CircularPSP

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here you will find the common question about the CircularPSP project. Any updates to the FAQ will be summarised here. Similarly, the questions received from any supplier, not yet covered here, will be added to the FAQs.

If you have any additional questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at .

Updates in March (2024)

The following questions are added and/or updated in the last month before the tender submission deadline (1 April).

Which documents require signatures from legal representatives of all entities in case of joint tenders and which documents require only signatures from the Leader Tenderer? Digital signatures should suffice, correct?

This is clarified in Section 4.1 and Table 16 of TD1 Call for Tenders. Digital signatures qualify. Tenderers who are selected for Phase I will need to provide hard-copy signatures as well.

In Table A (fees for staff) and Table B (other items) of TD7, do we have include rates or prices regarding the price for exclusive development or the total offered price? I.e., should we use discounted or non-discounted prices?

The rates you enter in TD7 Financial Application Template, are the actual rates (i.e. non-discounted).

In other words, you calculate the price for exclusive development (1, row 27 of TD7) without the compensation (2, row 28 of TD7). Subtracting the first with the latter results in the actual total offered price (3).

Do we get a confirmation if we submitted an application for the tender?

Yes, will confirm the receipt of the tender via mail and whether it contains an attachment.

Please note that we cannot open the tender and cannot validate its content before tender opening officially begins. At such time, we may come back with clarifying questions in line with TD1 Call for Tenders. Should essential information be missing, we may not be able to ask a clarifying question in line with TD1.

Must subcontracting entities also be based in the EU or HE Associated Countries?

The tender is restricted to entities established in EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. This refers to all entities, including subcontractors. See for more details on eligibility Section 3.1 of TD1 the Call for Tenders.

In the list of participants table in the beginning of TD5 and TD6, there is the table header of "Country code". What exactly should be filled in there?

You may use here two or three letter ISO codes, e.g. the two-letter country code of the EU.

Do all participants (tenderer and subcontractors) have to fill in and sign a separate DoH on Exclusion Criteria?

Each tenderer AND subcontractors must fill and sign a separate DoH on Exclusion Criteria (TD3a). Multiple rows in the table are only relevant if – in any given entity – multiple persons need to sign the form due to the setup of the entity.

Are all the datasets to be provided by the suppliers? / Is it a requirement that the supplier must have data sets of their own? / Can we assume that the necessary data sets will be provided by Buyers Group?

The data sets deemed to be useful are listed in the CE Taxonomy. These sets are public or can be accessed. Which access rights tenderers have, is to be clarified in the proposal. In addition, tenderers may utilise any own data sets, but this is not mandatory. During the tender and project duration, data sets will not have to be provided to procurers. Provision of non-background data sets will only be required if successful suppliers fail to commercialise their CE-solution after the end of the project upon request of the procurers (see TD8 Framework Agreement).

Regarding procurer data sets: Some data may be provided during Phase II and Phase III, which will help to test the CE-solution or focus it on city contexts. However, since the cities are not circular, the data will not be able to help/train the AI on circularity. In summary, identifying means of training the AI is a significant part of the challenge.

What is meant with public and private funding opportunities (Section 1.3.5 of TD2 Challenge Brief)

Funding may come from public programmes or private NGOs. In practice, the CE-solution will help any city or SME to identify relevant funding opportunities in context of the current workflow, issue, case study, etc. In the next step, the city/business may try to access this funding opportunity to realise the workflow with greater ambition, cheaper, etc. Any relevant funding source which could finance is acceptable. Ideally, this feature is mostly enabled and automated by the AI and related features are able to recognise suitable opportunities from a set of relevant sources. For the tender, the description of the approach and how it is integrated with the AI is to be described. Implementation follows in the project.

Is expected that the work packages end at the end of each tender phase? / Is it expected that multiple work pages or even tasks run across multiple phases and do not end in certain phase?

You are free in setting up the work plan as it suits your method best, it needs to be sound, complete and convincing. As you can see from Table 1 in TD1 Call for Tenders, the development across the four technical sub-criteria (i.e. information, operation, organisation, change) progresses across Phases. Whether you wish to separate Phases on tasks level or distinguish within task descriptions is up to you.

During the tender phase, procures wish to learn, among other detail, when you will do what and with which resources. The original tender must include all Phases; planning and descriptions can be refined with each call-off.

During the project, the success is measured on the basis of the mandatory deliverables and expected outputs.

Updates after Tender Questions Session II (February 2024)

The following questions are added and/or updated after the second open Tender Questions session.

Call for Tenders

Are we going to use large language models (LLM) based conversational AI technology in our solution? If so, is it possible to use USA based company services such as chatGPT or GPT 4?

It is up to you to decide which technology to use. The EU legislation must be followed. In context of public data, data governance and GDPR, this often implies hosting of data should be within EU. Whether or not it is possible to make data exchange with GPT compliant may depend on your design. Please indicate the measures you take in your technical application.

