Award Criteria Sub-Criteria

Award Criteria Sub-Criteria are the detailed building blocks within a top-level award criterion. They allow contracting authorities to move beyond broad categories like "quality" and specify precisely which aspects of quality will be assessed and how much each aspect will contribute to the overall score.

What are Award Criteria Sub-Criteria?

European procurement directives do not use the term "sub-criteria" as a defined legal concept, but the principles established by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in cases such as Lianakis (C-532/06) and subsequent decisions establish clear rules about how sub-criteria may be used.

Sub-criteria must be published before tenders are submitted. The CJEU held in Lianakis that an authority cannot introduce sub-criteria or their weightings after the tender period has opened, as this would alter the published evaluation framework and undermine the transparency and equal treatment principles enshrined in Article 18 of Directive 2014/24/EU. Publishing sub-criteria after tenders are received but before evaluation is similarly prohibited.

Sub-criteria must be consistent with the top-level award criteria. A sub-criterion that assesses something unrelated to the top-level criterion it falls under would be legally questionable. For example, a sub-criterion assessing a supplier's financial stability under a "technical quality" top-level criterion conflates selection (financial capacity) with award (technical quality), which is a category error under EU procurement law.

Sub-criteria weights must sum to equal the weight of the parent criterion. If quality criteria carry 60% overall, and quality is broken into methodology (sub-criterion A), team competence (sub-criterion B), and quality assurance (sub-criterion C), the sub-criterion weights should sum to 60% (or to 100% of the quality dimension, with the overall 60% applied as a multiplier). Both approaches are acceptable provided they are explained clearly in the procurement documents.

The evaluation matrix used by the evaluation panel typically presents sub-criteria as the rows of a scoring grid, with each sub-criterion scored individually and then combined using the published sub-criterion weights to produce the top-level criterion score.

Why Award Criteria Sub-Criteria matter for bidders

Sub-criteria are the most actionable piece of evaluation information available to a bidder. They tell you exactly which aspects of your bid need to be strong and how much each aspect is worth. A methodology sub-criterion weighted at 25% warrants far more investment in writing, evidence-gathering, and review than a sub-criterion on tool certification weighted at 5%.

Bidders should structure their responses to address each sub-criterion explicitly and separately, rather than writing a single continuous narrative that blends multiple sub-criteria together. Evaluation panels scoring sub-criteria independently will find it easier to award high scores to responses that are clearly organised around the sub-criterion structure.

Where scoring methodology descriptors are published at the sub-criterion level (rather than just the top-level criterion level), use them directly as a checklist for your response.

Example

A Swedish transport authority procures rail maintenance services with a technical merit top-level criterion carrying 50%. Within technical merit, sub-criteria are: maintenance methodology 20%, workforce competence and training 15%, and safety management system 15%. A bidder who invests heavily in the methodology section but provides only a brief workforce competence response earns a strong 20% sub-criterion score but loses ground on the 15% workforce sub-criterion. Knowing the sub-criterion split before writing the bid would have directed more effort to the workforce section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can sub-criteria themselves have sub-sub-criteria?

Technically yes, but this is unusual and creates evaluation complexity. Very deep criterion structures are difficult for panels to score consistently and difficult for bidders to address clearly. Procurement guidance in most European countries recommends a maximum of two levels (top-level criteria and one layer of sub-criteria) for most procurements.

What if I disagree with how sub-criteria weights are distributed?

You may raise questions during the clarification period before tenders are submitted. If you believe a sub-criterion weight is disproportionate or that an important aspect of the requirement has been omitted, a pre-tender question is the appropriate route. Once the procurement documents are finalised and the tender period opens, the sub-criteria and their weights are fixed.

Do sub-criteria need to be published in the contract notice?

Not necessarily. Article 67(4) of Directive 2014/24/EU requires that award criteria and their weightings are published in the contract notice or the procurement documents. Sub-criteria may be detailed in the invitation to tender or the specification, provided they are available to all bidders before the submission deadline.