Innovation is a key to future and competitive capability - this applies not only to companies but especially to the Deutsche Bundesbank. Given the speed of technological developments and the increasing necessity for efficient and agile processes, the establishment of a powerful innovation management system is essential. Moreover, digitization presents significant challenges for public institutions but simultaneously offers enormous opportunities for modernization and efficiency enhancement. This framework contract aims to ensure long-term, structured, and needs-based support that guarantees continuous innovation capability. This enables: - Better acceptance and successful implementation of innovations within the organization. - Testing and targeted use of new technologies through prototyping and proofs of concept (PoC). - Effective networking and knowledge exchange within the organization as well as with external partners. - Sustainable anchoring of an innovation culture through change management and communication. The previous efforts - including major infrastructure projects such as the establishment of an integrated data and analytics platform (IDA) or the program "Journey to Cloud" (J2C), which provides the technical infrastructure and organizational conditions for the provision and utilization of cloud services - need to be continued and intensified within the core services of the Deutsche Bundesbank. For the digitization process, the bank has adopted four principles that provide orientation during the transformation and form a basis for this framework contract: i. Digital-by-default, ii. User-centricity, iii. Co-creation, iv. Once-only. Strengthened by anchoring innovation management in organizational units (e.g., the Team of Teams InnoWerk in the Central Department of Strategy & Innovation, the Department B 9 Innovation and Evaluation in the Central Banking Supervision area) and forming specialized teams such as a team supporting the use of artificial intelligence (e.g., the Service & Community Center for Artificial Intelligence - SCAI) or the Competence Center Processes (KPro), digitization and innovation permeate the organization. The expansion of the national and international innovation ecosystem can be seen as another pillar. The projects of the Eurosystem around the digital euro or the initiative of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to establish a global innovation network (Network of BIS Innovation Hubs) deserve special mention here. The hub for the Eurosystem is operated by the Bundesbank in close partnership and shared responsibility with Banque de France in Frankfurt and Paris. Furthermore, a broad understanding of innovation has established itself within the Deutsche Bundesbank: it is not only technology-oriented but also relates to modern ways of working and the changing culture in which challenges are addressed and solutions developed. The range of innovation spans from smaller, continuous, process-oriented improvements to the exploration of future technologies and their impacts on central banking, as well as the introduction of large infrastructure applications or the comprehensive redesign of service offerings. In addition to the previous engagement with technology-driven trends (as part of the Bundesbank Trend Radar), future observations of market and environmental developments will increasingly occur through strategic foresight methods (including scenario analyses). The aim is to fully promote innovation and digitization tailored to the needs of a central bank, thus implementing the overall bank strategy and transformation.

LOT-0001
(Strategic) Further development and support of innovation management.
The subject of this lot is to strengthen the long-term and sustainable innovative capacity of the Bundesbank. The need primarily lies in the overarching further development and support of innovation management in general and specifically in consulting on strategic issues in the context of innovations and the generation of knowledge about future trends and technologies, especially those relevant for central banks. Specifically, the following fundamental needs and areas of action currently arise. These can be further detailed as further steps are taken. - Development of an innovation strategy including a management methodology, always in coordination with the overall bank strategy. - Further development of internal processes and capabilities of innovation management, including the identification of gaps in innovation capacity. - Establishment of meaningful success measurements (e.g., based on the Digital Maturity Model) to make the maturity level of digitization and the penetration of innovations measurable. - Consulting on the implementation of a permanent, systematic, and participatory process to track societal trends with strategic relevance for the Bundesbank and its core services, as well as methodological support for in-depth interdisciplinary scenario analyses. Consideration must be given to existing approaches or tools and their processes. - Scanning of innovation-driving trends and influences in various areas, such as digitization, demographic change, sustainability, and general challenges of the VUCA world or based on PESTEL categories. - Building and further developing a vibrant ecosystem of partners to sustainably leverage the potential of open-source and integrate it into the innovation work of the Bundesbank. - Conceptualizing, planning, and conducting innovation workshops supported by the use of creative methods (e.g., creative micro and macro