Treat the following as hard gates, tailored to the buyer’s use case:
- Permitted use: data, teacher outputs, model and code can be used in the proposed way.
- Independent acceptance: supplier accepts the buyer’s protected test and dated practical baseline.
- Critical quality: the plan defines non-negotiable failure limits; production award requires measured passage.
- Deployment and security: required processing, access, availability and incident controls are demonstrably achievable.
- Ownership: named people own acceptance, operations and handover; mandatory exit rights are resolved.
For a pilot award, distinguish “credible plan to prove the production gate” from “already passed”. Do not demand a production result before feasibility work, but do require a credible way to stop if it fails.
Evaluation design, specific licence terms and risk-management guidance inform these questions. The gates are the desk’s purchasing policy, not a claim that each source mandates the exact same procedure.