Requirement Title: Specialized Off-site Contractors for NATO Infrastructure Services Centre (NISC) on Information Exchange Requirements (IERs)
Location of Performance: Off-site
Cost Not to Exceed (NTE): 2026 BASE NTE: 62,604 EUR
2027 OPTION
Period of performance: 2026 BASE period: 1 April 2026
Evaluation Methodology: Lowest Priced Technically Compliant
Evaluation Methodology: for BV (if applicable): N/A
Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET
Special Terms and Conditions: See Annex A
Please do NOT apply for any NATO contract positions unless you meet ALL the following criteria:
- Current National or NATO SECRET clearance
- Nationality of one of the NATO member countries
- Current work visa for the specific location if applying for an in-country position
Bidding Instruction:
Technical Proposal:
- Submission of Curriculum Vitae (CV) and attestation of the assigned resources for the project that will compose the Contractor Team. Each CV shall provide evidences for each of the listed professional experiences relevant to the Statement of Work (SOW) provided in Part II.
- As there are Travel Requirements where two experts are required in person, the bidder has to propose a team of two Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) that execute the work and produce the Deliverables in the period of performance of this RFQ. The Purchaser may temporarily accommodate Contractor Team personnel at Purchaser facilities.
- The bidder should provide a table indicating the Deliverables each person of the proposed Contractor Team expects to contribute in.
- The NATO Infrastructure Services Centre (NISC) at the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) has a requirement for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to be embedded with a team of NCI Agency staff, the NCIA Team, in support of its Information Exchange Requirements (IERs) Programme of Work (POW) for 2026. The part of the 2026 NCIA POW to be covered within this RFQ will be mainly focused on IERs and their integration
in the NATO Platform of Harmonized IERs (PIER). - The required SMEs, composing the Contractor Team, will supplement the current level of expertise within the NCIA Team. The Contractors requested in this RFQ must be ready to quickly integrate with the current NCIA Team, taking up duties and responsibilities. The work required will be based on Intended Business Outputs and Outcomes, and defined Deliverables, as described in the following Sections.
The Scope of this RFQ has several intended business Outputs and Outcomes, which are identified to provide technical support for the 2026 NCIA POW. Outputs and Outcomes will contribute to different Deliverables.
The Contractor Team is requested to participate and provide expert support to the NCIA Team.
The Skills provided by the Contractor Team should support the intended business Outputs and Outcomes, extending and complementing the NCIA Team.
The following Outputs and Outcomes are identified for the 2026 BASE and 2027 OPTION:
- A key task of the Data Strategy for the Alliance (DaSA) is the standardization of operational IERs, which specify the need for information exchange between parties. DaSA mandates a platform based on 'Semantic Wiki' technology (similar to that used in the Federated Mission Network (FMN)) to manage and harmonize IERs. A Semantic Wiki is a collaborative website that digitally structures information, enabling advanced analysis by specific criteria rather than simple text searches. An initial version of this platform, named NATO PIER, has been developed through voluntary specialist contributions to fulfill DaSA objectives on this regard. Further efforts are needed to populate this collaborative website.
- The requested work is to review the current content of the PIER Wiki and its data model. The contractor should have experience with it, to normalize the list of IERs within the MC 0593, MC 0640 and FMN Spiral 6, organizing these lists as per the PIER data model. Furthermore, the set of NATO Allied Command Operations (ACO) IERs is to be analyzed to identify the optimal mapping between the units included in the ACO IERs with the generic organizations in PIER. The optimal mapping can be one-to-many, but shall provide the largest number of alignments between PIER IERs and ACO IERs.
Three mission threads that incorporates Multi-Domain Operation (MDO) aspects (orchestration of military forces and synchronization with civilian instruments of power are to be included in PIER. The three mission threads are to be aligned with NATO Standard Agreements (STANAGs) as follows:
- Joint Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) processes, such as the Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (TCPED) process of AIntP-14, include commercial space-based collection used for cueing military assets).
- Dynamic Targeting under F2T2E2A process of AJP-3.9, including simultaneous joint strike from all domain.
- Joint fires mission, based on FMN Procedural Instructions, where support is provided to a civilian convoy that has been ambushed.
The services provided under this SOW require that Contractors have a valid NATO SECRET Security Clearance. The expected classification level of the Deliverables is NATO UNCLASSIFIED. However, in some particular circumstances, it might be decided that a part of the Deliverables will be classified as NATO RESTRICTED. The execution of duties may require the Contractors to access information, as well as CIS systems, classified up to NATO SECRET.
Period of Performance:
The service for the 2026 BASE Contract is expected to start as soon as possible, but no later than 01st April 2026. If the 2026 OPTION is exercised, the work for the 2026 OPTION Contract is expected to start no later than 01st May 2026. The work for any of these Contracts will end no later than 31st December 2026.
If the 2027 OPTION is exercised, the period of performance for the 2027 OPTION Contract is expected from 01st January 2027 to 30th March 2027.
Practical Arrangements:
This is a Completion-type contract that requires Contractors with complementary skills to complete the work.
The Contractor will provide the service off-site at its own office. The Contractor is responsible for office space and computer / CIS equipment at their own facilities. Office space and computer / CIS equipment will be provided at the NCI Agency The Hague (The Netherlands) for access during scheduled visits (if any) for the duration of the visits during this Contract.
The Contractor will regularly coordinate work with the NCIA Team using NCIA Team procedures already established. This requires remote tele-/video-conferences.
Qualification and Expertise:
The expertise and knowledge needed within the Contractor Team to deliver the work and Deliverables requested in this RFQ is provided below. Considering the limited timeline,ambition of the work and participation of two Contractor Team members in one of the Travels to attend a meeting, two analysts are required. The expertise can be hold by the two Contractor Team members required, or partially by one and partially by the other to complete the full set
of requirements.
The services to be provided under this RFQ requires the skills found in:
- Experienced business architects / business analysts / operational analysts who have worked in a multinational military environment, with a minimum of 8 years of sound experience in these fields
- Demonstrated good knowledge of the Federated Mission Networking (FMN) and the C3 Taxonomy.
- Demonstrated knowledge of Allied Joint Doctrine and similar national doctrine from a NATO Nation.
- Proven expertise in the identification and definition of Information Exchange Requirements (IERs).
- Expertise of NATOs FMN Concept and Governance Framework.
- Knowledge of information exchange and interoperability standards.
- Knowledge of Governance & Change Management processes to assist in establishing and managing data governance models for version control and standardization.
- Expert knowledge of Information Architecture and systems engineering techniques.
- Demonstrated expertise in Taxonomy Development & Management, including the design of hierarchical classification structures, controlled vocabularies, and/or metadata schemas in the military domain.
- Ability to report/brief material tailored to the requirements of senior military stakeholders and decision makers.
- Proven Data Analysis expertise to query, analyse, and validate data structures supporting taxonomy development.
- Demonstrated ability to work in an international team.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in the English Language, both writing and speaking.
- Demonstrated ability with Wiki and Issue Tracking Tools.