BME International

In Austria, the PPPI Service Centre – or national competence centre for innovation procurement – was established within the Federal Procurement Agency (BBG) in 2013. Financed by the Austrian Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW) and Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK), the PPPI Service Centre acts as the single point of contact for pre-commercial procurement and innovation procurement issues in Austria. It also initiates and conducts pilot projects and offers services in the fields of further education and training, in addition to running the online platform www.ioeb-innovationsplattform.at.

It is also worthwhile mentioning that BBG is the central purchasing body for the Federal Government of Austria. It was established in 2001 to provide central procurement services to federal ministries, in particular to negotiate framework contracts and make them available to the federal state as well as to other public entities. Its primary tasks are to “bundle” requirements to obtain better prices and terms from suppliers and to standardise public purchasing to reduce processing costs and legal risks. BBG is fully owned by the Federal Republic of Austria, represented by the Ministry of Finance.

Enterprise Estonia was established in 2000 under the Estonian Ministry for Economic Affairs and Communication which holds the responsibility of fostering innovation procurement in Estonia.

The aim of the Enterprise Estonia  is to coordinate the area based collaboration with contracting authorities and suppliers on innovation procurement to increase the impact of public services and create demand for new products and services for businesses to provide a reference.

The activities contribute to achieving the long-term strategic goals of the Estonian economy and our further aim is to facilitate the process of Estonia becoming one of the most competitive countries in the world.

https://eis.ee/en/

VTT provides expertise to facilitate procurement of novel solutions to foster development of high-quality public services and increase demand for innovative goods and services. Our impact-driven approach combines extensive understanding of public procurement practices with in-depth knowledge of opportunities provided by new technologies and innovation. In line with our strategic priorities, we focus particularly on sustainable products, carbon neutral solutions and digital technologies. VTT assists in crafting effective innovation procurement strategies and roadmaps, designing innovation-friendly procurement processes, facilitating market dialogue, assessing technologies and business models, and evaluating social, economic, and environmental impacts. VTT is ranked among the leading research and technology organizations in Europe.

https://www.vttresearch.com/en

Motiva and its subsidiary Motiva Services provide expert services in sustainable and innovative public procurement. As a government owned company Motiva has since 2010 been the national focal point for information dissemination, guidance and development of scalable tools and practices for strategic use of public procurement for societal goals at the national level. Motiva most recently led the Finnish Competence Centre for Sustainable and Innovative Public Procurement, KEINO. Our key expertise lies in putting theory into practice and enabling harmonised and long term practices. In our support to purchasing authorities we believe in going beyond the procurement process by changing management and culture one step at a time. We combine our strong competence in energy, circular economy, social impact, sustainable finance, biodiversity with equally strong skills in service design, co-creation, impact management and procurement, communication and facilitation.

https://www.motiva.fi/en

KOINNO serves as the Competence Centre for Innovative Procurement in Germany. This initiative was commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and is implemented by the Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME).

KOINNO offers German public procurers, as well as start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a comprehensive platform for support in developing and identifying innovative procurement projects and opportunities.

Since 2013, KOINNO has welcomed more than 100,000 unique visitors to its project website, which specializes in innovation procurement. Over 5,500 participants have attended its events, and consultancy has been provided for more than 100 innovative procurement projects. Additionally, KOINNO's numerous digital tools, such as the KOINNOvationsplatz market research platform or the Deadline Assistant for setting deadlines in procurement procedures, have been used by over 10,000 users.

https://www.koinno-bmwk.de/en/

Greece’s national competence centre for innovation procurement has been established under the country’s Ministry of Development and Investment; specifically, under the Directorate General of Public Contracts and Procurements (which is the national central purchasing body responsible for supplies and services). The centre mainly aims to expand innovation procurement practices within the Greek public sector, but also has more specific objectives.

The centre aims to increase the number of Greek contracting authorities participating in pre-commercial procurement and innovation procurement, but also maps the Greek procurement market with relevant players and perform co-operation and joint actions with them. And as part of the Procure2Innovate network, the centre aims to exercise successful joint procurement with another national competence centre, as well as more generally exchanging best practices on how to perform innovation procurement tenders and make the best of European Union tools.

Greek Competence Centre website: www.promitheus.gov.gr

Procurement Transformation Institute

Ireland’s competence centre for innovation procurement is the Procurement Transformation Institute (PTI). Established by two private entities, Arvo and iDDea, PTI is located in Cork. PTI seeks to increase the awareness of innovation procurement across Ireland – among procurers, policy makers and innovative suppliers.

