The month in public consulting: October 2026 so far
Month so far. As of 28 October 2026 (the latest day the data covers). Updated every week; the final edition is built once the month is complete in the data, and every figure here will change.
Consulting here means strategy and advisory (management, finance and economics, legal advice, research and evaluation, planning) and transformation and change (organisation, PMO and project assistance, programme delivery, EU-funds support, IT advisory), bought by public bodies, from €15,000. Software, IT build and operation, works, supplies, training and events are not counted.
534 awards of public consulting contracts in Europe were published in 1–28 October 2026, worth €342.0 M where a value is given and frameworks are left out. 805 new calls for tenders were published in the same days. Who won, who bought and what is still open, with the base of every figure.
By Pablo Ramos-Sánchez · data of 30 October 2026 · counted by publication date · CSV · Markdown
Every award here counts in the month it was published, not the month it was decided. Awards are published weeks or months after the decision, so counting by award date would always make the latest month look weaker than it was.
What was awarded
534 awards were published. 350 of them state a value: €342.0 M together, and the median award was €149,300 (half were smaller, half larger). 127 were framework agreements. A framework states a ceiling, the most that may be spent, not a fee, so its value is kept apart: €506.4 M of ceilings across the 120 that state one. 57 state no value.
| Figure | Value | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Awards published | 534 | all consulting awards published 1–28 October |
| Value awarded | €342.0 M | the 350 of 534 that state a value; frameworks and €150 M or more left out |
| Median award | €149,300 | same base |
| Framework agreements | 127 | ceilings €506.4 M (120 state one); not added to the value |
| Public buyers | 420 | distinct buyers among the awards |
The 10 largest awards published
The largest award published was €54.3 M, by BMFTR (formerly BMBF) (Germany) to VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH. Together the ten largest are €237.3 M, 69.4% of the month's value.
Who won
EY won the most awards (15). The first three: EY (15), Deloitte (14), PwC (13). The Big Four (EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG) were named on 47 of the 460 awards that name a winner (10.2%). New in the top ten against 1–28 September: Grupo Consule, Sopra Steria, Izertis, Ramboll.
| # | Firm | Awards | Share | Value won | Rank change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EY | 15 | 3.3% | €1.7 M | = (26) |
| 2 | Deloitte | 14 | 3% | €934,200 | = (20) |
| 3 | PwC | 13 | 2.8% | €3.9 M | ▲1 (16) |
| 4 | KPMG | 10 | 2.2% | €946,800 | ▼1 (19) |
| 5 | Grupo Consule | 9 | 2% | €358,100 | new (0) |
| 6 | Ipsos | 7 | 1.5% | €2.0 M | ▲3 (4) |
| 7 | Sopra Steria | 6 | 1.3% | €2.9 M | new (0) |
| 8 | Izertis | 5 | 1.1% | €445,500 | new (0) |
| 8 | Ramboll | 5 | 1.1% | €197,100 | ▲3 (3) |
| 10 | BDO | 4 | 0.9% | €738,400 | ▼4 (6) |
Competition and access
Four indicators with the definitions of the EU Single Market Scoreboard, for the awards published this month. Each rests on the awards whose notice gives the field.
Who bought
420 public buyers published awards. Those with the most: FIIAPP (17), GIZ (12), Isdefe (11). By country: Spain 196, Germany 82, France 57, Sweden 19. France and Spain publish many small contracts in their own registers, so they look larger by count; compare countries with that in mind.
Buyers with the most awards
| Buyer | Country | Awards | Value awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fundación para la Internacionalización de las Administraciones Públicas (FIIAPP) | Spain | 17 | €953,800 |
| Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH | Germany | 12 | €7.9 M |
| Ingeniería de Sistemas para la Defensa de España S.A., S.M.E. y M.P | Spain | 11 | €1.1 M |
| Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie | Germany | 6 | €36.5 M |
| ESPON EGTC | Luxembourg | 6 | €1.6 M |
| Compañía Española de Financiación del Desarrollo. COFIDES S.A., S.M.E | Spain | 6 | €1.0 M |
| Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt | Germany | 5 | €168.9 M |
| Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (BBSR) | Germany | 5 | €1.2 M |
Countries
| Country | Awards | Share | Value awarded | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | 196 | 36.7% | €30.8 M | €59,700 |
| Germany | 82 | 15.4% | €223.5 M | €415,600 |
| France | 57 | 10.7% | €5.1 M | €165,400 |
| Sweden | 19 | 3.6% | €8.2 M | €1.8 M |
| Norway | 19 | 3.6% | €5.9 M | €559,000 |
| Ireland | 18 | 3.4% | €3.7 M | €189,500 |
| Netherlands | 17 | 3.2% | €24.2 M | €506,100 |
| Poland | 16 | 3% | €3.8 M | €231,900 |
| Italy | 15 | 2.8% | €6.7 M | €279,000 |
| Belgium | 11 | 2.1% | €1.3 M | €654,200 |
| EU institutions | 9 | 1.7% | €148,000 | €148,000 |
| Lithuania | 9 | 1.7% | €5.9 M | €400,000 |
| Greece | 8 | 1.5% | €3.9 M | €485,000 |
| Luxembourg | 8 | 1.5% | €2.5 M | €220,000 |
| Latvia | 7 | 1.3% | €1.5 M | €126,000 |
| Austria | 6 | 1.1% | €521,400 | €260,700 |
New calls, and what is still open
805 calls for tenders were published in 1–28 October and were not yet awarded on 30 October 2026; 521 of them are still open. Counting every publication date, 625 consulting calls are open on 30 October 2026, and 330 close within two weeks. The largest by published estimate:
Coming up
344 consulting contracts awarded earlier end between 29 January 2027 and 1 May 2027, by the duration their notice states (counting only the 6,725 of 15,574 awards with a duration of a year or more). Contracts that end are often tendered again. 52 prior information notices, which announce a tender before it opens, were published in 1–28 October.
