A new cross-border health project plans to buy R&D services that use data analytics and AI to shift hospital supply chains from linear to circular models.
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In December 2025, a group of European healthcare organisations signalled plans to buy R&D services to redesign hospital supply chains around circular economy principles. The project aims to use advanced data analytics and AI to make procurement more sustainable and more resilient to disruption.
Published on 22nd December 2025, the prior information notice brings together NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), Servizo Gallego de Salud – Area Sanitaria de Lugo, A Marina y Monforte de Lemos, Region Hovedstaden (REGIONH), Fundacja Klaster Lifescience Krakow (KLSK) and Mitera Idiotiki Geniki, Maieytiki, Gynaikologiki Kai Paidiatriki Kliniki Anonymi Etaireia (MITERA).
Through their joint healthcare supply chain innovation procurement, the partners state that they are seeking 'R&D services to develop innovative solutions for transitioning healthcare supply chains from linear to circular models, focusing on sustainability and resilience through advanced data analytics and AI'.
In supply chain terms, 'linear' models usually describe a simple 'take–make–dispose' flow, while 'circular' approaches focus on reducing waste and keeping materials in use for as long as possible. By naming circularity alongside resilience, the partners are signalling that environmental and operational risks will be treated together rather than in separate workstreams.
For procurement teams, three aspects of the notice stand out:
The emphasis on analytics and AI points towards decision-support tools able to handle large data sets on demand, supply, disruption and environmental impact. Rather than buying a single fixed product, the authorities appear to be looking for capabilities that can evolve as data quality and modelling methods improve.
Taken alone, the project might look ambitious. Set against other notices from 2025, it looks more like the next step in a gradual shift away from purely transactional sourcing.
In July 2025, Supply Chain Coordination Ltd issued a prior information notice for wipes for cleaning and disinfection, inviting suppliers of surface wipes and accessories that met regulatory and CE-marking requirements. It typifies much of today’s hospital procurement: focused on specification compliance, unit price and assured availability for largely single-use consumables.
By November 2025, welfare areas in East Uusimaa, Central Uusimaa, West Uusimaa and Vantaa-Kerava were preparing a joint procurement for comprehensive medical device services, asking market participants to comment on draft materials for lifecycle management. That move towards buying services around a device’s full lifespan, rather than just the hardware, mirrors the shift towards circular thinking in the new R&D notice.
Together, these strands suggest that public buyers are starting to treat hospital products and equipment as assets to be optimised over time, not just items to be replenished. The circular healthcare supply chain initiative pushes that logic further by asking suppliers to help redesign the models that govern flow, use and recovery across entire categories.
The December 2025 notice also fits a wider move to use R&D-focused procurement to tackle complex sustainability challenges. Rather than buying finished solutions, authorities are commissioning multi-stage development work that can later underpin broader implementation.
In October 2025, the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture Secretariat launched an R&D call for circular economy innovations in the Baltic Sea region, split between a circularity platform and more sustainable event infrastructure. In September 2025, Dutch water authorities acting through Het Waterschapshuis began a pre-commercial procurement for water management innovations, seeking data-driven tools for climate-change adaptation that use earth observation data and move through structured phases of solution design, prototyping and validation.
On 29th October 2025, the Consorci de Salut i d’Atenció Social de Catalunya announced plans for an innovative sustainability solution for healthcare, aiming to develop a digital platform that supports sustainable practices through a pre-commercial procurement process and an open market consultation in early 2026. On 31st October 2025, Fundación Miguel Servet signalled that the THERESA project would use pre-commercial procurement to develop innovative and sustainable solutions for treating hospital and healthcare wastewater, combining open market consultations with collaborative R&D among several European providers.
Seen alongside these initiatives, the new circular healthcare supply chain project does not stand out for its use of R&D procurement, but for its subject matter. It brings the tools of innovation procurement to the day‑to‑day mechanics of sourcing, stock management and waste handling inside hospitals and health systems.
For category and supply chain managers, this shift raises practical questions. Circular models can blur the line between goods and services, between capital and consumable spend, and between clinical and non‑clinical specifications. Contracts may need to accommodate reuse, refurbishment or take‑back models, even though the notice itself has yet to spell out such mechanisms.
The explicit emphasis on data analytics and AI points towards richer information flows across the chain. Category strategies could come to rely more heavily on near‑real‑time data about demand patterns, lead times, supplier performance and environmental impacts, and on models that help buyers test circular options before they commit to full‑scale roll‑outs.
R&D‑heavy contracts also force procurement teams to think differently about competition and risk. Some of the water management and circular economy projects cited above use multi‑phase approaches in which several suppliers first design solutions, then build prototypes and, finally, validate them in operational settings. If a similar structure is adopted for healthcare supply chains, buyers will face choices about how many suppliers to fund at each stage and how to handle intellectual property for successful tools.
With partners ranging from a national health service and regional health authorities to a life science cluster foundation and a private clinic, the circular supply chain project also crosses organisational boundaries. Any solutions that emerge will need to cope with different governance structures, information systems and regulatory environments, raising the bar for interoperability.
As a prior information notice, the December 2025 publication is an early signal rather than a full specification. Key details – including the exact scope of the R&D tasks, the contract structure, the number of phases and how suppliers will be selected – are not yet available in the published description.
Observers will be watching in 2026 to see whether the buyers opt for a formal pre‑commercial procurement structure, how they align any new circular models with existing inventory and finance systems, and how they govern data sharing when AI‑driven analytics are involved across borders.
Whatever shape the eventual tender takes, it sits squarely within a 2025 shift towards using public procurement to test new models for sustainability and resilience. For suppliers and health‑system category managers alike, it signals that the next wave of innovation may focus less on individual products and more on the design of the supply chains that connect them.
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