Together with ILVO, under the guidance of the consultancy firm Addestino, a preparatory process was started in mid-2020 in the context of the 'Climate and energy neutral Poultry House' project. The aim of this process was, among other things, to sharpen the needs on the demand side/contracting authority. Several internal working sessions were organized to estimate the desired functionalities and innovation potential for the innovative poultry house from a user point of view.

Two market consultations were organized

1. On September 9, 2020, an open market consultation with companies and potential service providers was organized at ILVO (The announcement of the market consultation can be found here 2020/S 128-312216). During this event, various use cases and expected results were discussed with the participants with the aim of gauging the feasibility of the intended functional specifications and identifying potential risks inherent in the innovative solution. The presentations given during the market consultation can be found under documents. 

Following the market consultation, ILVO, together with PIO and Addestino, decided to set up a follow-up process with a clear emphasis on climate and energy neutrality as a whole and less on the integration of separate technologies. Of course, the already established preconditions will be taken into account.

2. An additional market consultation was organized on March 2, 2021. Here you will find the announcement of the market consultation in e-notification and TED. The summary conclusions of both market consultations can be found under documents.

Taking into account the results of the preliminary phase, ILVO, in partnership with the Innovative Public Procurement Programme, is launching two successive public procurement contracts:

• 'Assignment 1' aims to purchase research and development services, aimed at appointing a contractor (expertise agency) with scientific and technical expertise, who will assist and guide ILVO in drawing up an assessment methodology (including evaluation framework of dynamic energy simulations and performance). The procedure used for the appointment of the contractor was a negotiated procedure without publication. Various parties were invited for this and submitted a quote no later than 14 June 2021 at 12 noon. This contract was awarded ton Exergie.   
• 'Assignment 2' is seeking a government contract for the design and construction of the techniques for an energy-flexible climate and energy-neutral poultry house. A matchmaking event (see documents below) was organized on December 23, 2021, the selection guidelines for the competitive procedure with negotiation were published after this event.
  The tenders were opened on May 9, 2022 and on June 2, 2022 it was decided not to place the order. The market turned out not to be ready to draw up an innovative design itself. In addition, the war in Ukraine, among other things, created new challenges in the energy landscape, large (irregular) price increases and major supply uncertainty of materials.
• To meet the expectations and needs of the market, ILVO itself designed an innovative concept for the poultry house. In assignment 3 "Energy calculation for an innovative implementation for a climate-neutral poultry complex", this hydraulic concept was technically evaluated, the necessary capacities were dimensioned, a dynamic simulation was carried out to determine the required buffer capacity and advice was formulated regarding system integration and control technology. This contract was awarded to Ghent University through a negotiated procedure without publication. The results of this assignment form the basis for adjusting the specifications for assignment 2.