NATO Business Opportunity: Provision of a NATO Lessons Learned Toolset

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the provision of a NATO Lessons Learned Toolset

Potential U.S. prime contractors must 1) maintain a professionally active facility (office, factory, laboratory, etc.) within the United States, 2) hold a current Facility Security Clearance (FCL) at the level of SECRET or higher, 2) be pre-approved for participation in NATO  Competitive Procurement (NCP), 3) be issued a Declaration of Eligibility (DOE) by the Department of Commerce (DOC), and 4) register with the NCI Agency’s eProcurement tool, Neo: https://www.ncia.nato.int/business/neo-eprocurement.html 

The reference for the RFP is RFP-424352-NLLT, and all correspondence concerning the RFP should include this reference.

NCIA plans to hold a pre-bid conference on 17 November 2026, via web conference.

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT

The scope of this procurement covers the provision and implementation of a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software solution for the NATO Lessons Learned Toolset (NLLT), replacing or superseding the current NATO Lessons Learned Portal (NLLP). The NLLT will support the NATO Lessons Learned process, including collection planning, observation collection, lessons management, and lessons analysis and exploitation, for authorized users across NATO Entities, Commands, Headquarters, Exercises, Operations and Communities of Interest.

The contract is expected to include COTS product provision, licenses, configuration, implementation, testing and deployment support; documented APIs, interfaces and/or import/export mechanisms; migration of agreed legacy data; and support to NATO security accreditation. The solution is expected to be deployed in Purchaser-designated unclassified and classified environments, subject to approved NATO architecture, security and accreditation constraints.

The scope also includes product and technical documentation, user and administrator guidance, training materials, training delivery, knowledge transfer, support to verification and acceptance activities, and transition into service. Detailed requirements, deliverables, interfaces, environments and acceptance criteria will be provided in the forthcoming RFP.

Additionally, as part of the same RFP, the NCIA intends to award a separate Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to the winning bidder for integration services associated with the new NLLT. The exact requirements for these services will not be defined at contract award, but the services may be ordered as needed at the Purchaser’s discretion during the contract period.

BECOMING ELIGIBLE TO BID

NCP requires that the U.S. Government issue a DOE for potential U.S. prime contractors interested in this project. Before the U.S. Government can do so, however, the U.S. Government must approve the U.S. firm for participation in NCP.  U.S. firms are approved for NCP on a facility-by-facility basis. 

The U.S. NCP application is a one-time application.  The application requires supporting documentation in the form of 1) a company resume or capability statement indicating contracts completed as a prime contractor and 2) an annual report or set of financial documents indicating compilation, review, or audit by an independent CPA.

U.S. firms can download a copy of the U.S. NCP application from the following website:

https://www.bis.gov/about-bis/bis-leadership-and-offices/SIES/business-opportunities-nato 

DOC is the U.S. Government agency that approves NCP applications. Please submit to the email address provided your application and supporting documentation (as attachments). If your firm is interested in a specific NCP project at this time, please also include the following in the TEXT of your email:

- the title and/or solicitation number of the project
- the name/phone/email of the company employee who should receive the bid documents

After approval of your one-time NCP application, DOC will then know to follow up by issuing a DOE for the project.  DOC will transmit the DOE to the NATO contracting agency.  

IMPORTANT DATES:

Request a DOE (and, for firms new to NCP, submit the one-time NCP application):15 October 2026

NCIA releases RFP (planned): 30 October 2026

Bid closing (anticipated): 18 December 2026

Contract Award (estimated): 31 May 2027