What public bodies buy from agencies, and who wins.

Open notices on 1 November 2026, by the main category code the buyer chose. Median values only cover notices that state a value, and those often show a ceiling for a whole framework, so treat them as an upper guide. Where few notices state a value, the median can move a lot.

Of the 434 notices that stated a value, 254 were under €500,000. Buyers on the snapshot date included European Commission, DG COMM, Department of Health & Social Care (UK), West Sussex County Council, Gemeente Zoetermeer, Polska Agencja Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości, Maynooth University.

TED carries the most notices, but most of the total came from elsewhere. Some above-threshold tenders appear on both TED and a national portal, so these counts can't be added up to get distinct tenders. Removing exact matches on title and buyer leaves 793 of the 905 notices.

Portugal's Portal BASE records how each contract was awarded. These are 8,492 agency contracts dated January 2024 to April 2026.

So a tender alert only shows part of this market. Public tenders listed a median of 3 bidders in the register, and 20% listed just one.

Portugal's Portal BASE is the clearest view we have, because it lists contracts of every size and not just those advertised across Europe. These are contracts dated January 2024 to April 2026.

Award notices from TED and national portals, excluding Portal BASE, look very different. Those notices tend to cover bigger contracts and multi-year frameworks, so they show the top of the market rather than the typical job. These are the categories with at least 50 euro-denominated awards dated January 2024 to October 2026.

Many different companies by number of contracts, though much of this work was awarded directly or by invitation. In Portugal, 4,363 suppliers shared 8,492 contracts from 1,305 buyers, and 70.5% won just one. The top 10 by contract count took 13.1% of contracts. The top 10 by value took 33% of the money.

Value is far more concentrated in the larger published awards. Across 1,009 awards outside Portal BASE, 798 suppliers won work and 84.8% won once, but the top 10 by value took 67.1% of the money.

We report these as totals and don't name winners, because supplier names vary between sources and some winners are sole traders.

• Search national portals as well as TED, or you'll miss much of what is published.
• Track several category codes, because buyers file similar work under different ones.
• Don't rely on tender alerts alone. Where smaller contracts are awarded directly or by invitation, buyers have to know you exist, so introduce your agency and ask how they buy.
• Use smaller contracts to build public sector references before you go after large frameworks.
• Check whether a stated value covers one job or a multi-year framework shared between suppliers.

Our guide to how agencies win public sector clients turns this into practical steps.

• Agency work means CPV codes starting 7934, 79416, 79822, 79952, 72413, 92111 or 7931. Some agency work is filed under other codes, and some of this work isn't done by agencies, such as event venues or research institutes.
• Open notices are those in Tender Radar on 1 November 2026 with a future deadline, or with no published deadline and still recent. They come from the portals we collect, not every portal in Europe, and include the UK and EU institutions.
• Open notices use each notice's main code. Contract figures use all of an award's codes, and each award counts once.
• Contract figures only include awards in euros with a stated value. Portal BASE data in this snapshot ends in April 2026.
• Portugal may not be typical of other countries, because thresholds for direct awards differ. Portugal also revised its procurement code from 1 October 2026, after this data ends, so today's mix may differ.
• Award routes group similar procedures: all forms of ajuste direto, all forms of consulta prévia, and public or pre-qualified tenders. "Excluded, special regime or other" includes contracts outside the main procedures and framework call-offs. Bidder counts are as listed in the register.
• A supplier is counted by its tax ID where we have one, otherwise by its name, so a company with several name spellings may count more than once.