methods, innovation digging, visual facilitating, value proposition design, etc.), possibly supplemented by low-fidelity prototyping (e.g., through Lego Serious Play, paper prototyping, etc.), but especially applied to overarching themes. The conditions of the workshops may vary for each individual call: o Small, medium, or even large groups from various fields or hierarchy levels of the bank. o Conducted remotely, hybrid, or in person. o Workshop duration from half a day to a planned series of workshops. - Support in linking internal innovation efforts with innovation governance in the ESCB and BISIH to secure the Bundesbank's position. Framework agreement with up to three contractors (economic participants) for the lot: - Lot 1: (Strategic) further development and support of innovation management. The contracting authority expressly reserves the right to conclude the framework contract with less than three economic participants per lot, provided that not enough suitable and/or qualified offers can be determined in competition per lot. The awarding of individual contracts per lot is based on a framework agreement in accordance with § 21 (4) No. 1 of the regulation on the awarding of public contracts (VgV). Depending on the support needs that arise, work packages will be created and commissioned (individual order). These must be processed within a period set by the contracting authority. The specific services (work packages) will be communicated to the framework agreement partners at least two weeks before the start of the services in writing via email. The order is made as needed in hours or person-days (1 person-day corresponds to 8 hours without breaks). Lot 1: The order of individual contracts is based on the economically most advantageous offer in the respective lot ("cascade principle"). The 3 successful bidders are placed in a fixed ranking based on the evaluation results of the procurement process, from which orders are placed. This means that no additional mini-competition takes place. If there is a need, the bidder in position 1 will be invited to fulfill the services first. If this bidder does not respond with confirmation of the request within 3 working days or does not provide corresponding information on whether the order will be accepted or can be executed within 5 working days after the request, or declines the request, the next-ranked bidder will be contacted - and so on until a bidder can take over the service. In this case, the contracting authority assigns the next best bidder in the respective lot according to the criterion of “economy”. The volume of the framework contract over the maximum total contract term amounts to a total of up to 7,475 person-days (PT - consisting of an initial planning status of up to 6,500 PT plus an optional contingent of up to a further 975 PT / ~15%) for the mentioned services in Lot 1.

LOT-0002
Communication and event consulting.
An important key to success for innovation and digitization is the support through communication measures and enabling participation, even outside of large projects. In addition to the formats established at the Bundesbank for imparting information in the context of digitization and innovation (e.g., "Digitization in Focus", "Future Tech Talks"), active participation of employees should be facilitated. The need encompasses the ideation, conceptualization, and implementation of participatory formats for actively supporting changes driven by digitization and innovation. This may involve marketing measures to generate attention. The focus is on such formats that enable the experience of digitization and innovation and thus promote active engagement and participation of employees. The establishment of committee structures for governance or reporting is excluded from consideration. It should specifically make use of existing and new partnerships from the Bundesbank's innovation ecosystem (e.g., TechQuartier, GovTech Campus Berlin, ...) and further expand them. Overall, this lot also aims to generate multiplier effects that bring about profound cultural change and also promote efficient change management concerning innovations. The following needs and action areas arise specifically: - Development of need-based, organization-wide campaigns for communication and employee activation derived from a stakeholder analysis. - Initiation of target group-specific measures to create transparency, e.g., via the intranet, the website, or presentations at events. The goal is to establish a communication system that allows employees to inform themselves independently while conserving resources in the innovation team. - Designing/conducting hackathons, thinkathons, and similar formats, e.g., for the innovative use of the data available at the Bundesbank or the ECB, through novel connections with innovative technologies. The focus of the formats may also be on the promoted application of agile working methods. - Organization of events (e.g., Innovation Safari, ...) focused on innovation and digitization. - Establishment, development, and management of knowledge-based communities for exchange and knowledge transfer across all departments – this could, for example, involve support for the already existing Data Science Community. - (Further) development of event formats where best practices or experiences from initiatives and projects can be shared and discussed to enable learning as an entire organization. Framework agreement with up to three contractors (economic participants) for Lot: - Lot 2: Communication and event consulting for