Search & Browse

Search for notices

You may choose between the 3 search types to search for notices:

• Quick search
• Advanced search
• Expert search

Search scope

There are 3 possible search ranges, depending on the scope you want: 

• Current OJ S issue - notices published in the current OJ S issue.
• Active notices - restricts the search to the most recent notices. This usually means for ‘Planning’ notices, those sent for publication over the past 364 days; for ‘Competition’ notices, it will search notices for which the deadline has not passed; and for ‘Result’ notices, the range is notices sent for publication in the past 99 days.
• All notices - search notices from the last 10 years (data available from 1/1/2014)

Quick search

Through ‘Quick Search’ signed-in and guest users can search for notices, but:

• for guest users, the default scope is ‘Active notices’
• for signed-in users, the default scope is the one selected by the user in their preferences.

The quick search allows you to make a full text search by specifying the keyword you want to search for.

The search is performed in the whole text of each notice and in all labels of code values, as it will be displayed in the notices and in all languages.

Additionally, you can use:

• Wildcards:
  • quotation marks (“ “) to search for an exact phrase
    • Example: “Agriculture and Food” finds only the phrase Agriculture and Food
  • an asterisk (*) to replace any number of characters
    • Example: "transport*" will find transportation, transporting, etc.
  • a question mark (?) instead of a single character in your search term to find variations of it
    • Example: "ca?e" finds case, cane, care etc.
• Notice publication number:
  • You can search for a single notice
    • Example: "665741-2023" , finds the specific notice
  • You may search for several notices
    • Example: "665741-2023 665740-2023", finds both notices.

Advanced search

Through this page you can apply one or more criteria from several criteria groups to search for notices. For all the criteria groups, there is a tooltip (mouseover) providing a description.

The criteria groups are the following:

• Text
  • This has the same functionality as ‘Quick search’. It allows you to make a full text search by specifying the keyword you want to search for.
• Business opportunities
  • Planning - search for:
    • 'Notice of the publication of a prior information notice or a periodic information notice on a buyer profile';
    • 'Prior information notice or a periodic indicative notice used only for information';
    • 'Prior information notice or a periodic indicative notice used to shorten time limits for receipt of tenders';
    • 'Prior information notice for public passenger transport services'.
  • Competition - search for a:
    • Contract notice – light regime;
    • Contract or concession notice – standard regime;
    • Design contest notice;
    • Notice on the existence of a qualification system;
    • Prior information notice or a periodic indicative notice used as a call for competition – light regime;
    • Prior information notice or a periodic indicative notice used as a call for competition – standard regime;
    • Subcontracting notice.
  • Result - search for a
    • Contract or concession award notice – standard regime;
    • Contract or concession award notice – light regime;
    • Design contest result notice;
    • Contract award notice for public passenger transport services.
  • More options - select the type of notice from a detailed list.
• Subject matter of the contract
  • Common procurement vocabulary (CPV) - search by product group and its classification using the CPV code, e.g., chemical products (CPV code 24000000), gases (CPV code 24100000). Use the tooltip for more information on CPV codes.
  • Nature of contract - search by contract type, e.g. works or supplies.
  • Place of performance - search using the main location of works, delivery, or performance.
  • Total procurement value - search by the amounts indicated in the 'Estimated total value of procurement' field for calls for tenders and the 'Total value of the procurement' field for contract awards (minimum and/or maximum), as well as the specific currency of the tender.
• Procedure
  • Type of procedure - search by the type of procedure used for an invitation to tender, e.g.  open, negotiated procedure.
  • Languages in which tenders can be submitted - search for notices in which potential tenderers are allowed to submit requests to participate in tenders in a specific language (or languages)
• Date
  • Publication date - date the notice was published.
  • Deadline for submission - deadline by which tenders or applications must be submitted.
  • Deadline for requests for documents - deadline by which tender documents can be requested by the potential tenderer.
• Published in the Supplement to the Official Journal
  • OJ S issue number - notices published in a particular OJ S edition.
  • Notice publication number - e.g. 255076-2016, 2016/S 107-255076.
• Buyer
  • Official name - name of the buyer.
  • National registration number - e.g, ULG BE 0325 777 171.
  • Country - where the buyer is based.
  • Town/city - where the buyer is based
  • Type of buyer - e.g. regional authority, European institution, body or agency, international organisation
  • Main activity - the main activity covered by the contract, e.g. education, health, housing and community amenities
• Funding – search by type of funding, e.g. external aid programmes
• Legal basis - the EU public procurement directive(s) or regulation(s) under which the notice was issued.

Expert search

You can start typing your search query in the 'Expert' query section input box.

• The Boolean operators can be typed directly into the input box, or alternatively you can use the operator buttons on the right side to easily add them to your query.

• The Search fields can be typed directly into the input box. While you type, the system will suggest search fields that match the input already provided. The auto-complete functionality may be used among the available suggestions. Alternatively, you can search for code values within the 'Search Field' section located below the input box. In this section, you can select a search field and add the corresponding selected values directly to your query.

• You can view the accepted values as a code or as a text by selecting the specific radio button above the query box.

• Finally, at any time you can validate the expert query, selecting the specific button ‘Check syntax.’

You must consider the following syntax rules:

You can use a standardised query language (common command language) to perform your search:

• a wildcard (*) or single character (?) can be used for a search term.
• the use (or not) of double quotes does not impact the search results except when used with a text field where they make the search only for the exact phrase. For example:
  • the query CY=FRA is identical with the query CY="FRA"
  • the query AU~Council is identical with the query AU~"Council", since it is a single word
  • BUT the query AU~Council of the is invalid, whereas the query AU~"Council of the" is valid and would return notices where the phrase "Council of the" exists in the AU field, i.e., notices where the Awarding Authority is the Council of the European Union.
• If you wish to search for multiple values in a field, then these must be put into parentheses and must be connected with Boolean operators, i.e., AU~(Council AND Union), CY=(FRA OR ITA).
• An initial can be used to search for a time period in expert mode (i.e. contract-duration-period-lot=5d). The alloewd initials are 'd' for day, 'w' for week, 'm' for month and 'y' for year, regardless of the browsing language (i.e. 'd' will be always 'd' whatever the browsing language). The default time period is day.

Booleans operators are the following:

Examples:

Browse by subject

At any time, as you navigate to the TED website, through the ‘Search section,’ you can search for notices selecting to browse by a specific subject:

• Business opportunity
• Business sector (CPV)
• Place of performance

By default, the ‘Active notices’ are displayed, but you can choose to limit the number of displayed notices, by selecting Current OJ S issue in the “Search scope” heading.