innovation-friendly procurement

Innovation-friendly procurement is an approach where the contracting authority designs the procurement process to welcome and encourage innovative solutions, without making innovation a mandatory requirement. Off-the-shelf products may still meet the minimum criteria, but the authority takes deliberate steps to allow better, more creative solutions to compete.

How does innovation-friendly procurement work?

While innovative procurement focuses on buying something entirely new, innovation-friendly procurement is about how the competition is structured. Under EU Directive 2014/24/EU, contracting authorities have several tools at their disposal:

• Needs analysis: Start from the underlying problem rather than recycling old specifications. Ask "What outcome do we need?" instead of "What product should we buy?"
• Market dialogue: Conduct preliminary market consultations (Article 40 of the Directive) and supplier meetings to understand what solutions the market can offer.
• Functional requirements: Describe desired performance and outcomes instead of prescribing a specific solution. This gives suppliers freedom to propose novel approaches.
• Quality-focused award criteria: Use the best price-quality ratio (Article 67) and weight factors like innovation characteristics and life-cycle costing so that new solutions can compete with established ones.

Which procedures can be used?

Innovation-friendly procurement is not tied to a specific procedure. An open procedure with functional specifications can be innovation-friendly, but procedures like competitive procedure with negotiation and competitive dialogue provide additional room for dialogue during the process. Where the need requires developing an entirely new solution, innovation partnerships may be more appropriate.

Tools like Cobrief can help suppliers discover innovation-friendly competitions early, giving them time to prepare well-crafted proposals that make the most of the flexibility the authority has built in.

Innovation-friendly procurement does not require large budgets or special procedures — it is about making deliberate choices during the planning phase. The European Commission's 2021 Guidance on Innovation Procurement highlights that even small changes in specification approach and evaluation criteria can significantly increase the likelihood of receiving innovative bids.