Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued a request for proposal (RFP) to select a qualified provider to act as an independent quality control (QC) provider for the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: 2026 Round, which is due to launch in April 2026.
The New gTLD Program consists of multiple evaluations that are performed by service providers and ICANN staff. During the processing of new gTLD applications, demonstrable quality and consistency of evaluation are essential for the overall success of the 2026 Round. Community consensus policies require consistent and fair evaluation against published criteria in the 2026 Round Applicant Guidebook (AGB). As was the case in the 2012 Round of the New gTLD Program, administration of the QC process will be outsourced to a third party to preserve independence with the objective of ensuring that the evaluation processes are transparent, consistent, and repeatable across all applications.
This is a public RFP, meaning that any prospective vendor may participate.
For a complete overview of this RFP, including the timeline, please consult this webpage.
Indications of interest should be emailed to 2026-round-evaluation-quality-control-rfp@icann.org and provide the following information:
- Name of the organization
- Contact name
- Contact email address
Official responses to the RFP should be electronically submitted using ICANN's sourcing tool by 23:59 UTC on 10 February 2026. Access to this tool may be requested via the same email address.