EU Commission Offers EUR Multi-Million Contracts for Consultancy Services

European Commission, Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (Directorate C – Atlantic, Outermost Regions and Arctic), is seeking contractors for maritime consultancy and business services. The Commission will award four contracts, which amount from EUR 750,000 to EUR 4,350,000. 

Contracts and their scopes are as follows:

1. Supporting services to the Ocean Energy Forum MARE/2014/12.

An Ocean Energy Forum has been set up bringing together stakeholders in order to develop a shared understanding of the problems at hand and to collectively devise workable solutions. The forum will also explore the synergies with other marine industries, particularly offshore wind. The contract shall provide supporting services to this Ocean Energy Forum. The contractor will: Act as a Secretariat for the Ocean Energy Forum and its working groups; Provide Web services: the Ocean Energy Forum will operate for an important part through its website. This is certainly the case for the working groups, for whom their space on the website will be the main forum.

Contract value: EUR 750,000

2. Coastal mapping MARE/201 4/10.

The objectives of this contract are to:

a) Assess the current availability of digital coastal maps in the EU and disseminate this information, focusing primarily on the underwater part of the coast but also seeing how this is joined up with the landward side and disseminate this information by: preparing a prototype digital coastal map as part of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), developing, testing and maintaining, on a limited scale, an architecture for ingesting, displaying and disseminating further digital coastal maps.

b) Share experience of coastal mapping and surveying in the EU and develop standards for best practice: whilst new technologies are lowering the cost of mapping the underwater part of the coast, it is still an expensive business. A number of countries have developed experience. Pooling this knowledge can improve efficiency of new surveying campaigns. Making the right choice of technology for a certain stretch of coast can have a significant impact on the end result and its cost. Common standards ensure that maps join up.

c) Propose how a future joint European coastal mapping programme could operate: determine how individual actions by EU Member States could develop into a joint programme to decide on priorities, share infrastructure, determine standards and close gaps. Whilst it is essential that the land and sea parts of coastal mapping join up, the main emphasis of this project, and of the suggested future joint European coastal mapping programme, is on the shallow sub-tidal component, as this is the most technically challenging to map.

Contract value: EUR 1,330,000

3. Sea basin checkpoints MARE/2014/09.

The objective of this contract is to examine the current data collection, observation, surveying, sampling and data assembly programmes in a sea basin, analyse how they can be optimised and deliver the findings to stakeholders through an Internet portal. There are 3 tasks: a. literature survey; b. challenges; c. assessment.

Contract value: EUR 4,350,000

4. Assistance mechanism for the implementation of maritime spatial planning MARE/2014/23.

The objectives of this contract are: Technical studies on MSP. For subjects where gaps in knowledge exist, the assistance mechanism will be asked to conduct studies on subjects defined by the Commission in cooperation with Member State experts, support for Member States: the assistance mechanism will disseminate useful information on the implement-tation of MSP, bring together operational summaries of best practices for each requirement of the Directive and publicise funding sources. It will bring potential project partners, including Member States, together and advise them on the use of EU financial instruments for projects implementing MSP.

The assistance mechanism will also publicise relevant calls for proposals or calls for tender that could be relevant for the implementation of MSP. Such proactive project development should concern EU directly managed funds such as Horizon 2020, the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME), LIFE and Connecting Europe Facilities, and the European Structural and Investment Funds, including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Cohesion Fund (CF).

The assistance mechanism will establish a team of individuals (‘focal point service’) who will work in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Atlantic, Western Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, to provide guidance and information on MSP for public and private organisations and their members, research institutions and universities, institutional and private investors, and industry.

Contract value: EUR 1,330,000