Commission announces winners of the European Innovation Procurement Awards 2022

On 8 December 2022 the European Commission revealed the winners of the European Innovation Procurement Awards, an EIC and EISMEA initiative funded under Horizon Europe. The awards recognise public and private buyers that used procurement to stimulate innovation and address societal problems. Winners were selected by a jury of independent experts and announced during the European Innovation Council Summit in Brussels.

Winners and runners up

What the winning projects claim to do

The three category winners demonstrate three different approaches to procurement as a tool for public sector innovation. RITMOCORE reframes procurement from buying devices to buying services and outcomes and couples this with ICT-enabled pathways for pacemaker patients. ORS Garage developed a four phase, citizen-led process that moved from needs discovery to hackathons, matchathons and procurement tracks for quick wins and medium term R&D. StartOff offers a standardised fast-track procurement format to engage startups and produce minimum viable products for public clients.

Notable runners up and their claims

The jury also recognised other initiatives. YQ Purchasing BV led a Covid Procurement Taskforce for the Belgian federal health authorities using unconventional sourcing strategies during shortages. IoT for AHA, a Valencian SME, credits its pivot during 2020 confinement with keeping 525 homes for isolated older people operational and reports that within 160 activities none of the monitored homes were infected during the first wave. PPI4HPC ran the first pan-European joint procurement of innovative high performance computing systems with emphasis on energy efficiency and coordination across PRACE member centres.

How the awards fit into EU innovation policy

The European Innovation Procurement Awards are part of the EIC Prizes portfolio managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, and are funded under Horizon Europe. The awards are intended to promote innovation procurement as a way to modernise public services, open routes to market for SMEs and startups and to address societal needs while improving competitiveness across the EU.

What to watch for and where to be sceptical

The projects reflect practical experimentation with procurement as a policy lever. That said, the announcements rest on a set of claims that merit measured scrutiny. Procurement pilots often struggle to scale beyond initial sites because procurement rules, public budgets and risk aversion differ across regions. Outcome based purchasing models such as RITMOCORE depend on reliable metrics and long term contracting approaches that public buyers do not always have capacity to manage. Claims about infection avoidance or clinical impact need independent evaluation and peer reviewed data before they can be used as strong evidence for broader adoption. The reported high continuation rate for StartOff projects is encouraging but small sample sizes and selection effects need to be taken into account. Joint procurement exercises like PPI4HPC can influence supplier roadmaps, but coordinating technical requirements and timelines across countries is complex and costly.

Replication and uptake remain the main barriers to turning successful procurement experiments into systemic change. The EU can lower these barriers through guidance on procurement procedures, capacity building for public buyers, standardised legal templates for outcome based contracts, and funding mechanisms that de-risk early commercialisation for SMEs. The awards do well to publicise promising practices, but converting recognition into widespread practice will require sustained follow up and measurable KPIs.

Implications for startups, SMEs and public buyers

Innovation procurement is one of the clearer routes for startups and SMEs to access public markets. Initiatives such as StartOff reduce entry friction by offering predictable, time boxed procurement formats. At the same time, SMEs need credible routes to scale after a pilot. Public buyers need dedicated skills to run innovation procurements efficiently and to manage partnerships with small suppliers. The EU ecosystem, including EIC business acceleration services and national contact points, can help but coordination and sustained finance remain essential.

Background on the awards and logistics

The European Innovation Procurement Awards are managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, funded under Horizon Europe. The competition highlights cases where public and private buyers promote innovation procurement and close buyer supplier cooperation. The 2022 winners were announced at the EIC Summit in Brussels on 8 December 2022. The awards form part of the wider EIC prize portfolio which includes the Prize for Women Innovators and the European Capital of Innovation Awards.

Contacts and further information

For details and follow up the EIC and EISMEA pages host case studies and contact points. The awards office was listed in public materials as EISMEA-EUIPAwards@ec.europa.eu. The winners and finalists are documented on the European Innovation Council website and in materials from the EIC Summit.

Selected source notes

This article is based on the European Commission announcement of winners of the European Innovation Procurement Awards on 8 December 2022 and on project descriptions supplied by the organisers and applicants. Where project impact claims are summarised, they reflect claim language used in official entries and press materials. Independent evaluation of long term impact is not presented in the source documents.