This contract notice invites interested operators to submit tenders to a procurement.

The procurement aims to trigger new solutions to be developed and tested to address the following challenge: to unlock the tele-rehabilitation market by purchasing the development of a technological innovation ecosystem, enabling service providers to provide telerehabilitation, and self-management of rehabilitation & self-care at home, at scale. The ecosystem’s design should enable the flexible implementation of a value-based and integrated-care model, enable data driven intervention and the seamless integration of third-party solutions. This PCP procurement is a joint procurement by different procurers across Europe that are all facing the same common challenge and are thus looking for similar solutions (so-called 'buyers group'). More information can be found on the ROSIA PCP website: https://rosia-pcp.eu

The procurement will take the form of a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) under which R&D service contracts will be awarded to a number of R&D providers in parallel in a phased approach. This will make it possible to compare competing alternative solutions.

Each selected operator will be awarded a framework agreement that covers 3 R&D phases: solution design, prototyping and validation and testing of a limited set of first products or services.

After each phase, intermediate evaluations will be carried out to progressively select the best of the competing solutions. The contractors with the best-value-for-money solutions will be offered a specific contract for the next phase.

• Phase 1: Solution design:

This phase is a feasibility study of the selected technologies and proposals, which aims to verify the technical, economic and organisational feasibility of each company’s offer. The expected output from participating companies is a report describing the results of the feasibility study.

The total budget for the R&D contracts in this phase is EUR 82.645 (excluding VAT) and the maximum budget per R&D contract is EUR 16.529 (excluded VAT). Should there is any leftover from this phase, it will be transferred to the next one. From this sum, it is expected that at least 5 contracts will be awarded. But if there are at least 3, ROSIA PCP could be started. This phase will last for 4 months.

• Phase 2: Prototype development:

The purpose of this phase is to develop the most promising ideas, shown in Phase 1, into well-defined prototypes. Selected companies will each develop a prototype based on the results of their feasibility study. The aim is to verify to what extent the prototype’s main features meet the functional and performance requirements set in the challenge. Participating companies are expected to deliver a prototype specification and lab demonstration. It is expected that the budget for this phase will be EUR 743.802 (excluding VAT) and the maximum budget per R&D contract will be EUR 247.934 (excluding VAT). Should there is any leftover from this phase, it will be transferred to the next one. From this sum, it is expected that at least 3 bidders will be selected for Phase 2. But if there are at least 2, ROSIA Phase 2 could be started.This phase will last 10 months.

• Phase 3. Validation and field test:

This phase aims to verify and compare the full feature set and performance of different solutions in real-life operational conditions of the targeted public service. Expected output from participating companies includes field testing, field test specification, specification of the final solution, other related technical documentation and an updated cost/benefit evaluation. It is expected that the budget for this phase will be EUR 2.396.695 (excluding VAT) and the maximum budget per R&D contract will be EUR 1.198.347 (excluding VAT). 2 projects will be selected for this phase. This phase will last 14 months.

In Phase 3, all the solutions will be tested in 2 sites per member of the Buyers Group Members:

- Somontano de Barbastro Shire, Aragon (Spain)

- Teruel, Aragon (Spain)

- Penela, Coimbra (Portugal)

- Soure, Coimbra (Portugal)

- CHO 6: Community Healthcare East, Dublin South East, Dun Laoghaire, Wicklow (Ireland)

- CHO 7: Community Healthcare, Dublin South, Kildare and West Wicklow (Ireland)

This testing may also serve as a first customer test reference for the contractors.

The procurement is expected to start in 31th March 2022 and end in 30th May 2025.

The selected operators will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) that they generate during the PCP and will be able to use them to exploit the full market potential of the developed solutions i.e. beyond the procurement.