Supplies - 435308-2014

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23/12/2014    S247

Italy-Ispra: Framework contract for supply of satellite remote sensing data and associated services in support to checks within the common agricultural policy (CAP) — high high resolution profile (HHR)

2014/S 247-435308

Contract notice

Supplies

Directive 2004/18/EC

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

Official name: European Commission, Joint Research Centre JRC, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Postal address: via Enrico Fermi 2749, TP 581
Town: Ispra VA
Postal code: 21027
Country: Italy
For the attention of: Mr D. Eardley
E-mail: jrc-ies-procurement@ec.europa.eu
Fax: +39 0332789540

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: http://web.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Electronic access to information: http://web.jrc.ec.europa.eu/callsfortender

Further information can be obtained from:
The above mentioned contact point(s)

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from:
The above mentioned contact point(s)

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to:
The above mentioned contact point(s)

I.2)Type of the contracting authority
European institution/agency or international organisation
I.3)Main activity
General public services
Other: Research.
I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description
II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:
Framework contract for supply of satellite remote sensing data and associated services in support to checks within the common agricultural policy (CAP) — high high resolution profile (HHR).
II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance
Supplies
Purchase
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: Main place of delivery: JRC (Ispra, Italy) and Member State (MS) administrations.
NUTS code
II.1.3)Information about a public contract, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS)
The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement
II.1.4)Information on framework agreement
Framework agreement with a single operator

Duration of the framework agreement

Duration in months: 48

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Estimated value excluding VAT: 5 700 000 EUR
II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s)
Since the Control with Remote Sensing (CwRS) programme began some 20 years ago, the JRC has developed and implemented a process in support to DG AGRI whereby satellite image data can be used to check declarations made under the common agricultural policy (CAP) concerning crop types and the areas farmed. With the growing availability of better satellite data (in terms of resolution), a more efficient acquisition (more agile sensors and an increased number of sensors) and greatly improved IT technology, these techniques are now in routine, operational use. Key to the success is the timeliness of image supply during the growing season, maintaining an ever-increasing high level of image quality to minimise doubts or disputes during interpretation and ensuring the confidentiality of the operation.
 In this context, the very high resolution (VHR) profile and high resolution (HR) profile framework contracts were awarded in early 2014. In these contracts, the imagery to be collected and delivered within the required time specifications is defined as so-called sensor-independent 'profiles'. The high resolution (HR) image, and very high resolution (VHR) image 'profiles' have clearly defined specifications (e.g. on spatial resolution, spectral bands, geometric accuracy, elevation angle, processing levels, etc.) fitting the CAP CwRS programme and Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) quality assurance.
 The JRC now aims to increase image quality with the addition of a new profile in the HR domain explicitly asked for by the EU MS administrations to comply with the new CAP 'greening' legislation starting in 2015. The new profile will be called high high resolution, abbreviated to HHR profile, and has the main characteristics of ≤ 3 metres ground sampling distance (GSD) in the panchromatic band, and ≤ 12 metres in the multispectral domain.
 An example profile may therefore have the following characteristics:
 — description: bundle (i.e. pan plus multispectral bands),
 — spatial resolution: pan GSD ≤ 3 m, multispectral GSD ≤ 12 m (where GSD = ground sampling distance),
 — radiometric resolution and bands: minimum 8 bits/pixel, at least multispectral 4 bands including B, G, R, NIR (where NIR = near infrared),
 — absolute geometric accuracy achievable in orthorectification: RMSE, x, y ≤ 1,5 x GSD (where RMSE = root mean square error),
 — elevation angle at acquisition: 50–90 deg.,
 — cloud cover threshold categories over AOI: ≤ 1 % validated, ≤ 5 % proposed, ≤ 20 % retained, archive,
 — delivery specification is within 6 days of order.
 Management of image acquisition (i.e. to cover the correct areas at the correct times of the growing season) is currently undertaken by the 2 existing contractors under the supervision and quality control (QC) of the JRC. The contractor for the supplies and related services under this call will have to follow the same workflow management, in coordination with the other contractors.
 The supplier will be asked to manage the HHR image acquisition activities necessary after the control zone and window period definition all the way to final image delivery in compliance with the specifications set up. Those activities will include e.g. feasibility assessment, interfacing with stakeholders, final scenario approval, image acquisition, QC and image validation, delivery, archive upload, and reporting, etc.
 The start date of the contract is currently foreseen to be early spring 2015 in order to start management of the second phase of the image acquisition for the 2015 campaign.
 The contract shall be for 24 months, renewable once under the same conditions.
II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