What will be the evaluation metrics of the developed AI solution and target values for determining its success?

Please see Table 1 in TD1 Call for Tenders. A framework will be developed jointly with suppliers over time. As the core principle, the AI responses / outputs must be able to induce circular impact. This being a competitive procedure, the best and most reliable output is likely to proceed.

Can you provide example scenarios, possibly interactions or conversations with the AI system?

TD2 Challenge Brief describes multiple use cases. Other use cases can be imagined with CE experts to derive what city staff would ideally do to change their current linear actions to circular actions. Ultimately, the answer is unknown and will be discovered during the project during the collaboration of procures and suppliers.

Section 3.1 of TD2 Challenge Brief indicates two notions of project management, PM1 and PM2. Is this correct?

PM1 and PM2 are two views on the same matters and cannot be split. Hence, content in this section answers both PM1 and PM2 and sufficient information should be provided to cover both sub-criteria.

Is it possible to use cloud providers such as AWS, GCP? Is there a preferred provider?

There are no preferred providers. The only requirement is to comply with all relevant EU legislation.

For indicators, can we make use of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)?

Yes, this is a potential source and will be added to the CE Taxonomy Working Group.

Finance

How to estimate the financial compensation or business value of the IPR to be retained by the contractor? Does it explicitly need to be an accurate valuation based on an approved methodology?

There is no uniform tool, it should be your own assessment considering in particular the dimension market potential and risks involved.

Does the amount of financial compensation for IPR affect the assessment of the feasibility of the business plan to commercially exploit the R&D results?

No. The amount of financial compensation affects the overall price. The tender is assessed with a quality-price ratio of 90-10 (%).

What are examples of staff that are NOT principal R&D staff?

This is usually staff which cannot be named individually and represents a role or category. As an example an IT admin or alike. Alternatively, it is for staff for whom you do not put forward a CV to document the selection criteria to highlight in your offer.

Should we indicate all the workers already by name at the start in the Financial Template, or can they be added still later in the project?

Individuals’ names must be given in case of principal R&D staff. In other cases, staff categories are sufficient.

Do we need to track and indicate actual hours for each specific day and individual worker for invoicing?

The project will request an invoice and a description of activities in each phase report. Which documentation any entity is required to keep may depend on national rules.

Is there a requirement for how many years and at what service level the CE-solution or IP should be available to the procurer users, additional government users, and/or further beyond?

Your solution should be at least available for two years for the procurers. Detail on obligations and their time frames are documented in the Framework Contract (TD8) and summarised in TD1 Call for Tenders (see the Tender Document package).

Updates after Tender Questions Session I (February 2024)

The following questions are added and/or updated after the first open Tender Questions session.

Call for Tenders

To whom is referred with "consumers" in the Persona description of the Municipal Officer (Richard) in TD2 Challenge Brief, city inhabitants or municipal staff?

The term should not have appeared. The main user groups are intermediaries, municipal staff and businesses. Overall, personas are descriptive and do not supersede the main section of TD2 Challenge Brief.

Should the platform support all procurers' languages already in the first phase?

Demonstrating full translation capability is not required in Phase I. The concept and approach to translate information into the procurers’ languages should be described in the initial offer and further developed in Phase I. The solution should be able to generate outputs in local languages in the prototype and testing Phase II. Translation features may also extend to the communication features.

Can we provide additions to the personas as described in the Challenge Brief based on own research?

Yes, you can add other characteristics/a deeper understanding of a persona in your offer. It is not mandatory to make use of the persona descriptions in Annex II of TD2 Challenge Brief.

What is the importance of the Business-tier in the envisaged solution and how does it differ from the City-tier?

The following answer is exemplary and limited, for details see TD2 Challenge Brief. The Business-tier can be considered an extension of the functionality developed for the City-tier to the user group of local Businesses. The set of features, however, is limited as no Missions are to be developed for Business and the intermediaries user group is not expected to exist. However, giving access to search functionality, AI, generation of workflows, networking – among others – is believed to be possible with limited modification to the CE-solution.

To what extent does the initial offer for Phase I need to include a fully testable solution?

See Table 1 of TD1 Call for Tenders for a detailed overview of progress and results to be achieved across phases.

Consortia and Partners

Is it possible to change or add members of the consortium in later phases of the projects? / Do we have to specifically name subcontractors in the initial offer?

There are strict conditions for changes of partners in consortia during the project, specified in Section 3.1.1 of TD1 Call for Tenders. For subcontractors this is more flexible, see Section 3.1.2 of TD1 Call for Tenders. In case of yet unidentified subcontractors for specific roles, please describe the selection approach in Section 3.1.3 of TD6 Technical Application Template.

Do you have recommendations for including an organisation from Ukraine in the consortium?

Ukraine is a Horizon Europe Associated Country and therefore eligible and encouraged as with any other location. Please identify risks that might apply.

