PEER LEARNING FOR A DESIRED SCENARIO ON GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT FOR INNOVATION

Project Information

GREENIN

Grant agreement ID: 822559

DOI

10.3030/822559

Project closed

EC signature date 21 September 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 30 September 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 50 000,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

FUNDACION FUNDECYT - PARQUE CIENTIFICO Y TECNOLOGICO DE EXTREMADURA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GREENIN (PEER LEARNING FOR A DESIRED SCENARIO ON GREEN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT FOR INNOVATION)

Reporting period: 2018-10-01 to 2019-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Each year over 250000 public authorities in the European Union spend around 14% of GDP almost with the value of EUR 2000 billion on the purchase of goods and services. The intelligent use of public procurement can be a strategic tool to achieve the European Union’s “Europe 2020 Strategy” goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, accelerating the transition towards more sustainable supply chains and business models.

In recent years, the interest in demand-side policies has grown and several approaches have emerged, such as Green Public Procurement (GPP), Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) and Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI), representing strategic goals to be achieved through public procurement (Amann and Essig, 2015).

The existing literature concludes that GPP, SPP and PPI support innovative activities. However, the public procurement of innovation challenges currently institutionalized practices and skills, requiring a different approach from that used in the procurement of regular off-the-shelf goods (Rolfstam, 2012, 2009). In other words, different types of coordination may be required, in order to enhance the effectiveness of public procurement as an innovation policy tool (Rolfstam, 2009).

The GREENIN project aim is to set up a desired scenario in green public procurement for innovation (GPPI) aligned with smart specialisation strategies through peer learning activities, in order to increase knowledge exchange with policy makers and interested stakeholders, favouring SMEs participation using pilot actions.

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

To design this desired GPPI scenario, it has been necessary to review and identify the state of the art of policies, methodologies, experiences and good practices on GPPI, implemented by project partners and by other European public agencies. In particular, this document aims to combine the objectives of GPP and PPI, - GPPI - by placing particular emphasis on the direction of innovation: not only focusing on economic potential but also addressing environmental consequences. On the other hand, as PPI can foster business innovation in regional, national and international markets, this document aims to link to the regional R&D strategies to achieve the goals related to GPPI set by the Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3).

In order to facilitate knowledge exchange on GPPI through pilot actions that put newly developed skills into practice, in particular, events for procurers and SMEs to foster participation in GPPI processes, a Local Working Group (LWG) was established in each partner region. The LWG were formed by public authorities, procurers and representatives responsible for the development, delivery and management of public procurement, green economy and/or innovation support measures for SMEs, since they were considered as the key agents able to help in the identification of good practices and in the definition of the desired scenario for GPPI. Moreover, by using their own dissemination channels they had a multiplier effect, facilitating the transferability of the GREENIN results at EU level.

As a result of the peer learning process between the 3 partners of GREENIN (FUNDECYT-PCTEX, LNEG and IFKA), this Design Options Paper (DOP) provides other Regional Agencies with recommendations on possible policy schemes, methodologies and initiatives for the deployment of GPPI in European territories, aligned with smart specialisation strategies, to favour the participation of SMEs in public procurement processes and improve their competitiveness. Specifically, GREENIN DOP reflects the achievement of the following impacts:
- A framework with a valuable methodology to design effective policy to implement GPPI in European territories.
- 1 pilot action in each participating region to facilitate dialogue and networking activities between procurers and SMEs in order to foster the participation of companies in GPPI processes.
- At least 10 stakeholders per partner, involved in peer review, dissemination and exploitation of project activities.
- At least 15 European regions collaborating in the identification of policies, methodologies, experiences and good practices through European networks.

The consortium has implemented a number of communication activities in order to disseminate information with regards to the project and its output, i.e. the DOP. In particular:
- Project partners’ website, as main channel for project dissemination and communication, where project outputs are available.
- Project communication materials, such as flyers on project activities able to be downloaded from project lead partner’s website.
- Online social media tools to promote project activities and results that will be linked to project partners’ communication channels in order to connect with a wider audience
- Project partners’ networks and channels with targeted mailing lists, including European Networks that supported the project such us ERRIN, EURADA and EEN.
All these actions have contributed to increase the outreach of the project.

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)

The analysis made in the GREENIN projects points, first of all, to the need to combine good practices at the policy and organisational levels in order to promote and support GPPI implementation. Additionally, the results suggest that there is a learning curve from GPP to SPP and PPI, as the range and complexity of practices required for success increase. Therefore, the good practices identified from GPP cases can be considered as minimum requirements for GPPI, while the good practices identified from SPP and PPI represent more advanced and efficient requirements for GPPI.

The GREENIN project highlights two main recommendations for the right implementation of GPPI:
- The necessity of combining measures at policy and organisational level;
- The need to support the learning curve at organisational level, starting by implementing the success factors from GPP and then gradually implementing more advanced success factors, as those identified for SPP and PPI.

The compilation of good practices emerging from different contexts, and the effort to uncover patterns in what concerns success factors for types of public procurement activities with increasingly higher requirements, is novel, therefore beyond the state of the art in public procurement studies, and can offer important insights for policy.

The impacts that have been achieved and will have potential to be replicated in the future include:
- Sharing of knowledge and know-how on GPPI among innovation agencies.
- Better support to public procurers for implementing effective GPPI initiatives in European territories.
- Sharing of results with other innovation agencies and also EU level authorities such as the EASME and DG GROW.

logo.jpg