Award criteria
Standards used to identify the most advantageous bid, such as price, quality, sustainability, service or lifecycle costs.
Award criteria determine which admissible bid offers the best value for the contracting authority. In Swiss procurement, the award is not necessarily made to the lowest price; qualitative, ecological, social, innovation, service and lifecycle-cost aspects may be considered if announced and applied transparently. Criteria and their weighting or order of importance must be clear enough for bidders to prepare comparable offers. Evaluation must follow the tender documents and avoid undisclosed subcriteria that influence the outcome unfairly.