Consultations regarding innovative public procurement
About this good practice
Special financial measure was developed under the first priority of Lithuanian Operational programme in order to improve the dissemination environment of knowledge and technology and encourage science and business cooperation in the field of research and technological development.
3,9 million euros of funding is given to the support services, which include consulting regarding the pre-commercial procurement among the other services provided to the companies and public authorities in order to facilitate the innovation activities.
Consultations provided to the public sector cover the following topics: the benefits for the contracting authority as well as the society brought by implementing a PCP project, the concept of R&D and what has to be procured, the solutions which already exist on the market, the financial instruments to obtain funding for the PCP.
The consultations for the private sector cover following topics: benefits for the companies while participating in PCP, procedures of the PCP process which need to be followed, preliminary evaluation, whether the service/product proposed by the company meets R&D requirements.
Services are provided in a form of information events, group or individual consultations by the experts of Lithuanian innovation center (LIC) and Science, Innovation and Technology agency (MITA).
Expert opinion
The good practice ‘consultations regarding innovative public procurement’ is a capacity-building programme to support the public and the private sectors to adopt pre-commercial procurement practices. The public and private sectors are offered capacity-building support programmes on the topics of how to and why implement pre-commercial procurement projects. The capacity-building support programmes are offered by experts of the Lithuanian Innovation Centre (LIC) and the Science, Innovation, and Technology Agency (MITA).
Some insights from the good practice:
-The programme offers a possible path for policymakers to encourage the adoption of pre-commercial procurement practices. Indeed, risk-aversion in the private and public sectors towards new policy tools can hinder the adoption of those new policy tools. Capacity-building support programmes have the potential to reduce risks and transaction costs related to new policy tools.
-For innovative pre-commercial procurements, capacity-building programmes are required both in the public and private sectors.
Resources needed
3,9 mln euros of funding is provided to the support services, which include consulting regarding the pre-commercial procurement among the other services provided to the companies in order to facilitate the innovation activities.
2-5 experts are needed to provide the necessary consultations.
Evidence of success
Numerous events were organized to inform the public institutions about the possibilities to implement pre-commercial procurements and the business about the opportunities to submit tenders . Public authorities, which were consulted, acknowledged the information and methodological support which were provided by the experts. With the support of the experts, 13 public institutions received the grants for the pre-commercial procurement and already started the tendering process.
Potential for learning or transfer
It is not enough to develop a financial instrument for the PCP, it is equally important to create a demand for the financial instrument while providing information and methodological support for the public sector institutions. So far the consultations focused mostly on PCP as the funding instrument to implement this type of procurement is in place. It is important to increase the scope of the consultations and to inform public institutions firstly about the importance of the innovations in general and secondly about the ways how the innovations can be procured.
It is obvious that very often innovation support services focus mainly on the private sector and more innovation support services for the public sector are needed, which would be provided on the continuous basis. It can serve as a basis for developing a competence center in the future, which would be responsible for the capacity building for innovative public procurement.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Ministry of Economy