OCDS Award Stage

When a contracting authority completes its evaluation and selects a winning bid, it is legally required across Europe to publish the outcome. The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) captures this outcome in the award stage, producing structured data that is far more analytically useful than a traditional contract award notice in PDF form.

What is the OCDS Award Stage?

An award-stage release documents the result of a procurement evaluation. The key fields published at this stage include:

• Award status (active, cancelled, unsuccessful).
• The identity of the awarded supplier or suppliers, including legal name, registered address, and where available a company registration number or VAT identifier.
• The awarded contract value and currency.
• The date the award decision was made.
• The number of bids received (often required under Directive 2014/24/EU for above-threshold contracts).
• The lowest and highest bid values received (required for above-threshold OJEU publications under standard eForms).
• The reasons for the award, where provided.

Multiple awards can be published under a single contracting process (for example, when a framework agreement has multiple lots awarded to different suppliers). Each award is a distinct object within the release, linked by the same contracting process identifier.

Under EU procurement rules, award notices for above-threshold contracts must be published in the Official Journal within 30 days of the award decision. TED publishes OCDS-compatible award data drawn from these notices. The UK's Find a Tender service similarly publishes contract award notices for above-threshold contracts under the Procurement Act 2023.

Why the OCDS award stage matters for bidders

Award-stage data is the primary source of competitive intelligence in public procurement. By analysing award releases, suppliers can:

• Identify which competitors have won contracts in a given category, with which buyers, and at what values.
• Benchmark their own pricing against awarded values to assess whether they are competitive.
• Track incumbent suppliers and estimate contract renewal timelines based on contract durations.
• Detect patterns in a buyer's award behaviour, such as a preference for certain supplier sizes or consistent award to a single incumbent.

Award data also feeds red flag analysis. Unusual patterns such as awards consistently just below competition thresholds, very low bid counts, or repeated awards to the same supplier without any competitive process are detectable through systematic analysis of OCDS award releases.

Example

A Spanish government ministry publishes an award release for a translation services framework. The release shows four lots awarded to three different suppliers, bid counts of 7, 12, 4, and 9 per lot, and awarded values ranging from EUR 120,000 to EUR 450,000. A language services company reviewing this data can calculate the average awarded rate per lot, identify which competitor won the highest-value lot, and plan its approach for the next renewal cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the awarded value the same as the final contract value?

Not always. The award stage records the value at the point of award, which is typically the accepted bid price. The actual amount paid over the contract lifetime may differ due to amendments, variations, or performance-based adjustments, which are captured in the contract stage and implementation stage releases.

What if a procurement is unsuccessful (no award made)?

An award release with status "unsuccessful" is issued when no bids were received, all bids were rejected, or the procurement was cancelled after evaluation. This is valuable data for market analysis: repeated unsuccessful procurements in a category may indicate that requirements are too restrictive or that the market is not engaged.

Can I find out why my bid was unsuccessful from OCDS data?

OCDS award releases may include reasons for award decisions, but the level of detail varies by publisher and national practice. Under Directive 2014/24/EU, unsuccessful bidders have the right to request a debriefing from the contracting authority. The OCDS data may give you enough context to frame those questions effectively.