Q&A

The SPACE4Cities project has collected frequently asked questions about Pre-Commercial Procurement, the Call for Tenders and the requirements the project has for both Suppliers and Replicator Cities.

Browse the Q&A’s by topic:

1. General Questions about SPACE4Cities

1.1 What is SPACE4Cities?	SPACE4Cities is a Pre-Commercial Procurement project funded by the European Commission through its research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe. This 42-month project is managed by EUSPA and coordinated by Forum Virium Helsinki. Additionally, it involves four other Byuers’ Group members – Amsterdam, Guimaraes, Distric09 (Ghent), the Development Agency of Attica – but also OASC and Aerospace Valley.
1.2 What is SPACE4Cities after?	SPACE4Cities seeks to develop replicable solutions, via smart use of European satellite data, for better and more dynamic management of public space. The use of European space data is required to be eligible to answer the call for tenders.
1.3 Who is responsible for operations in SPACE4Cities?	The City of Helsinki’s Innovation Company, Forum Virium Helsinki, is the lead procurer and in charge of coordinating the project.
1.4 How can I get updates on the project?	Our website, our LinkedIn account and our monthly newsletter are precisely made to update you on SPACE4Cities’ progress. Bookmark, subscribe, follow and engage!
1.5 Can answers to questions be emailed to participants?	In public procurement projects such as this PCP, questions and answers are to be published publicly along with the general procurement documentation, and thus become part of the tender documentation openly available.
1.6 What is the duration of the SPACE4Cities?	SPACE4Cities lasts 42 months from February 2025 to July 2027. The first year is dedicated to prepare the Call for Tenders. The three-step implementation phase of the PCP, i.e. design, development and piloting of solutions will last two years.
1.7 Who will be the expected end-user of a solution developed in the project?	As solutions are supposed to be used by the cities, end users of the solutions are normally expected to be city representatives and stakeholders. The developed solution can have a public-facing side if it’s reasonable.
1.8 What are the Challenges faced by cities within SPACE4Cities?	You can find the final Challenge descriptions on the project website, and use cases in Tender Document 2, Annex 1. Tender Document 1 includes an Appendix #2, which describes the current situation and ambitions of the Buyers’ Group cities. Challenges and use cases were developed by Buyers’ Group after a careful need identification process. We cannot open the exchange with European cities during the identification process further.

