Everything CRANE published from its kick-off in June 2021 through to its conclusion in May 2026.
After five years, three rural regions, two validated solutions and one shared conviction — that citizens belong at the centre of their own health data — the CRANE Pre-Commercial Procurement comes to a close. Both solutions continue to mature through their suppliers’ own routes to market, leaving behind a reusable value-based evaluation toolkit and a body of evidence on what adoption really takes.
CRANE published its positioning paper, Citizen-Centred Digital Health in Europe — an open document gathering the evidence, lessons and recommendations from nearly five years of Pre-Commercial Procurement for the European Commission and policymakers shaping the future of innovation procurement in digital health.
On 17 March 2026, CRANE held its Final Demonstration — a live, online showcase of the two validated solutions. Before an invited audience of users, professionals, policymakers and experts, the consortia behind Data for Care and dHDSI presented their solutions in action, each followed by an open round of questions.
On 26 February 2026, CRANE organised a policy workshop at the Norwegian Directorate of Health in Oslo, bringing together national authorities, municipalities, digitalisation agencies, healthcare stakeholders and innovation actors to discuss how European initiatives can support the transition to citizen-centred digital health.
Ten months after the start of Phase 3, CRANE’s two solutions, Data for Care and dHDSI, were being tested in real care settings with citizens and professionals across Region Västerbotten (Sweden), Extremadura (Spain) and Agder (Norway).
Following the prototype phase, two solutions were selected to advance to Phase 3 — validation and field testing: Data for Care and dHDSI. They were tested in real-world conditions with citizens and care professionals across the three buyer regions.
Two years into the CRANE Pre-Commercial Procurement, the project’s competing solutions moved from design to working prototypes — at a defining moment for European digital health, as the European Parliament and Council reached political agreement on the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
Data Spaces are gaining momentum across Europe, with many ongoing research and deployment activities. This news highlighted two public tenders related to the CRANE concept, including a €45M tender for Health Data Lake Services in Spain.
CRANE Phase 1 concluded in April 2023. During an intense 4-month period, the five selected projects (dHDSI, Data for Care, My Rural Health, Habeats and Antigone) worked with the contracting regions to co-design the CRANE solution, leading into Phase 2.
After a rigorous assessment period, the CRANE team announced on 23 January the 5 selected bids out of the 21 proposals received during the tender process. The awardees embraced the CRANE vision and helped develop the integrated care model.
The CRANE Consortium announced the 5 selected bids from its tender procedure: Combitech AB, Data for Good, Edge Consultants AS, Televes S.A.U. and Wiring Technologies SL (8Wires) — out of 21 proposals received from consortia and individual bidders.
From 5 September 2022, the CRANE Tender was open for proposal submission until 6 November 2022, 23:59 CET, looking for innovative solutions to empower citizens in health-data access and management.
Podcasts from the public sessions onboard the ‘Mester Rønne’ at the Old Town House pier in Arendal, held 16–18 August during Arendalsuka 2022, were made available for listening.
The CRANE Consortium met in Arendal on 16–18 August 2022 to close the final details for the launch of the tender, and to participate in the local Arendalsuka under the motto “in CRANE we trust”.
Centre for Rural Medicine, coordinator of CRANE at Region Västerbotten, introduced the upcoming CRANE and TIQUE pre-commercial procurements at H22 City Expo in Helsingborg, Sweden.
The CRANE Consortium met in Jarandilla to close and fully define the scope of the upcoming tender, ahead of the Open Market Consultation.
The CRANE Consortium published the Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the TED Official EU Journal, with details of the upcoming OMC and key dates of the process.
The first CRANE consortium Face to Face was held on 25–26 October in Copenhagen, Denmark. All partners worked together over two intense, productive days.
Centre for Rural Medicine — Region of Västerbotten in Sweden — led the launch of H2020 CRANE, a major investment in a new system for citizens to share their health data between healthcare and social care providers. Kick-off: 2 June 2021.