Weighting of Award Criteria

The Weighting of Award Criteria is one of the most important pieces of information published in any competitive procurement. Weightings tell bidders exactly how much each evaluation dimension matters to the contracting authority, enabling rational decisions about where to invest time, resource, and competitive positioning.

What is the Weighting of Award Criteria?

Article 67(4) of Directive 2014/24/EU requires contracting authorities to specify the relative weightings they attach to each award criterion in the contract notice or in the procurement documents. Weightings must be published before tenders are submitted and cannot be changed after the process opens.

Weightings are typically expressed as percentages summing to 100%. For example, an authority might specify: quality 60%, price 40%. Quality may be further broken into sub-criteria with their own sub-weights, provided that the sub-criteria weights are also published in advance and are consistent with the top-level weightings. If quality carries 60%, sub-criteria within quality should sum to 60% (or be expressed as proportions of the 60% quality total, which amounts to the same thing).

Where it is not possible to specify precise weights in advance (for example, in complex procurements where the relative importance of different technical dimensions cannot be determined until the authority has seen what the market can offer), the directive permits publication of criteria in descending order of importance as an alternative to percentage weights. The ranking of award criteria approach is the exception rather than the rule and requires a clear justification.

Departing from published weightings during evaluation renders the award legally vulnerable. Courts and review bodies across Europe have set aside contract awards where evaluation panels applied different weightings from those published, even where the departure was accidental or well-intentioned.

Why Weighting of Award Criteria matters for bidders

Weightings are the single most important input to bid strategy. Once you know that quality carries 70% and price 30%, you can calculate the price difference that a strong quality submission can overcome. You can also assess whether investing in a high-quality response is economically rational given your pipeline and the likely competition.

The evaluation matrix used by the evaluation panel converts raw scores on each criterion into weighted scores. Understanding how this arithmetic works lets you focus effort on criteria with high weights and avoid overinvesting in criteria with marginal weights.

Within quality, the distribution of sub-weights across award criteria sub-criteria tells you which aspects of your technical response matter most. A technical merit criterion weighted at 40% with methodology carrying 25% and team CVs carrying 15% warrants very different allocation of writing effort than a simpler 40% technical criterion with a single prompt.

Example

A Portuguese central government ministry procures language translation services. Award criteria are published as: quality 55% (methodology 30%, quality assurance 15%, glossary and terminology management 10%) and price 45%. A bidder who writes a compelling methodology response but submits an incomplete quality assurance section scores well on 30% but poorly on 15%, losing approximately 10 weighted points on quality assurance alone. Understanding the sub-weights before writing the bid would have redirected effort to the highest-impact criterion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can weightings be expressed as ranges rather than fixed percentages?

Yes. Article 67(4) permits weightings to be expressed as a range with an appropriate maximum spread, such as 35-45% for price and 55-65% for quality. The authority must then apply weightings within those ranges consistently. Ranges are less informative for bidders than fixed percentages and should be used only where the authority has a genuine reason for uncertainty about the final balance.

What if the authority does not publish sub-criteria weights?

If top-level criteria weights are published but sub-criteria within a criterion are not, authorities typically state this in the documents. In those cases, sub-criteria are treated as equally weighted within the top-level criterion, or the authority explains how sub-criteria will be aggregated. Where sub-criteria weights would materially affect bid strategy, bidders may ask for clarification during the pre-tender question period.

Are weightings the same across all lots?

Not necessarily. A multi-lot procurement may apply different weightings for different lots where the subject matter of each lot justifies a different balance between price and quality. Check the award criteria section of each lot's specification separately.