CircularPSP launches a PCP to digitalise municipal circular economy services

CircularPSP is an EU Horizon Europe funded project that has opened a pre-commercial procurement to source research and development providers to build a Public Service Platform for Circular, Innovative and Resilient Municipalities. The procuring consortium comprises multiple cities and municipal bodies across Europe and beyond. The combined investment for R&D is reported at €5.64 million. The call seeks digital platforms that can gather and operationalise circular economy knowledge into municipal workflows using structured taxonomies, artificial intelligence and natural language processing.

Who is involved and what is being procured

According to the project announcement and the Prior Information Notice published on the TED procurement portal, the procurement is a joint exercise by seven procurers with an associated partner spanning eight countries. Participants listed in the notice include Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Circular Berlin, Sandyford BID in Ireland, the Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia, Municipality of Guimaraes in Portugal, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and Forum Virium Helsinki. The consortium represents tens of millions of citizens and includes capitals with global influence.

Technical scope and expectations

The tender brief emphasises several technical building blocks. These include the development and use of taxonomies and classifications for circular economy topics, AI-assisted information management, natural language processing for dealing with heterogeneous text sources and microservices architecture for modular functionality. A wide range of IT and data services are referenced in the procurement notice from database services and data capture to custom software development and helpdesk support.

Procurement structure, timeline and testing locations

The PCP is organised in three competitive phases. Selected operators will receive framework agreements that cover solution design, prototype development, and original development combined with validation and limited real world testing. After each phase evaluators will compare competing solutions and award the next phase only to the best value for money. Phase 3 testing was planned across the procurers' cities and may serve as initial customer references for suppliers.

Open market consultations and engagement

Before the tender, CircularPSP ran Open Market Consultations. These were a series of hybrid or online meetings in May and June 2023 intended to brief potential suppliers and collect feedback. The project also published a short survey and planned a supplier matchmaking tool. The procurement documentation emphasises that operators may participate in the PCP even if they did not attend the OMC. All background information was to be published in English on the project website.

Legal, IP and procurement regime details

The PCP is treated as exempt from the EU public procurement directives and from the WTO Government Procurement Agreement because it concerns the procurement of R&D where exclusive benefits do not accrue solely to the contracting authorities. This is consistent with the legal treatment of PCPs but it has implications for transparency and procedural rules. The procurement documentation states that selected operators will retain ownership of intellectual property rights created during the PCP and may exploit the developed solutions commercially beyond the procurement.

Practical and policy considerations for bidders and municipalities

The technical brief and the PCP structure set out an ambitious programme. Realising cross-city platform pilots raises several challenges that bidders and procurers should consider. Interoperability with local IT systems and procurement processes will be essential. Handling multilanguage sources and variable data quality will test NLP approaches. Data protection and privacy law such as GDPR must be factored into design and deployment strategies. The modest size of the overall R&D budget relative to the diversity of participating cities means suppliers will need to scope carefully to deliver meaningful pilots while remaining commercially viable.

Opportunities and caveats

The PCP model offers a route for public authorities to steer R&D towards public needs and to test multiple technical approaches in real world settings. For vendors it is an opportunity to co-develop solutions with public clients and to obtain pilot references across several municipalities. At the same time municipalities and funders should be realistic about the limits. A single digital platform alone will not resolve regulatory, behavioural and market barriers to circular procurement. The platform can be an enabling tool but broader procurement reforms, supplier development and market signalling remain necessary for large scale circular transitions.

How to follow up or participate

Interested suppliers and municipal stakeholders were invited to follow the CircularPSP website for tender documentation and for materials from the Open Market Consultations. The procurement notice was published on the TED procurement portal and the project references Horizon Europe grant number 101092208. Offers and communications for the PCP were to be accepted in English. The project also announced matchmaking support and additional outreach events to help suppliers connect with the procuring cities.

Final note. CircularPSP represents a typical E U approach to procuring R&D for public interest challenges. The combination of municipal buyers, PCP flexibility and Horizon Europe funding can deliver useful pilots if the project maintains clear interoperability, IP and governance safeguards. Observers should track whether the pilot platforms move from limited municipality tests to open, interoperable tools that genuinely lower barriers for circular procurement and for circular business models at municipal scale.