European Commission and Member States: how they are supporting Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions?

On 21-22 March 2013 a high level event on Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) and Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI) is taking place in Berlin, Germany. The program of the event as well as the instructions for registration can be found on the Berlin event website. Participation to the event is open and free of charge.

This high-level event will offer an opportunity to hear first-hand from the European Commission and Member States how they are supporting the implementation of PCP and PPI. In other words, how public purchasers (and private procurers) are enabled to buy better and/or cheaper products and services while at the same time boosting innovation.

From a European perspective, European Commission services will present 2013 CIP and FP7 calls for proposals as well as future financial instruments (Horizon 2020, CEF, Structural funds 2014-2020) to support the demand for innovation and innovative procurement. Public procurers and other stakeholders interested to network or share/present experiences in preparation of future EU calls for PCP and PPI projects can contact the EU officials on the event program to actively participate in the breakout session 7 on public buyers networks for future applications to EU calls on PCP and PPI. Contact in particular lieve.bos@ec.europa.eu for the CIP-ICT-PSP-2013 calls supporting PPI pilots (in ICT fo! r health and ageing well) and the FP7-ICT-2013-11 call supporting PCP projects (in e-learning and digital preservation). 

Background info about submission deadlines, scope for currently open FP7 and CIP calls on PCP and PPI can be found on the calls page of the PCP-PPI website.