2. Pre-Commercial Procurement

2.1 What is a PCP?	PCP stands for Pre-Commercial Procurement. This means that public procurers invite innovative market players, through an open, transparent and competitive process, to develop new solutions to a technologically demanding medium- or long-term challenge, which is in the public interest and requires new R&D services. The PCP is a tool that enables innovative solutions to be researched, developed and tested – and, at the request of procurers, deployed on a small scale – but not yet on a large one.
2.2 What is the main difference between PCP and PPI?	Both PCP and PPI are part of what is defined as innovation procurement. While a PCP focuses on developing and testing innovative solutions, a PPI focuses on the deployment of such innovative solutions on a larger scale. Please consult the reference sites provided to learn more about the differences between PCP and PPI. According to the European Commission: PCP are ”procurement of research and development services involving risk-benefit sharing under market conditions, and competitive development in phases, where there is a clear separation of the research and development services procured from the deployment of commercial volumes of end-products;” PPI are ”procurement where contracting authorities act as a launch customer for innovative goods or services which are not yet available on a large-scale commercial basis, and may include conformity testing;”
2.3 At which phase are Suppliers assigned to a specific buyer / city?	The final decisions on pilot locations are made after the evaluations of Phase 2, when we know which 5 Suppliers are selected for Phase 3. We can aim to do the preliminary pairing during the Phase 2. Note that Suppliers have to be ready to pilot in any European city, as the requirement for the solution is to be scalable and universally deployable across Europe. The solutions will also have to be replicated via pilots in two different Replicator Cities across the EU.
2.4 Will the piloting slots in the PCP Phase 3 split equally between the Challenge themes? Will all Challenges lead to a pilot?	We aim to do so, but it cannot be guaranteed, as it depends on the offered and selected offers. Each Supplier and their proposed solution is evaluated individually on their own merit.
2.5 Can a Supplier choose in which Buyers’ Group city they pilot in?	No, Suppliers cannot choose the city they pilot in. The decision is done by the project consortium at the end of Phase 2, taking the features of the final five winning solutions as well as the needs of each of the Procuring cities into consideration.
2.6 Can the pilots be located anywhere in Europe during Phase 3?	No, the pilots with the solutions from the 5 winning Suppliers in Phase 3 must be located in the 5 Buyers’ Group cities (Helsinki, Amsterdam, Ghent, Guimarães and Region of Athens) and in the 10 Replicator cities. The 10 Replicators are to be selected later during the project, and they can be located anywhere in the EU.
2.7 Can we pilot in multiple Buyers’ Group cities in addition to two Replicator cities in Phase 3?	At the moment no. By default we apply a similar process to each Supplier. This can be discussed later on in the project with Suppliers. Suppliers would still receive the same amount of funding for Phase 3 regardless.
2.8 If a satellite-based solution already exist for a Challenge, do you still want to invest in development of new technology?	We are looking for solutions that are highly innovative and go beyond the state-of-the-art. If a solution for a Challenge is already existing, your solution will have to be clearly better at solving the same challenge for it to be selected for the Pre-Commercial Procurement.
2.9 What specific outputs or contributions are expected from Suppliers?	Chapter 2 of Tender Document 1 describes each of the PCP Phases and the requirements for the participating Suppliers, which vary between Phases. Each Phase has a kickoff meeting held online, and an in-person meeting is held at the end of each Phase in one of the Buyers’ Group cities. End-of-Phase reports and project abstracts are required from each Supplier after every Phase. The project consortium provides templates for these reports and abstracts, see Appedices 9 and 10 for Tender Document 1.
2.10 How do you define new innovation? How do you know what solutions are on the market?	The Tenderer has to describe and justify the level of innovation level and unique selling points in their Tender. The SPACE4Cities consortium conducts its own research on the State of the Art regarding satellite data services. This research will serve as a benchmark during the evaluation process.
2.11 Phase 3: are there any restrictions regarding the pilot deployment? E.g. can it be based on the city’s own infrastructure? Is there any planned technical support from the city?	At the moment there are no restrictions to the deployment of the pilot. The solution and the following pilot can be based on cities’ infrastructure, but it does not have to. There will be a monitoring team assigned to each Supplier, which will help Suppliers to exchange with cities in order to prepare the development and piloting of the solution.