Can we have advisers from USA, Australia, Asia, Africa?

Some countries on these continents are eligible to enter with an entity because they are a Horizon Europe Associated Country. As for staff within eligible entities, an important additional condition is that at least 50% of the contracted R&D services must be performed in EU Member States or HE Associated Countries (i.e. staff may be outside of EU and HE countries). The conditions are specified in Section 3.4.1 of TD1 Call for Tenders.

Can a municipal entity, a company owned by the municipality or one working with municipalities be part of our consortium? / Can a consortium member be based in the same city as one of the procurers?

For municipal entities, in principle yes.
Based in the same city, yes.

For both situations: Provided no conflict of interest arises with the procurers represented in the Buyers Group.

There is no requirement, a single entity or consortia can bid provided they are established in EU or in a Horizon Europe Associated Country (see also Section 3.1 of TD1 Call for Tenders).

Other

Can incorporate the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities in the offer?

The EU taxonomy for sustainable activities is already included in our CE Data sources working file, suppliers are free to make use of the working files and invited to make additions and thereby contribute to the open CE Taxonomy Working Group. See our CE Taxonomy page for more details and the mission statement.

How can we as a city contribute to our business partners?

You can join our Follower Network. Further, you can support with dissemination, for example by promoting our tender. For draft texts please contact .

Will experts of the Buyers Group be available for regular calls during the project?

Yes, at the minimum, monitoring calls are organised. If you require specific meetings based on your approach, describe the need and schedule in your offer. Whether all or some procurers will be involved during Phase I will be agreed and organised in consultation with you during the Kick-off with procurers.

Updates after Admin & Finance Application Training (January 2024)

The following questions are added and/or updated after the Administrative & Financial Tender Application Training.

Call for Tenders

Joint tender: What happens if partners have same similar competences? Do we wright that down or do we structure it that way, that each partner has complementary competences only?

If multiple partners contribute to one selection criterion, this can and should be documented. A distinction of complementarity should be achieved with regard to the role/activities the different parties take within the proposed R&D effort – division is possible but should be transparent. The selection criteria (see Section 3.3 of TD1 Call for Tenders) need to be fulfilled as an entire consortium, not be each partner individually.

Do we have to provide a financial offer for only Phase I, or also with estimates for next phases?

The requirements of the financial offer are specified in Section 4.4 of TD1 Call for Tenders. Before each phase a detailed and binding offer is required for the coming phase. For the following phases indicative prices should be stated which are revised and made binding during call-offs.

CircularPSP supports the pre-commercial development of solutions to be offered to municipalities across Europe after the end of the project. Therefore the IP remains with suppliers provided they do offer commercial products or services. Further details are provided in Article 5 of the TD8 PCP Framework Agreement and a summary in section 2.6 of TD1.

Consortia and Partners

Are there any restrictions on the lead tenderer (e.g. min. turnover, etc.)?

No.

Finance

What is the available budget per phase per supplier? / With the term “supplier”, do you mean per consortium member or can subcontractors also be named as suppliers?

The price ceilings per phase and supplier are in Table 6 of TD1 Call for Tenders. The term “supplier” refers to the entire consortium. Funding is available for the entire consortium, members of the consortium will share the budget. You are able to divide the budget between your consortium members as you wish.

Updates after Technical Application Training (January 2024)

The following questions are added and/or updated after the Technical Tender Application Training.

Call for Tenders

Is there any limit for the annex documents?

The only allowed annexes are i) high-resolution versions of graphics used in the TD6 as separate graphic files without any additional information and ii) Annex 1 on data sets. Any other annexes will not be considered in the evaluation. See Overall Notes in TD6 Tender Application Template – Technical.

How can one determine the practical applicability of the envisaged CE-solution in real-world scenarios?

CircularPSP describes a well-researched common need. We are convinced that a CE-solution responding to the needs will be helpful. The best way forward will need to be described by suppliers and will be jointly tested during the R&D effort. In the course of the iterative development, the CE-solution will be optimised.

Is there or will there be any pre-defined AI use cases?

There are multiple use cases described across the TD2 Challenge Brief (including specific test cases). Further useful use cases can be suggested by suppliers.

Our server provider does not clarify on the sources of energy. How critical is the requirement on renewable energy?

We suggest to query with the server host. If data is not available, this should be documented. The ambition should be to reach green supply.

What is the scope for sourcing of CE case studies? EU, Europe or the demonstration sites?

Suppliers are to identify the best way to train their AI. Ultimately, the quality of the AI results across multiple use cases will be critical, not how it has been sourced. The Challenge Brief describes two paths to train AI, case studies and using tendering platforms, other ways may be feasible.

The AI should be able to draft a CE mission based on existing policies/legislation specific to any given city. During the testing duration the initial creation of the CE Mission is expected to remain stable.