Public Procurement of Innovation can save public money

The institution then requests services or products that are unavailable on the market or are available only to a limited extent. This demand stimulates the private sector to innovate and find new solutions. In most Central European regions, the widespread use of PPIs is lacking due to lack of tools and knowledge. In the Czech Republic, DEX Innovation  Centre in cooperation with the Technology Center AS CR has been trying to change this situation within the PPI2Innovate project in the last 3 years.

18 fully national customized SMART PPI2Innovate tools
Thanks to the cooperation of several international partners, 3 tools have been created to provide public institutions with information on how to award a contract for a smart and cost-effective solution. The tools focus on Smart Health, Smart Energy and Smart ICT. These instruments exist in six languages ​​and reflect the legislation of the Central European countries. In addition, it also benefits suppliers who can get in touch with the public sector, get the opportunity to apply research results and commercialize them.

Pilot testing of tools
We tried these tools in practice.

• In Italy, a low-energy renewable energy system will be established in the local botanical garden.
• In Hungary, they focused on a healthcare facility monitoring patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
• Lublin, Poland, will produce energy-efficient lighting that responds to movement and measures air quality.
• Specific software for data analysis and processing will be delivered to the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration.

The results have shown that such practices can save a significant amount of money in the budget, improve the quality of services, or streamline the work of employees.

The project is heading to its end
In each participating country, competence centres will be set up to improve the knowledge of contracting authorities, to encourage the use of PPIs, to encourage contracting authorities to actively use PPIs, and to link public administration, innovative centres and the private sector. After the end of the project, the Liberec and all other competence centres will continue to pursue its objectives in order to support new innovations in Central Europe.

The project is co-financed by the European Union (ERDF).