ARCHIVER is using a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) approach to competitively procure R&D services from firms in three stages covering design, prototyping and pilot, over the next 3 years (Jan 2019 - Dec 2021).  Click here for more information about the PCP process. 

What is being procured

Under this PCP, Research and Development (“R&D”) services are procured by public research organisations to develop hybrid end-to-end archival and preservation services, cost-effective for data generated in the petabyte volumes with high, sustained ingest rates (1-10 Gbps per day).

The innovative solutions under development will address the following challenges: 

• - Hybrid Model where research groups retain total ownership of their data
• - Petabyte data volumes and high, sustained ingest rates
• - Network Connectivity & Federated Identity Management
• - Conformity with the OAIS reference model
• - Transparent Business & Deployment Models

How has being procured

Tenderers were selected through an open and competitive procurement process. Framework Agreements for the delivery of the R&D services were awarded to the selected Tenderers (the Contractors). This PCP proceeded in three phases, each phase of the PCP was competitive:

Solution Design: establishment of a written detailed design report including architecture and technical design of components.

Discover the consortia selected for the Design phase

Prototype Implementation: build prototypes, including all components, and make them accessible to the Buyers Group. During the prototyping Phase, basic functionality tests will be performed by IT specialists from the Buyers Group.

Discover the consortia selected for the Prototype phase

Pilot Deployment: deployment of expanded pilots. Further testing, including on scalability and robustness, will be performed and a range of demanding applications will be deployed. Service payment models will be explored.

Discover the consortia selected for the Pilot phase

Tender Documents Drafting Process

To stimulate an open dialogue with companies interested in the ARCHIVER project, the draft Tender documents were made publicly available to potential bidders for consultation before the official launch of the tender.
Organisations that have subscribed to the ARCHIVER Early Adopters programme and experts, such as the Digital Preservation Coalition and those listed at this page, have also been consulted on the Tender Documents.

For questions related to the ARCHIVER PCP project and the tender, please refer to our FAQ.