participatory formats for digitization and innovation The client expressly reserves the right to conclude the framework agreement with less than three economic participants per lot, provided that not enough suitable and/or qualified offers can be identified in the competition for each lot. The awarding of individual orders per lot is based on a framework agreement according to § 21 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 Regulation on the Award of Public Contracts (VgV). Depending on the support needs, work packages will be created and commissioned (individual order). These are to be processed within a time frame specified by the client. The specific services (work packages) will be communicated to the framework agreement partners with the respective individual orders at least two weeks before the start of services in writing via email. The assignment is carried out as needed in hours or person days (1 person day corresponds to 8 hours without breaks). Lot 2: The order of individual orders is determined by the most economically advantageous offer in the respective lot ("cascade principle"). The three successful bidders will be ranked based on the results of the evaluation of the procurement procedure in a fixed order based on which orders will be made. This means that there will be no additional mini-competition. If required, the bidder in 1st place will be asked to provide the service first. If this bidder does not respond with a confirmation of the request within 3 working days or does not provide the corresponding information within 5 working days after the inquiry regarding whether the order will be accepted or executed or declines the request, the next placed bidder will be contacted – and so on until a bidder can take over the service. In this case, the client will commission the next best bidder in the respective lot based on the criterion of "cost-effectiveness". The volume of the framework agreement for the maximum total contract duration encompasses for the mentioned services in Lot 2 according to current planning a total of up to 5,060 person days (short PT – composition: initial planning up to 4,400 PT plus an optional contingent of up to another 660 PT / ~15%).

LOT-0003
Exploration and particularly testing of innovative technologies in the form of prototyping or proof of concepts (PoC).
The mere generation of knowledge and derivation of insights on a theoretical basis is not sufficient for sustainable innovation efforts. The goal of the Bundesbank is to continuously improve decision-making about the use of new technologies or the implementation of digital solutions based on existing technological components with functional technical prototypes. Ideas for exploration fields can come from central departments or specialist units, the innovation ecosystem, or external partners. All ideas should undergo an evaluation and a prior low or high fidelity prototyping (e.g., through paper prototyping, wireframes, or mockups) before realization. This aims to promote a culture of testing and experimentation. Development should occur in collaboration with InnoWerk, IT, and/or the specialist departments to ensure seamless knowledge transfer to the Bundesbank. The prototyping should technically illustrate potentials, dependencies, prerequisites for integration, but also security-relevant points of a new technology. The development of prototypes should follow the requirements of the respective user and be implemented on-premise, hybrid, or in the public cloud. At the same time, the capabilities of the InnoWerk development environment (R&D) should be consistently expanded to broaden the toolbox of the innovation workshop. If required, support for operating the R&D environment will also be provided, at least until these activities can be taken over by the Bundesbank itself. The creation of a prototype usually occurs in an agile setting (e.g., Scrum). Should the circumstances require it, a conventional approach may be chosen (in coordination). Basically, concepts rooted in the Bundesbank, such as DevSecOps, should already be considered and implemented in the prototyping phase. The time required to develop a prototype should not exceed three to six months, depending on the individual complexity. Currently known needs and action areas include the following: - Analysis of technological developments and showcasing application potentials for key technologies of digitization, as well as development and derivation of measures to incorporate into the innovation strategy. - Market research on existing and future solutions or challenges and examination of the prerequisites for use within the specialist departments of the Bundesbank. - Deriving measures, e.g., from the innovation strategy and possibly the creation of feasibility studies. - Support in prototyping in terms of developing functional prototypes – e.g., through the use of extreme programming techniques or rapid development to develop operational prototypes in a short time. This should enable users to quickly demonstrate implementation possibilities or also highlight weaknesses in the design (e.g., within the framework of Fail Fast). - Development, testing, and implementation of specialist use cases using new, or not yet widely rolled out technologies in the bank (e.g., various methods of artificial intelligence, low-code, IoT or DLT) including the use of open-source software/frameworks. As a first step, this may also involve idea generation together with end users and practitioners. - Development of new, innovative use cases and services and