Manual online subscription Open Call

Here you can find the different steps for the online application for the Open Call. This procedure is fully digital and can be made through this website. Below you can read how to include your portfolio, where you can create a new temporary association, how to select an existing temporary association,...

Minimum requirements to participate at the Open Call

Uploading an ESPD

By correctly completing and uploading the ESPD, the candidate declares that he or she is not in one of the grounds for exclusion (as stipulated in Articles 67 to 69 of the Law on Public Procurement) concerning tax and social debts and the optional exclusion grounds. If the candidate is still in one of these grounds for exclusion, the candidate can always show how he or she wanted to remedy this (see regulations p6 and p7).

Entering reference projects

Three reference projects make it possible (together with the motivation and the portfolio) to assess the technical and professional skills.

01. Opening Team Flemish Government Architect website and language selection

Go to www.vlaamsbouwmeester.be and select english at the bottom left of the page or go directly to www.vlaamsbouwmeester.be/en

Select 'Open Call' under 'Instruments'. This leads you to the page where you can find all the information about the Open Call

At the bottom of this page you can see the projects of the last open call, you can also find them under the item 'projects'. If you click on 'projects' you can view all the Open Calls. The printable overview of each Open Call can be found under 'bundle info'

Homepage website Flemish Government Architect

Instrument Open Call 

 

02. Register for the Open Call

Only if you never participated at the Open Call

Through the 'Designers' section you can register for the Open Call. Click on the link 'Register your office here' and fill in your information and click 'confirm'. Your data will be sent and, after your account is activated, you can update this information yourself after logging in.

After your registration you will receive an email containing your username and a temporary link you can use to enter a password. You can use the login and password to log in to the 'designers' section.

If you wish to compose a temporary association (see section 6) it is also necessary to register your office. You can compose a temporary association after logging in when you select the projects you want to apply for. The only condition is that all partners of the temporary association have a registered account with the Flemish Government Architect. It is not allowed to register a temporary association through this page.

 

Register for Open Call

Registration form Open Call

03. Log on www.vlaamsbouwmeester.be

After registering, receiving your login and creating a password you have all the information to log in to the Open Call. If you enter this information on the 'designers' page, you can login and you can start submitting your applications.

After logging in, the "My Open Call" page will be visible.

  • At the top right you can find the navigation with: your login, the link to 'my data', 'my documents', the homepage and the log-out button.

  • On the left side of the page you will find the overview for the current Open Call with the deadline for the candidacies, the projects you have already confirmed, the button to select projects and the link to the project overview in .pdf format.

  • Urgent messages regarding your data or documents appear in the red bar at the top.

Editing your contact details can be done via the link 'My data', 

Login to my Open Call

 

My Open Call

04. Adjusting 'My data' Contact details and company number

Your contact details are important for the Team Flemish Government Architect. On the basis of this information we will inform you about selections, briefings and awards. Regularly check this data to prevent communication messages from being lost.

In addition to your contact details, we also need to have your company number. On the basis of this company number, Team Vlaams Bouwmeester can check the data relating to the taxes, social and economic obligations of Belgian agencies.

Modify my data

05. Adjusting 'My documents' The ESPD and other documents

Every agency that is registered with the Flemish Government Architect is obliged to submit a ESPD. The ESPD, which you can submit under 'My Documents', is a document in which you declare that you fulfill the fiscal, social and economic obligations to participate in public procurements (and replaces the former declaration on honor). As long as the content is correct, the ESPD remains valid and you do not have to recharge a new ESPD.

More information about how to create the ESPD can be found on the 'My Documents' page. To download the file right-click on the link and select 'save target as' (or equivalent)

When drawing up the ESPD, you DO NOT have to take account of any subcontractors with whom you may cooperate in future Open Call projects.

If you are selected for a project in the next phase, you will have to submit a new ESPD together with the offer. Here you can state your possible subcontractors for the specific project.

