Why an Innovation Procurement Programme for the EIC? Because Innovation Procurement is one of the main instruments to help the scaling up of the EIC supported top notch innovators by facilitating their access to procurement markets in Europe and globally. The overarching objective of the tender is to maintain and expand, through a holistic approach, an already existing system/scheme that enables the EIC to play its role as a Center of Excellence in the area of innovation procurement mainly through the: - expansion and management of a community of public and private buyers interested in the solutions offered by top notch EIC Awardees - enhancement of the capacity of public buyers to purchase innovative solutions to tackle public challenges, opening at the same time their procurement markets to SMEs and start-ups - offering assistance to EIC Awardees to submit tenders in public and private sector procurements in Europe as well as at global level - enhancement of the capacity of EIC Awardees to find business opportunities through procurement and take part as potential suppliers in bids in Europe as well as in non-EU countries.