The Public Procurement Gazette

We interview Lydia Prinsen of the City of Amsterdam and Jeroen Naves from Pels Rijcken

Organisation of Workshops in the 27 Member States to launch a dialogue between stakeholders on the use of strategic public procurement as a lever for the development of innovation and sustainability. New deadline to submit a bid 24/10/2022 !

The main objective of this call for tender is to improve the business environment of innovative SMEs and make public procurement an attractive option for these economic operators through an enhanced uptake of strategic public procurement in Europe. Such uptake is achieved through collaboration between big buyers in strategic public procurement with a view to driving the market for innovative goods, services and works. The call for tender includes two different lots: - Lot 1: Setting up and management of working groups of public buyers: supporting buyers in joint preparation of calls for tender, joint market engagement, cooperative drafting of statements / terms of reference (budget: 3 m €) . - Lot 2: Training and knowledge development on procurement of innovation for both operational (onsite) and senior managers (online only) (budget: 1.4 m €) New deadline to submit a bid : 7 November 2022

When ? 6th October 2022 (9:30 – 12:30 CEST) This 3-hour workshop will focus on how Innovation Procurement can help tackle climate change challenges. • How to procure greener? • How will the new EU legislation impact your procurement? • How to implement a procurement strategy for sustainability and innovation? • What criteria can you use to reduce environmental impact? These and other questions will be addressed by experts in the field. Examples of successful initiatives and projects will be showcased. You will have the opportunity to ask questions before and during the webinar. The European Assistance For Innovation Procurement (EAFIP) is an initiative financed by the European Commission (DG CONNECT) for providing local assistance to public procurers for starting new innovation procurement and for promoting good practices and reinforcing the evidence base on completed innovation procurements.

Specially addressed to public procurers who start to explore and apply this instrument ! The free 90-minute webinar for European public buyers, suppliers and policy makers will cover the policy and legal foundations of Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of Innovative solutions. Examples will be showcased, and participants will get as bonus the introduction to the New EAFIP Toolkit 2.0!! Don’t miss it. The European Assistance For Innovation Procurement (EAFIP) is an initiative financed by the European Commission (DG CONNECT) for providing local assistance to public procurers for starting new innovation procurement and for promoting good practices and reinforcing the evidence base on completed innovation procurements.

This online session of the European Week of Regions and Cities will take place on October 13th at 9:30-11am CET. The session will help you understand how the use of labels, and in particular the EU Ecolabel, can make it easier for public buyers to have a sustainable impact. Success stories on the use of ecolabels in public tenders from EU local authorities will offer some inspiration on how this can be done in practice. Register now!

The third European Commission’s SPP Helpdesk service webinar of 2022 will take place on October 6th at 11am-12:15pm CET. It will introduce and explain what are Nature-Based Solutions, how they relate to public procurement, and will present the practical experience of three public authorities from the Netherlands, Poland and Italy in purchasing the implementation of these solutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a need for coordination and cooperation at a European, national, regional and even local level in the health sector. The pandemic has unveiled already-existing weaknesses in EU countries’ supply chain and public procurement. The aim of the call is to support EU countries in organising a thorough assessment of public procurement in the health sector at national and/or regional level . The call is expected to: - Develop new/ improved national and regional strategies on public procurement; - Make current practices more resilient and efficient all over the Union; - Increase preparedness for future health crises. The total budget amounts to € 5 million The deadline for applications is 21 February 2023, 17:00 (CET).