Notice Publication ID

A Notice Publication ID is the permanent, unique reference number that TED assigns to each notice when it is accepted and published. It is the primary key for referencing a specific notice publication, enabling precise cross-referencing between notices in the same procurement lifecycle, for example linking a Corrigendum Notice back to the Contract Notice it amends.

What is a Notice Publication ID?

When a contracting authority or its e-procurement system submits a notice to TED, the Publications Office validates the notice against the applicable eForms SDK schema. If validation passes, TED assigns a Notice Publication ID and publishes the notice. This ID takes the form of a structured reference (for example, 2024/S 123-456789 under legacy numbering conventions, or a structured eForms-era identifier under the current regime) that is unique to that specific publication.

The Notice Publication ID serves several functions within the procurement data ecosystem. It is the reference used in Change Notices and Contract Modification Notices to identify the original notice being amended. It is used by auditors and regulators to locate specific procurement records on TED. It is the field that eForms business term BT-738 captures in Result Notices when linking an award back to its originating competition. And it is the stable identifier used by procurement monitoring platforms to track a specific notice over time.

The Notice Publication ID is distinct from the Procurement Procedure Identifier, which links all notices relating to the same underlying procurement procedure across different lifecycle phases. A procurement procedure may generate many notice publications (planning notice, competition notice, one or more change notices, and a result notice), each with its own Notice Publication ID, but all linked by the same procedure identifier.

Under the eForms framework, the structure of Notice Publication IDs has been standardised to improve machine readability and to support the linking of notices across the procurement lifecycle.

Why Notice Publication IDs matter for bidders

Notice Publication IDs are the anchor for tracking specific procurement opportunities. When you save a procurement opportunity, the Notice Publication ID is what uniquely identifies that specific notice. When a Change Notice is published amending the deadline, it references the original notice by its Publication ID, allowing you to link the amendment to the opportunity you are tracking.

For due diligence and debriefing purposes, the Notice Publication ID is essential: when requesting a debrief from a contracting authority after an unsuccessful bid, quoting the specific Notice Publication ID of the competition notice and the result notice avoids ambiguity about which procedure you are referring to.

Example

A Slovenian consultancy submits a tender for a public research contract. The competition was published with Notice Publication ID 2024/S 089-267345. A week after the tender deadline, the authority publishes a Contract Award Notice with a different Notice Publication ID (2024/S 112-334890) that references the original competition's Publication ID in its text and structured fields. The consultancy's procurement platform automatically links the two notices, presenting the full lifecycle of the opportunity in a single view.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Notice Publication ID the same as the procedure reference number used by the contracting authority?

No. The Notice Publication ID is assigned by TED and is universal across the European procurement system. The contracting authority's own reference number (often called a tender reference or contract reference) is an internal identifier that may appear in the notice text but is separate from the TED-assigned Publication ID.

Can two notices have the same Notice Publication ID?

No. Each Notice Publication ID is unique to a single publication event. A corrected or amended notice always receives a new Publication ID; the original notice retains its original ID. Both remain in the TED archive.

How do I search TED by Notice Publication ID?

TED's search interface allows searching by notice number. Procurement platforms typically provide a direct link to the TED record using the Publication ID. The ID can also be used in TED's open data API for programmatic access.