Request for Proposal (RFP)

The set of documents issued by the procuring authority that set out:
·         The basis or requirements for submitting the proposal (which documents and in which format and contents the bidder has to submit)
·         The basis of the evaluation criteria for selecting the preferred bidder or awardee
·         The PPP contract that will be signed with the successful bidder and other annexed information such as forms, templates, complementary information for reference purposes, and so on.
In one-stage open tender processes, the contents of a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) are embedded in the same set of documents, for example, the Request for Proposal (RFP) also includes the RFQ regulations.
In some two-stage processes where a dialogue or structured interaction phase is considered (mainly in the case of “competitive dialogue”), the RFP and the contract are provisional (or even non-existent in some competitive dialogues) until the dialogue finalizes, and the contract and final or definitive requirements to submit and evaluate are defined. Usually in these processes, the first RFP is named the “descriptive document”.
See also RFP ‘bid’ phase, RFP evaluation phase, RFP phase, RFP response.
RFP may also be referred to in some countries as the Request for Tender (RFT).