Eligibility criteria

Minimum requirements on the company itself: experience, financial standing, organization.

Eligibility criteria assess whether a bidder has the technical, financial, and organizational capacity to carry out the contract. They apply to the company rather than to the bid itself.

Typical eligibility criteria cover references from comparable projects, financial standing, certifications, or key staff. The check is binary: met or not met. Missing a minimum criterion leads to exclusion, no matter how strong the rest of the bid is.

Eligibility criteria should not be confused with award criteria, which score the quality of the bid once eligibility is already established.