The RaDAR Stakeholder meeting took place on February 12^th, 2026, bringing together perspectives from the RaDAR consortium partners, public sector buyers, research institutes, and industry, and featured key project insights, real-world implementation experiences, and interactive stakeholder roundtables. The following sections provide a structured summary of the meeting, outlining the main themes discussed and the key takeaways emerging from each panel and roundtable session.

1. Institutional welcome – Ramon Maspons (AQuAS)

• Maspons highlighted that the healthcare sector across Europe is undergoing profound transformation driven by structural challenges: ageing populations, chronic disease burden, workforce pressures, climate change, and particularly antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is one of the most serious global health threats. It compromises treatment effectiveness, prolongs hospital stays, increases healthcare costs, and puts patient lives at risk. Rapid and accurate detection is therefore critical for resilience and patient safety.
• Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) is not a procurement tool, but as a strategic transformation mechanism. The key shift is from “procuring better” to “procuring to transform”. Through PPI, public authorities identify real system needs and create demand for solutions that do not yet exist on the market, accelerating innovation and reducing time-to-adoption.
• The RADAR PPI project was presented as a replicable model based on structured needs assessment, cross-border collaboration, institutional cooperation, and strategic dialogue with the market.

Key Takeaways

• Healthcare transformation is not optional — it is mandatory.
• PPI is a strategic lever for systemic innovation.
• AMR is a critical clinical, economic, and societal threat.
• Cross-border collaboration strengthens system resilience.

2. Welcome from EISMEA – Marco Iacuitto (EISMEA)

• Iacuitto reaffirmed the European Union support for linking public demand with innovative health technologies. PPI is a political priority at EU level. RADAR was funded under a call designed not to promote innovation in a specific sector, but to strengthen public authorities’ capacity to use procurement strategically as a driver of innovation.
• Public procurement accounts for approximately 14% of EU GDP, making it a powerful macroeconomic instrument. The Commission’s work focuses on three main dimensions: policy framework and regulatory flexibility, cross-border collaboration, and capacity building.
• Importantly, PPI is not only a financial or legal challenge but a skills challenge. Public buyers must develop the competencies required to design, manage, and scale innovation procurement processes.
• Sustainability beyond project duration was strongly emphasized. The impact of PPI initiatives must continue after EU funding ends. Lessons learned, methodologies, and collaboration models must be institutionalized and scaled.

Key Takeaways

• PPI is a strategic EU-level priority.
• Public procurement is a powerful economic and innovation tool.
• Skills and capacity building are critical for success.
• Sustainability and long-term impact are essential.

3. Identifying unmet needs in AMR: PPI and One Health perspectives at local and global level – Luis Lucena (INSERM)

• In Lucena’s presentation, the One Health dimension of AMR was explored in depth. The presentation outlined the One Health work on reviewing innovation procurement regulations, mapping unmet needs in animal and environmental sectors, identifying governance and technical barriers, and developing a policy brief with EU-level recommendations.
• The One Health approach requires integration across human, veterinary, and environmental sectors. AMR cannot be solved within hospital walls alone.

Key Takeaways

• AMR is a systemic, cross-sectoral issue.
• Innovation procurement must incorporate a One Health approach.
• Policy alignment across sectors is necessary.
• Awareness and communication play a strategic role.

4. The RADAR Project – Maria Pons-Vizcarra (AQuAS)

• Pons-Vizcarra pointed out in her presentation that in 2019, around 5 million people died from diseases related to AMR, with approximately 1.3 million directly attributable to antimicrobial resistant pathogens; if nothing changes, by 2050 there will be more deaths related to AMR than to cancer. This represents a very high economic burden, with around €1.5 billion annually being spent on healthcare costs and productivity losses in the European Union. To address these issues, the RaDAR project was launched in January 2022 and will run until June 2026, involving 3 countries, five public buyers, and a €4.3 M budget.
• Some goals of this project are to improve every detection system, ensure good patient care, monitor resistance and virulence, improve treatment effectiveness and reduce healthcare and government costs, while also reporting and communicating quickly to improve system resilience.
• The project followed a structured approach to identify unmet clinical needs and prioritize them. It assessed existing market solutions through state-of-the-art analysis and supplier consultations. Partners jointly defined clinical demand and improved workflows, while each region launched tailored proposals with a shared goal. Activities and payments were aligned to maximize value and ensure effective implementation.
• A coordinated cross border procurement process has been put in place: while each buyer published its own tender based on local needs, the process was coordinated to ensure consistency and maximize impact. Five tenders have been awarded to 15 different companies and are now in the implementation phase.

