Resources on Procurement of Innovation

Doing innovation procurement requires specific knowledge and expertise. Luckily, many resources exist, including guidance, criteria sets and case studies, which can help you on your journey to purchasing innovative goods and services.

In addition, you can visit our 'Services and Expertise' page to find more information on specific projects, initiatives and other services which can support you to do innovation procurement in practice.

169 resources online

Latest resources

Innovation Procurement Platform

Projects

The website is the first port of call for all things related to public procurement of innovation (PPI) and pre-commercial procurement (PCP). It aims to make public procurement of innovation a wide-spread reality in Europe.

English

Europe/EU

ICLEI

2012

LEA Learntech Accelerator

ProjectsICT (information and communication techn.)

Based on the findings from the IMAILE project, which conducted a pre-commercial procurement of Personal Learning Environment software, the LEA project aims to develop a critical mass of European procurers demanding innovative learn tech solutions.

English

Europe/EU

2018

Procure2Innovate

Projects

The Procure2Innovate project will establish or expand Competence Centres for innovation procurement in ten EU Member States. The project aims to improve institutional support and quality of advice for public procurers of information and communication technologies (ICT), and other product groups implementing innovation procurement.

English

Europe/EU

2018

Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations: Startup in Residence program

ProjectsBuildings and construction

Experimenting with innovative startups. Minister Knops of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) wants to modernize his ministry in a world that is changing rapidly. BZK completed its first Startup In Residence (SiR) program and has now started a second edition together with other authorities.

Dutch

Netherlands

2020

Intelligent Cities Challenge

Projects

As a unique smart city initiative from the European Commission, the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) will provide its participants with technical support and knowledge-sharing opportunities to develop and implement smart action plans around 11 thematic areas. The goal is to help ambitious small to medium sized European cities unleash their potential to use advanced technologies to transform themselves, become more sustainable and raise living standards for their communities. The ICC will build on the success of the Digital Cities Challenge, which helped 41 EU cities develop a strategic vision and a roadmap for digital transformation. ICC cities will receive high quality and tailored guidance and expert support, access to advisory and city peer networks (European and international), and capability building tools, to drive priority policy goals and the uptake of advanced technologies. ICLEI as ICC partner supports the consortium to assess the applications of cities to the ICC as well as to manage the project, organise events and provide expertise to the 100 participants.

English

Europe/EU

AI4CITIES

ProjectsICT (information and communication techn.)Transport and vehiclesEnergy

Artificial Intelligence (AI), one of the fastest-growing technologies in recent years, has the potential to play a mission-driven role in cities’ climate action plans. The AI4Cities project aims to harness this potential by bringing together leading European cities looking for energy and mobility solutions to reduce GHG emissions and support their climate action commitments towards carbon neutrality. Helsinki (Finland), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Copenhagen (Denmark), Paris region (France), Stavanger (Norway) and Tallinn (Estonia) are the six European cities and regions involved in this project. In AI4Cities, these six cities will go through a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) process. PCP is an innovation procurement tool to stimulate market innovation as it enables the public sector to steer the development of new solutions directly towards its needs. In this context, the six cities will define the needs and requirements of the energy and mobility solutions to be developed, and challenge start-ups, SMEs and companies to design innovative solutions applying the use of AI and related enabling digital technologies, such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data applications. The AI4Cities project is divided into five main phases (0-4): one preparatory phase (0), three standard PCP phases (1 – solutions design, 2 – prototype phase, and 3 – prototype testing phase) and one final impact assessment and follow up phase (4). A group of follower cities will be recruited throughout the project to enhance the market uptake of the developed solutions.

English

Europe/EU, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway

ICLEI Europe

2020

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

ProjectsUseful links

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) falls under pre-commercial procurement. It enables public bodies to purchase research to stimulate innovation, when goods or services are currently not available in the marketplace. SBIR helps the public sector to address identified ‘Challenges’ that impact the citizen. On the supplier side SBIR is particularly suited to small and medium-sized business, as contracts are of relatively low value and operate in short timescales

English

Ireland

Enterprise Ireland

PROBIS

ProjectsBuildings and construction

PROBIS aims to use PPI in the building sector, with a focus on energy-efficient refurbishment of existing buildings. Four tenders will be launched on building technologies (ICT, envelope and energy equipment) before being tested in four pilot buildings in Torino (IT), Miskolc (HU), Börlange (SE) and in the Lombardy Region (IT).

English

Europe/EU

2013

HAPPI

ProjectsMedical equipment

The project brings together ten partners from five EU Member States to establish the conditions for health institutions throughout Europe to collaborate in the purchase of innovative health products, services and solutions to promote "ageing well".

English

Europe/EU