3. Call for Tenders

3.1 What is the difference between a Tender and a Call for Tenders?	In SPACE4Cities, a Call for Tenders is a public request or invitation for offers. A Tender is the offer that companies submit in response.
3.2 How do you define a Supplier? What entities are eligible to apply to the Call for Tenders?	Participation in the tendering procedure is open on equal terms to all types of organisations from any country, regardless of their geographic location, size or governance structure. A Supplier, meaning an entity that is eligible to answer the Call for Tenders, can be a for-profit entity (SME, startup or larger company), a university or other research and technology organisation (RTO), a non-profit organisation (i.e., association). Suppliers can form consortiums that include for-profit and non-profit entities as members. However, Suppliers are required to be able to develop commercially viable and scalable solutions during the PCP.
3.3 Can you preview our company and advise us if we should participate in Call for Tenders? Can you give us feedback on our planned submission?	We need to keep a level playing field for all potential Suppliers. Therefore we cannot give you any individual advice on whether or not to participate in our call for tenders. We suggest that you read the tender documents carefully (once they are available) and decide whether the tender is appropriate for you. To ensure equal treatment of Suppliers, the SPACE4Cities consortium will not give feedback on tender submissions during Call for Tenders.
3.4 We have a product in mind already that we are interested in piloting. Is this possible?	As a Pre-Commercial Procurement, the proposed solution or product cannot already be commercially available on the market. However, there is no need to start from scratch. But your solutions needs still more R&D and testing in real-life conditions before it can be commercialised. Also, the PCP has 3 formal phases, with budgets per phase: solution design, prototype testing and then piloting. Selected companies have to go through all phases and cannot only do the piloting. Therefore, we expect that the tender for SPACE4Cities focus on solutions that still need development.
3.5 Is the Call for Tenders only open to EU-based suppliers? Which countries are eligible to answer the call?	Participation in Call for Tenders is open to all Suppliers based in EU Member States or Horizon Europe-associated countries. As of January 2025, Horizon Europe-associated countries outside of the EU are: EEA EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway), Switzerland, Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye), European Neighborhood Policy countries: Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), Southern neighbourhood countries (Israel, Tunisia) as well as other third countries (the Faroe Islands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada). Participation is open on equal terms, regardless of the size or governance structure. However, there is a place of performance requirement: a minimum of 50% of the contracted R&D services should be performed in EU Member States or Horizon Europe-associated countries. If Suppliers apply as a consortium, the 50% rule applies to the consortium as a whole, not to each individual supplier within a consortium.
3.6 Can a Supplier submit a Tender alone, or are you looking for consortia?	Tenders may be submitted by a single entity or in collaboration with others. The latter can involve either submitting a joint tender or subcontracting, or a combination of the two approaches. Applicants are encouraged to create consortia of all kinds. See question 3.7.
3.7 Will there be B2B matchmaking along the release of Call for Tenders? We are looking for partners to join a consortium for the SPACEC4Cities Call for Tenders.	The SPACE4Cities project offers a matchmaking opportunities for Suppliers through the online Matchmaking Form, which answers are published in the Matchmaking Contact Directory. You can also join our LinkedIn group to look for other interested parties to partner up with! During the Call for Tenders, applicants are requested to present a convincing team which is well-adjusted to the execution of the 3 phases of the PCP. Supplier consortium members can be active in different Phases. In any case, the roles of all partners need to be described in the application form. The suitability of the Supplier’s team to execute its proposed project is part of the evaluation criteria.
