Innovation Procurement in Spain – key barriers, the role of SMEs and next steps
Extract from Procura2Innovate Interview with Sergio Capitán, head of CDTI's Innovation Procurement Office.
Read the full here.
In Spain, public procurement accounts for approximately 13% of GDP, and although that places us among the least important countries of public procurement within Europe, it is still an important engine for companies. SMEs and technological start-ups value the possibility of having a contract to be able to make the first sale of their products. Compared to the traditional scheme of aid for the development of an R&D project, so especially Innovation Procurement tenders, whether in pre-commercial procurement (PCP) or public procurement of innovative solutions (PPI), respond well to the interests of Spanish SMEs and start-ups.
In recent years, interesting initiatives have emerged to promote Innovation Procurement (IP) by different public procurers. However, the main barriers at present are related to the need to advance in regulatory and institutional changes to meet the specific needs of the different contracting bodies at different institutional levels.
The Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), the public innovation supporting agency that belongs to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MSIU), has been working on Innovation Procurement for almost a decade, with its INNODEMANDA instrument as the main initiative, created in July 2011.
CDTI will launch pre-commercial tenders for prototypes and / or technologically innovative services in order to develop non-existing technologies that will solve a public need. CDTI will acquire the solutions and transfer them to interested Spanish public administrations for validation in a real environment.
Read the full interview here.
Learn more about Procure2Innovate here.