ProEmpower is taking the next steps toward acquiring a personalised diabetes management solution for 12 million type 2 diabetes patients across Turkey, Portugal, Spain and Italy. One of empirica’s roles in the project is to oversee the consolidation of a network of interested external bodies as a basis of applicants for the project’s call for tender. This goal has been pursued throughout the first year of the project through a series of dedicated activities.

Next to participations in high profile international events such as the 2017 eHealth Week in Malta and the eHealth Summit Portugal, a total of six Open Market Consultations have been organised by the ProEmpower consortium between May and June 2017. One of the workshops was held as a webinar, whereas the others took place face-to-face in Naples (Italy), Murcia (Spain); Ankara (Turkey), Lisbon (Portugal) and Sofia (Bulgaria) respectively. The workshops were attended by representatives of more than 140 companies as representatives of the demand side: both SMEs/Startups as well as large companies.

In order to validate the vision of the procurers for an innovative personalised diabetes management solution for type 2 diabetes patients, empirica has analysed the demand side through a market consultation questionnaire which has been filled in by 52 companies so far.

Another step taken to facilitate the application process for interested companies was the compilation of a list companies seeking partners for joint applications as consortia. The list functions as a match-making tool and addresses those smaller companies, specifically start-ups and SMEs, who may not be able to cover the envisioned ProEmpower diabetes management solution in its entirety on their own.

The ProEmpower consortium is now in the final stages of developing the set of tender documents to be provided as part of the call for tender. The tender documents comprise a report of the Open Market Consultations conducted by ProEmpower, the request for tenders with details about conditions of the tender, tender criteria to be applied, submission and format requirements, tender application template, etc. Currently the tender documents are being evaluated by the European Commission. Interested parties will be notified as soon as the call is green-lighted for publication.