Key Takeaways

• AMR is a global thread causing many deaths and high costs
• Structured value-based methodology used at RaDAR ensures replicability.
• Demand-driven innovation bridges system needs and technology.
• Coordinated monitoring supports measurable impact.

5. Round Table 1.  RaDAR implementation: experiences from the healthcare providers and health System research institutes

Roundtable 1 focused on the operational implementation of RADAR solutions across different institutional contexts. The discussion explored how rapid diagnostics, digital tools, and innovation procurement processes translated into clinical practice, organizational change, and measurable impact.

• Mila Montero (HMar) explained that conventional phenotypic screening previously required up to 72 hours. With the RADAR solution, detection time has been reduced to approximately 8 hours. This reduction significantly shortens the “time to action,” enabling faster isolation decisions and more targeted empirical therapy. She emphasized that reducing diagnostic time changes the clinical dynamic: when results are available within the same shift, response protocols must be adapted accordingly. Montero also noted that successful implementation required workflow redesign, regular coordination meetings, and strong collaboration between clinicians, microbiologists, and hospital management.
• Ana Álvarez (ICO) described the implementation of three coordinated components at ICO: rapid entry screening for high-risk admissions, rapid bacteremia/sepsis diagnostics (approximately 3 hours turnaround), and an integrated infection control IT platform. She emphasized that in an oncology setting speed is decisive. Results that were previously available after 48–72 hours are now delivered in less than one hour for admission screening and within a few hours for bloodstream infections. This enables earlier isolation measures, more appropriate antimicrobial therapy, and improved coordination between microbiology and clinical teams. Álvarez highlighted that the real impact does not derive from diagnostics alone, but from integration with real-time digital systems that support decision-making and communication across departments.
• Bonaventura Ruiz (LRC) focused on the laboratory perspective and the importance of aligning innovation with clearly defined clinical needs. He stressed that the value of rapid diagnostics depends on structured workflows and strong coordination between laboratory services and hospital units. He also underlined that procurement decisions must be grounded in validated unmet needs. Innovation should not be technology-driven, but demand-driven. From his perspective, institutional leadership and strategic alignment are essential to ensure that new tools are embedded in routine practice rather than remaining isolated pilots. Ruiz highlighted the importance of harmonizing laboratory standards and strengthening coordination mechanisms across institutions to maximize the system-wide impact of innovation.
• Maddalena Illario (UNINA) presented the experience of implementing a digital stewardship platform that reduced identification time to approximately 7 hours and supported coordinated antimicrobial management. She emphasized the importance of involving nursing staff and multidisciplinary teams in interpreting results and acting upon them. From her perspective, innovation procurement also required administrative modernization, including clearer coordination mechanisms and centralized expertise to manage complex procedures. Illario highlighted that the biggest challenge was not technological capability but governance alignment and interoperability with existing IT systems.

Key Takeaways

• Faster diagnostics dramatically reduce time to clinical action.
• Impact depends on workflow redesign and multidisciplinary coordination.
• Governance, leadership, and IT interoperability are critical enablers.

6. Roundtable 2 – GPOs’ role and PPI

Roundtable 2 examined the strategic role of Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) in enabling and scaling Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI). The discussion focused on how centralized procurement bodies can translate innovation objectives into structured contractual mechanisms while maintaining operational feasibility.

• Bérénice Cleuet (Resah) Roundtable 2 examined the strategic role of Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) in enabling and scaling Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI). The discussion focused on how centralized procurement bodies can translate innovation objectives into structured contractual mechanisms while maintaining operational feasibility.
• Jordi Jordà (CSC) presented the Catalan experience from CSC, focusing on operational implementation. He emphasized that GPOs can act as accelerators of innovation when they aggregate demand and reduce fragmentation across healthcare providers. He discussed the introduction of value-based clauses and the need to define simple, enforceable, and measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). According to Jordà, overly complex indicators can undermine monitoring feasibility and create administrative burdens that limit scalability. Jordà emphasized that innovation procurement requires alignment between procurement units, clinical leadership, and hospital management to ensure that contractual objectives reflect real operational needs.

Key Takeaways

• GPOs enable innovation by aggregating demand and reducing fragmentation.
• Simple, measurable KPIs are essential for scalable value-based procurement.
• Alignment between procurement, clinicians, and management is key.

