ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For ESA Official Use Only

ESA ESRIN
Largo Galileo Galilei 1
00044 Frascati
Italy

Responsible Contracts Officer

Ms Nathalie Schwarz
Email: Nathalie.schwarz@esa.int

Ref.: ESA-CIP-POE-NS-sp-LE-2023-284

Frascati, 19 April 2023

Subject Invitation to Tender for EO4HEALTHRESILIENCE - EXPRO+

Ref.: ESA AO/1-11619/23/I-NS

Activity No. 1000036542 in the esa-star system

Budget Line: E/E115-F2 (Future EO-1 Segment 2, Block 4 Earth Science for Society)

Category: ESA EXPRESS PROCUREMENT PLUS (EXPRO+) / OPEN COMPETITIVE

Dear Sir/Madam,

The European Space Agency (the “Agency” or “ESA”) hereby invites you to submit a tender for the
above subject.

This Invitation to Tender (“ITT”) has been established and will be processed following a procedure,
tailored to low- to medium-value procurement actions, called “EXPRESS PROCUREMENT PLUS –
EXPRO+”.

In this case, a competitive evaluation procedure will be used since other Tenderers have been invited
to submit tenders for the subject activity.

Your tender is required to conform to the conditions specified in this Cover Letter and in the applicable
Appendices.

Your tender shall be submitted exclusively in electronic format via esa-star Tendering [see:
https://esastar.sso.esa.int/]. The EXPRO Tendering Conditions (“EXPRO/TC”), attached hereto as
Appendix 3, contain further information on esa-star and its operation.

Please note that a pre-requisite for submitting a tender is to have completed the on-line dedicated
questionnaire for being registered with the Agency as an entity wishing to do business with the Agency.
Further information on the subject is provided in this Cover Letter.

This ITT was published on esa-star Publication (https://esastar-publication.sso.esa.int) on the date of

this letter and is issued in English only. A French translation can be obtained by submitting a written
request to the responsible Contracts Officer within five (5) working days following the date of publication
on esa-star Publication. Please note that this will not be considered as a valid reason for requesting an
extension of the closing date of this ITT.

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1) Please find attached hereto the following documents:

Appendix 1 – Statement of Work

Appendix 2 – Draft Contract
Appendix 3 – EXPRO Tendering Conditions (EXPRO/TC)
Appendix 4 – Proposal Template (including Cover Letter and Detailed Proposal)

2) Your attention is drawn to the following:

• The activity which is the subject of the present Invitation to Tender is part of the Programme
Future EO-1 Segment 2, Block 4 Earth Science for Society. This is an optional programme
of the Agency. The Agency can only consider Tenders from companies or organisations
having their registered seat in Participating States having duly declared their participation
in the programme, i.e. AT, BE, CZ, DK, EE, FI, FR, DE, GR, HU, IE, IT, LU, NL, NO, PL,
PT, RO, ES, SE, CH, GB, CA, LT, SK, SI.

• The Agency, following decision of its Council, may give preference in the placing of the
contract to tenders from/or containing a substantial involvement of economic operators
registered in Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania and Canada,
which will have obtained an overall weighted mark of at least 60 or that are less than 5
points below the best evaluated offer by the TEB, provided such tenders have been
assessed as representing an acceptable combination between technical quality (including
risk) and price.

The attention of tenderers is drawn to the fact that such preference clause is in no way
meant to constitute an exclusion from bidding for economic operators of other
Member/Participating States.

• The Member States of the Agency have made it mandatory for the Agency to register
economic operators wishing to do business with the Agency. Economic operators not yet
registered as potential Tenderers are requested to complete the online questionnaire on the
“esa-star registration” website (https://esastar-emr.sso.esa.int/).

Any entity, including any subcontractor in the Proposed Team at the time when a tender is
submitted, is required to at least have already completed the “Light Registration” as
described in the following esa-star Registration User Manual:
https://esastar-emr.sso.esa.int/Account/DownloadFile Failure to fulfil this requirement will
result in a tender being considered incomplete and hence not admissible for evaluation.

Please note that only the “Full Registration” allows the Contract to be placed with the
selected Tenderer.

The registration as an ESA Entity includes the obligation to subsequently fill in the Agency
Questionnaire and to update it yearly at the following link:
https://esastar-em.sso.esa.int .
Failure to provide or update the required information will result in the access to the
non-public part of esa-star being blocked.

