Enabling & Support

GSTP: Permanent open Announcement of Opportunity (AO)

07/05/2008 1971 views 2 likes

ESA / Enabling & Support / Space Engineering & Technology / Technology Business Opportunities

AO issued on EMITS: AO5720 - permanent open

The overall objective of this permanent open Announcement of Opportunity (AO) mechanism within ESA's General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) is to offer to Industry a mechanism for submitting proposals for market-oriented activities in order to strengthen their worldwide competitiveness and to give Agency the means to react promptly to those industrial proposals.

The AO is aimed at implementing well targeted industry led activities and in that respect, it complements the GSTP work plan which is mainly preparing technologies in support of ESA led programmes. The AO also covers technology transfer activities.

Due to the commercial character of the proposals gathered through this mechanism, the activities shall be co-funded by industry on a 50% basis, with a ceiling funding of 1 million € from ESA.

The General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) is an optional programme

in ESA's activities devoted to technology developments. Since 2003, ESA has yearly issued an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) seeking proposals from industry in countries participating to GSTP.

Permanently open AO for market-oriented activities

In order to better serve urgent proposals, especially those relating to near-term competitiveness and technology transfer, ESA has initiated a permanently open AO. It allows bidders to propose activities at any time for implementation under the GSTP frame, without therefore having to wait until the periodic AO is issued.

The AO objectives, which shall be fulfilled through technology developments, are:

To strengthen worldwide competitiveness in the near-term in existing markets,
To initiate or strengthen technology transfer, usually spin-off (from space to non-space sector), but also spin-in (from non-space to space sector).

Procedure and qualification requirements and procedure

Bidders from any ESA Member State participating to GSTP are invited to submit outline proposals. Please note that potential sub-contractors shall also reside in a participating ESA Member State. The procedure to follow is the following:

Step 1: The bidding company shall submit an outline proposal of 12 to 15 pages which:
- deals with at least one of the GSTP technology themes (i.e. proposals dealing with Telecommunications are excluded),
- provide background and justification (with relevant considerations such as market volume, competitors and so on) for the proposed activity; define its cost, duration as well as the work to be performed,
- may combine funding from several countries, provided that those countries are participating to GSTP,
- shall be accompanied by a letter of support from all the relevant national delegations.
Step 2: ESA will evaluate the outline proposal.
Step 3: In case of positive evaluation, ESA will issue a Request for Quotation to the bidding company for a full proposal.
Step 4: If the full proposal is evaluated positively, a contract will be placed with the company.

For further information, tender conditions and outline proposal submission, please refer to EMITS, ESA’s on-line tender system.

The EMITS reference is "AO5720 ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY: FOR MARKET-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES (PERMANENTLY OPEN AO UNDER GSTP)" and is published in the section 'Open Invitations to Tender'.