3.8 Can the consortium composition be changed/enriched during the process? (Even when the selection process has been finalized?)	The composition of the consortium shall not be altered without the prior consent of the Lead Procurer. The composition requirement only applies to legal entities in a consortium, not individuals. Although, each Phase will require an update of the team working on the project. However, changes can be made under exceptional circumstances and with the Lead Procurer’s agreement. Any alteration in the composition of the consortium without the prior consent of the Lead Procurer may result in the termination of the contracts.
3.9 If multiple Suppliers set up a Supplier consortium, do all Suppliers part of the consortium need to fulfill eligibility criteria or is the consortium evaluated as a whole?	All Suppliers in a consortium need to fulfill eligibility criteria individually. Having the same eligibility criteria for all Suppliers regardless of Suppliers applying individually or with a team makes the evaluation simple and fair for all.
3.10 Is it a possible to form a consortium made of partners from a single country?	It is indeed possible, the Supplier Consortium can include organisations from a single country or multiple countries. Note that every member of the consortium must meet the eligibility criteria individually.
3.11 Is there a limit to the number of partners in a single Supplier consortium?	No. The consortium composition needs to be reasonable and justifiable for the type of solution and the size of the budget.
3.12 Can Supplier consortium members decide the terms of the formation of the consortium? e.g. Can the consortium members decide on issues like IPR sharing or allocation, and between subcontracting and partnering?	Suppliers themselves can set the terms on creating the Supplier consortium. Consortium members need to explain to the Procurers how they plan to arrange IPR rules, budget and roles in their proposal. Any IPR will be kept by the Suppliers at the end of the project, and consortium members need to agree about the ownership of the IP among themselves.
3.13 What is meant by ”Subcontractors”?	Subcontracting involves outsourcing specific, well-defined tasks that cannot be carried out by the Suppliers themselves. Subcontractors cannot act as Lead Tenderers. Key contributors to project activities are ideally included as partners in Supplier consortium. Suppliers have a vested interest in the project’s outcomes and share responsibilities, rights, and obligations under the Framework Agreement and Specific Contract for the PCP Phase.
3.14 What details are needed on Subcontractors during Call for Tenders?	Tenderers are expected to know which tasks they will subcontract and which tasks will be covered by themselves. Plans for Phases 2 and 3 are still indicative, and Tenderers are not required to have agreements on subcontracting during Call for Tenders.
3.15 How many Suppliers are chosen per Challenge for Phase 1 after Call for Tenders?	Up to 20 Suppliers will be chosen for Phase 1. Suppliers are not chosen to ensure a certain distribution between Challenge. Selection of Suppliers can result into uneven distribution of Suppliers across Challenges. Each Supplier is evaluated individually based on their merits.
3.16 Who will be on the evaluation panel evaluating Supplier Tenders?	The evaluation panel will consist of SPACE4Cities Buyers’ Group representatives and stakeholders. If needed, the evaluation team will be reinforced by external experts. Evaluators will not be evaluating Supplier submissions from their own country. Organisations that take part in evaluation cannot participate in Call for Tenders as a Supplier in any way, nor offer commercial services to Suppliers indirectly.
3.17 How many Call for Tenders are planned?	There will be only one Call for Tenders period in January-April 2025, before the PCP Phase 1 begins in June 2025.
3.18 How many Tenders can be submitted by an entity either alone or as part of a consortia?	There is no specific upper limit of Tenders a single entity can submit either alone or as a part of different consortia. Note that proposed solutions in different Tenders need to be clearly different from each other. Tenderers also need to illustrate their capability of carrying out their work, in the case they are awarded with more than one contract to join SPACE4Cities.
3.19 Can I submit a single solution to solve two or more different Challenges?	Yes, if the offered solution is relevant for multiple Challenges! Challenges are not meant to limit the solutions within a single Challenge.
3.20 Can I submit two or more different solutions to a single Challenge?	Yes. Multiple different offers can be submitted for one Challenge, as long as the offered solutions are different from each other.

