Contract Notice

A contract notice is the formal public announcement that a contracting authority intends to procure a good, service, or work above the threshold requiring open competition. It is the trigger for the procurement clock: minimum tender periods are calculated from the date of publication. In the EU, above-threshold contract notices must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union via TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), as well as on national portals.

Contract notices contain standardized fields: contracting authority details, contract description and CPV codes, estimated value, procedure type, award criteria, time limits for requests to participate or receipt of tenders, and contact information. The eForms regulation (effective October 2023) introduced a new machine-readable XML format for EU contract notices, designed to improve data quality and automation.

For vendors, contract notices are the primary opportunity trigger in structured procurement markets. Setting up automated alerts on TED and national portals — filtered by CPV code, geography, and value band — ensures no relevant opportunity is missed. The notice alone rarely contains full specification details; a separate procurement document package (ITT/RFP) is usually available on request or downloadable from a portal.