Invitation to Tender (ITT) and Intended Invitation to Tender (IITT)
An ITT (Invitation to Tender) is the European Space Agency's tender document. An IITT (Intended Invitation to Tender) is advance notice of a tender that ESA plans to issue later. Both are published on the esa-star Publication portal, where they appear in the states Issued and Intended.
Definition
An ITT consists of a cover letter (also called the Letter of Invitation) and its appendices: the Statement of Work, the draft contract and the conditions of tender. The cover letter states the eligible countries, the maximum budget, the closing date, the evaluation criteria with their weights and the Key Acceptance Factors. The standard tender period is 42 days, and 28 days in the lighter EXPRO procedure. An IITT gives a summary of the forthcoming work, a price range, the planned issue date and the responsible unit. At the IITT stage ESA can be asked questions freely, and organisations can express interest. Once the ITT is issued, contact is allowed only through formal clarification requests on esa-star. ESA also uses the general term Tender Action for a tender.
Practical Example
A sensor company in Espoo spots an IITT on esa-star for a technology development activity that matches its expertise. The issue date is about three months away. The company expresses interest, asks ESA's technical officer about the objectives of the activity and agrees a work share with a university research group. When the ITT is issued under the EXPRO procedure, the 28-day tender period is enough, because the consortium and the outline of the solution are already in place.
Common Mistake
A common mistake is to react only to the ITT. That leaves four to six weeks in total for building the consortium, asking questions and writing the bid, and ESA can no longer be consulted freely. Another is to read only the Statement of Work: the eligibility conditions, the budget and the Key Acceptance Factors are in the cover letter, and missing them means the bid is not evaluated.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ITT stand for?
ITT stands for Invitation to Tender. In ESA procurement it means an issued tender for which eligible organisations can submit a bid in the esa-star system.
What is the difference between an ITT and an IITT?
An IITT (Intended Invitation to Tender) is advance notice of a forthcoming tender: it contains a summary of the work, a price range and the planned issue date, but no bid can be submitted yet. An ITT is the actual invitation to tender with its documents and deadlines.
How long before the ITT is an IITT published?
There is no fixed period. ESA updates the list of intended tenders regularly, and the planned issue date is shown in the notice. Follow the list continuously and start preparing as soon as a suitable IITT appears.
Is an ITT the same as an invitation to tender under the EU directives?
In function yes, in rules no. An ITT is governed by ESA's own Contracting Regulations, not by the EU procurement directives. An IITT resembles a prior information notice, but ESA tenders are not published on TED or on national portals.
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