Innovation Procurement Conference - Details programme

Keynote, 19 March 2024

Innovation procurement and start-ups: a win-win strategy for public investments
Uli W. Fricke

To solve our multiple current challenges in the area of climate, health and other areas, Europe urgently needs innovation. Start-ups have proven to be very successful in bringing innovation to market. However, to thrive those innovative companies need to find investors to scale fast. In order for investors to invest in companies, there is a need for customers. Enters innovation procurement. Public sector can fulfil a key role as early customer of innovative start-ups. But European public buyers do not yet seem to be fully aware of the leverage they can generate with their purchases. Compared to their Asian and American colleagues, they do not yet sufficiently take up their role as innovation-friendly customers. What needs to happen for Europe to take a big leap forward and ensure that innovation procurement really takes off? In her talk, Uli Fricke will draw on her day-to-day experiences in the venture capital and start-up world to derive some concrete actions and measures that can create a win-win for all.

Keynote, 20 March 2024

Dare for tomorrow!
Saskia Van Uffelen

How much longer do you want to put it off? How long can you manage your organization, your team or your life without making some fundamental change? Above all, how long can you avoid being overtaken by others because you stick to your method and your comfort zone?
Our society is changing and crying out for a new model. We are living in a digital age where everyone and everything is connected, where competition no longer comes from the sector, and customers, users and citizens are in the driver's seat. Data are gold and sharing is the new having. The digital age requires a new approach and a new model.
How can you embrace this new world and bring value in your role to build a society for the next generations that makes you proud? Dare for tomorrow!

 

 

Tuesday 19 March, 17:15 - 18:15

Workshop 1

Spotlight on private sector procurement - Facilitating access of innovative SMEs and start-ups to the supply chains of leading companies.

Innovation Procurement represents an important opportunity for both corporates and innovative SMEs/start-ups. It enhances competitiveness of companies at global level enabling them to modernize their services with breakthrough and sustainable solutions.  At the same time, innovation procurement has proven to contribute to the scaling up of innovators by offering them new business opportunities.

This workshop will shed light on Innovation Procurement in the private sector. Key ecosystem and business leaders will showcase the benefits of the increased use of Innovation Procurement in the private sector purchases.  Join this workshop to hear firsthand from leading stakeholders how to facilitate, in a win-win manner, the access of top-notch innovators to the supply chains of large private sector buyers.

Moderator: Mandy Chan
Panel: Stéphane Ouaki, Marc Delobelle, Edelio Bermejo, Jean-Jacques Bois, Trude Sundset 

Workshop 2

Innovation procurement for accelerating the green transition

The EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities aims to help 100 cities become climate-neutral and smart by 2030. The circular economy package is also a cornerstone of the green deal for public buyers.

This session aims at reflecting on how public procurement can be a lever and an opportunity, instead of a barrier and a risk, to help accelerate the green transition. Public sector organisations, including smart cities, will share the issues they are facing with existing systems and discuss how innovation procurement can help find solutions to address green challenges. The outcomes of the session will feed into the ongoing work of Mission cities, the NetZeroCities consortium and the circular economy work.

Moderator: Rosalinde Van der Vlies
Panel: Dominique Sandy, Robert Miskuf, Valentina Schippers-Opejko, Teuta Cakolli

Workshop 3

Unleashing the power of innovation - A collaborative journey between competence centres for innovation procurement and EIC beneficiaries

This session dives into the key role that national competence centers for innovation procurement play, as hubs of innovation and expertise. It will examine the challenges faced by innovative suppliers in engaging with the public sector through public procurement. We will explore strategies for enhancing the connection between competence centers and companies that are beneficiaries of the European Innovation Council (EIC) to drive innovation uptake.

The session sheds light on the core functions of competence centers and how they can help facilitate the access of innovative suppliers to the public procurement market. We examine how EIC beneficiaries' innovative solutions can modernize public services and the role of Competence Centers in facilitating this process. We identify how the EIC Business Acceleration Services program can help overcome the key challenges encountered by innovative suppliers in innovation procurement.

Moderator: Keith Sequeira
Panel: Silke Guggenbichler-Fellner, Rossana Alessandrello, Masayuki Omote, Juris Ulmanis, Malcolm Harbour

Workshop 4

Public procurement of digital innovations – Navigating between uncertainty and hype

• Hype will pass, substance will last: autonomous and generative AI
  Jens Bontinck

In an era of swift advancements within the AI landscape, navigating the fine line between hype and tangible advancements and substance poses a significant challenge. Organisations find themselves at the inception of their AI journey or are actively seeking the next strategic move to gain a competitive edge. In this workshop, Jens will delve into ML6's approach, shedding light on prevailing trends and providing actionable insights for moving forward with a focus on impact and value creation.

Throughout this session, Jens will articulate his perspective on the evolution of autonomous AI, and how to leverage it within the public sector and procurement.

• What CERN, Fire Brigades and ChatGPT have in common: public procurement amidst uncertainty
  Ruben Van Caelenberg

Procurement of digital innovation within the public sector is far from trivial: technology velocity exceeds tendering cycles. Enters innovation procurement, allowing demand and supply side to interact. But how?

