The month in public consulting: Germany, October 2026 so far

What was awarded

82 awards were published. 38 of them state a value: €223.5 M together, and the median award was €415,600 (half were smaller, half larger). 9 were framework agreements. A framework states a ceiling, the most that may be spent, not a fee, so its value is kept apart: €12.5 M of ceilings across the 4 that state one. 35 state no value.

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 €212.1 M, 94.9% of the month's value.

Who won

VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH won the most awards (3). The first three: VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH (3), GFA Consulting Group GmbH (2), FAF gGmbH (2). The Big Four (EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG) were named on 4 of the 59 awards that name a winner (6.8%). New in the top ten against 1–28 September: GFA Consulting Group GmbH, FAF gGmbH, Prognos AG, VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH, Institut für Energie und Umweltforschung Heidelberg gGmbh (ifeu), OHB System AG, ECO Consult GmbH & Co KG, infas Institut für angewandte.

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

52 public buyers published awards. Those with the most: GIZ (12), BMWE (formerly BMWK) (6), BMFTR (formerly BMBF) (5).

Buyers with the most awards

New calls, and what is still open

119 calls for tenders were published in 1–28 October and were not yet awarded on 30 October 2026; 55 of them are still open. Counting every publication date, 66 consulting calls are open on 30 October 2026, and 31 close within two weeks. The largest by published estimate:

See every open call in the radar

Coming up

39 consulting contracts awarded earlier end between 29 January 2027 and 1 May 2027, by the duration their notice states (counting only the 850 of 1,913 awards with a duration of a year or more). Contracts that end are often tendered again. 0 prior information notices, which announce a tender before it opens, were published in 1–28 October.

Largest contracts ending

Compared with September 2026 and October 2025

Movers: 82 awards published in 1–28 October 2026, against 76 in 1–28 September 2026 (+7.9%) and 63 in 1–28 October 2025 (+30.2%), all counted by publication date.

Three things the data does not say

1. When the work was won. These are awards published in October, not decided in it. For the 55 of 82 whose earlier call is also in the data, the award was published a median of 124 days after the call, and 37 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.
2. Everything that was bought. 23 of the 82 awards name no winner we can rank and 44 give no fee (no value, or a framework ceiling), so firm rankings and value rest on fewer awards than the count.
3. A trend. One month is a small base. Over the 12 months before, the monthly count ranged from 65 to 105 awards and moved by up to 38.2% from one month to the next, so a single month's change is not a trend. Value moves more: the largest single award is 24.3% 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 28 awards instead of 82: the procedures that started recently have mostly not been awarded yet. The gap narrows as months age: six months back the counts are 69 and 57. The same happens with any date that comes before publication, the award decision included, which is why this edition never uses one.