Searching for tenders

Nutcracker has one search for all tenders: TED plus about 20 national portals. You describe what you're looking for in your own words, and it finds matching notices in any European language.

How does the search work?#

Open Search in the header (/tenders) and type what you sell or look for, for example "patient information system" or "Reinigung von Büros".

Nutcracker searches by meaning (semantic search combined with keyword matching). It finds tenders that use different wording or another language, so you don't need keyword lists or translations.

• With a search text, results are sorted by best match.

• Without one, you see the latest notices first.

• Use ← Previous / Next → to page through results.

Filters#

Filters narrow the results. Selected filters show as chips you can remove one by one, or all at once with "Clear all".

Country

a searchable list with flags. None selected means all countries.

Sector

13 sectors built from CPV divisions, e.g. IT & telecoms or Construction & real estate.

Notice type

Contract notice, Award notice, Prior information, Modification, National notice.

Source

TED or a specific national portal.

CPV codes

type a product or a code; any level works (72, 45, 90910000).

Open for tenders only

hides tenders whose deadline has passed.

Which notice type should I pick?#

• Contract notice: an open call for bids. This is what you usually want.

• Award notice: who won and at what price. Useful for market research.

• Prior information: a planned purchase, published before the actual tender.

• Modification: a change to a contract that's already been awarded.

Search links you can bookmark#

Every search has its own address. Common combinations get readable links:

• /tenders/finland/open

• /tenders/spain/construction/open

• /tenders/germany/it-telecoms/contract-notices/open

Free text goes in ?q=, for example /tenders/finland/open?q=snow%20removal.

Reading the results#

Each result card shows the sector colour and icon, chips for notice type, country and source, the title, the buyer, the estimated value and a "N days left" countdown. The countdown turns orange when 7 days or fewer are left. Award notices show the winner and the value.

From a card you can bookmark (☆), Add to pipeline and Share with colleagues (the last two need Pro).

The notice page#

Click a result to open its notice page.

The notice page shows:

• the header: sector, notice type, country, source, title, buyer, value and deadline countdown;

• facts: deadline, estimated value, contract type, procedure, main CPV, regions, language and publication date;

• the full description in the buyer's own language (an AI summary and an English translation are coming soon);

• Lots, each with its own title, value and deadline;

• for award notices: Awarded to, the awarded value and how many tenders were received;

• the Buyer, with a link to its profile;

• Tender documents: a link to where the buyer publishes them, and View on TED for the original notice;

• Related: similar open tenders, similar awarded contracts, other notices in the same procedure and the buyer's earlier tenders.

Research buyers and competitors#

Buyers & suppliers (/organizations) lets you look up any public buyer or company. A profile shows tenders published, contracts won, usual suppliers or buyers and figures by year. Categories (/categories) show volumes and active buyers per CPV category, and Popular topics (/topics) are ready-made searches.

From search to alerts#

Once a search returns what you want, click Save search & get alerts. You'll hear about new matches every hour instead of searching again.