This workshop will elaborate on some proven methods to structurally increase the success rate of procuring innovation within the public sector: 

- Use-case driven requirements to separate “what” from “how”
- Value-risk matrix to assess demand and supply side innovation
- Set-based design to evaluate multiple “roads to Rome”
- Planning Poker to moderate large groups of intrinsically competing suppliers

During this session, Ruben will share real-life examples from his prior projects and let the audience interactively apply the methods themselves. The outcome: a hands-on experience with successful innovation methods, as opposed to yet-another slideware poisoning.

Wednesday 20 March, 10:00 - 11:00

Workshop 1

EU wide benchmarking of national investments and policy support for innovation procurement – Where are we now and how to move forward?

This session will present the key findings of the 2024 benchmarking that tracks how much progress countries around Europe have made over the past 4 years on innovation procurement. This includes policy measures that countries adopted to encourage public buyers in their country to buy more innovation. But it also tracks how much each country invests in purchasing the development and deployment of innovations in the public sector, and in which sectors.

Seasoned experts and policy makers will share good practice examples showing how they manage to incentivise innovation procurement across the economy. We will discuss also new policy initiatives that are being taken at national and European level to overcome remaining barriers and incentivise the public sector to become a more innovation friendly buyer.

Moderator: Lieve Bos
Panel: Jelena Drndic, Marina Jurišić, Justyna Pożarowska, Teodora Tataru  

Workshop 2

Innovation Procurement in healthcare: Too good to be true?

With an ever-increasing need for innovative healthcare in Europe, innovation procurement offers an opportunity for smart investments. The EU Research & Innovation Framework programmes have supported innovation procurements in the field of health and care.

In this session, an experienced panel of health and Innovation procurement specialists (suppliers and buyers) will discuss impacts of innovation procurements compared to other research & innovation actions and why, how successful innovation procurements in health have been able to bridge the knowledge gap and what actions are needed for the full exploitation of outcomes, including what coordination is needed at regional, national and European level to increase the uptake and impact of innovation procurement in our health care systems.

Moderator: Carmen Laplaza Santos
Panel: Marc Van den Bulcke, Boris Dimitrov, Reinhilde Veugelers, Xavier Vinolas Prat

Workshop 3

Opportunities and limits of (procurement) legislation 

• Mandatory procurement requirements: effective policy making or naive interventionism?
  Bart Zoete & Alexander Lemmens

Governments can use the lever of their purchasing power to promote innovation, sustainability or other strategic policy goals. To accelerate transitions, mandatory legislation that determines what governments can or should buy, can maximize this potential, but at what risk?

In this session Alexander and Bart will delve deeper into the role of and open the debate on the ‘sense and nonsense’ of (EU and national) mandatory requirements in  legislation.  Indeed, interfering with the freedom of organization of member states and their contracting authorities can also have negative effects. Some of these may not have been sufficiently researched and others may not even have been identified yet. At the end of the workshop Alexander and Bart hope to arrive at some recommendations that can optimize the use of mandatory requirements in strategic public procurement with minimal risk and downside.

• Supply Chains in public procurement: does it really matter?
  Steven van Garsse

The global economy has affected supply chains and the way service provision is organised. We look at the threats for and the limits and opportunities of public procurement law and practice in this matter, taking into account the growing importance of responsible business conduct. 

Workshop 4

The Competitive Dialogue: theory meets practice

• Procuring an Electronic Monitoring System:  a competitive dialogue experience
  Rudi Strubbe

In Belgium the Communities joined forces to procure jointly an innovative Electronic System for monitoring delinquent people. This challenge called for a procurement procedure which allows the procuring authorities to focus on the needs and allowing them to interact intensively with the participating suppliers to broaden their insights and align the needs with potential solutions.

In this workshop, Rudi Strubbe will explain the strategy and methodology used, as well as the main experiences and obstacles encountered. He will highlight the good, the bad and a little bit of ugly of the use of a competitive dialogue procedure in a joint procurement.

• How competitive should the competitive dialogue be?
  Kristof Rombaut & Ben Helsen

The Mobilidata contract was one of the first competitive dialogues within the Flemish Government. In the Mobilidata program, governments, companies and researchers work together to bring innovative technological traffic solutions to the road user. These deliver many benefits, such as better route advice, tailored traffic notifications and smoother green lights at intelligent traffic lights. A successful story, despite its unusual trajectory. Kristof Rombaut will share his insights on this remarkable journey.

Wednesday 20 March, 11:30 - 12:30

Workshop 1

Facilitating the access of startups and SMEs to the public procurement market

This session tackles overcoming challenges that small companies face trying to access the public procurement market in other countries. Hubs like living labs and incubators can serve as laboratories in which public sector needs are challenged with possible innovative solutions from start-ups and entrepreneurs and where also links with other ecosystem stakeholders like investors can be made.

The purpose of the workshop is to present and illustrate leading initiatives to attract startups and innovators in public procurement. Examples will focus on facilitating the access of small companies to innovation, green and social procurements. Moreover, the workshop will promote also EU funding in this field aimed at supporting the implementation of similar activities in other cities or Member States.