The evidence of compliance with social security en fiscal obligations and the evidence of non-bankruptcy are documents provided by your government, social security institution or business counter.

For EU member states you can find more information about these documents on this website :

  • https://ec.europa.eu/tools/ecertis/#/search
  • select your country 
  • mark 'criteria' at the top and search in the list for the criteria 'Payment of taxes', 'Payment of social security obligations' and 'Insolvency'
  • click the magnifying glass on the right of the criterium to view the linked evidence that applies for your country

Modify my documents

 

My documents confirmed

06. Select and confirm projects Quick overview

After you have clicked 'apply' in 'My Open Call', you get the list of projects for which you can apply.

Be sure to read the selection guideline for each project you wish to apply for, this document can be found under 'Dowloads' on the bottom right column of each project page 

  1. Click the project for which you want to apply
  2. Choose between 'Subscribe as an office' or 'Subscribe as a temporary association' (more info in section 07)
  3. Enter your 'ambition'
  4. Enter your 'intention to cooperation'
  5. Enter your three reference projects
  6. 'Save and go to confirmation' adds the project to your project list, but not yet definitively confirmed.

You can, while selecting projects, completing motivation and intention to cooperation, always close your window after you click 'Save and go to confirmation'. This saves your data so the next time you log in, you can continue your application, you can add or delete projects,.... No information is sent to the Flemish Government Architect until final confirmation (section 10).

Apply for Open Call

Project overview

Entire page candidacy

07. Office, temporary association or intention of cooperation?

What is the difference between these terms?

  • In a subscription with a temporary association (TA), the partners of the TA state that they will work exclusively with each other for a particular project. Members of the TA can not subscribe as an office or in another TA for the same project.
  • In a subscription as an office, the office will be a candidate without committing to another team
  • In both cases, an intention to cooperation with one or more other teams (subcontractors) is possible. This is, in most cases, the case for particular expertise or for teams that do not want to bind themselves to one specific application. In an intention to cooperation, the cooperation begins at the time that the office or TA is selected in the first round and is invited to submit a tender. At this time, the cooperation must be made concrete. Subcontractors do not have to be registred on our website and they don't have to submit an ESPD at the candidacy. You can mention as much subcontractors as you want in te intention of cooperation.

When do you choose for which form?

  • This choice is best made by the offices themselves
  • If one considers that all of the necessary expertise, needed to complete the project, is present within the office, they can choose to apply as an office
  • If one considers that additional expertise is needed to complete the project, then one can choose to compose a TA. A TA can be based on previous cooperation, on a specific complementarity between the offices,... . Applying as a TA is not open-ended. It is a commitment to the client that the offices will work as one team and that it was a conscious decision to broaden the expertise.
  • An intention to cooperation indicates that one is aware of the fact that there is a need of additional expertise on top of the own office to create well-founded visions and concepts for the project. This expertise is not necessarily specific to one office; this may be described in the intention to cooperation, eg: "We will cooperate with a structural engineer and landscape architect." Even so, the intention to cooperation can focus on a specific office. This office can be listed but is not exclusively tied to this candidacy. This means that the office that is mentioned in the intention to cooperation may also occur in the intention to cooperation of other teams. The offices that are mentioned in the intention to cooperation are not required to be registered on our website.
  • A TA can enter an intention to cooperation if the TA wants to start additional cooperations when it is selected for a project.

08. How to create or select a temporary association?

After selecting the project for which you want to apply, you choose the subscription form

how do you want to subscribe?

  • Choose between 'agency' and 'temporary association (TA)'
  • At 'subscribe as a temporary association' you can select a temporary association that already applied for an Open Call project or:

Create a new temporary association when needed:

  • If the TA does not exists yet, click 'Make new Temporary association'
  • Fill in the name of the teams you want to associate with, NOT your own team. 

Select the contact agency

  • 'Choose the office that acts as the contact office'. This is the office that will be contacted by the Team Flemish Government Architect in case of questions, selections, communications, ...