35631200 Observation satellites, 32533000 Satellite earth stations, 32531000 Satellite communications equipment, 35631100 Communication satellites, 32534000 Satellite platforms, 34712200 Satellites

II.1.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes
II.1.8)Lots
This contract is divided into lots: no
II.1.9)Information about variants
Variants will be accepted: no
II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract
II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:
Estimated value excluding VAT: Total 5 700 000 EUR including a 10 % contingency.
II.2.2)Information about options
Options: no
II.2.3)Information about renewals
This contract is subject to renewal: no
II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completion
Duration in months: 48 (from the award of the contract)

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information

III.1)Conditions relating to the contract
III.1.1)Deposits and guarantees required:
Please refer to tender documents.
III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
Please refer to tender documents.
III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
Tenders can be submitted by consortia of 2 or more economic operators ('joint tender'). Each legal entity will be required to become a party to the contract in case of award, and shall assume joint and several liability towards the contracting authority for the fulfilment of the terms and conditions of the contract.
 The consortium shall nominate 1 legal entity ('the leader') who will have full authority to bind the consortium and each of its members when presenting an offer and signing the contract (proof must be submitted with the offer), and will be responsible for the administrative management of the contract (invoicing, receiving payments, etc.) on behalf of all other entities.
 It is mandatory that joint offers or offers from groupings include a letter of intent from each member of the grouping including subcontractors confirming their participation as described in the submitted bid in case of award of the contract.
 Subcontracting is allowed but the contractor shall retain full liability towards the contracting authority for implementation of the contract.
 Applications submitted by consortia, groupings or associations of companies must include a document detailing the proposed composition and constitution of the entity or the legal form of this cooperation in the event they are awarded the contract.
 An economic operator may, where appropriate and for a particular contract, rely on the capacities of other entities, regardless of the legal nature of the links which it has with them. It must in that case prove to the contracting authority that it will have at its disposal the resources necessary for performance of the contract, for example by producing an undertaking on the part of those entities to place those resources at its disposal.
 Please also see Article I.12 'Other special conditions' of the draft framework contract.
III.1.4)Other particular conditions
The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: no
III.2)Conditions for participation
III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers
Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: Tenderers will not be eligible to take part in this contract award procedure if they are in any of the exclusion situations listed in Articles 106 and 107 of Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of 25.10.2012 (OJ L 298 of 26.10.2012).
Should a contract be awarded, the contractor will need to produce the supporting documents required in Article 143(2) in conjunction with Article 143(3) of the Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012.
In the case of groupings of contractors, the information required under this Section and Sections III.2.2 and III.2.3 must be supplied by all members of the grouping including subcontractors to whom more than 20 % of the budget may be subcontracted.
III.2.2)Economic and financial ability
Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: Tenderers must demonstrate that they have sufficient economic and financial resources to be able to carry out the tasks specified in this contract notice:
(a) appropriate statements from banks as regards current financial standing or professional risk indemnity insurance,
(b) a statement as to annual turnover and turnover related to the subject of this procurement during the past 3 financial years.
These criteria will be assessed in relation to the combined capacities of all members of the grouping and potential subcontractors.
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required: (b) The annual turnover for the last financial year (or average turnover of the tenderer for the past 3 years) must exceed 2 600 000 EUR.
This criterion will be assessed in relation to the combined capacities of all members of the grouping and potential subcontractors.
III.2.3)Technical capacity
Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met:
 (a) Proof that tenderers are authorised to perform the contract under national law, as evidenced by inclusion in a trade or professional register, or a sworn declaration or certificate, membership of a specific organisation, express authorisation, or entry in the VAT register.
 (b) A list of available human resources envisaged for working in execution of the contract, including educational and professional qualifications, CVs (or equivalent), a list of their relevant publications and inclusion in similar project(s), demonstrating that they are in a position to deliver the supplies required for the relevant tender.
