How to find public tenders in the EU: TED, national portals and alerts

You can't win a tender you never see. The hard part for most small companies isn't writing the bid, it's spotting the right opportunities early enough to prepare a good one. Public tenders are spread across dozens of portals, written in many languages and classified with codes that don't always match how you describe your business.

This guide shows where tenders are published and how to build a routine that brings the relevant ones to you.

Where are public tenders published?#

TED: every tender above the EU thresholds#

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily, ted.europa.eu) is the EU's official publication for public procurement. Every contract above the EU thresholds from all member states, plus the EEA countries, must be published there. TED publishes new notices every working day and is free to use.

Since 25 October 2023, TED notices use eForms, a structured EU data standard. That makes notices more consistent: the same fields for the buyer, the lots, the estimated value, the deadline and the award criteria, whichever country they come from.

National portals: also the smaller tenders#

Most tenders by number are below the EU thresholds, and those appear only nationally. Each country has its own portal, for example:

Above-threshold tenders usually appear in both places, the national portal and TED, so you'll see some duplicates if you watch both.

Buyer platforms and regional sites#

In some countries (Germany and Italy especially) buyers use many different e-procurement platforms. The notice tells you which one holds the documents. Very small purchases may only be on a municipality's own website, or not published at all: below national limits, buyers can often ask a few suppliers directly.

What kinds of notices will you see?#

Not every notice is a call for bids. The main types are:

• Prior information notice (PIN): an announcement of a planned purchase. Sometimes it's used to shorten deadlines later, sometimes as the call for competition itself.

• Contract notice: the actual call for bids, with the deadline and documents.

• Contract award notice: the result. Who won, at what price and how many bids were received.

• Corrigendum or change notice: a correction, for example a new deadline.

• Modification notice: a change to a contract that is already running.

Award notices are underrated. They show who your competitors are, what prices win, and when contracts will end.

How to search effectively#

Search for what the buyer buys, not what you are#

Buyers describe the thing they need: "winter road maintenance", "case management system", "cleaning of school buildings". Your company description ("full-service facility partner") rarely appears in a notice. List five to ten phrases a buyer would use for what you deliver.

Use CPV codes, but don't rely on them alone#

Every notice carries at least one CPV code, a number from the EU's Common Procurement Vocabulary. Searching by code catches notices in any language, but buyers don't always pick the code you'd expect. A software tender might be coded as 72000000 (IT services), 48000000 (software packages) or something more specific. Combine codes with keywords for the best coverage.

Search across languages#

A Polish hospital publishes in Polish, a Belgian municipality in French or Dutch. TED gives machine-translated summaries, but keyword searches in English will miss many national notices. Either search in each language or use a tool that matches by meaning.

Filter by what you can actually deliver#

Narrow by country or region (NUTS codes show where the work is performed), by contract type and by notice type. If you're looking for things to bid on now, show only contract notices that are still open.

Set up alerts so tenders come to you#

Searching by hand every morning doesn't scale. Most portals, including TED and many national portals, let you save a search and receive e-mails when new notices match.

1. 1

   Write down your search profile

   the phrases buyers use, two or three CPV divisions, the countries you serve and a minimum value worth your time.

2. 2

   Create a saved search

   for each distinct line of business, rather than one giant search.

3. 3

   Choose a rhythm

   instant alerts for fast-moving categories, a daily digest for everything else.

4. 4

   Review weekly

   if you get noise, tighten the words; if you get nothing, broaden the codes.

Find tenders before they're published#

The best bids are often prepared before the tender appears. Three ways to get ahead:

• Prior information notices and market consultations. A PIN tells you a buyer plans to buy. Market consultations let you explain what the market can offer, as long as everyone gets the same information.

• Expiring contracts. Award notices often state the contract's duration. If a four-year cleaning contract was signed in spring 2023, expect a new tender around 2026–2027.

• Buyer profiles. Follow the procurement plans and past tenders of the buyers you care about. Many publish annual procurement plans.

Example: a small cleaning company#

A cleaning company in Utrecht serves offices and schools in its region. Its saved searches cover CPV 90910000 (cleaning services) and the phrase "schoonmaak" for the Netherlands, filtered to its province. It also looks up award notices from the last four years for schools and municipalities nearby and notes when each contract ends. Two of those contracts end next year, so the company contacts the buyers during their market consultations and is ready when the tenders open.

Common mistakes when looking for tenders#

• Watching only TED. You'll miss most below-threshold tenders, which are often the best fit for small companies.

• Searching only in English. National notices are in the national language.

• Too-narrow CPV codes. Buyers often pick a broad or unexpected code.

• Finding tenders too late. If you see a tender a week before the deadline, you probably can't write a strong bid. Alerts and contract-end tracking buy you time.

Next steps#

Once a promising tender lands in your inbox, the next skill is reading the notice quickly and deciding whether to bid.