framework agreement with up to three contractors (economic participants) for Lot: - Lot 3: Exploration and particularly testing of innovative technologies in the form of prototyping or proof of concepts (PoC) The client expressly reserves the right to conclude the framework agreement with less than three economic participants per lot, provided that not enough suitable and/or qualified offers can be identified in the competition for each lot. The awarding of individual orders per lot is based on a framework agreement according to § 21 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 Regulation on the Award of Public Contracts (VgV). Depending on the support needs, work packages will be created and commissioned (individual order). These are to be processed within a time frame specified by the client. The specific services (work packages) will be communicated to the framework agreement partners with the respective individual orders at least two weeks before the start of services in writing via email. The assignment will be carried out as needed in hours or person days (1 person day corresponds to 8 hours without breaks). Lot 3: The order of individual orders is determined by the most economically advantageous offer in the respective lot ("cascade principle"). The three successful bidders will be ranked based on the results of the evaluation of the procurement procedure in a fixed order based on which orders will be made. This means that there will be no additional mini-competition. If required, the bidder in 1st place will be asked to provide the service first. If this bidder does not respond with a confirmation of the request within 3 working days or does not provide the corresponding information within 5 working days after the inquiry regarding whether the order will be accepted or executed or declines the request, the next placed bidder will be contacted – and so on until a bidder can take over the service. In this case, the client will commission the next best bidder in the respective lot based on the criterion of "cost-effectiveness". The volume of the framework agreement for the maximum total contract duration encompasses for the mentioned services in Lot 3 according to current planning a total of up to 23,000 person days (short PT – composition: initial planning up to 20,000 PT plus an optional contingent of up to another 3,000 PT / ~15%).

LOT-0004
Promotion of the penetration of digitization.
The promotion of innovations also means being able to address small to medium challenges within the existing (regulated) Bundesbank infrastructure independently, in line with the efficient use of resources, and to offer a "help for self-help". The specialist departments repeatedly face limited IT capacities with concrete problems in their daily work, which makes it impossible to implement even smaller improvements at the required speed. Valuable capacities for the creation of innovations are thus tied up, and the testing and use of new technologies are also hindered by daily business. Specialist departments should be able to evaluate defined and clearly defined work packages for feasibility in the current Bundesbank infrastructure and commission their implementation. Potential implementations should occur with a focus on user-centeredness and in line with the four defined digitization principles, while always considering sustainability aspects and within the framework of existing IT guidelines. Currently, the following performance needs emerge: - In-depth analysis or process surveys to identify potential for optimization (e.g., automation, simplification, etc.) in terms of digitization and user-centeredness. - Showcasing and advising on possible options for modernization or optimization, considering the technical feasibility within the infrastructure options provided by the Bundesbank. - Implementation of specific options in close coordination with the responsible IT departments on existing IT infrastructure or platform components of the Deutsche Bundesbank. - Possibly creating or modernizing existing interfaces. - Implementation or migration of individual, small applications (related to the number of users and limited to the availability of corresponding standard products) to the cloud as a starting aid in selected specialist areas. - Identification of opportunities to roll out already developed solutions in other specialist areas. Thematically, data processing and visualization, individual work reliefs for departments in daily business (IDV, small cloud migrations, Microsoft 365, etc.), the ongoing digitization of document and information processing, as well as knowledge management are currently seen as larger fields of action. This enumeration of general fields of action is not exhaustive and may undergo changes during the term of the framework agreement. 1. Replacement or modernization of IDV applications or small tools through cloud migration. 