CORDIS

European public entities are responsible of the provision of critical services like healthcare, education, or justice. To improve the delivery of services to their citizens they need - like any other organization- to incorporate innovation, which is often produced by private companies.
A standard model of incorporating innovation is through technology-push: private suppliers develop solutions that then are procured by the public entities. This reactive approach results into longer adoption cycles due to the risk-averse culture of public administration. As a result, not only European citizens have to wait more than necessary to benefit from the improvements in public services but also, there is a risk that the developed technology doesn’t fully match the needs and context of the public entities.
Top-down instruments geared to address public entity challenges have been already implemented. In particular, Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), for the research phase; and Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI), for closer to market solutions . Their main objective is to encourage public institutions to become active players in demanding and co-creating innovation, in partnership with their suppliers. These instruments usually incorporate fair advantages for innovative suppliers (rather than the price) which tends to favour SMEs.
On the other end of the value chain, it is not easy for private companies to have a fluent exchange with public entities. Even if they are geographically close, eg. in their own region. This limited contact often leads to solutions that are not completely tailored to the public needs, especially for those produced by start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In addition, the knowledge of this type of companies about the ´culture´ of Public Administration and their procurement processes is low. As a result, they often regard Public Sector as complex and requiring too much time and effort.
Better matching between private companies (supply) and public entities (demand) would increase the levels of innovation and competitiveness in Europe by nurturing potential ´Global Champions´ that deliver socio-economic value to the continent and elsewhere.
Therefore, there is a clear need to facilitate the collaboration between public and private actors to solve the unmet needs of public entities for the common good, while supporting the creation of European global champions in the private sector.
inDemand is a new model where Healthcare organizations and companies co-create Digital Health solutions, with the economic support of public regional funds in 3 pilot regions: Murcia Region (Spain), Paris Region (France) and Oulu Region (Finland). inDemand is targeting to solve challenges identified by the Health Care organizations.
The main goals of inDemand are:
Set up and validate a sustainable co-creation model that solves bottom-up challenges identified within public entities.
Increase the capacity of public entities for systematically identifying needs that can be converted into successful business opportunities for private companies.
inDemand applies at the same time demand-driven and co-creation approaches. inDemand aims to solve the challenges identified by the customer -the Healthcare organizations- and increasing the capacity of health entities to systematically identify and solve their needs while co-creating opportunities for private companies.

The first steps (WP2) have focused in the methodological aspects and processes gathering the main actions and processes conducted and defined by all inDemand roles -challengers, funders and supporters-, in the three partner regions (Murcia, Oulu and Paris) with a view to launch the first iteration of the inDemand model, by describing all the steps of the process, as well as the calendar and, finally, the regional variations. There is also a description of the deviations compared to the process described in the Description of Action (DoA). Also, the work has defined the overall goal for validation to ensure the effectiveness and impact of InDemand model and to produce high level scientific publications that answer why inDemand as a demand-driven innovation co-creation model is better than previous ones in answering the needs of every stakeholders.
Regarding the implementation of the inDemand model in the 3 regions, the first phase (WP3) focused on the need identification by the Challenger (Healthcare organisation). In order to achieve this objective, the challenger launches a call for challenges to identify the unmet need in the healthcare organisation and, through a process of evaluation and selection, 4 challenges will be selected in each region. The work undertaken envisages the methodology elaborated and followed to select the best challenges in the 3 regions involved in the Project, including the actions implemented to launch challenges calls in each of the regions and the evaluation process.
Once the Challenger (Healthcare organisation) has selected the challenges, the local Funder oversees the identification of the best Solvers to co-create a solution with healthcare professionals (WP4). For this selection, the Funder launches a public, competitive call. The Funders have received a financial contribution from the European Commission in the form of cascade funding to be transferred to the awarding Solvers for each Challenge in the two interactions. The calls are aligned with the requirements and internal procedures of those ones regularly launched at local level -e.g. eligibility criteria, % of funding, etc.- in order to assess the model under real-world conditions to maximize the chances of adoption after project end.
As third step, the co-creation and business support activities (WP5) start with the awarded companies. Both activities have been running in parallel.
Also, the first step for the inDemand Community have been given by organising an informative webinar and launching the call for regions. Through a detailed and well planned communication plan, partners have ensured a sound and impacting communication strategy, mainly based on the identification of key; use of the partners networks to disseminate the findings and outcomes on a regular basis; involvement of all stakeholders, from policy makers, to citizens as final users of the tools.

The inDemand model has been successfully implemented in the three regions and partial results have been achieved. At project end, the main outcomes of the project will be:
A validated co-creation model, implementable in any EU region, that includes a repository of documentation explaining the model in detail, together with examples of content, calls, etc.
A knowledge base with lessons learnt, best practices, etc. which includes a methodological study on the model. This knowledge also encapsulates the learnings from different scenarios and practices based on regional differences, and how Challengers, Funders and Supporters interact in their regional context
An inDemand Community formed by different stakeholders from 12 European regions, integrated by Regional Development and Innovation agencies, Public procurers (in Health, but not only), policy makers, regional authorities, clusters, and other agents, willing to collaborate and exchange to support the advancement of public services through the incorporation of innovation.