EU Funding

Selection criteria for a software vendor in a funded project

In a funded project the wrong vendor does not merely cost money: it costs contractual deadlines and expenses that can no longer be reimbursed.

Northdan Soft is a software supplier, not a funding consultancy, and is not affiliated with any managing authority or development agency. Programme information is indicative — always check the conditions in the programme's official applicant guide.

Picking a software vendor for a grant-funded project is decided on different criteria than an ordinary IT purchase, and on POCIDIF Action 2.1 several of those criteria are written into the applicant guide approved by Order MIPE no. 965/23.06.2026. The guide requires a minimum of two price offers, signed and dated by the issuer, for every budgeted cost, plus a centraliser of all offers drawn up on the model in Annex 7. It also states that evaluators check the companies issuing offers against their registered field of activity for the services quoted, and that costs suspected of formal offers between the applicant and those companies — or the party that prepared the submission documentation — are declared ineligible, the project scoring zero on that sub-criterion. Two consequences follow for a buyer. The shortlist is built differently: it matters not only who delivers well, but who can prove the quoted service is genuinely their line of business, who issues a dated and verifiable offer, and who is not already writing the dossier. And no supplier can be the whole technical team — the same guide bars fully outsourcing the technical activities and requires at least 20% of the aid allocated to the core activity to be carried out by the beneficiary's own staff. Northdan takes part strictly as a software vendor and prefers buyers who apply that filter to every bidder.

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How we help

An offer in the form the guide requires

Signed, dated, carrying the issuer's identification details, with line items that copy straight into the offer centraliser modelled on Annex 7.

A registered field of activity that matches the quote

Evaluators compare a bidder's registered activity against what it quoted; we quote software development and implementation, which is what we execute.

Clear separation from writing the dossier

We do not draft the financing application for a project we quote on, because the guide treats the overlap of those two roles as grounds for losing points.

Source code, documentation and credentials at acceptance

Handover happens at acceptance, not at the end of the sustainability period, so any other team can take the solution over if the relationship ends.

The checklist to run before you sign

Ask every bidder four concrete things. One: how many funded projects it has carried through to final reimbursement, and what it can show from them. Two: who exactly will do the work — an in-house team or subcontractors — and how many projects run in parallel. Three: what your company receives at acceptance: source code, documentation, usage rights, data export. Four: what maintenance commitment it offers for the sustainability period, which on POCIDIF Action 2.1 runs for three years from the final payment or from the completion of implementation, whichever comes last.

Then ask for the answers in writing, in the offer or in the contract. A vendor that avoids putting code handover or a delivery date on paper has already told you everything you needed to know about it.

The warning signs most often ignored

A spectacularly low price is the first, and not only for commercial reasons: under POCIDIF Action 2.1 the reasonableness of costs is verified independently by evaluators against prices existing on the market, so an abnormally low quote draws attention in both directions. The second signal: an offer that arrives suspiciously fast, with no question about your company's processes — nobody can honestly size a solution without understanding the operation it serves.

The third: refusal to deliver in stages. In a funded project, delivery in tranches with interim acceptance is your safety net — you see real progress and accumulate documents along the way. A vendor that wants everything paid and handed over at the very end concentrates the entire project risk into its final week.

Put us through the same test

We do not ask you to trust us on our word: put the same four questions to us and compare the written answers with those of the other bidders. Where your call requires a competitive selection procedure, our offer arrives structured on comparable line items, so the evaluation is fair and can be documented.

One limit we state before quoting rather than at contracting: on POCIDIF Action 2.1 the guide does not allow the technical activities to be fully outsourced, so a share of the work has to sit with your own staff and the implementation team must include a technical coordinator and at least two technical experts. That caps how much of the budget any external supplier can hold, ours included. The final choice belongs to you and, procedurally, to the rules of the call; we simply show up for the test.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the vendor's reimbursement experience matter, not just the software?

Because in a funded project half the vendor's obligations are documentary: invoices correlated with the approved budget, acceptance per functionality, reports for monitoring. A technically excellent developer who is a stranger to those circuits can block your reimbursements with badly drafted paperwork.

Do I really need the source code if my company has no programmers?

Yes — code handed over is your insurance policy, not a technical whim. If the vendor disappears or the relationship sours, any other team can take the solution over; without the code you are captive for the whole sustainability period, precisely the interval in which you are obliged to keep the investment running.

Can I simply pick the vendor I like if the project is funded?

Only if the rules of the call allow it: many programmes require private beneficiaries to run a competitive procedure, with a request for offers and documented award criteria. Check the procedure applicable to your call before making any firm promise to a bidder.

What guarantees should the vendor offer after acceptance?

At a minimum: correction of defects discovered after delivery, over a warranty period set in the contract, plus the availability of a maintenance agreement for the project's sustainability period. A guarantee that exists only verbally does not exist — ask for it as an annex to the supply contract.