2. Data processing and visualization: 3. Optimization of document and information processing as well as tool-supported knowledge management: Framework agreement with up to three contractors (economic participants) for Lot: - Lot 4: Promotion of digital penetration The contracting authority expressly reserves the right to conclude the framework agreement with less than three economic participants per lot, provided that no sufficiently suitable and/or qualified offers can be determined in competition per lot. The awarding of individual orders per lot is based on a framework agreement according to § 21 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 of the Regulation on the Award of Public Contracts (VgV). Depending on the arising need for support, work packages are created and commissioned (individual order). These are to be processed within a period set by the contracting authority. The concrete services (work packages) will be communicated to the framework agreement partners in respective individual calls at least two weeks before the start of performance, in writing via email. The order occurs based on need in hours or person-days (1 person-day equals 8 clock hours without a break). Lot 4: The order of individual contracts is based on the most economical offer in the respective lot ("cascade principle"). The 3 successful bidders are placed in a fixed order based on the ranking of the evaluation results of the procurement process, according to which orders will be made. This means that there is no additional mini-competition involved. If there is a need, the bidder in 1st place will first be asked to provide the service. If this bidder does not respond with a confirmation of the request within 3 working days, does not provide information on whether the contract will be accepted or can be executed within 5 working days after the request, or rejects the request, the next ranked bidder will be contacted - and so on until a bidder can take over the service. In this case, the contracting authority will award the next best bidder in the respective lot according to the "cost-effectiveness" criterion. The volume of the framework contract for the maximum total contract duration encompasses, for the mentioned services in Lot 4, according to current planning, a total of up to 17,825 person-days (short PT - composition: initial planning status of up to 15,500 PT plus an optional contingent of up to a further 2,325 PT / ~15%).

LOT-0005
Agile Support / Agile Coaching.
The subject of the Lot is the support of the Deutsche Bundesbank in the introduction, stabilization, and empowerment of employees in the context of agility and agile work methods through qualified consulting and accompanying the specialist areas and their teams. The consulting and support services are always provided in coordination with the agile setup team. This team is responsible for the overarching vision ("North Star") of agilizaiton as well as the standards and methods to be applied in the Deutsche Bundesbank. Various target groups can be performance recipients for this lot: - Agile areas and projects, whose organization is appropriately set up and require ongoing or occasional support at the team level. - Teams in transition from traditional to agile working methods with knowledge transfer (internal aspiring agile coaches should be trained in parallel with "training-on-the-job", provided internal capacities allow). - Organizational units of the Bundesbank that are interested in the "agile experience", meaning they can experience agile work, including agile leadership, for a defined period of up to three months. - Other divisions and projects of the Bundesbank that require coaching support and guidance for teams by agile coaches, e.g., as Scrum Masters in teams. - Support of executives (strategic and operational) / project managers / product responsible / product owners in exercising their roles in the agile context. The following topic areas are to be covered: - Basic education and awareness - Coaching and support. Framework agreement with up to three contractors (economic participants) for Lot: - Lot 5: Agile Support / Agile Coaching The contracting authority expressly reserves the right to conclude the framework agreement with less than three economic participants per lot, provided that no sufficiently suitable and/or qualified offers can be determined in competition per lot. The awarding of individual orders per lot is based on a framework agreement according to § 21 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 of the Regulation on the Award of Public Contracts (VgV). Depending on the arising need for support, work packages are created and commissioned (individual order). These are to be processed within a period set by the contracting authority. The concrete services (work packages) will be communicated to the framework agreement partners in respective individual calls at least two weeks before the start of performance, in writing via email. The order occurs based on need in hours or person-days (1 person-day equals 8 clock hours without a break). Lot 5: The order of individual contracts takes place according to the "rotation principle": in this, each new need is assigned to the subsequent bidder in the order of rotation. The order arises from the placement according to the award criteria. After the completion of an individual order, the next contractor in the established rotation will receive the following order. If this contractor does not respond with a confirmation of the request within 3 working days, does not provide corresponding information within 5 working days after the request on whether the contract will be accepted or can be executed, or rejects the request, the next bidder according to the order will be contacted. The original bidder remains in the rotation at their position. No additional mini-competition will occur here either. The volume of the framework contract for the maximum total contract duration encompasses, for the mentioned services in Lot 5, according to current planning, a total of up to 29,038 person-days (short PT - composition: initial planning status of up to 25,250 PT plus an optional contingent of up to a further 3,788 PT / ~15%).