procure2innovate: European network of competence centres for innovation procurement

Project Information

Procure2Innovate

Grant agreement ID: 780192

DOI

10.3030/780192

Project closed

EC signature date 19 December 2017

Start date 1 January 2018

End date 30 June 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 1 999 491,25

EU contribution

€ 1 999 491,25

Coordinated by

BUNDESVERBAND MATERIALWIRTSCHAFT, EINKAUF UND LOGISTIK EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Procure2Innovate (procure2innovate: European network of competence centres for innovation procurement)

Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Procure2innovate is creating an EU-wide network of national competence centres on innovation procurement. As a communication and support action, the project acts as a mediator and facilitator for the competence centres to enable them to learn from each other, grow together and offer optimal services to public procurers in their country.
Specifically, the project will set up five new competence centres in Estonia, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. And it is extending the scope of support offered by five existing competence centres in Austria, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. The competence centres offer a variety of services to public procurers in the respective countries such as training, best practice examples, conferences, networking events, legal support, individual counselling, financial incentive schemes and assistance in finding national and European funding.
These services will allow procurers to further enhance their procurement practices to include innovation. With innovation as a key aspect in procurement public tenders are more cost-effective and achieve better public services. Enhanced capacity to carry out innovative tenders will also enable public procurers to initiate collaborative and joint procurements nationally and cross-border.
The work of all competence centres during the project is based on shared views and common goals. This will aid in mainstreaming innovation procurement practices across Europe. As a united voice the network of competence centres is able to communicate with policy makers and further increase the impact of innovation procurement.

In addition, each competence centre will promote Horizon 2020 and its synergies with ESIF funding in cooperation with thematic Horizon 2020 National Contact Points (H2020 NCPs) for innovation procurement. National competence centres for innovation procurement will and already are supporting public procurers in building capacity to successfully apply for and complete European PCP and PPI co-fund actions.

The results delivered in this project will underscore and support the purchases carried out in PCP and PPI co-fund actions within the same work programme. procure2innovate gives all interested procurers, specifically those responsible for the purchasing of ICT products and services, the know-how to successfully execute their innovative procurement.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Establishing and expanding the network
During its first year the procure2innovate project has successfully established a knowledge sharing mechanism which promotes trust and transparency between the members of the network.
Two additional EU member states have joined the project with many others being interested.
In year two the consortium supported the five members which were setting up a new competence centrew with knowledge and hands-on tips. The learnings from these support activities were summarised in a guidance document.
In year three the members drafted comprehensive rules for the governance of the network after the end of the project funding. The consortium also discussed rules for the addition of new members and how to ranked interested member states. These rules will be tested in practice during year four.

Taking stock
procure2innovate has used its first year to collect and cluster all services and tools offered by the existing competence centres. The project has also analysed the organisational structure, political leadership and other institutional characteristics of existing competence centres with a view towards offering an optimal start for the new competence centres (stakeholder map). This work culminated in the finalisation of a how-to guidance for setting up a competence centre and a road map for the candidate countries.
Year two saw the writing of the guidance on how to set up a competence centre for innovation procurement and the overview of available training in innovation procurement.
Year three the internal benchmarking of the competence centres and development of recommendations for impact indicators competence centre may use.

Identifying target audience and new services
During two bespoke workshops new and existing competence centres identified unique characteristics and needs of their target audience. Using those profiles they initiated the development and testing of new services during a design thinking workshop.
During year two the existing competence centres analysed the needs of their target audiences and developed new services to address them. The validation and tweaking of those new services is on-going.
In year three the new competence centres started their service development. This process was helped by peer-2-peer frequent exchange workshops and online meetings of the buddy pairs. A summary leaflet of all new services was published.

New competence centres
All candidates used the first year to prepare the launch of the new competence centre. It is no surprise that this proved to be a different challenge in each country. But each new competence centre has taken significant steps towards becoming a trusted source of support for public procurers in their country. The competence centres in Greece, Ireland and Portugal have started operations, with Estonia planning for a soft-launch in April.
In year two of the project the new competence centres established their operations. Despite worries that each national stutaion would be a unique challenge they were all able to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the network.
During year three all new competence centres further expanded their operations and many organised online events in cooperation with existing competence centres.

Communication and dissemination
Based on these results the project developed communication materials at European level and provided templates and support for communication activities at the national level.
Alliances have been formed with other key initiatives at European level, such as the Urban Agenda for Public Procurement and the Innovation Broker project. With the publication of the guidance procure2inovate has gathered considerable reputation among innovation procurement professionals in Europe.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Overall the project procure2innovate aims at improving institutional support for public procurers of information and communication technologies (ICT) and other product groups implementing innovation procurement by establishing or expanding competence centres for innovation procurement in ten EU Member States.

procure2innovate is a project that goes beyond addressing product groups or specific tenders but instead aims to change the institutional landscape of member states. Enabling networking and providing institutional support to all public procurers will enable the mainstreaming of innovation procurement practices at a greater scope and pace.

Given its wide-reaching institutional layout the project aims at having the following impacts:
• Increased use of innovation procurement instruments
• Increased number of innovative public tenders
• Increased participation of public procurers in Horizon 2020 and ESIF funded projects
• More innovation-oriented public sector and competitive supply side

A collection of photos from the procure2innovate kick-off workshop