Defence Business Accelerator Implementation for Finnish Cities

The City of Riihimäki (hereinafter referred to as the "Customer" or "Contracting Entity") requests your offer for the implementation of a DEFINE defence accelerator for the City of Riihimäki (hereinafter referred to as the "Service") in accordance with this offer request and its attachments. A more detailed specification of the service is provided in Annex 1.

The subject of the procurement is the service production for the DEFINE defence business accelerator. The accelerator is part of the DEFINE Scaling Programme and it is partly funded by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The programme will be running 1/26 – 12/27 and four accelerator batches shall be conducted during that period including proper and professional monitoring, evaluation and learning activities.

The goal of the accelerator is to strengthen the Finnish defence and dual-use ecosystem and especially enhance companies’ capacity to grow fast. Other participating cities and regions besides Riihimäki are Espoo, Oulu, Joensuu, Hämeenlinna, Forssa and Tampere. Also, Häme University of Applied Sciences and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences are partners in the programme.

The DEFINE defence business accelerator refers to a comprehensive business competence development, training, and advisory service aimed at enabling rapid growth for client companies by facilitating access to financing and defence market entry. The accelerator is targeted to the needs of high-tech enterprises that can operate in both defence and civilian sectors (dual-use).

Purely single use defence startups are also warmly welcomed. A strong focus and experience on the field of defence shall be shown by the potential service providers.

The key chronological stages of the defence business accelerator are: the initiation phase (content planning, marketing and communication), operative phase (operating four accelerator programs mostly the same content including handling of incoming project flow, organizing applications, organizing the selection of companies and conducting the training), and the evaluation and monitoring phase.

The DEFINE accelerator programs are intended to be implemented as customer and partner-oriented training programs, each lasting approximately three months (the supplier of the service may suggest other justifiable timeframes for the duration of each programme), with changing content addressing the needs of programme partners as well as the needs of the market.

The programmes will be conducted during the period from spring 2026 to autumn 2027. The training programmes will be held mostly in Riihimäki DEFINE Innovation Hub. This document outlines the framework for the overall bid, which will be further detailed with the selected Service Provider according to the Customer’s (City of Riihimäki) instructions.

Moreover, the City of Riihimäki carries out the DEFINE network activities in partnership with the Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK). Due to this, student trainees from HAMK as part of their degree contribute to the work tasks of the DEFINE Innovation Hub.

Thus, the Service Provider of the DEFINE Accelerator shall note that the HAMK student trainees may contribute to DEFINE Accelerator operations (such as support and assist the selected accelerator companies, event organizing activities in Riihimäki and other supportive tasks) where seen as appropriate and when agreed with the City of Riihimäki.

The City of Riihimäki values the Service Provider’s ideas, input and commitment as part of tender for connecting the HAMK student trainees with the companies selected to the DEFINE Accelerator programme. The procurement procedure is an open procedure, and one (1) Tenderer will be selected as the Contract Supplier. The Customer is not committed to buy any quantity of the services.

The contract shall not include exclusive rights to supply the service described in the Annex 1. The procurement shall be conducted as a reverse procurement procedure, commonly referred to as a “French contract model,” in which the contracting authority has set a maximum price for the procurement and the comparison of tenders shall be based on qualitative criteria rather than price.

The criterion for overall economic advantage in this procurement is based on quality, which has a weight of 100%. The maximum value of the procurement is 240 000€ (VAT 0). The duration of the Agreement period will be 2 years. The offer is binding and must be prepared in English. All requirements concerning the procurement are presented in the offer request and its attachments.