 (c) A list of the relevant supplies delivered in the past 3 years, with a brief description, sums, dates and recipients, public or private, showing experience in the subject of the tender, in particular, experience in the supply of satellite remote sensing data and services over large amounts of non-contiguous AOIs, as is the case in the common agricultural policy (CAP) checks programme or equivalent.
 (d) A description of the technical equipment and the measures employed to ensure the quality of supplies demonstrating that they are in a position to deliver the supplies required.
 (e) Names of any subcontractors, where applicable, to which suppliers intend to subcontract some of the tasks.
 Tenderers shall specify which tasks will be subcontracted. Should tenderers not require any subcontractors, they must submit a statement to this effect.
 This criterion will be assessed in relation to the combined capacities of all members of the grouping and potential subcontractors.
 Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:
 (b) The tenderer must prove that the persons allocated to the service have a specific breadth and depth of experience so that the following profiles are fulfilled:
 1. Project coordinator:
 — a relevant university degree giving access to a PhD degree with a minimum of 5 years of professional experience in an area common to the subject of the tender, including:
 — experience of project coordination and management in scientific or industrial projects of a similar size to the tender in the field of earth observation (EO) applications during the last 3 years.
 2. Data quality manager:
 — a relevant university degree giving access to a PhD degree with a minimum of 5 years' professional experience in an area common to the subject of the tender, including:
 — experience in data quality monitoring and management in scientific or industrial projects of a similar size as the tender in the field of earth observation applications during the last 3 years.
 3. Project review manager:
 — a relevant university degree giving access to a PhD degree with more than 5 years' professional experience in an area that is common to the subject of the tender, including:
 — experience of data quality monitoring and management in scientific or industrial projects of similar size in the field of earth observation applications during the last 3 years.
 4. Senior scientist:
 — a relevant PhD degree with more than 5 years' professional experience or a relevant university degree giving access to a PhD degree with more than 10 years' experience in an area that is common to the subject of the tender, including:
 — relevant experience (sensor, image processing and GIS knowledge) to be demonstrated in scientific or industrial projects of similar size to the tender during the last 3 years, including:
 — proven reputation and scientific quality established through a record of scientific publications in the domain of this call for tender.
 5. SW engineer (data archives and maintenance of Web browsing systems):
 — a relevant Bachelor's degree with at least 3 years of professional experience,
 — knowledge and experience in XML processing, XML schema creation and automated XML validation; and
 use of Web content management systems (e.g. Microsoft.Net, DOTNetNuke or equivalent).
 (c) Supply of remote sensing data covering more than 250 AOIs in 1 period of 12 months, with HR imagery, as is the case in the common agricultural policy (CAP) checks programme or equivalent within the last 3 calendar years.
 (d)
 1. Evidence supporting a capacity to handle satellite remote sensing data programming and customer service (feedback to customers with problem analysis, solutions to problems, etc.) every working day excluding public holidays. Emphasis on the continuity in the spring–summer crop period is mandatory.
 2. Evidence supporting a capacity to track in near-real time the status of a satellite remote sensing data acquisition for a customer through the steps: order/acquisition request, uplink/programming, acquisition, reception, delivery. Such systems may include online tools, planning tools, browsing tools, access to catalogues and archives, access to georeferenced quick looks in near-real time, etc.
 3. Evidence supporting a capacity to deliver acquired data within a maximum of 6 days after data acquisition, on a wide range of distribution media (e.g. statistics over delivery time).
 4. Evidence supporting a technical capacity to collect satellite remote sensing data over at least EU-28 plus candidate countries' (Albania, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey) territory. (e.g. graphs of programming/receiving facility footprint for the sensors).
 5. Proof of legal distribution rights towards the European Union to provide satellite remote sensing data with the sensors proposed over at least EU-28 plus candidate countries' (Albania, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey) territory.

6. Evidence supporting a capacity to provide over 400 satellite remote sensing images (approx. 300 000 km2) of non-contiguous AOI acquisitions spread over a crop season (in this case a 'crop season' shall be taken as a 4-week maximum acquisition window at any time) within the past 3 years with the use of at least 3 different HR filling the HR 'profile', as is the case in the common agricultural policy (CAP) checks programme (or equivalent checks programme).

