This PIN provides early information about the expected starting date and purchase volume and about the open market consultation that is organised in preparation of this precommercial procurement (PCP). The procurement aims to trigger new solutions to be developed and tested to address the following challenge: REHEAL aims to stimulate the development of new solutions that will support the transition of healthcare supply chains from linear to circular models to enhance sustainability and resilience. Key areas include developing supply chain management platforms that prioritise product longevity, material tracking, and regulatory compliance, employing advanced data analytics and AI to optimise reverse logistics and explore recovery opportunities. Solutions should enable scenario analysis and modelling, allowing healthcare providers to identify and implement the most impactful strategies tailored to regional needs.

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PreCommercial Procurement (PCP) to buy R&D (research and development) services on innovative and sustainable solutions to transition healthcare supply chains from linear to circular models – REHEAL..
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 (socalled ‘Buyers Group’).The procurement will take the form of a precommercial 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 R&D provider will be awarded a framework agreement that covers the following R&D phases and a specific contract per phase.Procurement will take the form of a precommercial procurement (PCP), that will allow procurers to buy R&D from several competing suppliers in parallel; to compare alternative solution approaches and to identify the best valueformoney solutions that the market can deliver to address those needs. The PCP will be structured as a fasttrack PCP, specifically designed to accelerate innovation cycles and reduce timetoimpact whilst remaining fully compliant with Horizon Europe PCP principles. In contrast to traditional PCPs that strictly separate prototyping and piloting into distinct phases, REHEAL adopts a fasttrack approach in which prototyping and piloting are combined into a single integrated R&D phase. This approach is justified by the digital, softwareintensive nature of the expected solutions, which enables rapid iteration, continuous testing and early validation in real operational environments. The PCP will be organised into three consecutive phases: Phase 1 – Solution design and feasibility: Selected contractors will elaborate detailed solution designs, technical architectures, and feasibility studies addressing the REHEAL challenge, including risk assessment and validation plans. Phase 2 – Prototyping and piloting (combined phase): Contractors will develop functional prototypes and pilot them directly in operational healthcare environments across the Buyers Group sites. Prototyping and piloting are grouped together to enable rapid learning loops, realworld testing, and early assessment of usability, scalability, sustainability impact, and integration into existing healthcare supply chains. Phase 3 – followup procurement: subject to the successful completion of Phase 2 and availability of funding, the REHEAL Buyers Group may launch a separate followup procurement to deploy and upscale the most promising solution(s). This Phase 3 is not part of the PCP itself, but is foreseen as a potential next step to ensure market uptake and impact, in line with Horizon Europe PCP guidance. After each PCP phase, interim evaluations will be carried out, and the contractors offering the best value for money will be invited to progress to the next phase. Each selected operator will receive a framework contract, with specific contracts awarded per phase. The selected operators will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) they generate during the PCP and will be able to use them to exploit the full market potential of the solutions developed. All interested operators are invited to take part in the upcoming open market consultation (OMC) (regardless of their geographic location, size or governance structure of their organisation). The OMC will be organised as a series of meetings. These meetings will provide you with an overview on the procurement objectives, the PCP process and the main clauses of the contract. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions. A first EUlevel online webinar will be held on 11 February 2026, introducing the project, challenge, requirements, Buyers Group, overall PCP process and timeline, to tools available to support applicants. This will be followed by a series of five live meetings hosted in each of the procurer locations mentioned in under Section I.1) During those meetings, the procurers will offer presentations in their own local languages, namely English, Spanish, Danish, Polish and Greek. These meetings will take place between 16 – 27 February 2026. The meetings will be followed by an EUlevel live event on 4 March and a final EU webinar, on 31 March 2026, in English. Registration for OMC meetings will be available on the REHEAL website https://www.rehealhorizon.eu – from 19 January 2026. The contract notice is expected to be published in July 2026 and the procurement is expected to start in late 2026 and end in late 2028. Testing is expected to take place in Scotland (UK), Galicia (Spain), Region Hovedstaden (Denmark), Krakow (Poland), and Athens (Greece). This testing may also serve as a first customer test reference for the contractors. The selected suppliers will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) they generate during the PCP and will be able to use them to exploit the full market potential of the solutions developed, i.e. beyond the procurement.