Largest contracts ending
Prior information notices of the month
| Published | Notice and buyer | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-28 | Organisational consulting TenneT TSO B.V · Netherlands | €125.0 M |
| 2026-10-26 | Market dialogue (RFI) Consultancy services within ICT DEPARTEMENTENES DIGITALISERINGSORGANISASJON (DIO) · Norway | €103.2 M |
| 2026-10-01 | Servicio de apoyo técnico necesario para la gobernanza del ciclo de vida del desarrollo… Gerencia de Informática de la Seguridad Social · Spain | €50.5 M |
| 2026-10-07 | Services of project management and architecture in the field of information technology European Union Intellectual Property Office · Spain | €34.2 M |
| 2026-10-15 | Support to LIPAC and DONES Projects European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy (F4E) · Spain | €15.0 M |
Compared with September 2026 and October 2025
Movers: 534 awards published in 1–28 October 2026, against 467 in 1–28 September 2026 (+14.3%) and 447 in 1–28 October 2025 (+19.5%), all counted by publication date.
| Published | Awards | Value | Median | With value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–28 Oct 2026 | 534 | €342.0 M | €149,300 | 350 |
| 1–28 Sep 2026 | 467 | €177.1 M | €105,000 | 295 |
| 1–28 Oct 2025 | 447 | €117.5 M | €119,500 | 259 |
Three things the data does not say
- When the work was won. These are awards published in October, not decided in it. For the 300 of 534 whose earlier call is also in the data, the award was published a median of 142 days after the call, and 240 more than 90 days after. The registers do not give the decision date, so the month says when the market learned of an award, not when it was won.
- Everything that was bought. 74 of the 534 awards name no winner we can rank and 184 give no fee (no value, or a framework ceiling), so firm rankings and value rest on fewer awards than the count. France's register of smaller contracts (DECP) gives the signing date but not the publication date, so it is left out of the month: 55 contracts signed in these days are not counted. For Spain's PLACSP (158 awards) the date is the day the register last updated the entry. Countries other than France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands are seen through TED only, which publishes mainly contracts above the EU thresholds.
- A trend. One month is a small base. Over the 12 months before, the monthly count ranged from 448 to 610 awards and moved by up to 18.5% from one month to the next, so a single month's change is not a trend. Value moves more: the largest single award is 15.9% of the month's value. This month so far covers 28 of 31 days.
Why the date of publication
Counted by the month each procedure started (its first notice), October would show 236 awards instead of 534: the procedures that started recently have mostly not been awarded yet. The gap narrows as months age: six months back the counts are 492 and 412. The same happens with any date that comes before publication, the award decision included, which is why this edition never uses one.
How this is counted
Awards of consulting work (strategy and advisory; transformation and change; the radar's purity filter applied) from €15,000, by public buyers in Europe, from TED and the national registers of France (BOAMP), Spain (PLACSP), Germany (the federal notice service) and the Netherlands (TenderNed). An award counts in the month its first award notice was published (TED, BOAMP, the German service, TenderNed) or, for PLACSP, the day the register last updated it. France's DECP gives no publication date and is left out of the monthly counts. Calls count by the date of their notice.
Value: the award's value where given; framework agreements (a ceiling shared by the holders) and values of €150 M or more are kept apart. Value won: an award's value split between the firms it names. Universities, research institutes and public bodies count in the totals but are not ranked. Big Four: EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG. SME: as declared in the TED eForms notice. 44 awards whose award notice is not among the source notices have no publication date and are not counted in any month. Every figure is computed twice by independent paths and the build stops if they disagree. Data of 2026-10-30 (sources fetched: de-projects 2026-10-28, es 2026-10-29, fr-projects 2026-10-29, nl-projects 2026-10-28, ted 2026-10-28).
Data and other editions
The month’s awards league (every ranked firm, no tender-level rows) as CSV, and this edition as Markdown, under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Market page: EuropeThe annual report: who wins public consulting in EuropeFirm pages