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Research and innovation

Innovation procurement

How the EU supports innovation procurement, different types of support and support by theme. 

Types of innovation procurement support

The European Commission supports innovation procurement as a tool to deliver solutions to economic and societal challenges.

Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI) is used when challenges can be addressed by innovative solutions that are nearly or already in small quantity in the market and don't need new research and development.

Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) can be used when there are no near-to-the-market solutions yet and new research and development is needed. PCP can then compare the pros and cons of alternative competing solutions approaches. This will in turn enable to de-risk the most promising innovations step-by-step via solution design, prototyping, development and first product testing.

By developing a forward-looking innovation procurement strategy that uses PCP and PPI in a complementary way, public procurers can drive innovation from the demand side. This enables the public sector to modernise public services faster while creating opportunities for companies in Europe to gain leadership in new markets. Currently however, compared to other parts of the world, PCP and PPI are underutilised in Europe.

For more information on how to square this circle, see the Frequently Asked Questions on PCP and PPI.

Innovation procurement support by theme

Better policy framework

EU co-financing

Networking, experience sharing, training