The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) has signed its fifth agreement with a not-for-profit organisation, enabling it to start procurement activities under the Not-For-Profit Framework (NFPF) initiative, the NCIA announced on 15 February.
The Technical University of Madrid signed the agreement with the agency on 1 February, the deputy director of acquisition at the NCIA, Agata Szydelko, confirmed to Janes.
The next phase of the NFPF can now begin, with the agency launching its first competition to not-for-profit (NFPs) partners in the second quarter of 2022, Szydelko added.
The agency will now begin preparing the first solicitation under NFPF.
According to the NCIA announcement, “The NFPF complements existing cooperation and contracting processes with industry and can reach across the capability development process. NFPs will support the [NCIA] in its scientific programme of work, research, and development studies, and possibly in the future – in capability requirements, blueprints, change management, or project and service provision assurance.”
The NFPF is intended to expand the NCIA cooperation ecosystem, diversify the NATO supply chain, and enable wider engagements with the agency, the NCIA stated in a separate announcement.
The framework was initially approved in 2020, with a call for applications sent to all participating nations, the announcement added.
The NCIA detailed that it has now signed NFPF agreements with the following organisations; Ingeneria de Sistemas para la Defensa de España (Spain) on capability development services; Instituto De Telecomunicacoes (ICT) (Portugal) on research and development services in information and communications technologies; NASK – National Research Institute (Poland) on science and research; Universidade Autonoma de Lisboa (UAL) (Portugal) on education and consultancy; and Technical University of Madrid (Spain) on information and communications technologies.
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