PTI as a non-for-profit institution provides knowledge and procurement support for the public and private sector, while the founders and their strategic partners are focused on growing a community of buyers and sellers to promote and accelerate innovation procurement in Ireland and Europe. Enabling engagement across various local, regional and national public procurement contracting agencies and stimulating innovative partnerships with the Irish supply base, and in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), PTI is driving the modernisation of public procurement in Ireland through competency development plans and peer-to-peer learning for procurers – and suppliers – on innovation procurement.

www.procurementtransformationinstitute.com

Established in 1997, Consip SpA is the national purchasing centre - wholly owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance - that offers e-procurement tools and solutions for the digitisation of purchases by administrations and companies.

For over 25 years, Consip has been implementing, in synergy with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the country's most important programmes for the redevelopment, efficiency and innovation of public spending - the Rationalisation of Procurement Programme, the Strategic Procurement Plan for digitalisation, the PNRR 'Recovery Procurement Platform' measure for the modernisation of the national public procurement system - guaranteeing purchases of goods, services, and works in absolute transparency.

Consip today is the 'hinge' between the needs of public administrations and the business system and performs its functions within a framework of complex institutional relations with the aim of being a lever for change in the country's procurement.

Through the largest national digital procurement platform www.acquistinretepa.it, Consip brings together more than 160,000 companies and 14,000 administrations each year to negotiate more than 550,000 procurement contracts - worth more than EUR 27 billion (1.7% of GDP) in 2023 - through digital marketplaces and 'ready-to-use' contracts across all the country's supply chains: Healthcare, IT, Telco, Energy and Building.

A commitment supported by a purpose and a vision that take and reinforce the best of Consip's history to give a clear direction to the company's action in the short and long term.

https://www.consip.it/

Being part of the Procure2Innovate network, Dutch competence centre PIANOo will be looking to strengthen its extensive existing activities by learning from fellow network competence centres – those new and those already well established. Based in the Hague, PIANOo has been appointed as the national expertise centre on public procurement by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs, and operates under the auspices of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency RVO.NL.

Dutch Competence Centre website: www.pianoo.nl

LUP ensures that companies and public agencies together solve the challenges of the future.

The Supplier Development Programme (LUP) in Norway helps municipalities, county authorities and state agencies carry out innovative procurement and LUP mobilizes suppliers and start-ups to deliver better solutions. LUP are experts in how to carry out innovative procurements from start to finish.

LUP was established by The Norwegian Confederation of Business and Industry (NHO) and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS). Innovation Norway and The Research Council of Norway joined in 2018. LUP has 35 public partners including government agencies, counties and municipalites. Together we work towards an increased use of innovative procurements. LUP has 14 employees and innovation brokers who cover the whole country.

Since 2010, LUP has assisted municipalites and government agencies in 239 innovative procurements and developed the method for innovative public procurement. On our webpage you can find 51 innovative solutions that has been delveoped through the innovative procurements where we have assisted.

https://innovativeanskaffelser.no/about/

PROCURE+i, the Portuguese Competence Centre for Innovation Public Procurement , is a joint initiative of the National Innovation Agency (ANI) and the Institute for Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction (IMPIC). The vision of the Competence Centre (CC) is to promote Innovation Public Procurement (IPP) in Portugal by raising awareness to the advantages of this strategic procurement. This facilitates the expansion of knowledge on IPP across all public contracting authorities and improves market conditions to bring the supply and the demand closer together.

https://www.compraspublicasinovacao.pt/en/

In Sweden, there are two organisations involved in the Procure2Innovate project. The Swedish competence centre on innovation procurement is located at the National Agency for Public Procurement. The agency was established in 2015, but since 2007 several government agencies have been working on innovation procurement.

The aim of the competence centre is to give support to contracting authorities and suppliers on innovation procurement, and in particular, to take steps towards improving competencies in innovation procurement to meet the challenges which society brings. These steps include “procurement which promotes development” where the public procurer requests fresh solutions and asks for suppliers’ ideas of development (not necessarily new on the market, but new for the procurer). Another step is innovation procurement (where the innovation is new on the market and new for the procurer). And a final step concerns purchasing goods and services that are not available on the market – therefore requiring research and development. This can be done using pre-commercial procurement as well as other approaches.

Concerning the second Swedish agency in Sweden’s Procure2Innovate participation, the National Procurement Services (a department within Kammarkollegiet's central government authority) offers central government authorities co-ordinated framework agreements for goods and services of general use. In the area of information and communication technology (ICT), local and regional authorities as well as central government authorities can use these framework agreements. The department aims to focus on innovation because it aims to supply government entities with innovative solutions that increase quality and effectiveness in the public sector.

Swedish Competence Centre website: 
https://www.upphandlingsmyndigheten.se/en/