Quick guide for negotiated procedures - submission of initial tenders

(negotiated procedures and  competitive procedure with negotiation without publication)

Getting started

Welcome to eSubmission!

eSubmission allows economic operators to respond electronically to EU procurement procedures by preparing submissions (i.e. tenders and revised tenders)  and submitting them electronically in a structured and secure way.

The present guidelines apply to the submission of initial tenders in negotiated procedures and competitive procedure with negotiation without publication . In these procedures, only the invited candidates may submit an initial tender which the contracting authority may request to be further revised in a subsequent negotiation round. For more information on the subsequent negotiation round(s), see the guidelines for round 2 / subsequent round(s).

As an economic operator, you can:

• Encode your response to a procedure launched by an EU institution or body
• Submit in a secure manner
• View or resume a saved draft
• Delete a draft submission
• Receive proof of submission (Submission Receipt)
• Withdraw a submission before the time limit for receipt of submissions
• Receive proof of withdrawal (Withdrawal Receipt)

Make sure you read the System Requirements.

You can find them on the front page of the eSubmission application and  in the attachments section on the Parties page.

How do I get technical help?

If you need help, you can contact our support team, from 08:00 until 20:00 CET/CEST.

    ec-funding-tender-service-desk@ec.europa.eu

  +32 (0) 229 71063

 The support team operates in English only.

How do I access eSubmission?

You will always access eSubmission in the context of a procurement procedure. You will find published procurement procedures on Funding & Tenders Portal.

What do I need to use eSubmission?

You need to be registered in the European Commission’s user authentication service (EU Login) to use eSubmission and to respond to a call for tenders published on the Funding & Tenders Portal. To identify your organisation in the electronic submission, it must be registered in the Commission’s organisations register (Participant Register) and have a PIC (Participant Identification Code). More information on PIC here . Registration is open to all organisations and free of charge.

EU Login

EU Login is the entry gate to sign in to different European Commission services and/or systems. If you do not have an EU Login yet, you can create an account.

For more information, see the EU Login help.

Funding & Tenders Portal

The Funding & Tenders Portal is the single entry point (Single Electronic Data Interchange Area) for participants and  experts in funding programs and tenders managed by the European Commission and other EU institutions, bodies or agencies.

From the Funding & Tenders Portal participants can:

• Search opportunities in EU funding programs or procurement procedures

• Subscribe to calls for tenders
• Consult procurement documents
• Create and submit a question 

• Register in the Participant Register 

• Access eSubmission

• Access the Submission Receipts (proof of submission)

• View, edit or delete draft submissions

• Withdraw submissions and access the Withdrawal Receipt (proof of withdrawal)

• Manage roles

Participant Register

The Commission has set up an online register of organisations participating in EU calls for tenders or proposals in order to apply the "once only" principle: data related to a participant's organisation needs to be submitted only once.  Following the registration each organisation obtains a unique Participant Identification Code (PIC). To learn how to obtain a PIC in the Participant Register, please refer to this page.

In negotiated procedures or competitive procedures with negotiation without publication only the invited candidates may submit a tender.

If you are invited to submit a tender you will receive:

• an invitation email
• a notification in the F&T portal
  

In the invitation email, you will receive a link which will take you to the My Invitation(s) section in the F&T portal - you need to sign in with your EU Login.

If you do 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 you. See detailed explanation here .

View Invitation(s)

From the navigation menu on the left you will find the invitations(s) under My Invitation(s) section. A search field is also available on the right above the list of invitations.

Click on Select Organisation from the Action button 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 (submisison/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.

Click on the 'See details' link 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.   
  • 
    
    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 candidates invited to the procedure, 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 .

The submission can only be done from ‘My Invitation(s)’ section. Tender(s) cannot be submitted from the procedure details page.

My Invitation(s)

For each invitation you can see the procedure reference number, the invitation status (received, acknowledged), the deadline, the lot (if applicable), the procedure title, the procedure type and the step.

The Action menu of the invitation/submission allows you to perform different actions depending on the status of the invitation/submission.

