Fuzzy-AHP Model for Pre-qualification of Engineering Consultants in the Iranian Public Procurement System Ahad Nazari, Ph.D. 1 ; Shaghayegh Vandadian 2 ; Hamid Abdirad 3 1 E&T Board Member of the International Project Management Association (IPMA); Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design, Shahid Beheshti University, University Square, Evin, Tehran, Iran; email: a_nazari@sbu.ac.ir 2 Research Assistant, Department of Construction, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design, Shahid Beheshti University, University Square, Evin, Tehran, Iran 3 Ph.D. Fellow, College of Built Environments, University of Washington; 3949 15th Ave NE 224 Gould Hall, Box 355740, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; email: habdirad@uw.edu (Corresponding Author) Abstract Pre-qualification of engineering consultants in the Iranian public procurement system is suffering from arbitrary processes and criteria that cannot effectively shortlist the increasing number of potential bidders. This study aims to develop a pre-qualification model that can serve as the basis for revising the existing regulations and criteria. The authors conducted interviews among experts to localize a framework of pre-qualification criteria. Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP), accompanied by a survey among industry participants, was used to determine the importance level of decision criteria. The results confirmed that the existing guidelines cannot meet the expectations of the industry due to the overemphasis on the past performance of consultants and disregarding their current capabilities. For the international audience, this study clarifies that: (1) the working culture of industry participants impacts their judgments on the importance level of intangible and tangible criteria used for pre-qualification processes; (2) short- listing consultants for a long-term and fragmented data collection in national registration or project pre-qualification should be avoided; and (3) researchers must test FAHP models with different fuzzy scales since the success of the widely used fuzzy extent analysis method is highly dependent on the scale of fuzzy functions and judgments of decision-makers. Keywords: consultants, pre-qualification, criteria, Fuzzy-AHP This is the accepted version of: Nazari, A., Vandadian, S., and Abdirad, H. (2016). "Fuzzy AHP Model for Prequalification of Engineering Consultants in the Iranian Public Procurement System." ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000489 , 04016042.