Ministry of Science and Innovation publishes guide to innovative public procurement
This guide will ease the Administrations’ procurement processes and increase company participation in public tenders.
BY BIOCAT
By 2013, innovative public procurement must reach 3% of all new investment made by the Spanish Government. This aim established in the State Innovation Strategy (e2i) will help foster the development of new innovative markets from the demand side. With this, the Government aims to put Spain ninth in the global innovation ranking.
The Ministry of Science and Innovation (Micinn) presented a guide to innovative public procurement (IPP) to help the Administrations improve IPP procurement and adjudication processes and to encourage company participation in tenders. Companies can consult IPP tenders on this online platform: http://contrataciondelestado.es/wps/portal/plataforma
There are two types of public procurement:
- Pre-commercial public procurement (PCP): is the contracting of R&D services in which the public procurer doesn’t reserve exclusive rights to the results, but shares both the risks and benefits of R&D needed to develop innovative solutions that are better than what is currently available on the market with the company.
- Public procurement of innovative technology (PPIT): is the procurement of a product or service that doesn’t exist at the moment, but which can be developed in a reasonable period of time.
Public administrations interested in taking advantage of IPP must sign agreements to join the State Innovation Strategy. At the time of publication, only three interested city councils are shown on the Micinn website, including that of Lleida for Catalonia.
The Micinn has set up to paths to funding to support innovative public procurement: the Innodemanda Program and the Innocompra Technological Fund, which is geared towards the autonomous communities.