Health care innovation procurement network

Call Updates

Feb 1, 2022 11:43:16 AM

We recently informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals submitted under this call. The results of the evaluation are as follows:

Number of proposals submitted (including proposals transferred from or to other calls): 87
Number of inadmissible proposals: 2
Number of ineligible proposals: 2
Number of above-threshold proposals: 43
Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals: EUR 297.626.852

Oct 4, 2021 12:07:25 PM

Call HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CARE-05 closed on 21 September 2021. 87 proposals were submitted. The breakdown per topic is: HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CARE-05-04: 4 proposals

Aug 20, 2021 4:08:12 PM

Although the submission of the document titled ‘Template for essential information to be provided for proposals including clinical trials/studies/investigations/cohorts’ is not mandatory for the call topic you have accessed, if your proposal includes a clinical study (as it is defined in the template), you are encouraged to complete and submit this template as part of your grant application. Please disregard the second footnote in the template.

Jun 23, 2021 10:01:54 AM

The submission session is now available for: HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CARE-05-04(HORIZON-CSA)

Health care innovation procurement network

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CARE-05-04

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: Ensuring access to innovative, sustainable and high-quality health care (2021) (HORIZON-HLTH-2021-CARE-05)
Type of action: HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned opening date: 22 June 2021
Deadline date: 21 September 2021 17:00:00 Brussels time

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination 4 “Ensuring access to innovative, sustainable and high-quality health care”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that are directed, tailored towards and contributing to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Stakeholders involved in the demand side of health and social care innovations (such as procurement agencies, health care providers, payers/health insurers, public authorities, health care professionals, citizens) reach a common understanding that reflects their key clinical, procurement/supply, organisational and coordination priorities.
• Public/private procurers and decision makers at a local, regional, national and EU level collectively develop and adopt optimal, cost-efficient and flexible innovation procurement strategies, taking into account the ongoing changes in the organisational procedures of health care structures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Procurers and decision makers in procurement organisations mainstream health care-related Innovation Procurement best practices in their respective policy and investment strategies.
• Health care procurers from participating Member States and associated countries scale up cross-border collaborations in research and deployment of innovative solutions, thereby minimising investment risks.

Scope:

This call aims to support the creation of a network of public[1] and private procurers that are responsible for deploying health care innovations across the EU, in order to identify potential areas of interest for innovation procurement.

Health care stakeholders on the demand side can address their clinical or organisational challenges through networking and the coordinated use of innovation procurement tools and policies. A network’s scale, internal transfer of knowledge and engagement with external stakeholders in health, research and industry would facilitate the development of a holistic approach in innovation procurement and an increased collective capacity to procure solutions, which improve health outcomes for patients in inclusive, flexible and fiscally sustainable ways.

This network should assemble a critical mass of European procurers with a strong track record, processes and resources for deploying innovative solutions in health and social care, as well as less experienced ones (due, for example, to budget constraints, lack of expertise or language barriers) who are interested to venture into this area. Through collaboration, experience sharing and in particular through twinning activities, the network should offer the opportunity to less experienced procurers in health innovation to build up capacity on innovation procurement. To this aim, beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties. This support can only be given in the form of grants and the maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000. The respective options of the Model Grant Agreement will apply. Beneficiaries should refer to General Annex B of the Work Programme for further information and guidance.

These goals are particularly relevant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted issues such as the timing, financing and coordination of cross-border/emergency procurement in the EU, supply chain diversity and security, as well as the benefits of digital solutions for patients, health professionals and citizens. The ongoing pandemic has demonstrated that new critical challenges for health care systems may arise in the future, which will need to be addressed properly and swiftly, sometimes with innovative tools and flexible approaches.

The proposals should present a credible plan for a network, which will:

• Create a sustainable mechanism for decision-makers in the health and social care sector to enable and facilitate the use of Innovation Procurement as a tool to tackle current and future challenges faced by the procurers involved;
• Develop a holistic innovation procurement action plan for key health care challenges ahead, that is adaptable to the procurement strategies of most public organizations in the health care sector in Europe and covering all stages of Innovation Procurement implementation (from the identification of a need and pre-tender market consultation, until evaluation of the procurement’s impact);
• Set the ground for mainstreaming (cross-border) Innovation Procurement implementation in Europe’s health sector (EU-funded or not), by engaging, in an appropriate way, other key stakeholders, such as patients, industry (including SMEs/start-ups), policymakers (local, regional and/or national authorities) or investors (e.g. private investors, National Promotional Banks and Economic Development Agencies etc.).

Applicant consortia should be composed primarily of public and/or private procurers, dealing with or interested in the purchase of health care innovations. Consortia may also include health authorities or innovation procurement competence centres, which support these health care procurers in implementing innovation procurement[2]. The composition of the applicant consortia should ensure a broad and balanced geographical representation of Member States and Associated Countries.

Proposals should not promote a silo mentality but should interconnect different types of procurers with their counterparts in other countries across Europe and with the wider healthcare/eHealth ecosystem and an enlarged group of stakeholders critical to the success of Innovation Procurement activities. Applicants should demonstrate that they have the mandate and capacity to procure and can engage key decision-makers from their organisation (e.g. procurement departments, clinical, academic and research departments) who would provide the backbone for such an innovation procurement policy and coordination mechanism to operate effectively (e.g. leverage funds and external expertise, recruit stakeholders, develop/adapt strategies, provide policy recommendations, facilitate emergency procurement procedures).

Proposals should include all of the following aspects:

• Hold an open market consultation with the industry across Europe on the current state of the art for the shared unmet needs for innovative solutions identified by the procurers, including on technical and service readiness;
• Develop capacity and cooperation models for implementing Innovation Procurement (in the form of Innovation Partnerships, PCP/PPI or other relevant instruments), which overcome potential differences among the legal public procurement frameworks of the participating procurers in health and social care;
• Conduct a user analysis of Innovation Procurement, identify barriers and propose solutions to overcome these barriers (e.g.: standardisation, certification, regulatory requirements, intellectual property rights, contracting models, payment/reimbursement models) and facilitate uptake of such solutions;
• Plan for procurement(s) based on identified common needs;
• Take measures ensuring the sustainability of outcomes beyond the lifespan of the proposed project and their integration into the procurement strategies of participating organisations, taking into account acceptance with users and professionals as well as health economics considerations.

Cross-cutting Priorities:
Innovation Procurement
Socio-economic science and humanities

[1]Public procurers are organisations that are contracting authorities or contracting entities according to the definition of those terms in the EU public procurement directives 2014/24/EU, 2004/25/EU, 2009/81/EC.

[2]Innovation procurement competence centres are organisations/organisational structures that have been assigned the task by their government and have a mandate according to national law to encourage wider use of pre-commercial procurement (PCP) and public procurement of innovation (PPI) that includes among others providing practical and/or financial assistance to public procurers in the preparation and/or implementation of PCP and PPI procurements.