a) Participation is open to interested legal and natural persons - participating either individually or in a grouping (consortium) of tenderers. Participation is also open to international organisations. 

b) No more than one tender can be submitted by a natural or legal person, whatever the form of participation (as an individual legal entity or as leader or member of a consortium submitting a tender). In the event that a natural or legal person submits more than one tender, all tenders in which that person has participated will be excluded. 

c) Natural or legal persons are not entitled to participate in this tender procedure or be awarded a contract if they are in any of the exclusion situations stipulated under Article 57 of European Parliament and Council Directive 2014/24/EU, or if they are target of a sanction or restrictive measure 1 imposed or administered by the European Union; 2 or the United States of America. 

Tenderers shall be excluded from this tender procedure if any of the mandatory exclusion grounds for rejection apply. 

Tenderers may be excluded from this tender procedure if any of the discretionary grounds for exclusion apply. 

Tenderers shall be excluded from this tender procedure if they have been recorded in the Early Detection and Exclusion System of the EC. 

Tenderers shall be excluded from this tender procedure if they have been recorded on the list of EIB Exclusion Decisions. 

d) Subcontracting is allowed. If the tenderer intends to subcontract one or more parts of the contracted services, this must be clearly stated in the Organisation and Methodology and the Tender submission form. 

e) Even if subcontracting is allowed, the tenderer must intend to provide the majority of the services itself except for the tasks entrusted to experts either as natural persons or single-member companies. In this respect, note that the individual experts recruited for the project as key or non-key experts are not regarded as sub-contractors. 

f) Subcontractors cannot be in any of the exclusion situations stipulated under Article 57 of European Parliament and Council Directive 2014/24/EU or target of a sanction or restrictive measure imposed or administered by the European Union; or the United States of America. 

g) Whenever requested by the Contracting Authority, the successful tenderer/contractor shall submit a declaration from the intended subcontractor that it is not in one of the exclusion situations. In the event of doubt, the Contracting Authority shall request documentary evidence that the subcontractor is not in a situation of exclusion. 

h) If the offer includes subcontracting, it is recommended that the contractual arrangements between the tenderer and its subcontractors include mediation, according to national and international practices, as a method of dispute resolution. 

## 5. Selection criteria 

