Establishing networks of public procurers in local administrations on smart city solutions

Scope:These networks should aim at networking public procurement bodies in order to establish ""buyers' groups"" for innovative smart city solutions that improve the potential impact of the investment for cities and their citizens, and improve framework conditions for innovation. These networks will help public procurers to increase their capacity to undertake a better coordinated and articulated dialogue with suppliers about future needs by exchanging experience in procurement practices and strategies and by undertaking joint or coordinated actions. The networks must have core set of deliverables (additional actions can also be proposed):

• identifying procurement around a common need by European cities for which goods and services at the intersection of  ICT, energy and transport in urban areas are bought as investment;
• prepare a number of formats/scenarios for possible future joint procurements; assessing the state-of-the art of potentially available solutions by developing different approaches for ""market consultations"" involving the supply chain (paying special attention to SMEs and locally-based businesses);
• carrying out legal work to ensure that the procurement of innovative solutions complies with European and national law;
• improving procurement capabilities by joint trainings, workshops and other networking activities.

It is envisaged that there will be a fairly small consortia (about 10 organisations) that will form the core consortium of public procurers and these will commit to organise dissemination activities for a larger group of public procurers in order to spread the findings in all EU Member States.

The members of the consortia must be public procurers, i.e. contracting authorities in the meaning of the public procurement Directives at all levels (local, regional, national and supra-national) that plan to establish implementation plans for improving the quality and efficiency of their public service offering by procurement of innovative solutions for use in cities and communities. This includes both contracting authorities in the meaning of the public procurement directive for public authorities (2004/18/EC) and utilities (2004/17/EC), for example public transport operators, relevant ministries, utilities, communes and cities, police or fire brigades, e-government administrations etc.

The list of deliverables should include, among others, an analysis of procurement examples  already executed in EU Member States; an assessment of the most suitable cases for cross-border action; a set of generic draft procurements ready for adaptation to the particularities of the EU cities; an economic analysis on the benefits of simultaneous procurement from different cities. Work will also include the drafting of reports as well as dissemination activities to make these reports available to all interested parties.

This action will cross-fertilise and cooperate with actions under topic SCC 1 – 2014/2015.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.1 to 0.15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact: The project should mainly

      boost the market demand for smart city solutions by increasing consumer awareness about technologies and processes used in implementing smart city solutions.

      act as lever through procurement and investment planning tools for local administrations and business, a

      create better public acceptance and engagement.

      ensure  the framework conditions for the participating organisations for organising joint, cross-border public procurements

      encourage the public procurement bodies active in cities and communities through networks' activities, to increasingly become ""launch customers"" for innovative smart solutions which are not yet available on a large-scale commercial basis and which may entail a higher risk than purchasing products that are already commercially widely available.

Type of action: Coordination and Support Actions