Commissioning research capability, facilities and specialist analysis
Scientific research is bought in three distinguishable ways and the notices look similar. The first is a commissioned programme: the buyer defines a question and funds a team to investigate it. The second is access to capability -- beam time, vessel time, controlled environment facilities, computing -- where the buyer is purchasing time on an asset it cannot justify owning. The third is routine analytical service, where samples are sent and results returned against a method and a turnaround. Each has different qualification and different economics.
Quality assurance is the recurring requirement. Laboratories are expected to hold accreditation for the specific methods in scope, participate in proficiency testing, maintain traceable calibration and documented chain of custody for samples, and report uncertainty alongside results. For work that may be used in regulation or litigation, those requirements harden further and the reporting format itself becomes specified. An accreditation held for a neighbouring method does not satisfy a requirement written for this one.
Data and publication terms are as commercially significant as the price. Public and donor funders increasingly require research data to be deposited under open conditions with defined metadata, and require resulting publications to be openly accessible, which has cost and timing implications a bid should carry. Ethical approval, biosafety and containment levels, animal research licensing, export and transfer controls on materials, and access and benefit-sharing obligations for genetic resources are conditions precedent with their own lead times, and they are the usual reason an award does not translate into a start.
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 scientific research in Spain?
GlobalGov holds 355 scientific research records from 135 distinct buying organisations in Spain. The most frequent publishers are Rector de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (37 records); Rectorado de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (19 records); Fundació Privada I2CAT, Internet i Innovació Digital a Catalunya (17 records); Rectorado de la Universidad de Málaga (12 records); Dirección General del INTA (10 records); Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (9 records). Between them the 6 largest account for 29% of everything published, so buying here is spread across many separate authorities.
| Buying organisation | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Rector de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid | 37 | 10% |
| Rectorado de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid | 19 | 5.4% |
| Fundació Privada I2CAT, Internet i Innovació Digital a Catalunya | 17 | 4.8% |
| Rectorado de la Universidad de Málaga | 12 | 3.4% |
| Dirección General del INTA | 10 | 2.8% |
| Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya | 9 | 2.5% |
What are scientific research contracts worth in Spain?
307 of the 355 records publish a contract value. The median is $525,528 and the largest single published value is $48.6M. By size, 3 under $100k, 215 between $100k and $1M, 80 between $1M and $10M, 9 above $10M. The remaining 48 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 | 1.0% |
| between $100k and $1M | 215 | 70% |
| between $1M and $10M | 80 | 26% |
| above $10M | 9 | 2.9% |
How long do bidders get to respond to scientific research tenders in Spain?
Across the 97 Spain scientific research notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 35 days. A quarter of them allowed 32 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 42. Not one of them closed within a fortnight of being published, so the window on this market is consistently workable.
How often are scientific research tenders published in Spain?
Spain publishes about 2 notices a month in this category, 27 in the last twelve months. That is 53% fewer than the 58 published in the twelve months before that. Over the last three years there were 152, spread across 57 separate months of activity since 8 June 2021. July is historically the busiest month. No new notice has been published in this category since 26 May 2026, 128 days ago, so treat the figures above as a record of the market rather than as this week's pipeline.
How does Spain compare with other scientific research markets?
Among the 21 countries where GlobalGov holds a comparable scientific research market, Spain ranks 6th by number of records. The largest is Germany (1,240 records against 355 here). Within Spain itself, scientific research is the 38th largest of the 71 procurement categories tracked here.
Where do the Spain scientific research records on this page come from?
These 355 records are collected from 1 official source: TED (355). 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.
Most recent Scientific Research tenders in Spain
None of these are open for bids now — they are the most recent records GlobalGov holds for this market, kept here so the shape of a typical scientific research notice in Spain is visible. Set an alert to be told when the next one opens.
Spain – Research and development services and related consultancy services – Contratación servicio para el desarrollo de las estrategias Regionales de prevención del suicidio: prevención en grupos de riesgo, intervención en crisis y postvención
Spain – Research consultancy services – LICI 2026-001 AC. MARC CONTRACTACIÓN TEMPORAL DE PERSONAL
Spain – Research and development consultancy services – Servicios de consultoría para UPV INNOVACIÓN
Spain – Research services – Servicio de elaboración de informes sobre indicadores clave de rendimiento en seguridad vial. 5 lotes.
Spain – Research consultancy services – LICI 2025-042 ACUERDO MARCO S. CONSULTORIA Y ASIST. TÉCNICA
Spain – Research laboratory services – Servicio de Determinación de Perfiles Metabolómicos en Muestras de Plasma y Heces mediante la aplicación de tecnología de Cromatografía Líquida Acoplada a Espectrometría de Masas y su Tratamiento Bioinformático
Spain – Research and development services and related consultancy services – SERVICIOS DE ASISTENCIA TÉCNICA PARA EL DESARROLLO DE UN SISTEMA DE ALERTA TEMPRANA EN 13 EMBALSES DE CANAL DE ISABEL II BASADO EN MODELOS HIDRODINÁMICOS Y DE CALIDAD PARA LA TOMA DE DECISIONES OPERACIONALES EN TIEMPO REAL
Spain – Research and development services and related consultancy services – Acuerdo Marco para la homologación de proveedores servicios de consultoría especializada en el ámbito de la propiedad industrial, la innovación y el emprendimiento
Spain – Experimental development services – CONSULTA PRELIMINAR AL MERCADO SOBRE EL DESARROLLO DE UNA SOLUCIÓN PARA OPTIMIZAR LA GESTIÓN DEL TRÁFICO FERROVIARIO MEDIANTE EL USO DE LA TECNOLOGÍA DE INTELIGENCIA ARTIFICIAL
Other procurement categories in Spain
Scientific Research procurement in other markets
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