Further information on the registration process can be found on the Industry Portal pages
available at:
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/How_to_do/esa-
star_Registration_Process.

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ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For ESA Official Use Only

• Special attention is drawn to the Policy on the Prevention, Detection and Investigation of
Fraud ESA/ADMIN/IPOL-LEGI(2021)1. The aim of the Policy is to give a structured
framework to the current practice by the Agency of investigating potential cases of Fraud
through investigation teams set up on an ad hoc basis. It is required that you read the Policy
and that you inform your personnel about the Policy. It is mandatory that you cooperate with
the investigation teams, if so required. This obligation shall be flown down by you and
fulfilled by your subcontractor(s) too.

The Policy on the Prevention, Detection and Investigation of Fraud is available at:
https://esastar-publication.sso.esa.int/supportingDocumentation

3) The contents of your tender will be limited to filling in as necessary the Proposal Template,
provided in MS Word format and attached hereto as Appendix 4. Please note that the captions in
red colour are meant to guide you in correctly filling in the template and that such captions are to
be removed from your tender once it is ready for submission.

• Please complete the part of the template labelled “Cover Letter” by filling in the blank
spaces and deleting any options which are not applicable or not relevant (all such options
are identified in red colour);

• As part of the tender submission process in esa-star Tendering, you will be required to make
declarations in relation with “Declaration of Compliances” (contained in Appendix 4 to this
ITT – Proposal Template – Cover Letter) and “Key Acceptance Factors” (the latter are
mirrored herein).

The EXPRO/TC indicate the consequences in case it would appear during the evaluation
that the declarations contain incorrect statements.

When submitting your tender in esa-star Tendering, in the section “Key Acceptance
Factors”, you will be prompted to declare that your tender fulfils each of the following Key
Acceptance Factors:

1. The Tenderer confirms, on its behalf and on behalf of its Subcontractor(s), to satisfy
the “Eligibility Requirements” (see section 1.1 of the EXPRO/TC);

2. The Tenderer confirms, on its behalf and on behalf of its Subcontractor(s), to fulfil the
requirements concerning “Free Competition” (see paragraph 10 of the Cover Letter of
the Proposal Template);

3. The Tenderer confirms, on its behalf and on behalf of its Subcontractor(s), to accept
the conditions established for “Non commitment by the Agency in competitive
procurements” (see section 1.7 of the EXPRO/TC);

4. The Tenderer confirms, on its behalf and on behalf of its Subcontractor(s), to be

compliant with the “Non Benefits Requirements” (see section 1.8 of the EXPRO/TC);

5. The Tenderer confirms that the tender Cover Letter and the Detailed Proposal contain
a binding price;

6. The Tenderer confirms that the tender Cover Letter and the Detailed Proposal contain
a price type compliant with the one requested in the ITT;

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7. The Tenderer confirms that the tender is compliant with the budgetary limit applicable
to the ITT;

8. The Tenderer confirms that the tender Cover Letter contains the confirmation of the
validity period required in the subject ITT;

9. The Tenderer confirms that it and its subcontractor(s) completed at least the “Light
Registration” in esa-star Registration.

10. The Tenderer confirms that the “consortium structure” in esa-star mirrors the
Proposed Team in the Cover Letter.

11. The Tenderer confirms that the team includes a certified Scrum Master as key
personnel who leads the team using Agile project management through the
course of the activity.

• Please complete the part of the template labelled “Detailed Proposal” in all its parts by
filling in the information relevant to the various chapters, sections and sub-sections (using
exactly the same headings, same subject matters, same order and same numbering);

• Your “Detailed Proposal” is expected to elaborate upon the Agency’s requirements whilst
remaining precise and concise. Therefore, mere repetitions of the Agency’s requirements
are to be avoided;

• Your tender and all correspondence relating to it shall be in English or French. Should you
choose not to submit your tender in English, the entire template as attached to this ITT shall
in any case remain unchanged, i.e. in English;

• Please ensure that your tender complies with the following essential requirements:

a) You are required to clearly state that you accept all terms and conditions stated in the
documents expected to form together the Contract (ref. paragraphs 6 and 7 of the
Cover Letter of the Proposal Template).

Should you consider that a technical and/or management requirement included in this
ITT is not feasible, you are required to include a clear statement in this regard in your
tender with due explanation and justification and with a proposal for alternative(s), if
any (ref. paragraph 6 of the “Cover Letter” of the Proposal Template as well as
chapters, sections and sub-sections under parts 1, 2 and 4 of the “Detailed Proposal”).

b) Your price quotation shall meet the following conditions:

• ESA has defined a maximum budget of 600,000 Euro.

