21 June 2018
Faced by multiple and persistent challenges in both economy and society, the European Union has been effectively leveraging innovation to tackle the big issues of the day. From healthcare to energy and beyond, EU efforts have gained particular attention through Horizon 2020 projects – under the guise of the bloc’s continued research and innovation drive at a European level.
Procure2Innovate is one such project.
Both new and innovative, the project is a truly European effort to address societal and economic challenges in the EU through more effective public procurement in (at least) ten EU countries.
A consortium of nearly 20 partners from across the continent are collaborating to strengthen five established “competence centres” for innovation procurement (in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden), and also to create five new centres (in Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal). However, one central objective of this ambitious project is to ensure that more countries add their respective competence centres to the network in the coming years.
The Procure2Innovate consortium is therefore a blend of experienced partners, less experienced partners, and even expert “support partners” to provide advice and technical know-how on a range of key issues as the network takes shape.
Project co-ordinator BME of Germany has set up an innovative “buddy” system to pair the more experienced partners with the new competence centres for the duration of the project – an effort which will see more exchange, more learning, and faster progress as we seek to boost the P2I network and, more broadly, innovation procurement in Europe.
As of the summer of 2018, the Procure2Innovate consortium has conducted a key kick-off meeting in February, hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. Moreover, an intensive few months of initial planning led to a partner meeting in Cork, Ireland in June, with a further partner meeting slated for Vienna, Austria in November.
The project is also scheduled to be launched for the public and European stakeholders in October this year at the EcoProcura conference in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
With efforts to establish the network well on track, the Procure2Innovate consortium will be providing further news and updates on this website, and the Procurement of Innovation Platform.
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