Research companies have until 8 October to register their interest while final submissions must be made before 17 December.

The winning company will carry the IAB endorsement for a period of three years. CEO Paul Fisher (pictured) said: “A standard online audience measurement currency is one of the most significant contributors to the growth of online advertising and we have been working hard to assist industry to arrive at such a result.”

For the past year the IAB has been collaborating with Nielsen Online on the development of a hybrid web audience measurement solution combining panel-based measurement with server-side data, but now ComScore, ViziSense and the partnership of Roy Morgan Research and Effective Measure are all likely to submit their own hybrid approaches for consideration by the trade body.

Submissions will be reviewed by a specially constituted Technical Review Group, which will be chaired by Ian Muir and include measurement experts from the IAB Measurement Council, the Media Federation of Australia and the Australian Association of National Advertisers.

The IAB expects to complete the tender process during the first six months of next year.