For invitations in Received status:  

• Acknowledge Receipt: click here in order to confirm that you have received the invitation to submit a tender. You will be taken to the eSubmission portal where you can submit your tender.
• Manage Roles:  you will be able to view and manage the access to your invitation (add/remove persons who will also be able to access the invitation and submit a tender).
• See Details: you will be able to see the details regarding the procedure (see above).

For invitations in Acknowledged status: 

• Start New Submission: click to submit a new tender.
• Manage Roles: you will be able to view and manage the access to your invitation (add/remove persons who will also be able to view the invitation and submit a tender).
• See Details: you will be able to see the details regarding the procedure ( see above ).
  
  

If you have started preparing a submission or already submitted one, you will see the link Submission(s).

The Action menu on the right of each submission allows you 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 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  Action menu is not available for the tenders with the status Deleted. Once a draft tender has been deleted, it cannot be retrieved by the tenderer. 

To be able to submit a tender, you need first to acknowledge the receipt of the invitation to tender:

• Find the procedure in My Invitation(s) in the Funding & Tenders Portal.

• In the Action menu of the procedure, click on Acknowledge Receipt in order to confirm that you have received the invitation. The status of the invitation will become Acknowledged.

After acknowledging the receipt of the invitation, you will be automatically redirected to eSubmission, where you can start the submission of your tender by clicking on New submission. 

If you prefer to start your submission later:

• Log on to the Funding & Tenders Portal.
  

• Go to My Invitation(s) and find the procedure.

• From the Action menu of the procedure, click on Start New Submission. You will then be redirected to eSubmission.

In eSubmission click on New submission to start a new submission or Resume draft to resume a draft submission started earlier. 

Navigating in eSubmission 

When you start your submission you will see a progress line on top of the screen. This line shows all the steps you have to go through before submitting your tender. You can also see which step you are currently in.

At any time during the submission process you can see which documents have been uploaded  by clicking on the Submission documents button on the left side of the screen.

Nothing is submitted to the contracting authority until you have clicked the Submit button at the end of the submission process.

Ways to submit

When you start a new submission, you will be asked to indicate:

• how you will submit your tender: Sole submission or Joint submission,
• if the submission will involve subcontracting,
• in what language the submission will be made.

After you have made your choice, click on the button Next at the bottom of the page.

Parties

In this section you must identify the organisations participating in your submission (participants). Click on New party and select the type of participant: main participant (in case of sole submission), group leader or group member (in case of joint submission) and subcontractor (if applicable).

All participants, except subcontractors, must be identified with a PIC – Participant Identification Code. To check if an entity already has a PIC (i.e. is already registered in the Participant Register), use the Search button. You can search by PIC, VAT number, National Registration number and country. To be able to search by VAT number or National Registration number you need to also select the country.

If the search shows no results, the organisation must register to obtain a PIC. After obtaining the PIC, go back to eSubmission , search by the PIC and select the displayed organisation.

The data associated with the PIC in the Participant Register will appear on the screen and you will be asked to provide the following mandatory data/documents:

• for the Main participant or Group leader:
• Contact Person (name and e-mail address)
• IBAN/Bank account number
• for all participants: Declaration on Honour (duly completed and signed) in the attachments section.

Check the tender specifications to identify the documents that are required for the submission.

In the Contact Person section, the user can indicate himself/herself (the name is already prefilled) or another person as the contact person for the tender. The Contact Person receives the role Primary Coordinator Contact ( PCoCo ) in the Funding & Tenders Portal and the user submitting the tender (if different from the Contact Person) - the role Coordinator Contact ( CoCo ). 

If the PCoCo does not have an EU Login account, a temporary EU Login account will be automatically created based on the Contact Person email address and the person will be invited by email to complete the EU Login registration. The invitation will be an automatic system message with no reference to the procedure.

In the Attachments section of each participant you can upload the participant’s documents relating to exclusion and selection criteria. Check the tender specifications to identify which documents for which participant must be included in the submission.