4. Tender Documentation

4.1 Are there any updates in the Tender Documentation? Are old versions of Tender Documents allowed to be submitted as part of a Tender?	Tender Document 1 has been updated with version 1.1.5 on 27.2.2025. Form A has been updated with version 1.15 on 26.3.2025. Before submitting your Tender, check Call for Tenders page for latest versions of the Tender Documents. Old versions of Tender Documents are accepted as part of a Tender.
4.2 Form B: Can you explain what you mean with 5-page limit in total and 3-page limit with Executive Summary?	5-page limit includes the cover page and signature page. Content of the Executive Summary has 3-page maximum, totaling to 5 pages with cover and signature pages.
4.3 Form A: Can we delete the page 2? A little more space would be great for our proposal.	Tenderers are allowed to remove the page 2 including Introduction and Table of Contents in order to have more space for their responses. Form A has been updated with version 1.15 including prompt for removal of page 2 on 26.3.2025. Note that the page limit remains 25 pages.
4.4 Form A: Is Form A meant to be prepared every Phase (1-3) in mind or just Phase 1?	Single Form A is submitted, which should give an responses regarding all Phases where applicable. Suppliers chosen for Phase 1 submit another offer for Phase 2 when Phase 1 concludes. This offer includes a second version of the Form A. This will be explained during the Phase 1.
4.5 Form A, Project Management criteria: Does the project management schedule need all Phase activities or just alignment with SPACE4Cities Supplier Deliverables and Milestones mentioned in Tender Document 1 sections 2.2-2.5?	Focus on describing your own actions taken during each Phase and how you plan to manage them. We assume that plans in Phases 2 and 3 are not as concrete yet as in Phase 1. Supplier Milestones and Deliverables for each Phase are not required to be mentioned explicitly, as they are the same for all Suppliers.
4.6 Form A, PM1.1: What’s the level of detail expected for the project plan?	The level of detail is up to a Tenderer to decide. Call for Tenders is meant for Phase 1 selection, although PM1.1 is about giving an indicative project plan for all of the Phases. The project management plan for Phases 2 and 3 can be indicative and we expect more details describing plans for Phase 1 than for Phases 2 and 3. The plan is expected to describe the organisation of your work during the Phases and what kind of objectives you set for yourself. No need to describe specific working hours in the project plan!
4.7 Form A, PM2: How do you differentiate the sub-criteria PM2.1 – 2.3 from each other?	PM2.1 asks Tenderers to list all consortium partners and possible subcontractors mentioning each members’ role briefly. PM2.2 asks Tenderers to present personnel, hardware, software and other resources that are relevant to the project. PM2.1 is about describing your consortium, and this is about your consortium’s specific resources. Both PM2.1 and 2.2 can refer to a project management plan presented in PM1.1. PM2.3 asks Tenderers to present the relevant work experiences references of consortium partners’ members to illustrate Tenderers’ competencies. There isn’t a standard way to present these competencies, and it’s not required from every single person working on the project.
4.8 Form C: Is is allowed to include overhead costs in the price per hour of an employed professional (Type A), or should we break down the overheads (Type D)?	Including overhead costs in the hourly rates is allowed.
4.9 Form C: What is the difference between Virtual Price and Actual Price? What role does Virtual Price play in the assessment? Could you give guidelines for forming the virtual price?	Virtual Price is a hypothetical price that is the estimation of a solution’s future market value. Tenderers can form it by estimating the earning potential they would have from leveraging the IPR (such as patenting rights) and Results (data, product). Virtual Price would be the price of the solution if the Tenderer would give the ownership of IPR and Results to the Buyers’ Group. Virtual Price is up to Tenderers to define, and it’s not evaluated during Call for Tenders. SPACE4Cities is required by the European Commission to ask Virtual Price from each Tenderer.
4.10 Form C: Do we have to complete the virtual price for all the categories (e.g. travel, equipment) or only for personnel costs?	Total Prices for Actual and Virtual Prices are relevant to be compared, and this is what the Buyers’ Group intends to look at. Tenderers can factor the difference between Actual and Virtual Prices in categories they deem sensible. For example: traveling costs wouldn’t really be affected, but you can include the price premium for Virtual Price in personnel costs.
4.11 Forms A and C: Is there a duplicate information to be provided about P1 Price criteria?	Price of the Tender for Phase 1 (P1 award criteria) will be input in two Forms: Form A Section 6 (Financial Offer for Phase 1) and Form C Section 4 (Total Actual Price). These Prices are the same.
4.12 Form C: In personnel unit prices, what does R&D cost cover, and is there an expected standard for this price?	There is no expected standard for personnel unit prices. Which personnel belong to R&D classification can be reasoned by Tenderers, but primarily if a person is working directly with the solution development in technical or non-technical role, they are classified under R&D. Personnel with dual roles (E.g. service design/development and sales) can be separated between R&D and other roles in Form C.
4.13 Should all Tender Documents be signed electronically, or is a handwritten signature acceptable?	Both signature types are allowed.

5. Evaluation Criteria

5.1 Do you only consider solutions that focus on satellite data from Copernicus and Galileo? Or could a possible solution also include some other satellite services?	Yes, use of data and/or services from Copernicus and Galileo is mandatory for all solutions to be considered. However, these can – and probably should – be completed with other data sources such as data from commercial satellites, from drones or from ground sensors for example.
5.2 Does the use of Copernicus Contributing Mission data as only satellite data source fulfill the requirements to use Copernicus data?	The CCM data alone cannot be considered to fulfill the EUSPA requirement for SPACE4Cities Suppliers to use either Copernicus or Galileo data in their solution.
5.3 Can the solution be built on approaches that have been tested successfully before in lab canditions?	Yes, provided that the solution is not commercially available on the market yet.
5.4 May the suggested solution be based on components/technologies already patented by the participating company, included at international scale?	It is indeed allowed.
5.5 Are Award Criteria applying to all Challenges or will you write Challenge-specific criteria?	There will be one set of Award Criteria applying to all Challenges as well as a set of selection criteria regardless of the Challenge.