7. Roundtable 3 – Market engagement & contractors’ perspective

The panel reframed PPI as a structural policy instrument rather than a time-limited project tool, focusing on how AMR solutions can move from pilot experimentation to embedded, scalable standards of care within healthcare systems. Participants highlighted that antimicrobial resistance represents a structural market failure: diagnostics and stewardship generate high societal value but weak commercial incentives, making procurement a market-shaping mechanism capable of correcting distortions by aggregating demand, reducing uncertainty for suppliers, and signaling long-term institutional commitment.

• Luisa Claraso (Alifax): Alifax’s automated phenotypic screening delivers results in around 7 hours, detecting ESBL, carbapenemases, and MRSA directly from short samples. Reported challenges: integrating rapid testing into existing clinical pathways and demonstrating cost-effectiveness to support long-term adoption.
• Javier Roncero (Altair Health): Altair Health presented an operational surveillance and decision-support approach aimed at shortening “time to action”, translating the complexity of microbiological, genomic and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) data and clinical context into clear, workflow-ready signals for infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship. Key implementation needs included robust interoperability with hospital IT systems and user-centred outputs aligned with simple, measurable KPIs.
• Francesc Güell (Cepheid): Cepheid provides rapid PCR panels for CRE, MRSA, and VRE with less than one hour turnaround, enabling same-day isolation and strengthening antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Reported challenges: demonstrating measurable clinical outcome improvements to justify sustained procurement investment.
• Gaetano Cafiero (Kelyon): “Antimo” is a decision-support platform that aggregates microbiology, infection control, and pharmacy data into real-time dashboards, reducing data fragmentation and supporting stewardship programs. Reported challenges: transitioning from pilot implementation to routine workflows across multidisciplinary teams.
• Laurent Bellavance (Nosotech): Nosotech’s software suite (Nosokos/Antibiokos) connects electronic medical records, laboratory, pharmacy, and operating room data to provide real-time outbreak surveillance and antimicrobial use monitoring. Reported challenges: ensuring seamless data connectivity and promoting user adoption in busy clinical environments.
• Eudald Mas & Luis Crespo (Qualud): Qualud presented a secure SaaS platform for multilingual AMR data upload, validation, visualization, and reporting, supporting multi-entity collaboration and benchmarking. Reported challenges: aligning platform architecture with heterogeneous hospital IT infrastructures and ensuring scalability across institutions.

Key Takeaways

• Scaling solutions is harder than piloting them, mainly due to system integration.
• Interoperability with hospital IT systems is essential for adoption and impact.
• Clear evidence of outcomes and cost-effectiveness is needed for sustainability.

8. Roundtable 4 – From pilots to system action: decision-makers, governance and next steps in the Catalan AMR response

Round Table 4 addressed how innovation pilots and project-based initiatives can be transformed into sustainable, system-wide AMR policies. The discussion focused on governance, data integration, benchmarking, and decision-making mechanisms needed to ensure continuity, scalability, and policy impact beyond individual projects.

• Enric Limón (VinCAT) described the VinCAT programme as the regional hub for surveillance of healthcareassociated infections and AMR in Catalonia. He emphasized the importance of standardized data collection across hospitals and primary care, continuous benchmarking, and feedback loops to professionals. Limón highlighted that surveillance systems must not only collect data but actively support prevention strategies, stewardship actions, and institutional accountability. He underlined that tools developed in projects like RaDAR-PPI can strengthen VinCAT’s capacity if they are interoperable, validated, and aligned with routine surveillance workflows.
• Jacobo Mendioroz (Department of Health, Catalonia) focused on governance and strategic decision-making. He stressed that AMR cannot be addressed through isolated health-sector interventions and requires a One Health governance model, integrating human, animal, and environmental data. Mendioroz highlighted the need for interoperable platforms, shared indicators, and visualization tools (dashboards) that allow rapid interpretation of trends and early response to outbreaks. He also emphasized the importance of aligning regional initiatives with national and European strategies to ensure comparability, policy coherence, and long-term sustainability.

Key Takeaways

• Translating pilots into policy requires strong institutional ownership and governance alignment.
• Surveillance systems must combine standardized data collection with benchmarking and actionable feedback.
• Interoperable platforms and real-time visualization tools are essential for timely public health response.
• A One Health approach is critical to coordinate AMR strategies across sectors and governance levels.