Health care stakeholders on the demand side can address their clinical or organisational challenges through networking which 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.

These goals highlighted issues such as financing and coordination of cross-border/emergency procurement in the EU, supply chain diversity, security, the benefits of digital solutions for patients, health professionals and citizens.

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;
• Set the ground for cross-border Innovation Procurement implementation in Europe’s health sector by engaging, in an appropriate way, other key stakeholders, such as patients, industry, policymakers or investors.

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 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 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.