With a total indicative budget of EUR 4.00 million, the 2023-2024 work programme of Horizon Europe (p. 22) wishes to invest in ecosystems of innovation, and in particular in innovative procurement. 

This action will support innovation procurement specialist advisory services that will act as the intermediary between public procurers and innovative suppliers, bridging those gaps that hamper the progress in the integration of innovative solutions in the public sector. With these innovation procurement specialist advisory services, it is expected to overcome the fragmentation and dispersion of public procurement across the EU, enhancing the coordination on procuring innovative solutions within Member States and Associated Countries.

The innovation procurement specialist advisory services are expected to facilitate the essential change of culture of public procurers regarding the adoption of innovative solutions by diminishing their resistance to change and risk-averse perceptions. To that extent, it is expected to reverse the slow uptake of innovation procurement practices for buying innovative solutions over traditional ones, and to spur the underpinning research and innovation activities by SMEs, start-ups, and industry providers enabling innovation (research and development) services and outcomes of innovation process to enter the market.

The innovation procurement specialist advisory services are expected to strengthen the interaction of public procurers with small innovative companies by providing practical knowledge and eliminating the perception that procurement is limited to a legal and administrative process.

The specialist advisory services participating in this process should also set up new expert networks by sharing best practices among them, regardless of where an initiative took place. To that extent, besides the increase of knowledge and awareness, there is good potential for creating synergies.