6. Intellectual Property

6.1 Who will be the owner of the IP at the end of the project?	Ownership of results (foreground): each supplier will retain ownership of the IPR attached to the results it generates during the implementation of pre-commercial procurement (PCP). This should be reflected in the tender price. IPR ownership will be subject to the following: ● the Buyers’ Group group has the right: 1) to access the results, royalty-free, for their own use; 2) to grant (or require suppliers to grant) non-exclusive licenses to third parties and 3) to exploit the results under fair and reasonable conditions (without sub-licensing rights) ● the Buyers’ Group has the right to require suppliers to transfer ownership of the IPR if suppliers fail to meet their obligation to commercially exploit the results or if they use the results to the detriment of the public interest (including security interests).
6.2 Does the developed software need to be licensed to the procurers group?	The Buyers’ Group has the right to use the solution for a limited period without paying a fee. The duration of this period will be determined on a case-by-case basis. See also question 6 on IPR.
6.3 With royalty free use, do you mean only the results, not the entire solution?	It covers the solution which is the result of the tender.
6.4 What is the exact period of time for which the Supplier will grant a license to the Procurers? When and how will this period of time be determined?	There is no exact period pre-defined: it will be agreed with each Supplier individually when the project has ended. It also depends on if a member of the Buyers’ Group is interested in further testing of the solution. In PCP projects the duration is commonly 2-3 years, but as said, this is not fixed yet in advance.
6.5 What does it mean that the Procurers group can license the results to third parties?	The Buyers’ Group only has this right for a limited time period that will be agreed with each supplier that has passed Phase 3. Licensing the results is meant to allow stakeholders of Buyers’ Group cities to access the results and implement them in their operations.
6.6 The Buyers’ Group has the right to license the software to a third party. How is a ’third party’ defined?	Third parties can be cities’ subsidiaries or companies owned by the cities and are the potential end-users of the solutions. A third party can be for example a transportation company.
6.7 Can you please explain why there is no Mutual NDA for this Tender to be signed? We have patents pending and risk losing these patents without NDA in place.	Every person evaluating the Tenders will sign a NDA. But you should consider carefully what information you are able to publish not to harm your pending patents.

