The European Personnel Selection Office (hereinafter referred to as 'EPSO') wishes to enter into a framework service contract to receive support for the running of assessment centres as the final step of the selection procedure of staff for the institutions and other bodies of the European Union.

Results to be achieved by the contractor:

— delivery of a coherent set of exercises, as specified by EPSO, for roll-out within the prearranged testing period, suitably validated according to prevailing best practice in assessment centre models, as well as a sufficient number of variations and updates throughout the duration of the contract; advice/assistance concerning the management of the existing database of exercises and adaptation of existing exercises,

— delivery of detailed written reports to EPSO relating to the performance of the tests delivered,

— delivery of the electronic template for all standard reports, including the competency passport for candidates, manuals on the use of the IT tool(s) for EPSO staff and assessors, as well as observation and evaluation forms for assessors (in English and French),

— provision of certification training for permanent and training for non-permanent selection board members, as well as training sessions for markers and — occasionally — EPSO support staff,

— provision of advice to EPSO on further strategic development plans regarding the extension/adaptation of the assessment centre model to selections in all grades, new forms of testing methods, alternative sets of behavioural anchors for the competency framework, and any appropriate tools for achieving this desired outcome,

— provision of IT tools, support and services linked with the informatics tools used by EPSO,

— IT tools (hardware and software) that the tenderer deems necessary to support services covered by his offer should be compatible with the European Commission's architecture. Any server-based solution proposed by the tenderer using technologies other than those already in use at EPSO will have to adhere to the appropriate European Commission data centre requirements,

— provision of a planning tool for test session scheduling for assessors and candidates.

Tasks:

Task 1A: development of new test material (and test variations) and accompanying documentation (marking grids, manuals, guidelines):

The contractor will develop and fine-tune specific test material for the different models of assessment centre (including manuals and marking grids with explanations and documentation on how to assess the various exercises). The exercises will consist of a tailor-made suite of selection instruments, based on EPSO's competency framework.

The contractor will develop test material, as required, for the various exercises included in the 4 AC models and for parallel versions of the various exercises to ensure security and avoid over-exposure of the exercises.

Types of exercises should at least include the following:

exercise 1: comprehensive case studies (for administrators, assistants and specialists), either of a general nature or related to the field of expertise for which the candidates applied, in order to also test professional skills and knowledge;

exercise 2: oral presentation (for administrators and linguistic administrators) on a topic related to their field of expertise;

exercise 3: group exercise and/or role play (for administrators, linguistic administrators, assistants and specialists) based on a general (not field of expertise specific) scenario.

exercise 4: e-tray/in-tray exercise (for administrators and assistants).

Other exercises (e.g. practical linguistic tests, professional skills tests) might be used in some assessment centres. The contractor will not develop such exercises, but will provide advice on how to integrate them into the overall marking/assessment of all exercises if needed.

Task 1B: adaptation of pre-existing tests and provision of off-the-shelf exercises:

The contractor will provide advice about the reuse of existing exercises from the EPSO database and will rework exercises according to input from EPSO and the selection board(s).

Each exercise will test more than 1 competency and normally each competency will be tested by more than 1 exercise.

Candidates are requested to sit the exercises either in English, French or German, as long as it is not the candidate's main language. The exercises will normally be developed in English and translations into the 2 other languages will — in principle — be provided by the European Commission. The exercises must be designed in such a way that their translation into French or German (or any other official EU language) is possible.

Reports on test performance: for some new tests, reports on their psychometric performance may be requested by EPSO.

Task 2: training of permanent and non-permanent selection board members, markers and EPSO support staff.

Task 3: provision of advice to EPSO on further development of the assessment centre.

Task 4: provision of IT tools, support and services linked with the informatics tools used by EPSO:

The contractor must achieve the following objectives, as far as support is concerned:

— provision of back-up systems in case of data corruption, power failures or other computer or system failures to ensure business continuity,

— provision and guarantee of secure maintenance and storage of candidates' data, in compliance with applicable EU data protection rules (EC Regulation 45/2001),

— provision of an appropriately trained team to deal with any IT problem cases, including SPOC(s) for technical and non-technical issues, questions and information exchange.

There is an in-house IT platform of bespoke tools to support all selection processes. The EPSO software platform is based on service-oriented architecture. To ensure compliance with this, all data interfaces used by the software application must use Web services.