Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2021-03-17
Buyer: European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 72000000

Technical requirements: Υπηρεσίες τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών: παροχή συμβουλών, ανάπτυξη λογισμικού, Διαδίκτυο και υποστήριξη
ECMWF, as the entrusted entity for the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) will issue an ITT for the modernisation of the software infrastructure supporting the implementation of the services and for the evolutive maintenance of the current Climate Data Store infrastructure and toolbox.
Climate (CDS) and Atmosphere (ADS) Data Stores are the core infrastructures supporting the implementation of Copernicus Climate Change (C3S) and Atmosphere Monitoring (CAMS) Services, providing access to essential state-of-the-art data, tools, applications and other digital information. Currently in operation but looking forward to cope with new challenges, demanding requirements and a changing technological environment, the underlaying infrastructure requires further modernisation taking onboard operational experience, user feedback, lessons learned, know-how and more advanced technologies. The improved version will be made more accessible to embrace open-source scientific software and ensure compatibility with state-of-the-art solutions, such as machine learning, data cubes and interactive notebooks. In summary, the goal of the tendered work is to evolve the current infrastructure into a modern, more usable and interoperable data store infrastructure that will engage with a wider user community and will facilitate a stronger integration with related platforms, such as WEkEO, maximising shared capabilities and resources.
The data store will be hosted in an in-house cloud infrastructure and shall be re-engineered as to maximise its capabilities by moving into a hyper-scalable container-based application. To reinforce usability and interoperability the portal will implement discovery, view and download services following standards as mandated by the European INSPIRE directive.
The selected contractor will be required to guarantee a smooth transition to the new infrastructure, supporting the migration and adaptation of current catalogue content and applications.
The tender will include a dedicated work package for taking over the maintenance of the current Data Store infrastructure until replaced by the new infrastructure. ECMWF will facilitate the conditions and required actions to assure a smooth transition of responsibilities and knowledge from the current contractor.
The new data store infrastructure will also host a dedicated, centrally managed repository for observations data with the aim to facilitate the integration and accessibility of this data by the different system functionalities.
Work at all stages in the project will be done in close collaboration with ECMWF. Development will follow an agile methodology or equivalent, implementing a CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Development) approach. Technological choices will be based on existing open-source software, Python being the preferable programming language. The result of the work tendered will itself be released under an open-source licence. The architecture of the system will have to be open and extendable both in terms of the number of concurrent users, handled data volumes and number of workflows and tools.
The ECMWF Copernicus Data Stores infrastructure will provide an operational service supporting heavy workload and will have to be closely monitored. Usage statistics will have to be collected to support informed decision making, reporting obligations and carry out capacity planning.
The procurement for the contract will be conducted in accordance with ECMWF's procedures as set out in ECMWF's Invitation to Tender documents, which will be available on ECMWF's eProcurement Portal (http://procurement.ecmwf.int/) and no other procedures will apply. In submitting this notice ECMWF does not waive the privileges and immunities granted to it by virtue of its status as an intergovernmental organisation or submit itself to any jurisdiction. Tenders must be submitted using ECMWF's eProcurement Portal. Hard copy (paper) submissions will not be accepted.
ECMWF will only enter into a contract with a single legal person/entity. Due to the need to include performance and compliance obligations in the contract, ECMWF will contract only with a single legal person or entity which is competent to undertake and commit to these obligations. ECMWF recognises that some bids will involve a number of organisations which may wish to work together to deliver the contract requirements. In such cases, these organisations must identify a lead contractor who will sign the contract with ECMWF and who will be responsible for putting in place legal arrangements to ensure that it can guarantee that all other organisations will also meet the contract obligations. ECMWF will not enter into multiple contracts with individual members of consortia or groups of service providers.
The basis for ECMWF’s ability to implement the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring and Climate Change Monitoring Services on behalf of the European Commission is the conclusion of a ‘Contribution Agreement’ between the European Union and ECMWF. The negotiations are currently ongoing. They can only be concluded once the EU Space Regulation has been enacted by the European Union. Suppliers should note that the award of a contract as a result of this procurement procedure will therefore be conditional on the availability of funds following the signature and subsequent formal approval of the ‘Contribution Agreement’ by the ECMWF Council. This approval is currently expected for Q1 or Q2 2021.
Presently, ECMWF will consider all tenders submitted by persons or entities based or registered in a Member State of the EU or in a Member State of ECMWF. However, it is presently uncertain which of ECMWF’s Member States, that are not also EU Member States, will eventually be eligible under the EU Space Regulation. This may affect the ability of persons based or registered in such States to participate further in tenders, be it as prime or sub-contractor. ECMWF is therefore required to reserve the right to exclude ineligible persons or entities from tenders at any point in time. All tenderers must meet all eligibility criteria throughout the whole duration of the procurement exercise as well as their prospective contracts.
The United Kingdom and the European Union agreed — in principle — that the United Kingdom may continue participating in, among others, the Copernicus component of the EU Space Programme as a third country for the period of 2021-2027. However, detailed conditions for such a participation will require further negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union. These negotiations are currently expected to commence after the participation of the United Kingdom in Copernicus has been established in accordance with EU Space Regulation. According to the Government of the United Kingdom, this is currently expected to happen in Q1 of 2021. Please note, however, that the United Kingdom has reserved the right to reconsider participation following the finalisation of the EU Space Regulation. Further information may be found in the following link of the UK Government, for the accuracy of which ECMWF will not assume any liability: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-involvement-in-the-eu-space-programme