10 September 2018
The Procure2Innovate network will be officially launched at the international EcoProcura conference on 3-5 October 2018 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
The packed programme at EcoProcura 2018 will host a wide range of plenary sessions, breakout sessions, networking and events all related to the latest in public procurement, but one particular highlight will be the official launch of Procure2Innovate.
A Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Union, Procure2Innovate will improve institutional support for public procurers in a range of sectors that implement innovation procurement (including information and communications technologies and healthcare).
An ambitious initiative kicked off earlier this year in Brussels, the Procure2Innovate network comprises existing and newly established competence centres for innovation procurement in ten European countries: Austria, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Over the course of the four-year project, further associate countries will join the network to strengthen the initiative and boost its presence across the continent. Lithuania is one country to have already joined as associate country.
Participants at EcoProcura will not only receive insights from Procure2Innovate partners regarding the project, but can also join a breakout session on innovation procurement on 4 October (registration is still open for Breakout session 2, ‘People, Process & Performance – bringing it all together’, as for all other sessions). This session will look at the factors likely to determine which approach to innovation procurement is most appropriate in different scenarios, and how this can be embedded in a given organisation.
Speakers include Procure2Innovate co-ordinator Marlene Grauer, who is also International Project Manager for the Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (Germany), as well as Gaynor Whyles, Director at Jera Consulting, and Niklas Tideklev, Innovation Procurement Strategist at the National Agency for Public Procurement (Sweden).
EcoProcura will also feature a plenary presentation on innovation procurement by an official from the European Commission’s DG Connect.
In parallel with the launch of the Procure2Innovate network at EcoProcura 2018, interested stakeholders will also be directed to the new Procure2Innovate website at www.procure2innovate.eu. On this new portal, innovation and procurement professionals can find the latest news, stories and events on innovation procurement, and of course the profiles of the national competence centres which form the growing Procure2Innovate network.