Moderator: Ivo Locatelli
Panel: Minouche Cramer, Thomas Cottinet, Kamila Gasinska

Workshop 2

Innovation procurement in the security field – Towards a more secure and resilient Europe

Security research and innovation aims to strengthen the EUs ability to prevent, prepare for, and be resilient to a wide range of security threats.  Innovation procurement is key here as it enables end-users to use innovative solutions in real operational environment and to continuously improve their capabilities.

This workshop aims to:

- Present examples of pre-commercial procurements and the growing evidence of their value for the uptake of innovation
- Illustrate challenges and successful practises to overcome them
- Highlight the benefits such as opportunities for suppliers to engage with first customers, the access to public buyers for small players, the discovery of new markets and the accelerating effect on their innovation strategies.

Moderator: Giannis Skiadaresis
Panel; David Lund, Pantelis Michalis, Serena Bianchi

Workshop 3

• Public innovation and procurement: Navigating Challenges and Creating Value
  Dany Robberecht

Public innovation presents a challenging environment, whereby the primary goal is to create public value. This interactive lecture aims to explore the intricacies of public innovation and its procurement, offering insights into the collaborative process with both the market and users within the unique context of public organizations.

The workshop will touch on four different aspects of innovation procurement:

- Redefining innovation procurement
- Overcoming procrastination in innovation initiatives
- Quality assurance vs. innovative procurement discourse
- Addressing the oversight of significant change

Participants will gain valuable insights into the multifaceted landscape of public innovation,  emphasizing the need to rethink conventional approaches to procurement. The workshop intends to equip attendees with the knowledge and tools necessary for creating meaningful public value in collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

• We are (not that) nice
  Fredo Schotanus

Although most procurement professionals are amicable and public organizations are – in theory –  exceptionally well-suited to procure innovation-friendly, there are ample opportunities to incorporate (innovation) friendliness into our procurement practices. Public procurement is not so innovation-friendly yet.  

In this working seminar Professor Fredo Schotanus will first explain why public organizations are well-suited to procure innovation-friendly. Next, he will discuss why public procurement is not so innovation-friendly yet. Finally, he will show there are many ideas on how to make public procurement innovation-friendly, and he will pitch up to three ideas in somewhat more detail:

- Facilitate collaboration between local suppliers and cities (innovation in the city), similarly like Startup-in-Residence programs.
- Make procurement documents more accessible. "Don't be alarmed; this is a European tender, but please keep reading. […]”
- Use an innovation award criterion.
- The audience can add ideas and vote for the best idea! 

Workshop 4

Strategies and procedures challenging conventional public procuring 

• Cheaper than buying at a good price is … buying differently to avoid buying!
  Thierry Decocq 

"Never let a good crisis go to waste!" – Winston Churchill

Unveil the transformative power of crisis with Thierry Decocq. In this workshop you will get an overview of some Innovative Strategies, Tools and Techniques to respond to product shortages, quality challenges and price volatility. Together with the audience will be discussed which one of those could or could not be useful in private procurement as well as in public procurement in normal non-crisis times.

Challenge the conventional procurement mission. Thierry explores the belief that procurement's role is merely responding to internal requests. Delve into the art of buying in a way that strategically avoids unnecessary purchases, demanding internal negotiation skills. Practical examples prompt the audience to share their insights.

Explore the territory of Innovative Procurement, transcending traditional tender document formulations. Uncover the upstream thinking essential for downstream benefits in price, quality, time, flexibility, and workload.

Time, often a buyer's adversary, takes center stage. Thierry elucidates strategies to turn the time challenge into an advantage, emphasizing fairness in vendor treatment. Learn how leveraging volume options and timing safeguards against price volatility.

Negotiation takes center stage. Thierry navigates Negotiation Strategies, Tools, and Techniques fostering innovation in procurement, promoting market price competitiveness, and facilitating contract renegotiation. In crisis and beyond, the importance of timely decisions resonates. Thierry prompts reflection on whether this principle holds true in non-crisis times.

Join this workshop for a transformative journey, leaving with a toolkit to navigate procurement challenges with resilience and innovation.

• Innovative procurement: which obstacles prohibit their normal use and could something be done?
  Tony Mortier 

Embark on a journey into the transformative realm of 'innovative partnerships' in public procurement – a landscape rich with promises of collaboration and groundbreaking solutions. Yet, behind the curtain of anticipation, a tale unfolds of unmet expectations and untapped potential.

Join us as we unravel the mysteries surrounding this paradigm shift, exploring the complexities, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities. Through compelling case studies, we decode the choices that led to both innovative partnerships and conventional approaches, unveiling the hidden motivations and applied logic. This session promises a captivating exploration of procurement's uncharted territories, leaving you with insights that may redefine the future of collaborative endeavors.

As we navigate the crossroads of innovation and procurement, your perspective becomes invaluable. Join the conversation, share your insights, and be part of reshaping the narrative on 'innovative partnerships.' Together, let's pave the way for a future where collaboration knows no bounds.