Research and development services and related consultancy services

Tender description

As the Entrusted Entity for implementing the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), ECMWF issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the operational delivery of the European-scale air quality component of CAMS. The production must be based upon a geographically distributed ensemble of between 8 and 10 individual models and a central processing function to deliver 3 streams: — on a daily basis, hourly analyses and forecasts up to + 96h, — with a delay of a few weeks (in order to maximise the number of observations) interim re-analyses will be produced daily with systems frozen in their configuration of January 1st every year, — with a delay of up to 2 years (due to the delay in getting fully validated observations), re-analyses will be processed with frozen systems, which are only updated every few years. All the individual assimilation and forecast systems must be mature, well-validated and operated by their main developers. This aspect is essential so that the operators can directly maintain a steady flow of changes to the numerical codes, in order to include new research developments, to make corrections reflecting findings from verification/validation, and to implement approved changes requested by users. Acquisition of data, monitoring of the production, verification of the outputs, data services and support to the users form the bulk of the activities. We expect that the successful Tenderer will bring together a group of organisations with proven operational capabilities and track record in air quality assimilation and forecasting. The framework agreement will run from 1.10.2018 until 31.12.2021. Tenderers shall provide a detailed implementation plan of proposed activities for the period until 30.6.2021. However, note that by Q4 2019 the level and duration of activities for the full year of 2021 will be communicated by ECMWF to the successful Tenderer based on the Copernicus programme review by the European Commission.