New paper sets out the evidence for qualifications-based selection, showing design fees make up just 1–2% of an asset’s lifetime cost, and offers clients a practical roadmap for putting it into practice.
International engineering federation FIDIC has launched a major new report setting out the evidence base for Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) as the preferred way to procure engineering and architectural consultancy services worldwide.
Qualifications-Based Selection – A FIDIC paper makes a case that will resonate with anyone who has watched a project run over budget after being awarded to the lowest bidder: that selecting consultants primarily on price is a false economy.
Design and consultancy fees typically account for just 1–2% of an infrastructure asset’s total lifetime cost, yet the decisions made at this early stage shape the vast majority of what follows – with operations, maintenance and rehabilitation accounting for up to 85% of a facility’s total lifecycle cost. Cutting corners on consultant selection to save a small percentage upfront routinely costs far more later.
The report doesn’t rely on assertion alone. Drawing on decades of international research, including landmark studies by the ACEC Research Institute, it finds that QBS-procured projects consistently outperform those procured on price. Owner satisfaction on QBS projects stood at 89% and QBS projects were 23% more likely to deliver innovative solutions.
Those numbers are brought to life through real-world case studies, including the Town Creek Culvert project in Greenville, North Carolina, where qualifications-based selection led to an innovative $33m stormwater solution – including the largest regenerative stormwater conveyance project in the state – that a low-bid process would never have produced.
FIDIC president Alfredo Ingletti said: “The infrastructure the world builds over the next decade will define quality of life, resilience and sustainability for generations. Selecting the right consulting engineer is not a cost to be minimised – it is the single decision that determines whether that infrastructure succeeds or fails. This report shows, with clear evidence, why qualifications must come before price.”
Crucially, the report is not only an argument for QBS but a practical roadmap for implementing it. It examines how QBS and related quality-led procurement approaches are applied across different jurisdictions – from the United States’ Brooks Act and Canada’s growing adoption, to the EU’s Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) framework and the World Bank’s Quality-Based Selection and Consultant’s Qualifications Selection methods.
It then sets out concrete guidance for clients on implementing QBS effectively, including the role of the informed purchaser, transparency, and integrity management systems throughout long-listing, short-listing and negotiation.
Speaking at the launch, FIDIC CEO Susanna Zammataro placed the report in the context of a fast-changing infrastructure landscape: “Infrastructure investment is accelerating globally, alongside growing complexity – climate resilience, ageing assets and digital transformation. Getting consultant selection right at the outset has never mattered more.”
Importantly, QBS does not do away with cost discipline – it re-sequences it. Under QBS, price is negotiated after the most qualified firm has been chosen, against a clearly defined scope, rather than used as the basis for choosing between firms in the first place. It is this sequencing, the report argues, that consistently produces lower overall cost growth than price-led competition, because better design reduces the costly changes and delays that erode budgets later in a project’s life.
FIDIC is encouraging governments, development banks and public and private clients around the world to move progressively towards qualifications-based approaches to secure better value, quality and resilience from their infrastructure investment.
Qualifications-Based Selection – A FIDIC paper is available to download here.
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