Open Market Consultation (OMC) for a future Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) of R&D (research and development) services on the climate adaptation domain using space and EO (Earth Observation)-based information to prevent and mitigate water related crisis challenges to increase climate resilience in Europe – PCP WISE

This Prior Information Notice announces an OMC and provides early information in preparation for a future PCP carried out by the PCP WISE project (Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions for Water Management from Space). This project receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement number No. 101182917 and selected under the HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-01-5, topic: Customisation/pre-operationalisation of prototypes end-user services in the area Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (see EU Funding & Tenders Portal - https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl6-2024-governance-01-5), with a budget of €12 million earmarked for the R&D phases during the implementation of the PCP instrument. However, the European Union does not participate as a contracting authority in the procurement. PCP WISE aims to challenge the market to develop innovative solutions (up to TRL8) to improve water management, particularly in the fields of agriculture, urban climate resilience and planning, climate risk management and resilience to water-related natural disasters, using satellite based earth observation data, hydrological models, field data and artificial intelligence in order to provide intelligence on rural and urban soil-water-vegetation-system-conditions and related risks per sector. By leveraging space technology and environmental observation data, PCP WISE seeks to address critical challenges related to floods, fires, and infrastructure impacts both in rural and urban areas. This collaborative effort brings together public buyers, research institutions, and industry experts to create and implement advanced climate services that will enhance Europe's ability to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. Therefore, it marks the start of an ambitious international collaboration dedicated to the sustainable management of water resources and the need to enlarge climate resilience across Europe. PCP WISE focuses on five distinct use cases, each addressing specific water-related challenges in different regions of Europe (North, South, West, and East) and geographical contexts (urban and rural) on flood, drought, subsidence, fire, or other concerns distinguishing between issues of a regular nature and those arising from crisis situations. For more information about the use cases, please see the OMC document. COMMUNICATION: Additional information can be obtained from the PCP WISE website* (PCP WISE: Pre-Commercial Procurement - Water management Innovation from Space for European climate resilience - https://pcp-wise.eu/open-market-consultation/) and/or the e-Procurement Platform** ( https://pcp-wise.tuttogare.it/index.php ). All the questions regarding the Open Market Consultation (OMC) should be asked through the PCP WISE OMC-Module in the aforementioned e-Procurement Platform. In the case of other issues (e.g. technical issues with the platform), the e-mail address of the Lead Procurer (see contact point) can be used. *The project’s official website will indicatively include information about the project, its Consortium, relevant news and events, matchmaking & networking opportunities, the PCP WISE’s Community Platform, the project’s social media and communication outputs as well as the OMC Documents. **Studio Amica’s e-Procurement Platform is a public procurement management software. Specifically the PCP-module of the platform will allow the PCP WISE Consortium to fully carry out the preliminary market consultation of PCP WISE and the future follow-up tender in compliance with the applicable European legislation. Finally, a Request for Information (RfI) questionnaire will provide the PCP WISE consortium with feedback from the market about its main challenge and use cases. Technology providers are invited to answer all the questions of the survey (one survey per company). The questionnaire should be filled out online and submitted via the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/PCP-WISE