Advance contract award notice (ACAN)

An advance contract award notice (ACAN) is a public notice of a buyer's intent to award a contract directly to a named supplier, posted for a challenge period before the award proceeds. If no other supplier files a statement of capabilities within that window, the direct award stands; if one does, the buyer is generally forced to compete the requirement.

For competitors, ACANs are an early-warning system: they name the supplier about to win, the work, and the value, while there is still time to challenge. For the buyer, the notice is the transparency price of a non-competitive award. Monitoring them shows where sole-source awards cluster in your market — and if the same names recur, that pattern is worth a file of its own.

@misc{pi-2026-definitions-acan,
  author = {{The Procurement Institution}},
  title  = {Advance contract award notice (ACAN) — definition},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://procurementinstitution.org/definitions/acan},
  note   = {Release 2026.10}
}