A technical assistance contract for the acquisition of European, national, regional or provincial funds is being put out to tender.

The Local Government Board of Torrevieja City Council approved this morning the technical and administrative specifications for the technical assistance contract for fundraising and project management support from European, regional, and/or autonomous communities. The contract will be valid for two years and have a base annual tender budget of €237,907.80 (VAT included). It also includes the possibility of two one-year extensions, which will increase the estimated contract value to €466,283.30.

The contract is based on the identification of strategic city projects, within the framework of its Urban Agenda, that are eligible for funding from European, national, regional, or provincial funds, analyzing potential calls for proposals. Furthermore, the successful bidder must prepare proposals to be submitted based on the various calls for proposals, seeking potential national and international partners who could assist the City Council in the development of the projects that require it. Once the grant has been awarded, the contract will prepare the draft technical specifications required for the execution of the funded projects. Finally, this contract includes advising the European Funds Unit on the monitoring, execution, and justification of the projects subsidized within its framework.

This service seeks to support the specialization and professionalization of the City Council's fundraising, which took an important step a year ago by staffing the European Funds Unit through a program - which has assumed the management, execution, and justification of the subprojects of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan granted - by hiring accredited successful consulting firms that demonstrate a multidisciplinary profile and can be self-financing, since this contract is eligible for financing with European funds, including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or POPE 2021-2027.

To ensure the professionalization of the staff, the contract requires a coordinator, two experienced European grant consultants, and a specialist in public space and urban innovation. Furthermore, the contract can be improved by offering additional profiles in environmental engineering or equivalent, and an architect and/or engineer with experience in mobility projects. These aspects are all essential to improving the technical, environmental, and strategic viability of the projects submitted to the calls, reinforcing their quality and consequently increasing the likelihood of success in obtaining funding. These professionals provide a cross-cutting and specialized perspective that allows for projects aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the European Green Deal, and local resilience strategies, adequately responding to complex evaluation criteria such as viability, impact, scalability, and long-term sustainability.

Another of the evaluation criteria that the contract technicians will take into account will be the experience of the Contract Coordinator in projects similar to those that the City Council wants to opt for, for which the subsidies obtained in the European multiannual financial framework (2014-2020 and 2021-2027) worth at least 4 million euros per project and the subsidies obtained from European Urban Initiatives in the last 5 years will be taken into account, as well as the monitoring and justification of European subsidies, both from the PRTR and the MFF 2014-2020 and 2021-2027.

Bidders must also submit a report outlining an internal project management procedure manual, establishing the working formula with municipal departments and all the steps involved in the search, application, execution, and justification of grants. A work plan focused on the city of Torrevieja must demonstrate their knowledge of the city's projects and their identification with calls for funding, as well as a proposed timeline for obtaining grants.

Interested companies have until July 18 to submit their bids on the Torrevieja City Council's contracting profile on the State Public Procurement Platform (PLACE). With this contract, the City Council aims to continue attracting external funding to implement strategic projects without relying solely on municipal funding.