7. Financial Aspects

7.1 Will the Suppliers be interacting with the Horizon Europe programme?	No. Suppliers are signing the contract with the Lead Procurer (Forum Virium Helsinki). Reporting by the Suppliers (on e.g. progress, results and spending) will be done to the Buyers’ Group, not to Horizon Europe.
7.2 How does the Horizon Europe funding work in SPACE4Cities?	Suppliers will not be part of Horizon Europe. Horizon Europe funding is paid to the SPACE4Cities consortium, which distributes a lump sum funding to Suppliers during each PCP Phase. Suppliers will form a price for their service for each Phase including the costs for staff, equipment and other related expenses. The indicated price is the maximum amount funding the Supplier will receive (with the maximum limit per Phase specified by the project budget), and Suppliers need to finance costs that are not covered by SPACE4Cities funding.
7.3 When and how is the funding paid out in SPACE4Cities?	Payments are based on the satisfactory completion of Phases or specific milestones described in Tender Document 1 Section 6.2. Payments are paid in single or multiple installments. Payment schedule is described in Section 6.3 and is as follows: Phase 1 – Single installment paid after satisfactory completion of Phase 1. Phase 2 – Two installments: 25% paid after signing the Phase 2 contract; 75% paid after satisfactory completion of Phase 2. Phase 3 – Three installments: 25% paid after signing the Phase 3 contract; 25% paid after completion of mid-term milestones; 50% paid after satisfactory completion of Phase 3.
7.4 Is the funding from SPACE4Cities paid to all Suppliers/Subcontractors in a consortium via separate invoices?	The funding from SPACE4Cities is paid to the Lead Supplier, which signs the Framework Agreement (Tender Document 3) with the Buyers’ Group. Form D (Power of Attorney) gives the Lead Supplier power to represent the whole consortium. The Lead Supplier is required to distribute the funding received accordingly. Suppliers employing Subcontractors are always individually responsible in fulfilling their responsibilities towards Subcontractors.
7.5 Is it possible to receive SPACE4Cities funding while receiving funds from other European Union sources?	Yes, as long as SPACE4Cities activities are not funded twice. Tenders that receive public funding from other sources will be excluded if this leads to double public financing or an accumulation of different types of public financing that is not permitted by EU legislation, including EU state aid rules. Suppliers shall – for each of the PCP phases – sign a declaration of honor stating the ’absence of other incompatible public financing’.
7.6 Are Suppliers required to provide R&D funding of their own? How much funding is required from a Supplier?	Suppliers in PCP projects are generally expected to contribute their own resources alongside the funding provided. While the PCP scheme can cover up to 100% of eligible R&D costs, it is not designed to fully finance all the development expenses. Suppliers may need to invest additional resources to ensure the complete development and commercialisation of their solutions. This co-investment reflects PCP’s risk-sharing model, where Suppliers retain intellectual property rights and gain commercialisation opportunities. In a case if the funding paid out by the SPACE4CIities consortium per each PCP phase (see question 5.2).
7.7 Are Suppliers required to disclose their financial information during the project?	Suppliers do not need to disclose their financial information to SPACE4Cities consortium. Suppliers are required to report their costs as part of end of Phase reports. Suppliers participating in SPACE4Cities are fully liable to Procurers for the performance of the contract, are required keep financial records, and may be subjected to audits and checks by the EU.
7.8 Is it necessary for Suppliers to provide proof of payments related to activities and purchases done during a PCP Phase through paid invoices, or would a proforma invoice be sufficient?	There is no need to send us invoices of purchases, nor purchase contracts or other proof (e.g. staff-related contracts), only a pro-forma invoice and a spreadsheet that looks similar to Form C used for the Phase 1 offer. Note that for reporting at the end of Phase 1, there is some light financial reporting which is based on the pre-agreed unit prices and hourly staff rates.
7.9 Funding payments to a Supplier Consortium: Will each member invoice their own activity fee? Does the Lead Procurer pay directly to each member?	Funding payments are paid by the Lead Procurer to the Lead Supplier following payment conditions and schedule described in Tender Document 1. No invoices are required by other Supplier Consortium members. Lead Supplier distributes the funding within the Supplier Consortium appropriately. Suppliers are responsible to fulfill their obligations towards Subcontractors based on agreements between Suppliers and Subcontractors.
7.10 Since SPACE4Cities budgets are excluding VAT, how should VAT costs be handled for expenses such as subcontracting or purchased equipment or services purchased within the same country? Where would these costs be covered from?	Indeed, the PCP budgets that Suppliers will receive from SPACE4Cities are VAT 0%. As VAT rules and percentages vary from country to country, Suppliers need to sort this internally. It is not up to the SPACE4Cities Buyers’ Group to decide how Suppliers handle their national VAT issues.
7.11 Does the insurance cover need to exist at Tender submission date, or only when the project begins?	Insurance only needs to start at the beginning of the project. You do not need to have active insurance while submitting your Tender, as long as you have one when Phase 1 starts.
7.12 Are Tenderers required to present certificates of insurance cover for each Consortium members?	No certificates are needed in addition to Form E responses. Only the Lead Tenderer must have an insurance, and the consortium needs to have mutual agreement on how to handle liabilities and risks related to participating in SPACE4Cities.
7.13 Which insurance policies are required in insurances taken by Suppliers?	The insurance needs to be relative to the development work in SPACE4Cities, and only for the Phases that they are actively participating in. Other insurance policies (employer liabilities etc.) do not need to be included in the insurance policy.
7.14 What is the appropriate minimum coverage required for an insurance policy?	We cannot give out a specific number, but the insurance coverage should be relative to the funding requirement of a Supplier.

