€ 660,000 to support knowledge sharing in Innovation Procurement

Applications for the Call for Twinnings are open

The EU-funded project Procure4Health is inviting public and private healthcare procurers to apply to the Call for Twinnings to learn about or adopt innovative solutions, procurement techniques or similar related matters available elsewhere. Procure4Health will provide an appropriate environment for public and private procurers, as well as the wider Health & Social care community, to effectively share knowledge, build capacities of procurers, define common needs and advance innovation procurement in the EU.

A total amount of €660,000 is available for Twinning activities under the Procure4Health project, with funding expected for approximately 30 Twinnings partnerships. In recognition of that Twinnings partnerships are highly tailored towards the specific needs and context of the individual Twinnings partner, and the activities proposed by them, Twinnings partners are allowed to apply for a joint budget of up to €30,000 covering the activities and accommodating their ambitions in a proposal.

Twinnings are a community (peer to peer) tool that enables exchange of knowledge on a particular topic by bringing together experienced players willing to pass on their experience to less experienced ones. Over a defined period, the Twinning parties carry out activities such as structured study visits, workshops, training sessions and internships, leading to the effective capacity-building for one or both parties. The main concept behind Twinnings is to avoid reinventing the wheel by adopting knowledge, enabling partners to learn from existing experiences that have already successfully tackled the same problems and barriers, found solutions for them, and thus help adoption to significantly shorten the adoption/implementation time and related costs.

BENEFITS FOR AWARDED APPLICANTS

If your proposal is awarded, you will:

• Exchange experiences in innovation procurement with a peer of your choice.
• Get up to €30,000 funding for travels, meetings, training sessions and much more to share experiences.
• Learn from existing experiences that have already successfully tackled the same problems and barriers.
• Improve your capacity to address the topic in a better and more informed way in your region.
• Develop a concrete action plan based on the Twinning experience.

WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE FUNDED UNDER THE TWINNINGS?

The main objective of this scheme is to support knowledge transfer of innovation and best practices. Activities that may be included in a Twinning work plan should therefore pursue this goal and include knowledge transfer meetings, meetings with local stakeholders, organisational readiness of innovation procurement efforts, field visits, viability studies, cost/benefit analysis, dissemination events and preparation of reports, among others.

The objective of a twinning can be the transfer of knowledge and experience around the use of a product or service (e.g., a specific procurement tool), process or methodology (e.g., value-based procurement approaches), strategy (e.g., effective procurement policies), or a procurement business model.

FIND A PARTNER!

Before submitting a proposal to the Procure4Health Twinnings call, applicants must make up a twinning partnership. To facilitate the identification of possible twinning partners, the Procure4Health online community platform, offers a tool for matchmaking. Here, community members can connect with like-minded procurers or find procurers with complementary knowledge in order to initiate a collaboration and an exchange of knowledge in an area that could be important for their everyday procurement work.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Participation in this request for twinning proposals is open on equal terms to public and private procurers, or groups of procuring organisations, operational in the provisioning of Health & Social care established in a Member State of the European Union (or its Horizon-associated countries).

Twinning activities must involve the transfer of know-how between Twinnings partners, it focuses on knowledge-exchange between two or more partners. Twinnings proposals are prepared and submitted jointly by two or more Twinning partners, one identified partner acting as Lead partner of the proposal.

An organisation may participate in more than one twinning, as long as the twinning activities are clearly different from each other.

HOW DO I APPLY FOR THE TWINNINGS?

Twinning applicants shall submit their application electronically via the Procure4Health online community platform. They should take full account of all proposal documents downloaded from the platform. Join the Procure4Health community and access to the Call for Twinnings documentation kit.

Applications for the Call for Twinnings are open on the Procure4Health community platform until the 31st of May 2023, at 17:00 pm CET (Brussels time).

An informative webinar was held on the 12th of April 2023, at 11:00 am CET (Brussels time), providing potential applicants more information about the Twinnings and the application process. Watch a replay of the recording here.

Find out more information about the Call for Twinnings by clicking here.