Click  Done when you are ready. 

Once you have passed the “Ways to submit” step, it is no longer possible to change the structure from Joint submission to Sole submission or vice versa. In case you want to modify the structure of your submission or change the Group leader, you need to create a new submission overwriting your draft submission (all previously entered data and uploaded documents will be deleted).

Click Next to move to the next step.

Lots

In a procedure with several lots, choose the lot(s) for which you would like to submit a tender and then click on the button Next .  

The identification of participants applies to the submission as a whole. Therefore, if the composition of the consortium is different per lot, you will need to make a separate submission per lot.

Tender data

In this section you need to enter the amount of your tender (only in case of the lowest cost or the lowest price award method - make sure you use the same format as in the example on the screen) and/or confirm if your tender complies or not with the minimum requirements specified in the procurement documents.

If you confirm that your tender does not comply with the minimum requirements you will be asked to provide an explanation in a dedicated text box. The confirmation of the compliance or
non-compliance and the explanation in case of non-compliance will be reflected in the submission report.

After clicking on the Save button you can upload the financial tender and, if required by the contracting authority in the tender specifications, the technical tender. You can upload more than one file as technical/financial tender. 

Once you consider the tender data correct and the submission complete, click on Next. The button will be active only if all mandatory data and documents have been provided.

At this stage, your draft tender, including all your documents, is not submitted yet .

Submission report

The submission report is generated by the system and is part of the submission. The report lists all the documents included in the submission.

eSubmission automatically generates and adds the submission report to your submission. You can consult the report on the screen or download it for your own records (before submitting the tender). You don’t need to sign and upload the signed report in eSubmission.

After viewing the submission report, if you consider the submission complete and ready for submission, click on Next to continue.

The submission report is not a proof of submission. You have  not submitted yet . Please proceed to the next step and  click on Submit to finalise the submission.

Submit your tender

When you are ready to submit your tender, click on Submit . The system will display a confirmation message.

Click Yes if you want to confirm: you will no longer be able to modify this submission.

Please note that the system will not allow you to submit if the time limit for receipt of submissions has been reached.

An e-mail notification will be sent to the e-mail address of the PCoCo/CoCo. This e-mail notification contains a link to the Funding & Tenders Portal where the PCoCo/CoCo can find the Submission Receipt. Note that the owners of the PIC used in the submission will be informed.

The Submission Receipt constitutes proof of compliance with the time limit for receipt of submissions.

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). 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),   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 My Invitations  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:

  CoCo’s added as described above after the contracting authority has sent an invitation to the tenderer to submit a revised tender through the Portal will not be able to submit the revised tender. Only PCoCo/CoCos who have received the invitation or CoCos who have been added through the “Manage roles”  action button on the invitation will be able to submit a revised tender (see the guidelines for round 2 / subsequent round(s).

My notifications

The  PCoCo/CoCo can access this page by clicking on the bell icon at the top right of the screen after having logged in to the Funding & Tenders Portal.

On this page the PCoCo/CoCo  can find the following notifications:

• Invitation to submit a (revised) tender
• Reminder about the approaching submission deadline for a procedure
• Usage of the organisation's PIC for a submission
• Submission Receipt (proof of submission of a tender)
• Withdrawal Receipt (proof of withdrawal of a tender)
  
• Documents are updated for a procedure
• The restricted Q&A are published
• An announcement is published by the contracting authority
• Procedure details are updated (tender deadline, title, description, etc.)

In the Preferences tab under Manage all notifications (at the bottom of the notifications list) the PCoCo/CoCo can choose the frequency of Funding & Tenders Portal email notifications. Independently of your choice all your notifications are always available in the section My notifications .

My Formal Notification(s) 

This section, in the navigation menu  on the left, is currently not used for procurement procedures.

                                                                                                  Go to the second round of the procedure for guidance on how to submit the revised tender

  You can find the quick guide for negotiated procedures and other procurement procedures in all the EU official languages in our Quick guides eSubmission section.