The FACIS (Federated Architecture for Composed Infrastructure Services) project, funded under the IPCEI-CIS/8ra initiative, aims to develop a sovereign, interoperable, and secure digital infrastructure to support seamless collaboration between cloud and edge services across Europe. Within this overarching goal, FACIS focuses on enabling trust-based federations by delivering modular and standards-compliant components that facilitate service provisioning, management, and governance in a decentralized ecosystem.
In alignment with the objectives of the 8ra initiative-which fosters a resilient, interoperable, and trusted European digital infrastructure-the FACIS project contributes foundational technologies that support cross-border and cross-domain collaboration. A key element of this effort is the development of Federation Architecture Patterns (FAPs) https://www.facis.eu/about-facis/federation-architecture-pattern/.

FACIS provides pre-built, modular, and reusable FAPs serving as architectural blueprints for federated digital infrastructures. Combined with low-code orchestration tools offering visual integration capabilities for applications, processes, and teams, FACIS enables seamless data collaboration, accelerated implementation, and improved agility throughout digital transformation initiatives.

The FAP Principal Credential Issuance (PCI) will demonstrate how organizations can establish a secure, interoperable process for defining, managing, and issuing verifiable principal credentials across federated ecosystems. It will showcase a standardized workflow that connects organizational administrators, credential definitions, APIs, and digital wallets through a trusted issuance pipeline based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and federation principles.

By enabling seamless credential configuration, issuance, and verification across organizational and domain boundaries, this FAP supports decentralized trust while ensuring compliance with established frameworks such as Gaia-X and eIDAS. It provides a scalable foundation for cross-domain interoperability, allowing employees to carry portable, verifiable credentials in compatible digital wallets and enabling organizations to integrate credential issuance easily into existing identity infrastructures, such as OAuth2-based systems.

The purpose of this award is to commission software development services for Lot Federation Architecture Pattern PCI by using the Eclipse Project XFSC (Cross Federation Services Components) as the foundation (https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/technology.xfsc).

For further participation and the processing of the documents, it should be noted that the development team must be complete as soon as the order is placed so as to be able to provide the development services on time and with the required quality.

Further details can be found in the service description.

1. The bidders must also complete the eligibility self-declarations pursuant to Sections 123 and 124 of Act against Restraints of Competition - GWB (cf. Section 31 (1) regulation on sub-threshold procurement - UVgO). The bidders must submit these with the participation application.

2. Extract from the relevant register not older than 6 months (since publication of the notice) for the company and - if envisaged - members of the bidding consortium as well as subcontractors to be used by way of suitability lending, in each case insofar as corresponding statutory register obligations exist.

3. The bidder must submit the following self-declarations according to the collection of forms:
- Self-declaration that the company is not in liquidation.
- Self-declaration that the company fulfils its obligations to pay taxes and duties.

1. Self-declaration of the company's total turnover in relation to the last three completed financial years in accordance with the collection of forms.

2. Average annual minimum turnover in each of the last three calendar years (2023-2025) EUR 100,000 net.

3. Proof of existing business liability insurance/professional liability insurance (copy) with a minimum amount of:

- EUR 1,000,000 for personal injury and property damage
- EUR 500,000 for financial losses

The above-mentioned amounts of cover must be available at least twice per insurance year.

In the case of bidding consortia, proof of insurance must be provided for each member.

In the case of a lower coverage of the liability insurance, confirmation from the insurance company stating that the coverage amount can be increased accordingly in the event of an order is sufficient.

The self-declaration is included in the collection of forms.

Upon request, the bidder will submit a corresponding confirmation from the insur-ance company.

1. References

The bidder must demonstrate, by submitting one or more reference projects, that it has provided services comparable to the subject matter of this procurement. The reference service(s) must have been performed between 2023 and 2026 (up to the end of July 2026). The service must have been accepted in its essential parts within this period or approximately 90% of the contractual remuneration must have been paid.

A reference is considered comparable if it is sufficiently similar to the services to be procured with regard to its subject matter, type of service, degree of complexity, as well as technical and organisational characteristics, such that it allows a reliable assessment of the bidder's capability to perform the contract.

To demonstrate technical and professional capability, the bidder must collectively demonstrate the following four mandatory requirements:

1. Experience implementing in an OSS environment, with knowledge of CI/CD and DevOps practices
2. Experience with implementing Security and trust mechanisms: Self-Sovereign-Identity (SSI) framework, TLS, OAuth2, OIDC, policy-based access control, etc.
3. Experience with digital wallet integration or implementation
4. Usage of Node-Red based Workflows or similar flow-based visual program-ming for building automations, integrations, and event-driven applications

The aforementioned four (4) mandatory requirements may be demonstrated by one or more reference project(s). Overall, however, the submitted references must demonstrate all mandatory suitability requirements. If bidders submit more than one reference, they do not have to come from different contracting authorities in order to be assessed.

Alternative proof for Mandatory Requirement 4

As an alternative to a project reference, the fourth mandatory suitability requirement ("Usage of Node-RED-based workflows or similar flow-based visual programming") may be demonstrated by successfully completing the practical work sample provided by the contracting authority (see Annex Work Sample Node Red).

The practical work sample may only be used as an alternative means of demonstrating Mandatory Requirement 4 ("Usage of Node-RED-based workflows or similar flow-based visual programming"). Mandatory Requirements 1 to 3 must be demonstrated exclusively by means of one or more reference projects. The work sample will be assessed on a pass/fail basis against predefined assessment criteria, that are listed in Annex Work Sample Node Red.

The work sample consists of a manageable implementation task intended to demonstrate practical experience with Node-RED related technologies without requiring an existing project reference. Based on our professional assessment, it can be completed within approximately four (4) hours and focuses on the use of the ORCE UI Builder and basic API integration.

Accordingly, bidders may demonstrate suitability either by:

- submitting one or more references that collectively cover all four mandatory suitability requirements; or
- submitting one or more references that collectively cover Mandatory Requirements 1-3 and successfully completing the work sample for Mandatory Requirement 4.

In the case of a bidding consortium, the required reference(s) must have been per-formed by at least one member of the consortium.

The client reserves the right to check the accuracy of the information provided and to demand suitable proof of this at short notice.

Bidders who do not meet the minimum requirements listed above will be excluded from the award process.

3. Self-Declaration of the practical work sample

This form shall only be completed and submitted if the bidder chooses to demonstrate Mandatory Requirement 4 "Usage of Node-Red based Workflows or similar flow-based visual programming for building automations, integrations, and event-driven applications" by means of the practical work sample instead of a project reference.

4. A self-declaration is required to demonstrate that the company has the necessary personnel and technical resources to execute the contract properly.

The client reserves the right to check the accuracy of the information provided and to demand suitable proof of this at short notice.