GRC Nominal Operations Support, Infrastructure Development, Evolution, and Maintenance

The subject of this procurement is to provide services to the Galileo Reference Centre (GRC) that cover:

• GRC Nominal operations support;

• GRC Infrastructure development and evolution; and

• GRC maintenance.

Disclaimer: the description given below is indicative and is aimed at outlining the concept of the contemplated procurement contract in broad terms, hence it may be further amended before the procurement launch. The primary mission of the Galileo Reference Centre (GRC) is to perform independent monitoring and

Assessment of the Galileo Services and to report it to the relevant stakeholders. It provides the EUSPA, as the Galileo service provider, with an independent means of evaluating the performance of the quality of the signals in space and the Galileo service operator. It is fully independent of the system and the Galileo service operator with respect to both the technical solution (hardware, software, reference products, etc.) and operations. The GRC also assesses the compatibility and interoperability between Galileo and other GNSS. The GRC comprises a core facility, located in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, and integrates data from cooperating entities from the EU Member States (MS), Norway and Switzerland. The current version of the GRC operational infrastructure (GRC v1) is operational and MS contributions are being provided in the frame of framework partnership agreements established between the GSA and respective MS. The scope of this procurement focusses on the provision of the following:

GRC Nominal operations support:

The nominal operations support of the GRC involves performing the routine generation of the reference data (orbits, clocks, atmosphere, etc.) for use in further processing tasks performed by the GRC operations team from the contracting authority. This may involve reprocessing of past periods to assist in investigations and testing/comparison of new software developments. The support to nominal operations will include the operational validation and subsequent nominal operation of the newly evolved GRC core infrastructure releases, developed within this contract. During the execution of the contract, it is foreseen that the GRC facility will move to a 24/7 manned operation.

GRC Infrastructure Development and Evolution:

The GRC Infrastructure requires to undergo a series of successive developments and evolutions so as to support the needs of the Programme. This will not only foresee evolutions to the monitoring functionality for existing Galileo (and other GNSS) services but also include development of completely new functionality to support the ability of monitoring new services such as inter alia the Commercial Authentication Services (CAS), Early Warning Service (EWS), Beacon Command Services (BCS), Ionospheric Prediction Capability (IPC), and Safety of Life (SoL) Services. Each new release of the core infrastructure will require to undergo design, qualification, validation, and acceptance milestones.

GRC Maintenance:

During the execution of the contract, each GRC core infrastructure release that is in operation requires to be maintained for its operational lifetime. This will include the version in operation at the start of the contract. Proper maintenance will include the provision of Integrated Logistics Services (ILS) and Obsolescence activities. Additionally, the Operations procedures will be subject to update to ensure correctness over time.

The estimated value, scope of the procurement, division into lots and date of publication of the contract notice are only indicative and may be subject to changes.