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

Green Tenders - An Action Plan on Green Public Procurement

Policies

The Programme for Government 20111 envisages public procurement as a tool to support innovative Irish firms. In the health and education sectors, the Programme specifically commits to achieving greater value for money in public procurement, for example through greater efficiencies in the construction of facilities and through pooling back-office functions such as ICT procurement. In accordance with these commitments and with the Government’s wider sustainable development objectives, the Irish public sector needs to play an exemplary role in green public procurement (GPP) throughout its spending profile. This Action Plan on GPP – Green Tenders – aims to make that vision a reality.

English, Irish

Ireland

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Ireland)

2012

Green Growth the Nordic Way - Green Public Procurement

In this issue we look at green public procurement and at the more overall issue of financing for green investments. In both cases, we look at the Nordic synergies and the potential for creating better framework conditions for government, businesses and organizations alike by looking at the issues through a Nordic lens.

English

Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway

Nordic Council of Ministers

2013

The Case for Innovative Procurement

ReportsTextilesTransport and vehicles

This report forms the basis of Work Package 2 “The Case for Innovative procurement.” It draws upon research carried out by the partners to identify the environmental impact of their existing vehicles and assess future procurement needs. It then turns to an overview of potential solutions to meet these needs. This report addresses the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of innovative procurement for fire and rescue service vehicles. The guidance framework prepared under Work Package 3 “Risk Management” addresses the ‘how’ and ‘who’, by looking at different approaches to supplier engagement, procurement and contract design and implementation.

English

Europe/EU, Belgium, United Kingdom

FIRED-uP

2013

SMART SPP Tool and accompanying User Guide for calculating Life-Cycle Costs and CO2 Emissions of products and services

Tools/Guidance

SMART SPP LCC-CO2 Tool and accompanying Tool User Guide - The tool has been developed to help you calculate the life cycle costs (LCC) and CO2 emissions of different products and services to assist in procurement decision-making. The User Guide explains what kind of information the tool can provide, how to use the tool in a tendering process and how the tool should be completed, and by whom.

Multiple
English, Danish, Portuguese, Spanish

Europe/EU

The SMART SPP consortium, c/o ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability

2011

Procuring innovative and sustainable construction - A guide for European public authorities

Tools/GuidanceBuildings and construction

This Guide for Public Authorities has been produced by the SCI-Network project, which aims to explore best practice in construction procurement and identify how best to encourage innovation and sustainability. It contains a series of recommendations for good practice developed by a series of working groups within the network.

Multiple
English, Finnish, German, Italian

Europe/EU

SCI-Network

2012

Procuring innovative and sustainable construction - European public authority snapshots

Case studiesBuildings and construction

This collection of best practice examples has been produced by the SCI-Network, Sustainable Construction and Innovation through Procurement. It is comprised by 40 real-life projects on innovative solutions within public construction works.

English

Europe/EU

SCI-Network

2012

Rotherham Lighting Project

Case studiesLighting

The Rotherham Future Ward Lighting project is an innovative element of a seven year programme of ward reconfiguration, which started in 2009.

English

United Kingdom

Nnational Health Service Sustainable Development Unit

SBIR The Power of public Procurement - report and case study collection

Case studies

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is a tendering process in which the Dutch national government supports entrepreneurs in their research and development work. Contracts are awarded in a three-phase competition: feasibility, research phase and commercialisation.

English, Dutch

Netherlands

NL Agency

2011

A Lead Market Initiative for Europe (LMI)

Useful links

A European Commission initiative, led by DG Enterprise and Industry, focused on encouraging innovation through boosting demand for innovative solutions. Public procurement is one of the kex areas of activity, with the initiative supporting several networks of public procurers.

English

Europe/EU

European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry