Prior Information Notice (PIN): What It Is and How to Use It to Get Ahead

What Is a Prior Information Notice?

A Prior Information Notice (PIN) is a notice type defined under Article 48 of EU Directive 2014/24/EU. Contracting authorities publish PINs on TED Europa to announce their procurement intentions in advance of launching a formal tender procedure. PINs appear in the EU Official Journal Supplement — the same place as formal contract notices — and are indexed and searchable on TED.

PINs serve three distinct purposes under EU procurement law:

• Market warm-up: Alert the supplier market to upcoming contracts so that interested companies can prepare in advance.
• Time reduction: If a PIN was published at least 35 days (and no more than 12 months) before the contract notice, the minimum time limit for tender submissions in restricted procedures is reduced from 30 days to 15 days.
• Light-touch regime call for competition: For certain social, health, and education services (Annex XIV), a PIN published at the start of the financial year can serve as the formal call for competition, replacing the need for a separate contract notice.

Types of Prior Information Notices

How to Find PINs on TED Europa

TED Europa (ted.europa.eu) is the single publication platform for all EU procurement notices including PINs. To monitor PINs in your sector:

1. Go to TED Advanced Search. Select "Notice type" → "Prior Information Notice (PIN)" as your primary filter.
2. Add CPV code filters. Enter your core CPV division codes (e.g. 72000000 for IT services, 33000000 for medical equipment) to narrow results to your sector.
3. Filter by country. Target the member states where you actively seek contracts.
4. Save the search as an email alert. TED's alert system will email you new PIN matches daily — this creates an early-warning pipeline of upcoming contracts before competitors see the formal notice.

Key contracting authorities that regularly publish informative PINs include the European Commission, EU agencies (EMA, EIB, ECDC), national central purchasing bodies, large hospital trusts, and infrastructure agencies with multi-year capital programmes.

Using PINs to Gain Competitive Advantage

The strategic value of a PIN lies in the time it creates. When a contract notice is published, suppliers typically have 30–35 days to submit. When you have been following a PIN for weeks or months, that 30-day window looks very different:

• Prepare qualification documents in advance. Turnover certificates, references, ISO certifications, and insurance documents can take weeks to gather. Starting this before the contract notice means you are ready to submit from day one.
• Research the contracting authority. Study their previous contracts, award winners, contract values, and evaluation criteria. Contract Award Notices on TED provide this data going back years.
• Engage in market consultation. When a PIN invites market engagement, respond. Attend any supplier days, submit written questions, and where appropriate provide input on technical specifications. This is legal and encouraged — it does not compromise your ability to bid.
• Build your consortium. If the contract is too large for your organisation alone, a PIN gives you time to identify partners and structure a consortium before the formal notice launches.
• Price the opportunity correctly. Early visibility of scope and likely contract value allows proper resource planning for bid preparation, which prevents rushed bids and under-resourced proposals.

EU Notice Types: How PINs Fit the Full Sequence

Understanding where PINs sit in the procurement lifecycle helps you monitor the right notice type at each stage:

Key Takeaways

• PINs give you weeks or months of advance notice before a formal contract notice — use this time to prepare documents, research the buyer, and shape specifications.
• Set up TED email alerts filtered to PIN notice type + your CPV codes + target countries — this creates a procurement early-warning system.
• Market consultation PINs invite supplier engagement — responding is legitimate, encouraged, and often shapes the final specification in your favour.
• For restricted procedures, a PIN published 35+ days before the contract notice reduces the minimum bid period from 30 to 15 days — watch for this as an authority signal that competition will be fast-moving.
• PINs for light-touch regime services (health, social, education) can substitute for a contract notice — monitor these categories carefully as the procurement can open and close with less visibility than standard procedures.