Cloud for Europe Launches Tender for Public Sector Cloud Innovation
The Cloud for Europe project today announces the publication of the tender for the joint pre-commercial procurement for research and development on cloud computing services for public administrations.
The purpose is to research and demonstrate solutions to overcome obstacles for the adoption of cloud computing by the public sector.
The Cloud for Europe Joint PCP is inviting suppliers to bid for any or all of three services (lots), each of which provides a framework contract for the realisation of research and development services. The lots comprise innovative solutions for federated certified service brokerage, secure legislation-aware storage and legislation execution. The work will be carried out in three distinct competitive phases over 18 months. The process phases are related to the solution design (phase 1), prototype development (phase 2) and the original development of a limited number of first products or services in the form of a test series (phase 3). For each lot, several bids will be awarded a framework contract. After each phase, results will be evaluated and bids will compete with each other for assignments in the subsequent phase.
The main contact point for the tendering process is the lead procurer in the Cloud for Europe project – Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale (Italy), acting on behalf of the project’s other procurement partners – Ministerie van Financiën Directoraat-generaal Belastingdienst (the Netherlands), Entidade de Serviços Partilhados da Administração Pública (Portugal), The National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics – Ministry for Information Society (Romania), and Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic (Slovakia).
Mauro Draoli, Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale, said, “This announcement marks the beginning of a significant opportunity for potential procurers and suppliers to learn from the experience of the Cloud for Europe project in enabling the procurement of cloud computing services by European public administrations.”
The total budget available for the contract awards is four million euro. The deadline for submission is 20 February 2015. For further information including the tender specifications, please refer to http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:424518-2014:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0 and to the tender web page http://www.agid.gov.it/cloudforeurope.
About Cloud for Europe
The Cloud for Europe project supports public sector cloud use as a collaboration between public authorities and industry. The project identifies obstacles, finds innovative solutions and builds trust in European cloud computing. Cloud for Europe uses pre-commercial procurement as an instrument for public sector innovation. The pre-commercial procurement identifies innovative solutions for cloud services that best fit public sector needs, but also provides better information to public procurers about the potential of cloud services.
The project started in June 2013 and runs until June 2017. It is co-funded by the European Commission under the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP7). For more information consult the project website at www.cloudforeurope.eu.
Contact point:
Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale
Area Cittadini, imprese e trasferimento tecnologico
+39 (0)6 85264 354