• 16 entities from six European countries will participate in this initiative, which has a budget of €5.2 million.

Navarra is leading this European project, which aims to purify wastewater in hospitals and healthcare facilities. A multidisciplinary team, made up of professionals from the Microbiology Service of the University Hospital of Navarra (HUN) and the Navarrabiomed Research Centre, is working on the development of a solution that also involves 16 entities from 6 European countries: Estonia, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and Spain.
This project, called THERESA PCP, receives €5,287,206 in funding from the European Commission. For its implementation, it seeks specific technology for the on-site treatment of hospital wastewater through the public procurement procedure known as Compra Pública de Innovación (public procurement of innovation). Basically, public procurement of innovation is a form of public contracting whereby private sector companies are invited to submit proposals for technological or innovative solutions to a need for which there is currently no known solution.

The multidisciplinary team from Navarra is made up of healthcare professionals from the Microbiology and Management Department, the Administration Department, General Services at the University Hospital of Navarra, and from the Department of Health’s Innovation Unit and the Management Unit at Navarrabiomed – Miguel Servet Foundation. The Public Procurement for Innovation Section of the Universities, Innovation and Digital Transformation Department is also involved.

Milagros Larráyoz, Director of Economic Management and General Services at the University Hospital of Navarra, explains why the project is so important: “THERESA PCP will enable us to study solutions that will put Navarra’s public health service at the forefront of Europe’s environmental approach. We need to implement efficient, sustainable solutions that guarantee the responsible operation of the hospital environment, from carbon footprint measurement, through waste management, materials logistics and energy efficiency, to clinical actions involving digitisation, the prescription of diagnostic tests and the use of fluorinated gases, among other aspects”.

The THERESA PCP project has been awarded the highest possible score (15/15) in a Horizon Europe pre-commercial procurement call on environmentally sustainable, climate-neutral and circular health systems, in which 12 European consortia participated.
 
Comprehensive health for a “One Health” project

THERESA PCP is part of the European Commission's “One Health” initiative, which aims to balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems. Specifically, the project promotes environmental health and biodiversity, and works to minimise and reduce the potential impact of waste from the healthcare sector through proper management and treatment.
The solution will allow to study the prioritised elimination of antibiotics, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antimicrobial resistance genes, all of which promote antimicrobial resistance. Contrast products used in diagnostic tests and cytostatic drugs administered in cancer treatments, among others, will also be eliminated. 

The technological implementation will be part of a Pre-commercial Procurement Process (PCP) involving seven hospitals, including the University Hospital of Navarra. In the coming months, a preliminary market consultation will be carried out, in which different entities are expected to propose their technological solutions to the need published in the consultation.
Subsequently, following a tender process, the first phase of the PCP, “Solution Design”, will begin, in which five companies will design technological prototypes for the group of hospitals. After they have been assessed, a total of 3 solutions will be chosen to continue to the second phase, “Prototype Development”. As a result of this phase, 2 of the prototypes will be selected to be validated on site in hospitals from 4 different European countries (each solution in two different hospitals), as part of the third phase of the PCP. The technological solution that shows the best results will be made available for the hospitals to acquire.