This call for proposals seeks to contribute to the general objective of "strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of Union enterprises, in particular SMEs".

In particular, this call for proposals is expected to contribute to a significant increase in the share of SMEs with access to the public procurement market.

This call for proposals has three main objectives.

The first goal is to encourage cooperation between public purchasers to promote the use of public procurement in order to contribute to the development of innovative solutions that can meet their needs.
The second goal is to increase the impact of public procurement on innovation. Public procurement can be used as a tool to stimulate innovation in areas of strong public interest, such as, for example, clean energy (contributing to the Paris climate change goals) or health. This in turn will encourage innovative EU companies, especially SMEs, to develop new solutions to societal challenges.
The third objective is to link and establish synergies with EU-funded research and innovation projects whenever possible. This may be relevant in particular for other Commission-funded projects related to innovation procurement

The following activities are mandatory in the context of this call for proposals:

-Evaluation of public customer needs
-Marketing consulting
-Joint engagement in the market
-Capacity building and coordination between public customers
-Development of specifications
-Preparation and implementation of the tender procedure
-Communication about project achievements

More information here.