8. Technology and Data

8.1 Which satellites and/or satellite data are we required to use? Do we need to operate satellite or produce the data ourselves?	Suppliers are not required to operate satellites themselves. Suppliers are only required to use data from Copernicus and/or Galileo programmes, which they can combine with other services and data sources (both public and private). Copernicus data is accessible through Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, including Copernicus Contributing Missions data. However, data from Copernicus Contributing Missions is not fulfilling this requirement.
8.2 As Copernicus data is required, does it include data from Copernicus Services?	Yes, Copernicus Marine Service, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, Copernicus Climate Change Service and Copernicus Emergency Management Service are examples of information and data that can be used. Also, ”raw data” from Sentinel satellites can be used.
8.3 Can night-time and infrared images be used as Earth Observation data?	Yes, you can make use of any satellite-based data that is relevant to your solution, including SAR and LiDAR data. Be also ensured that Sentinel-1’s night radar data and Sentinel-2’s infrared data fulfill the requirement of using Copernicus data.
8.4 Do we need to use the Copernicus Services products or is using the Sentinel data also sufficient?	Using only Sentinel data is enough!
8.5 Is there a preferred update interval and pixel resolution for Earth Observation data?	Requirements on preferred update interval and resolution of the EO data is considered based on the needs related Challenges presented by SPACE4Cities project. As for the dynamic and near real-time management of urban areas, we do wish that update intervals for satellite would be as short as possible. Tender Documents 1 and 2 include descriptions of functional requirements related to the use of EO data.
8.7 Are there datasets available under the Galileo GNSS program that could enhance our understanding of mobility patterns?	There is no positioning data openly available from Galileo because such data is produced by GNSS receivers, not satellites. Availability of GNSS data depends more on the cities’ collection capabilities, such as collecting data from Galileo receivers embedded in smartphones, IoT devices, and vehicles. Buyers’ Group cities offer open data sources that you can find posted on the project website and in Tender document 1, Appendix 2. Suppliers can request additional data sources from the BG cities through the SPACE4Cities project consortium.
8.8 What role space technologies do play in solving crowd density and traffic management?	We cannot describe all space-based solutions for urban challenges, though you may find answers to this question in the OMC Report which will be published at the end of January 2025, which include a non-comprehensive State of the Art analysis where you can find such answers. Tenderers are encouraged to do their independent researach while forming their proposed solutions.
8.9 How can we verify whether certain data sources are available? Can cities help with gathering data?	The data sources vary between the cities. The members of the Buyers Group are helping suppliers to find the information from the cities by providing data sets. SPACE4Cities consortium helps facilitate the city data collection and EU satellite data collection as well.
8.10 Can additional datasets to those published on the SPACE4Cities website be requested from the cities?	Data source needs will be identified by Suppliers during Phases 1 and 2. Communication with cities regarding additional data set availability is done through a monitoring team that is assigned to a Supplier.
8.11 Can we propose/develop solutions that are dependent on future satellite missions (such as ESA Flex or CO2M) or other forecasted future possibilities or requirements?	You can use future capabilities as part of your solution, as long as you can convincingly describe carrying out the work in the different Phases of the project in your Tender. You need to be able to create a working prototype in Phase 2 and pilot it in Phase 3, which requires said ”future capabilities” to be available.
8.12 There are relevant early warning systems in climate adaptation?	Early Warning Systems are usually deployed on national scale, and individual cities lack them. Our project partners are indeed looking for ways to predict and model developing environmental and climate hazards, and to prepare quick and effective responses to incidents. However, Portugal, France and Finland have reported to have a multi-hazard early warning system (MHEWS).