Consequently, please note that ESA will take your tender into consideration only
if the total Firm Fixed Price in Euro as defined in Appendix 4 hereto (all in, with
the exception of import duties and value added taxes in the ESA Member
States) remains within this limit.
• The breakdown of the quoted amount(s) shall be shown in the format specified
in sub-section 3.3.1 of the “Detailed Proposal” template.

c) Your tender is valid during a period of three (3) months from the time limit for tender
submission.

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4) As concerns the evaluation of your tender by ESA, please note that the quality of your tender will
be evaluated on the basis of the following evaluation criteria and associated Weighting Factors
(“WFs”) (that are also mirrored in esa-star Tendering):

1. BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE (RELATED TO THE PARTICULAR FIELD

CONCERNED) OF THE COMPANY (IES) AND STAFF (INCLUDING ADEQUACY OF
PROPOSED FACILITIES) ➔ WF 20%

2. UNDERSTANDING OF THE REQUIREMENTS AND OBJECTIVES AND DISCUSSION OF

PROBLEM AREAS ➔ WF 25%

3. QUALITY AND SUITABILITY OF PROPOSED PROGRAMME OF WORK; ADEQUACY OF

ENGINEERING APPROACH ➔ WF 25%

4. ADEQUACY OF MANAGEMENT, COSTING AND PLANNING FOR THE EXECUTION OF

THE WORK ➔ WF 20%

5. COMPLIANCE WITH ADMINISTRATIVE TENDER CONDITIONS AND ACCEPTANCE OF

CONTRACT CONDITIONS ➔ WF10%

Please also note that, in making its recommendation for selection of a Contractor on the basis of
the tender evaluation and/or in making a final decision for Contract award, the Agency shall also
take into consideration the price quoted (amount).

5) In accordance with the Agency’s rules, issuing this ITT does not bind ESA in any way to place a
Contract. Should it deem it appropriate, ESA also reserves the right to place a Contract for only
a part of the activity covered by this ITT. Such decision by the Agency may not give rise to any
claims by Tenderers having submitted a tender in response to this ITT.

6) Please note that economic operators are required to notify their interest to tender to the Agency.
This is to be done via the esa-star Publication Expression of Interest function (Tenderers are also
reminded that they may select 'Public' visibility or 'ESA only' when notifying their intention to bid
under Open Competitive tendering procedures).

7) Any questions to the Agency relating to this ITT (clarifications and/or extensions requests) shall
be made exclusively via the dedicated function in esa-star Tendering, at the latest fourteen (14)
calendar days before the closing date stated below.

The Agency will publish an anonymous copy of the question on esa-star Publication together with
the Agency’s answer, and the question and answer shall also be available in the dedicated section
of esa-star Tendering. Tenderers are asked to note that each response which the Agency makes
goes through an internal review process, and that the response will be published once this internal
review process has been completed.

If required, the Agency may request clarifications from any Tenderer; such Agency’s requests
shall be made exclusively via the dedicated function in esa-star Tendering.

8) Please note the provisions of the Submission Conditions that are contained in the EXPRO/TC.

In order to ensure the correct and timely submission of your tender, you are strongly invited to
test the esa-star system and try out its functionalities and behaviour well in advance during the
tendering period (please refer to Annex II of the EXPRO/TC).

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The tender is successfully submitted when the status of the proposal in esa-star Tendering reads
“submitted”, i.e. when each section in the dashboard (Declaration of Compliance, Key Acceptance
Factors and Consortium Structure) reads “completed” and all required proposal documents read
“uploaded” and you click on “submit proposal to ESA”.

Your tender and all supporting documents must be loaded and submitted in esa-star Tendering
not later than 31 May 2023 at 13:00 hours (Amsterdam time zone).

9) The submitted tender Cover Letter shall be signed by the authorised representative(s) of the
Tenderer.

10) Should your tender be accepted by ESA, after evaluation, for placing a Contract, it is envisaged
to have the negotiation meeting by teleconference shortly after notification to you of the Agency’s
intention. Assuming a successful outcome, the Contract will first be signed electronically by the
Agency and then sent to you for countersignature within the shortest possible delay.

This Cover Letter has been electronically signed

Yours faithfully,

Luc Govaert
Head of EO Ground Segment, Applications and General Procurement

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