How public bodies contract for research they cannot specify in advance
Research procurement has a structural problem: the buyer is purchasing an answer to a question, and if the answer were known the contract would be unnecessary. Public bodies deal with this by buying in phases. A feasibility or concept phase is awarded to several suppliers in parallel, each paid a modest fixed sum; a subset is then funded to prototype; a smaller subset again reaches demonstration. Each phase is a competition among the survivors of the last, so a bidder should read the notice for the phase structure and the progression criteria before pricing anything.
Intellectual property is the term that decides whether the contract is worth winning. Arrangements range from full assignment of results to the buyer, through a licence to the buyer with the supplier retaining ownership and the right to commercialise elsewhere, to background and foreground IP splits that must be catalogued before work starts. Development-focused schemes often deliberately leave ownership with the supplier so that a market can form around the result, while procurement of research for internal use tends toward assignment. The two produce very different bid economics.
Evaluation weights the proposal's scientific and technical merit, the team's record, and the credibility of the risk assessment, and it rewards candour about what might fail. Deliverables are reports, data and demonstrations rather than products, so acceptance criteria are written around defined technical readiness levels or measurable milestones. Where human participants, animals, personal data or dual-use technology are involved, ethical approval and export control clearance are conditions precedent with their own timetables, and they are a common cause of a project starting months after award.
This section describes how this category is bought generally, across the public buyers that publish it. The figures elsewhere on this page are measured for this market alone.
Who buys research & development in Denmark?
GlobalGov holds 30 research & development records from 19 distinct buying organisations in Denmark. The most frequent publishers are Aarhus Universitet (5 records); European Environment Agency (eea) (4 records); Region Hovedstaden (2 records); Region Midtjylland (2 records); Syddansk Universitet (2 records); DIN Forsyning A/S (1 record). Between them the 6 largest account for 53% of everything published, so buying here is concentrated in a few authorities.
| Buying organisation | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Aarhus Universitet | 5 | 17% |
| European Environment Agency (eea) | 4 | 13% |
| Region Hovedstaden | 2 | 6.7% |
| Region Midtjylland | 2 | 6.7% |
| Syddansk Universitet | 2 | 6.7% |
| DIN Forsyning A/S | 1 | 3.3% |
What are research & development contracts worth in Denmark?
22 of the 30 records publish a contract value. The median is $955,775 and the largest single published value is $2.1M. By size, 3 under $100k, 11 between $100k and $1M, 8 between $1M and $10M. The remaining 8 publish no value at all, so every figure here describes the priced subset only, and values are as stated by the buyer rather than as finally awarded.
| Contract size | Records | Share of priced |
|---|---|---|
| under $100k | 3 | 14% |
| between $100k and $1M | 11 | 50% |
| between $1M and $10M | 8 | 36% |
| above $10M | 0 | 0.0% |
How long do bidders get to respond to research & development tenders in Denmark?
Across the 8 Denmark research & development notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 32 days. A quarter of them allowed 30 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 35. Not one of them closed within a fortnight of being published, so the window on this market is consistently workable.
How often are research & development tenders published in Denmark?
Denmark published 13 notices in this category in the last twelve months. Over the last three years there were 13, spread across 15 separate months of activity since 21 June 2016. August is historically the busiest month. The most recent was published 8 September 2026.
How does Denmark compare with other research & development markets?
Among the 35 countries where GlobalGov holds a comparable research & development market, Denmark ranks 32nd by number of records. The largest is Australia (13,059 records against 30 here). Within Denmark itself, research & development is the 39th largest of the 43 procurement categories tracked here.
Where do the Denmark research & development records on this page come from?
These 30 records are collected from 1 official source: TED (30). GlobalGov is an independent aggregator and is not affiliated with any of them; each record links back to the notice on its issuing portal. The set is rebuilt nightly, and the counts on this page were taken on 2026-10-01.
Open Research & Development tenders in Denmark
Showing 4 of the 4 notices open in this category today. Openness uses the same definition as the Denmark market page: active, not marked awarded, cancelled, closed or expired, and either closing in the future or published within the last 90 days with no stated closing date.
Denmark – Laboratory services – Offentligt udbud af laboratorieydelser vedr. spildevand, slam og dræn til FORS (Holbæk, Lejre og Roskilde)
Denmark – Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses) – Large-Scale Array System
Denmark – Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses) – MultiMax-9
Other procurement categories in Denmark
Medical EquipmentWaste ManagementCivil ConstructionArchitecture and EngineeringVehicles and FleetManagement ConsultingFinancial AdvisoryPharmaceuticalsIT ConsultingSoftware DevelopmentBuilding ConstructionVehicle MaintenanceGround TransportBuilding MaterialsHospital ConstructionOffice FurnitureRoads and Highways InfrastructureLaboratory EquipmentAgricultural EquipmentUniforms ClothingCommunity DevelopmentIct EquipmentFreight and LogisticsFood Aid and NutritionCatering ServicesFacilities and CleaningTelecommunicationsFuel SupplyTraining and Capacity BuildingPrinting PublishingAudit and AccountingMaintenance & RepairMilitary LogisticsSecurity ServicesRoad & InfrastructureDatabase ManagementMail CourierWeapons SystemsEnvironmental ServicesOil Gas UpstreamRenovation RehabilitationFinancial Services
Research & Development procurement in other markets
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