Towards CPI 2.0: From Individual Initiatives to Systemic Deployment of Innovations in the Public Sector

The European Commission and the OECD have been working on public innovation for more than 15 years, and in the last 5 years, they have intensified their activities in Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) through the Horizon Europe program. In Spain, in terms of support programs, the MICIU (Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities) has been working on PPI since 2010 with ERDF funding, leading to support programs for the promotion of PPI such as Innocompra and the FID line (Promotion of Innovation from Demand). The CDTI (Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology) has also been promoting support instruments for PPI like the Innodemanda program or the current Pre-commercial Public Procurement program. This adds to the particular initiative of public buyers in promoting PPI with regional funding.

In this sense, we are entering a phase of consolidation and maturity of the instruments and programs that were aimed at promoting PPI. Now, the next step is to continue working on the following steps, on the deployment of such innovative solutions and their scaling up at a global level. Both public buyers and companies need to move forward in PPI 2.0 and for those prototypes developed through PPI to be implemented effectively and systemically, with a real impact on the citizenry.

 

After more than 250 million euros invested in PPI, what now? What results have we obtained? Have we overcome the valley of death with the Pre-commercials? Are the prototypes ready to make the commercial leap? Are the results being deployed? What barriers do administrations face? What are the keys/tools for administrations to deploy the results of PPI? Are there legal instruments that help in deployment? How can companies help in these phases? The panel will try to answer these questions from different viewpoints (Administration, company, and financier), providing methods to structurally increase the success rate of innovation procurement in the public sector.