News & Views

The Europeana Common Culture project analysed the state of the art of European National Aggregators working to increase the number, quality and easy searches for digitised cultural heritage objects and art.

Rede Aberta is the first Spanish broadband project to be funded by the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF). To promote economic growth, stop depopulation and rejuvenate the population of rural Galicia, the open access network will bring 10 Gbps symmetrical fibre connectivity to 400,000 homes. In this video, Pere Antentas, Rede Aberta CEO, explains that the project will help the population take advantage of the area’s “enormous growth potential” and natural resources. It “will allow the telecommunication networks and services to be at the same level as the ones in the big cities of Europe”.

In order to bring significant improvement to the digitalisation of the cargo and cruising industry in the North of Europe, the German regional Broadband Competence Office (BCO) of Lower Saxony launched a mobile connectivity project deploying 5G infrastructure in the Bay of Germany in the North Sea. As Peer Beyersdorff explains in this video, conditions at sea and the Earth’s curvature make mobile telecommunication challenging. The project serves one of the busiest sea routes in the world, enabling safer passage, more reliable communication and important services for both trade and tourism.

Norway's support to pre-commercial procurements (PCP) has been a huge success, leading to the commercialization of the world's first self-driving snow clearing vehicles, emission free public ferry boats and the world's largest full-scale carbon capture, transport and storage system to combat climate change. Since over a decade, the Norwegian Research Council launches a yearly call to financially support Norwegian public buyers in preparing and/or implementing PCPs. This year Norwegian procurers are invited to submit applications for the new 200 million Kroner call until 15 September 2021.

End 2020 the European Commission contracted UVD robots, a Danish startup, to deliver 200 innovative disinfection robots to hospitals across EU countries. Results from first installations are good. Back in 2014-17, Blue Ocean Robotics created this self-driving disinfection robot in a pre-commercial procurement for a buyers group of Danish regions. Since then its subsidiary UVD robots experienced steep growth by selling the robots worldwide to fight COVID-19. UVD Robots enable hospitals to reduce disease transmission by killing 99.99% of bacteria and viruses in a patient room in 10 minutes time.

Today the European Commission is proposing to create a Digital Green Certificate to facilitate safe free movement inside the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Digital Green Certificate will be a proof that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result or recovered from COVID-19. It will be available, free of charge, in digital or paper format.

The center for minimal invasive surgery in Caceres (ES) invites interested bidders to make offers for the pre-commercial procurement on improving organ preservation from the donor to the recipient. The buyer is looking for innovative solutions that can monitor in real-time the function and status of the organ, enable to use organs with expanded criteria, extend the preservation periods under physiological conditions, without altering the metabolic or secretory function of the organ and predict the post-transplant viability of the organ. Deadline for submission of offers: 8 April 2021.

The hydrographic confederation of Segura (ES) aims to encourage the development of innovative real-time IT decision making systems to achieve more efficient and sustainable water management in the Segura River Basin District. Advanced simulation, forecasting and optimization tools - including artificial intelligence and big data capabilities - are needed to develop 5 new modules (meteorological prediction, simulation and hydrological prediction,
agronomic module, water resources management, quantity and quality, economic analysis and prediction). Deadline to submit offers: 25 March 2021

The CAREMATRIX buyers group intends to boost innovative integrated CARE solutions to address the Multimorbidity mATRIX in ageing populations. The TIQUE buyers group is looking for InnovaTIve integrated care services to deliver QUick rEsponses for individuals with advanced heart failure and complex care needs. Both the CAREMATRIX and TIQUE buyers groups receiving co-financing from the EU Horizon 2020 programme.

The procuRE buyers group of 6 public procurers from 6 different countries around Europe (SI, ES, DE, PT, IS, TK) are inviting potentially interested bidders to participate in the open market consultation for their upcoming pre-commercial procurement. Aim is to stimulate the development and testing of breakthrough solutions that can provide 100% renewable energy supply for existing public buildings in order to move towards full decarbonization.