AI R&D Requested to Transform Digital Tourism Platform
New research contract will use artificial intelligence to upgrade a regional tourism platform, reflecting a broader shift to data‑driven public services.
New research contract will use artificial intelligence to upgrade a regional tourism platform, reflecting a broader shift to data‑driven public services.
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Portugal’s Instituto Politécnico de Leiria is commissioning artificial intelligence research and development to upgrade its ORVE digital platform, which is used in tourism and destination marketing. The new contract highlights how public bodies are starting to apply AI to specific digital services, rather than only investing in large, centralised platforms.
On 9th December 2025, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria published a contract notice for AI Research and Development Services. The notice covers the acquisition of research and development services in artificial intelligence to enhance the existing digital platform ORVE, a tool linked to digital tourism and destination marketing.
The choice of research and development services, rather than a simple software supply, frames the work as a design and testing exercise tailored to ORVE. Instead of prescribing a fixed technical solution, the institute is inviting suppliers to help shape how AI will sit within the platform and how it will support its users.
The notice text is concise and does not set out detailed technical requirements. Even so, the focus on a tourism and destination marketing platform is significant. Tourism relies heavily on digital channels to present information and guide visitors, so changes in how a platform organises and surfaces content can have a direct impact on how places and services are discovered.
This procurement also underlines the role of higher education institutions as contracting authorities for applied AI work. Rather than leaving digital tourism tools solely to municipal or regional governments, a polytechnic is commissioning AI services that may feed into local ecosystems of tourism operators, students and researchers.
The structure of the ORVE contract fits a wider pattern of public buyers using R&D‑style tenders to explore artificial intelligence. In July 2025, the Wojskowy Instytut Medyczny – Państwowy Instytut Badawczy in Poland launched an AI Module Development Services contract that spells out a staged approach: preparing a test environment, creating software to collect data, acquiring research data using technological tools, and then building and developing an AI module.
In November 2025, GIP ATLANPOLE (44) in France went to market for AI Experimentation Services, seeking ten IT service providers to help companies in the Loire region run proof‑of‑concept projects based on AI technologies. Here, as with ORVE, the emphasis is on experimentation and learning what works, rather than on a single, finalised product.
Other buyers are using contracts to build internal capability as they move towards AI. In June 2025, OPCO EP published an AI Support for SMEs contract for consulting and training to help small and medium‑sized firms integrate AI and broader digital transformation strategies. Taken together, these R&D and support contracts show that public buyers increasingly see AI as a field where they must co‑design solutions and build skills, rather than simply install new software.
Behind these experiments sits a growing layer of technical infrastructure. In July 2025, Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara issued a tender for Advanced AI Computing Infrastructure, seeking processing nodes, data storage servers, interconnection switches and management platforms to create a high‑performance ecosystem for machine‑learning applications. In November 2025, Idryma Technologias & Erevnas (ITE) in Greece followed with a Research Infrastructure Procurement for high‑performance servers, a large storage system and a low‑latency computing network for scientific and AI workloads.
Portuguese universities are also expanding their AI capacity. In November 2025, Universidade de Évora advertised the Acquisition of AI Server to expand its Vision supercomputer, while in December 2025, Universidade de Coimbra launched an AI Server and Storage Installation for its AI and Cybersecurity Laboratories. These investments provide the computing backbone on which more applied projects, such as ORVE’s AI upgrade, can build.
Beyond academia, several public authorities are constructing AI platforms that support multiple use cases. In July 2025, the Urząd Komisji Nadzoru Finansowego in Poland issued an AI Platform Expansion prior information notice covering server delivery, software licences, implementation with security integration, consulting services and the construction of two AI models. In September 2025, Spain’s Dirección General de la Entidad Pública Empresarial RED.ES sought AI and Process Automation Services, while Südwestrundfunk in Germany published an AI Development and Support Services framework for strategic and operational AI expertise.
Operational systems that citizens feel directly are also beginning to incorporate AI. In July 2025, VĮ Registrų centras in Lithuania tendered AI Solution Development Services for the organisation’s telephone system. In November 2025, Serviciul de Telecomunicatii Speciale in Romania issued a contract for AI and ML Software Development Services to optimise processes in the SNUAU emergency system, complemented in July 2025 by Consip S.p.A.’s call for Digital Health Services focused on data governance and AI for the Italian national health service.
Utilities are moving in the same direction. In November 2025, Águas do Algarve, S. A. sought services for an Intelligent System Development for Water Supply, aiming to boost operational efficiency in high‑volume water supply through modernisation, automation and immersive technologies. A near‑identical contract from Águas do Algarve, SA in December 2025 shows how even core infrastructure operators are now framing their modernisation programmes around “intelligent” systems.
Within Portugal, the ORVE procurement sits alongside several other recent moves on AI and data. In October 2025, the Secretaria‑Geral do Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social launched an AI Systems Development Services tender for the PESSOAS 2030 initiative, seeking to develop and implement systems based on artificial intelligence. Around the same time, the Secretaria‑Geral do Ministério da Administração Interna published a contract for High-Performance Computing Services to support on‑premises AI under the Evolution M.AI Distillery V.2 project.
Data management is also on the agenda. In November 2025, Universidade de Aveiro tendered for Scientific Information Management Software to be used by the whole scientific community at the university. Alongside national‑level AI programmes and high‑performance computing investments, the ORVE contract shows how AI and data projects are now reaching into specialist domains such as digital tourism.
Elsewhere, administrations that also have responsibility for tourism are experimenting with AI in other service areas. In November 2025, the Consejería de Presidencia, Reto Demográfico, Igualdad y Turismo in Spain issued a prior information notice for an AI Coordination System for Assistance, covering the analysis, design, development and implementation of a virtual coordination system for AI agents to improve intergenerational assistance. The focus there is social support rather than destination marketing, but it reinforces the message that departments connected to tourism are among those testing AI‑driven, data‑heavy public services.
The interest is not limited to southern Europe. On 9th December 2025, the Swedish Myndigheten för ungdoms- och civilsamhällesfrågor announced a call for Consulting for System Development that includes AI expertise, while in November 2025 the National Police Board of Finland sought long‑term AI Application Development Services across the lifecycle of police information systems. AI expertise is becoming a standard element of system development, not an exotic add‑on.
For tourism‑focused digital services, the ORVE contract will be one to watch. It exemplifies how a relatively focused platform can become a test bed for AI techniques developed through research and development services, rather than through a single turnkey procurement. The way suppliers approach issues such as data quality, transparency and integration with existing content will shape perceptions of AI’s value in this space.
Across Europe, other tenders already hint at the issues that will matter. Contracts such as Consip S.p.A.’s Digital Health Services put data governance at the centre of AI roll‑outs, while OPCO EP’s AI Support for SMEs and the Swedish and Finnish consulting and development tenders stress skills and long‑term support. As Instituto Politécnico de Leiria moves ahead with its AI Research and Development Services contract, observers will be looking to see how far AI enhancements to ORVE can improve the way destinations present themselves and how public buyers structure the next wave of tourism‑related digital procurements.
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