PRONTO is a project funded by the EU COSME programme for the competitiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) under Grant Agreement No. 857810.
Our core objective is to support public buyers to implement Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI).
We’ll do so through 3 important and interrelated phases:
The PRONTO consortium features three public bodies which will be the initial subject to analysis in order to clearly identify, prioritise and develop their innovation needs.
PPI can be implemented in different ways by public authorities. It is crucial that public buyers develop the necessary professional capacities enabling them to implement PPI in a successful manner. To address this, our project will conduct international and national trainings for public procurers and organize staff exchanges of personnel between them.
The trainings and exchanges will help participants to understand how to:
1. Treat the process as a specific project
2. Ensure they have high-level support for their project as well as appropriate technical, legal, management and leadership skills within the project team.
1. how to identify and communicate their needs (or problems to be solved by the innovation) in terms of performance and function; and
2. how to engage with the market to identify what is possible and who can offer the innovation needed
3. what elements to be considered in setting-up a successful PPI. In this phase, they will be also taught which factors should be considered to use the most appropriate procedure for their PPI.
4. how to train trainers on procurement within their organisations (train the trainers)
them in early discussions, through public consultations and public dialogue, with other stakeholders that may be affected by the proposed investment. Through this assessment, the public buyers will be able to determine the state-of-the art of potentially available solutions through “market consultations” involving the supply chain. This phase will implement active brokering and produce recommendations and advice.
Before preparing the specifications for the PPIs, we involve the potential SMEs suppliers of innovation as advisors to understand potential benefits and suggest specific arguments and constrains to be taken into consideration.
After this phase, we will assist public buyers from Romania and Slovakia in articulating their needs in the field of clean energy, healthcare and regional development, in a way that ensures the best response from potential contractors (it will be focused more on the “problem to be solved” rather than the “innovation seeked”). To support public buyers in defining the tender specifications, PRONTO will:
We will not only consider the purchase price of the product but also the costs of operation, maintenance and final disposal.
Giving sufficient weighting to factors such as sustainability, accomplishing with national and European strategies when evaluating different offers. Encouraging an approach that takes into consideration the externalities and long-term impact of procurement choices.
When appropriate, we will consider splitting tenders into lots or encourage consortia to bid, in order to make the volumes manageable. We will also try to make the administrative needs and selection criteria for bidding manageable for smaller and/or newer companies.
Buying innovative solutions will inevitably entail a certain amount of risk, whether technical or financial. It is important to carefully consider what those risks might be and to make sure that it is clearly defined who (the public authority or the supplier) is responsible for carrying that risk, and to be clearly included within tendering and contract documents. The legal support is also crucial at this stage.