The European Commission revealed today the winners of the European Innovation Procurement Awards.

The EU Innovation Procurement Awards are managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and funded under Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme.

The winners, chosen by a jury of independent experts, were announced at the European Innovation Council Summit in Brussels on 8 December 2022. The results of the competition are the following:

Innovation procurement strategy category

WINNER: Application “RITMOCORE” from the Spanish consortium composed by:

  • Agencia de qualitat I avaluacion sanitaires de Catalunya
  • El Sitio de Valdelatarra
  • Fundacion de gestión sanitaria del hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
  • Fundacion asistencial de Mutua de Terrasa
  • Institut catala de la salut

RITMOCORE transforms the care pathway of patients with bradycardias, implanted with a pacemaker, most aged over 70. The steady growth of the demand, mostly due to the ageing population, and budgets’ resistance to follow such demand has two main consequences, on one hand there is a requirement to purchase more devices, and on the other hand, the increase in the workload of clinicians becomes unsustainable.

RUNNER UP: Application “BEL-PROC-TF-COVID19” submitted by YQ Purchasing BV (Belgium)

YQ Purchasing BV established and spearheaded the Procurement Taskforce Covid-19 for the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment using innovative “Out-of-the-Box” Procurement in order to respond to the needs of the Belgian health care professionals and the Belgian population to face the Covid-19 challenges.YQ Purchasing BV established and spearheaded the Procurement Taskforce Covid-19 for the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment using innovative “Out-of-the-Box” Procurement to respond to the needs of the Belgian health care professionals and the Belgian population to face the Covid-19 challenges.

Facing societal challenges category

WINNER: Application “ORS Garage” from the Department of Social Rights of the Government of Navarra (Spain).

In response to the public debate on conditions and care standards in residential homes triggered by the COVID pandemic, the Department of Social Rights of the Government of Navarra, in close cooperation with the public procurement department, launched a process of citizen-led innovation procurement: The “ORS Garage”. The process was structured into four phases, ament to capture the citizen perceptions on physical, social, and emotional conditions in care settings and translate these identified needs and social challenges into negotiated procurement specifications.This Department launched a process of citizen-led innovation procurement in response to the public debate on conditions and care standards in residential homes triggered by the COVID pandemic.

RUNNER UP: Application “IoT for AHA” from “Iniciativa Social integral per al benestar SLU” (Spain).

Iniciativa Social integral per al benestar, as well as a home care company, is a SME in Valencia (Spain) committed to social innovation in care, based on its Corporate Social Responsibility and Person-Centered Care. They bring to this award the activities carried out during the pandemic confinement situation in 2020. Pivoting in the value chain, they kept in operation a network of 525 homes for older people who lived alone in the city of Valencia.

Procurement leadership category

WINNER: Application “StartOff” from the Norwegian consortium composed by:

  • Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) (Norway)
  • The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (DigDir),
  • The National Programme for Supplier Development (LUP) (Norway)

Startups are a source of innovation that the public sector needs. Their traditional procurement processes are often complicated and resource-intensive, and the public has little overview of what startups can offer. Through a fast, simple and predictable process, StartOff brings public clients and startups together to solve challenges in the public sector and helps growing new businesses. StartOff has in its short lifetime produced extra-ordinary results with 7 of 8 completed projects seeing continuation in the form of scaled up development, testing of procurement.

RUNNER UP: Application “PPI4HPC” from the pan-european consortium composed by

  • Forschunzszentrum Julich GMBH (Germany)
  • Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (France)
  • Cineca consorzio interuniversitario (Italy)
  • Barcelona Supercomputing national centre (Spain)
  • Grand équipement national de calcul intensif (France)

With the PPI4HPC project, for the first time in Europe, a joint European procurement of innovative high-performance IT equipment for HPC centre (supercomputer or storage system), focused on key innovations especially in the field of energy efficiency. It was performed by a consortium of members of the PRACE e-Infrastructure – a world-class environment capable of achieving global leadership.

Background

Innovation procurement modernises public sector with more economical and higher quality solutions. These practices directly contribute to EU competitiveness, by opening a route-to-the market for new players, especially SMEs. They also help larger companies to bring innovative products to the market, stimulating cross-border company growth and the creation of jobs. Innovation procurement also serves to tackle the most pressing societal needs.

Supported by the European Innovation Council under Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Procurement Awards recognise powerful cases of public and private buyers on promoting innovation procurement practices across Europe. It also emphasises the importance of close buyer–supplier cooperation in bringing the innovative solutions to market.

This is one of the four 2022 European Innovation Council Prizes that celebrate those shaping the future of innovation in Europe, alongside with the EU Prize for Women Innovators, the European Capital of Innovation Awards, the European Social Innovation Competition.

Source: European Innovation Council I News (https://bit.ly/3FjE10B)