7. Existence and description of programming/receiving facility; a minimum requirement being a centralised satellite operating centre.
 These criteria will be assessed in relation to the combined capacities of all members of the grouping and potential subcontractors.
III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts
III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts
III.3.1)Information about a particular profession
III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure
IV.1.1)Type of procedure
Open
IV.1.2)Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate
IV.1.3)Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue
IV.2)Award criteria
IV.2.1)Award criteria

The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated below

1. Price. Weighting 70

2. Technical quality. Weighting 30

IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction
An electronic auction will be used: no
IV.3)Administrative information
IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:
JRC/IPR/2014/H.6/0029/OC.
IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Prior information notice

Notice number in the OJEU: 2014/S 224-395006 of 20.11.2014

IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document
Time limit for receipt of requests for documents or for accessing documents: 11.2.2015
Payable documents: no
IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate
11.2.2015
IV.3.5)Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates
IV.3.6)Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up
Any EU official language
IV.3.7)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender
Duration in months: 9 (from the date stated for receipt of tender)
IV.3.8)Conditions for opening of tenders
Date: 13.2.2015 - 13:00

Place:

JRC Ispra, external building, room 7, via Enrico Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra VA, ITALY.

Persons authorised to be present at the opening of tenders: yes

Additional information about authorised persons and opening procedure: Max. 1 authorised representative per tenderer can attend the opening. The request must be sent to jrc-ies-procurement@ec.europa.eu before 11.2.2015, together with a copy of the identity card/passport.

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence
This is a recurrent procurement: no
VI.2)Information about European Union funds
The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: yes
Reference to project(s) and/or programme(s): The regulatory basis for the CAP, Control with Remote Sensing programme and quality assurance of the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), is given in Council Regulations (EU) 1305/2013, 1306/2013, and 1307/2013 and the Delegated and Implementing Regulations 639/2014, 640/2014, and 641/2014.
Financing of the programme is in accordance with Council Regulation (EU) 1306/2013 and Commission Implementation Regulation (EU) 908/2014. According to this regulation, the Commission services centralise the acquisition of SRS imagery, and their free-of-charge supply to the MS. This responsibility was transferred to DG JRC in 1998.
VI.3)Additional information

The tender documents and any additional information are available on the contracting authority's website http://web.jrc.ec.europa.eu/callsfortender

The tender documents will be provided free of charge.
 Contacts between the contracting authority and the tenderers are authorised only in exceptional circumstances.

In exceptional circumstances contacts may be made on the tenderer's initiative not later than 5 working days before the final date for receipt of bids, in order (and only for this reason) to clarify the nature of the contract (see letter of invitation). In so far as it has been requested in good time and in accordance with tender documents, the additional information will be made available simultaneously to tenderers on the contracting authority's website http://web.jrc.ec.europa.eu/callsfortender

The tenderers are invited to regularly check this Internet address where answers to requests for additional information and to relevant questions will be made available. It is the responsibility of the tenderers to check updates and modifications during the tendering period.
 Please note that DG JRC (Ispra) will be closed from 24.12.2014 until 1.1.2015. Any contacts made over this period will be dealt with as soon as possible on return from 2.1.2015 onwards.
 For exclusion and selection criteria for the economic and financial ability, the contracting authority hereby waives the obligation for a tenderer to include documentary evidence if such evidence has already been submitted in a previous procurement procedure. For exclusion criteria the documents must be issued not more than 1 year earlier and still valid. In such cases, the tenderer making the request will need to declare on his/her honour that the documentary evidence has already been provided in a previous procurement procedure, provide reference to that procedure, and confirm that there has been no change in the situation.
 The JRC may start a separate negotiated procedure with the contractor according to the Article 134 paragraph 1(f) of the rules of application applicable to the general budget of the European Union with a view to services related to the supplies that are the subject of this tender.
VI.4)Procedures for appeal
VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures

Official name: General Court of the European Union
Postal address: rue du Fort Niedergrünewald
Town: Luxembourg
Postal code: 2925
Country: Luxembourg
E-mail: generalcourt.registry@curia.europa.eu
Telephone: +352 4303-1
Fax: +352 4303-2100
Internet address: http://curia.europa.eu

VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals
VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

Official name: General Court of the European Union
Postal address: rue du Fort Niedergrünewald
Town: Luxembourg
Postal code: 2925
Country: Luxembourg
E-mail: generalcourt.registry@curia.europa.eu
Telephone: +352 4303-1
Fax: +352 4303-2100
Internet address: http://curia.europa.eu

VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:
12.12.2014