness or continue with their submission.

See detailed explanation on Response to requests for specific contracts.

Closed status

You can view all the Invitations that are in status Closed.

1 Login into the Funding & Tenders Portal .
2Click on Invitations on the left side of the screen.
3

To see the closed invitations, click on the Show closed invitations checkbox. 

For invitations in closed status PCoCo/CoCo can:

  •   See Details : you will be able to see the details regarding the procurement procedure (see above).

  •  View willingness : you will be able to view the details of the willingness for requests for specific contracts (Cascade and Single FWC).