The contract is awarded via a negotiated procedure without prior notification to the Global Earthquake Model Foundation (GEM), in accordance with Article 42, §1, 1°, c) of the Law of 17 June 2016 on Public Procurement, as well as the applicable provisions of the Royal Decree on Placement of 18 April 2017. The requested seismic hazard analysis is based on a specific and integrated methodological framework developed and proposed by GEM in close cooperation with the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB). Within this framework, GEM acts as the core methodological partner and is responsible, among other things, for: the development and application of the global and consistent seismic hazard framework,the integration of national and regional models and datasets, the execution of the hazard calculations according to an SSHAC-aligned approach. This methodology, tools, and workflows are specific to GEM and, together with the contribution of ROB, constitute a single indivisible technical solution, as documented in the jointly submitted proposal. Consequently, GEM's performance cannot be replaced without a fundamental reworking of the entire technical and scientific concept of the contract. Appointing an alternative service provider would require not only the development of a completely new methodological framework but also the redesign and validation of the integration with ROB's national contributions. This goes beyond the existence of potential providers on the market and points to the absence of a real equivalent alternative that can guarantee the same degree of coherence, continuity, and scientific consistency. Consequently, the legal conditions have been met whereby, for technical reasons and due to the exclusivity of the proposed solution, the contract can only be awarded to GEM. In these circumstances, prior publication would not allow for effective competition, which justifies the choice of a negotiated procedure without prior publication.

The contract is awarded via a negotiated procedure without prior notification to the Global Earthquake Model Foundation (GEM), in accordance with Article 42, §1, 1°, c) of the Law of 17 June 2016 on Public Procurement, as well as the applicable provisions of the Royal Decree on Placement of 18 April 2017. The requested seismic hazard analysis is based on a specific and integrated methodological framework developed and proposed by GEM in close cooperation with the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB). Within this framework, GEM acts as the core methodological partner and is responsible, among other things, for: the development and application of the global and consistent seismic hazard framework,the integration of national and regional models and datasets, the execution of the hazard calculations according to an SSHAC-aligned approach. This methodology, tools, and workflows are specific to GEM and, together with the contribution of ROB, constitute a single indivisible technical solution, as documented in the jointly submitted proposal. Consequently, GEM's performance cannot be replaced without a fundamental reworking of the entire technical and scientific concept of the contract. Appointing an alternative service provider would require not only the development of a completely new methodological framework but also the redesign and validation of the integration with ROB's national contributions. This goes beyond the existence of potential providers on the market and points to the absence of a real equivalent alternative that can guarantee the same degree of coherence, continuity, and scientific consistency. Consequently, the legal conditions have been met whereby, for technical reasons and due to the exclusivity of the proposed solution, the contract can only be awarded to GEM. In these circumstances, prior publication would not allow for effective competition, which justifies the choice of a negotiated procedure without prior publication.