Responsible Contracts Officer: Mrs C.

Binedell (RES-PTS)
Fax: +31 71 565 5773
Tel: + 31 71 565 3238
E-mail: Carla.Binedell@esa.int

ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ESA SCIENCE PROGRAMME: CALL

FOR OUTLINE PROPOSALS UNDER THE STRATEGIC INITIATIVE FOR IRISH
INDUSTRY, ACADEMIA AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS

Subject: Announcement of Opportunity AO/1-6418/10/NL/CBi

Reference in the ESA List of Intended Invitations to Tender:
Item no: 10.175.01
Budget output: E/0800-05-A-57

Dear Madam, Sir,

The European Space Agency (ESA) hereby invites you to submit an outline proposal in the frame of
the Announcement of Opportunity for Outline Proposals for the ESA Science Programme, under the
Special Initiative for IRISH Industry, Academia and Research Institutions.

Please find attached hereto the following documents:

Appendix 1 – Draft Contract

Appendix 2 – Special Conditions of Tender

The General Conditions of Tender to which the special conditions refer are available on EMITS
(http://emits.esa.int/emits/owa/emits.main)

The General Clauses and Conditions for ESA Contracts, ref ESA/C/290, revision 6 (hereinafter
called ‘GCC’) to which the Draft Contract refers, are available on EMITS at
(http://emits.esa.int/emits/owa/emits.main.)

The bidder will submit an outline proposal by using the Proposal Template that is provided in
Appendix 2 to the AO. Bidders are invited to fill the sections relevant to their proposed work and to
duly justify non-applicable (NA) sections when necessary.
Should the outline proposal be retained by the Agency, the bidder will be nominally requested by
the responsible technical officer to transform his outline proposal into a full proposal for evaluation
and acceptance prior to contract placement. Should the Tender Evaluation Board consider that the
outline proposal is fully adequate to become the basis for the execution of the work, the Agency will
enter into contract negotiations.

6418 eli
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Your attention is drawn to the following:

The total budget earmarked for this Announcement of Opportunity is Euro 2.000.000 (Two million
Euro).

 The present Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is addressed only to companies (including

SME), academia and research organisations legally registered in Ireland. The present AO is
part of the Special Initiative aiming at increasing the participation of Ireland in the ESA
Science programme activities. Therefore, all outline proposals shall be tailored to the ESA
Science Programme needs.
 Recipients of the present AO are therefore, requested to note that the Agency can only
consider proposals from companies or organisations legally registered in Ireland. Consortia
including companies and organisations within other ESA Member States may be considered
if duly justified. In this case, tasks assigned to non-Irish entities shall not constitute the core
activities of the proposed study or development (exceptions are tolerated in case of Scientific
Payloads and not exceeding 50 KEur)

The subject of the present AO are:

 Activities targeting Flight Hardware (including technology development or bread-boarding)

linked to science missions foreseen in the ESA space Science Programme. This includes
both instruments and platform technologies.
 Research and development activities (including feasibility studies) leading to products
(hardware or software), technology demonstrations or generic technologies with a multi-
purpose use in the Science Programme.

Note: Product and/or technology subject to ITAR or a specific licence which prevent further
development/changes towards ESA science mission needs; will not be considered unless a solution
is agreed between industry and its partners regarding ITAR/or/Licences issues and made known to
ESA.
Furthermore, education and awareness activities will not be considered in the present call.

Bidders are invited to submit Outline Proposals quoting for:

 Flight hardware targeted activities a price range of 200-400 Keur

 Research & development activities (including feasibility studies) a price range of 100-200
Keur

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The proposals will be evaluated by ESA in a Tender Evaluation Board, who will look to the
following elements (the evaluation criteria are detailed in the special conditions of tender):

 Proposals addressing the long-term science programme needs but specifically in the area of
platform technologies and equipments, with an evident increase of the Irish capability and
competitiveness, will be highly considered.
 Good technical proposals within the price target (exceptionally good offers will be allowed
to exceed the target when duly justified) related to existing capacities in Ireland: for e.g. :
material processing, laboratories working directly with ESA science programme, potential
follow on of running activities in ESA Science work plans such as laser diodes, optics,
atomic clocks, mirror coating, detectors, SW development and /or validation (or any other
activity not listed here above) shall be directly linked to an ESA existing and future Science
needs as expressed in the published work plans, documents… (see Annex A hereto).
 Bidders should avoid duplication of ESA activities (past or running ones). This will lead to
an exclusion of the proposal from the evaluation process.

For those outline proposals recommended by the TEB, the bidder shall note that:
 The finally selected outline proposals will be handled by the relevant services and/or the
relavant technical officers (in principle from the Science Directorate programme)
 After successful negotiation, the contract will be awarded in firm fixed price fully funded by
ESA.
 The Agency reserves the right to conduct a pre-award audit of the pre-selected bidders, if
deemed necessary.
 The overall budget of the activities funded by the present AO shall strictly remain
unchanged during the execution of the activity and no Contract Change Notice (CCN’s) with
cost impact will be considered.

(Further information regarding the preparation of proposals in response to ESA ITTs/RFQs can be
found at:
( http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Events_Training/SEMJ1SMHE8F_0.html)

Registration as potential tenderer – It is mandatory for the bidder to complete and submit the
Questionnaire in INDUSTRY OUTLOOK, available via:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/industry_how_to_do_business/SEMLLBC1S6F_0.html
(Note: As of the completion of the questionnaire in INDUSTRY OUTLOOK registered economic
entities will have to update the questionnaire on an annual basis. Failure to do so will result in
EMITS access being blocked.)

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Any questions related to this Announcement of Opportunity should be addressed in writing, not
later than two weeks before the closing date, to the ESA Contracts Officer Carla Binedell at e-mail
address: Carla.Binedell@esa.int or the fax number +31 71 565 5773. The questions raised and
answers given to each bidder will be published on EMITS for the benefit of all bidders.

Due to the holiday period, it is foreseen that all Outline Proposals shall be submitted not later
than the 10th of August 2010 at 13:00 hours, in 7 paper copies and 2 electronic copies (PDF) on
CD-ROMs to:

Central Registry Office

EUROPEAN SPACE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
Keplerlaan 1
2201 AZ Noordwijk
The Netherlands

For the attention of: Mrs. C. Binedell (RES-PTS) - AO/1-6418/10/NL/CBi Announcement of

Opportunity for the ESA Science Programme Call for Outline Proposals under the Strategic
Initiative for Irish Industry, Academia and Research Institutions

Yours faithfully

V. Kayser
Head of ESTEC Procurement Division for Technology and Support.

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ANNEX A

For detailed information concerning the Agency’s programmes requirements and needs:

 List of Intended Invitations to Tender (EMITS) covering all ESA Programmes

http://emits.esa.int/emits/owa/emits.main

 Cosmic Vision Technology Plan

http://emits.esa.int/emits-doc/ESTEC/AO-1-6418_CTP-2008-2010.pdf

Updates to this document are available on

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMSHM7CS5G_index_0.html as well as the down-selection of
mission candidates “: ESA - Space Science - ESA chooses three scientific missions for
further study”.

 TRP Workplan-2005-2007: http://emits.esa.int/emits-doc/ESTEC/AO-1-6418_TRP-2005-

2007.pdf
and
Work plan-2008-2010: http://emits.esa.int/emits-doc/ESTEC/AO-1-6418_TRP-2008-
2010.pdf

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