Select 'Temporary association'

empty temporary association field

If the temporary association does not exists yet, you can make a new one:New temporary association

Only fill in the team(s) you want to associate with, NOT your own team

Create a new temporary association

Select the correct temporary association

Select temporary association 

Which office should we contact in case of selection?Select contact office

8. Add, modify or delete selected projects

After entering your "subscription form" (office or temporary association), your 'ambition', your 'intention to cooperation' and three reference projects and confirming, you get to the summary page of your selected projects. On this page you can:

  • Add projects via '+ Add a project'. Clicking here takes you to the overview of the projects where you can choose another project.
  • Adjust projects via the button 'Customize' under the aerial view of the project. You can change the 'subscription form', 'motivation',  'intention to cooperation' and the reference projects.
  • Delete projects using the 'Delete' button under the aerial. This button removes the selected project and any information you entered for this project.
  • Upload your portfolio(s)

selected projects_EN

9. Uploaden and content portfolio

After entering your "subscription form" (office or temporary association), your 'motivation', your 'intention to cooperation' and three reference projects, you can upload your portfolio.

  • After clicking on 'Kies bestand' you can select your portfolio in an explorer window
  • with the 'upload' button you add the portfolio to your application

Requirements for the portfolio:

  • The portfolio is no larger than 50MB
  • The portfolio may only be submitted in .pdf, .doc or .docx format
  • A portfolio will be asked for each office and each temporary association which submits an application. A seperate portfolio for each project isn't possible. However, you can highlight a specific project or projects in your portfolio if you apply for more than one project with the same subscription form.

Content of the portfolio:

  • Each portfolio must include (at least) 3 projects (whether or not similar and made in own name) that allow evaluation of the conceptual ability. Projects can include both realizations as well as unrealized designs. (contests, student projects,...)
  • The portfolio is the representation of your office or temporary association with the client. The selection of the design teams for different projects will be made based on this portfolio.
  • Ensure that the portfolio is sufficiently convincing. Synthesize the message, use clear and readable text and inspiring images and material
  • Structure your portfolio. Make sure that all the elements that you want to address to the client are covered. Possible components are the presentation of the team, short office presentation, the team vision, reference projects, distribution of tasks within the consortium, design methods, ...

The portfolio will be assessed by the selection committee on technical competence based on the following selection criteria:

  1. General design-based expertise in the project assignment (first criterion) is a review of the ability of the designer to achieve,through his design, objectives that are not strictly limited to the design itself, but also shape the public commissioning. Candidates must demonstrate that, by taking into account the context of the spatial task, they can guarantee the public function of the design. Thus there will be prompted an understanding of the social ambition that provides an overall value in addition to the specific function of the building.
  2. The professional competence (second criterion) is the expertise of the designer in all aspects of the design, realization and aftercare of spatial projects. Also, for example, acknowledgments by third parties such as architectural awards, entries in national and international journals and reference books, or academic performance fall under this criterion.
  3. Relevant experience (third criterion) assesses specific credentials of the designer. As part of this criterion possible references to earlier designs or finished projects are possible, and also research, internships or collaborations that have occurred in the past. A designer can specify all experiences that may be relevant for the project. Specific references for each assignment are not essential or strictly necessary.

upload_portfolio_EN

10. Confirm your applications

After you have selected all your projects and you have uploaded a portfolio for each subscription form, you can confirm your application(s).

  • You can do this by clicking the button 'confirm applications'
  • You have to confirm each subscription form (office or temporary association) separately.
  • After confirming, you reach the final check- and confirmation page for your projects. This is the final step in your application.
  • If you then click 'confirm' your projects are sent to the Flemish Government Architect. You (and any partners in a temporary association) will receive an email confirming the application.

After final confirmation no more changes can be made to the application!

projects to confirm_EN

overview confirmation

Confirmed projects_EN