Invitation to Participate in Procurement for Development and Delivery of Quantum Computer

Lyhyt kuvaus

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, herein referred to as ‘VTT’ or ‘Contracting authority’ expects your application to participate in the innovation partnership as detailed in the contract notice published on the public procurement website Hilma and this invitation to participate and its Annexes 1-8.
Subject-matter of the contract is the development and the delivery of a quantum computer and related supplies and services.
The purpose of the contract is to create an innovation partnership for the research and development and the delivery of a quantum computer.
The procurement consists of three development and delivery phases:
1) the development and the delivery of the first phase quantum computer;
2) the development and the delivery of the second phase quantum computer; and
3) the development and the delivery of the third phase quantum computer.
VTT seeks for an innovation partner (or partners) that could support VTT through phases 1, 2 and 3.
The estimated budget for the development and the delivery of the first phase quantum computer is about EUR 4-5 million (VAT not included), taking into account the selected innovation partner’s costs. The overall estimate for all three phases is about EUR 20-25 million. The companies and other interested entities are asked to take this estimated budget into account when considering the application to participate. Higher budgets may be considered, but please note that if preliminary tenders considerably exceed this estimated budget, the Contracting Authority may need to terminate the procurement process without even proceeding with the negotiations.
The contract period starts from the signing of the contract and stays in force until further notice. Please see Annex 2 Draft contractual terms and conditions for further information.
For further information, please see Annex 1 Subject matter of the procurement.

Hankinnan kuvaus

The contract will be awarded through innovation partnership procedure, stipulated by paragraphs 38-39 of Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts (1397/2016). The innovation partnership is one of the public procurement processes, stipulated by Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts (1397/2016).
No compensation will be paid to companies for preparing an application to participate, a preliminary tender, a final tender or for presenting or taking part in the negotiations, except for the preparing of the project plan during the negotiations (see ‘Additional information on the procurement procedure’, ‘Further information about the negotiations’).
‘Contracting Authority’ means VTT.
‘Candidate’ means a company or other entity (also a consortium) who sends an application to participate to this public procurement processes.
‘Tenderer’ means a company or other entity (also a consortium) who the Contracting Authority has selected to the negotiations based on the Tenderer’s application to participate. In other words, a ‘Candidate’ becomes a ‘Tenderer’ after the selection of Tenderers to the negotiations, if the said Candidate is selected.
‘Innovation partner’ means a company or other entity (also a consortium) who the Contracting Authority selects as the Contracting Authority’s innovation partner after the negotiations, based on the Tenderer’s final tender.
For further information about the procedure and the schedule, please see section VI): ‘Supplementary information’ and section ‘Other information’.

Objektiiviset kriteerit rajoitetun ehdokasjoukon valitsemiseksi

The Contracting Authority will select three to five Candidates to the negotiations. The Contracting Authority does not have the resources to negotiate with more Candidates.

Further information about the procedure and the schedule
The innovation partnership contract award procedure has the following steps (estimated schedule presented in parenthesis):
1) the contract notice and the invitation to participate (This document):
• the contracting authority publishes the contract notice, the invitation to participate, the preliminary invitation to negotiate and the preliminary invitation to tender,
• the Candidates submit to the Contracting Authority the questions concerning the invitation to participate (25 May 2020),
• the Contracting Authority publishes the answers to the above-mentioned questions (by 29 May 2020),
• the Candidates submit the applications to participate (16 June 2020);
2) the selection of Tenderers to the negotiations, the invitation to negotiate and the preliminary invitation to tender:
• the Contracting Authority selects Tenderers for negotiation stage among the Candidates that have submitted the applications to participate by the deadline (1 July 2020),
• the Contracting Authority submits the invitation to negotiate and the preliminary invitation to tender to the selected Tenderers (1 July 2020),
• the Tenderers submit the preliminary tenders (31 July 2020);
3) the negotiations:
• the Contracting Authority conducts negotiations separately with each Tenderer (10 August 2020-18 September 2020),
• the Contracting Authority sends draft invitation to tender to Tenderers for commenting (During the negotiations),
• the Tenderers send their comments on the draft invitation to tender (During the negotiations);
4) the final invitation to tenders and the final tenders:
• the Contracting Authority submits the final invitation to tender to the Tenderers (ASAP when the negotiations have ended),
• the Tenderers submit to the contracting authority the questions concerning the invitation the invitation to tender,
• the Contracting Authority gives answers to the above mentioned questions,
• the Tenderers submit the final tenders (by mid-October 2020);
5) the evaluation of the tenders, the decision on the innovation partnership and the signing of the contract:
• the Contracting Authority evaluates the tenders (by the end of October 2020),
• the Contracting Authority makes the decision on the selection of the tender(s) with whom the Contracting authority will start the innovation partnership (by the end of October 2020),
• the Contracting Authority and the selected innovation partner(s) sign the contract. (target time: 1 November 2020);
6) the innovation partnership begins:
• the first phase: the development and the delivery of the first phase quantum computer,
• the second phase: the development and the delivery of the second phase quantum computer,
• the third phase: the development and the delivery of the third phase quantum computer.
After each phase the Contracting Authority will decide whether it will continue to the next phase with the innovation partner(s) or terminate the innovation partnership. If more than one innovation partners will be selected, after each development phase the Contracting Authority will also decide with whom of the innovation partners the Contracting Authority will continue to the next phase. When making these decisions, the Contracting Authority may, for example, evaluate how well the milestones for the development phase that is about to end, have been achieved.
During the negotiations between the Contracting Authority and the selected Tenderers the development phase, its milestones and above-mentioned evaluation criteria will be negotiated and defined.
If the Contracting Authority decides to terminate the innovation partnership, it may, at its discretion, choose to start a new competitive bidding for the remaining phases or choose to develop and build the next phase quantum computer(s) as its own work.