European Innovation Procurement Awards 2021: semi-finalists and next steps

On 15 September 2021 the European Innovation Council announced the semi-finalists for the inaugural European Innovation Procurement Awards. Supported under Horizon Europe and managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the prize programme aims to recognise public and private buyers that use procurement to stimulate innovation and to accelerate the route to market for new solutions. A jury of independent experts selected the semi-finalists.

Who made the semi-final list

Process, timeline and prizes

Beyond the cash prize, all semi-finalists will be invited to join a group of pioneering procurers to share experimentation, exchange good practices and learn approaches for capacity building and procurement design. The organising body frames the awards as a way to support route to market for innovators and to highlight buyer supplier collaboration.

What the organisers say

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, commented that innovation procurement is a 'key instrument to ensure the European recovery in a sustainable way'. She said it can create new markets and tackle societal challenges such as climate change and expressed confidence that the winners will inspire others to make greater use of innovation procurement across the EU.

Key concepts explained

Background and policy rationale

The EU positions innovation procurement as a lever to modernise public services, improve quality and efficiency, and help European firms, including SMEs, access new markets. In policy terms, the argument is that public procurement can be a market shaping tool that creates demand for innovative solutions, supports cross border growth and jobs, and helps address societal challenges. EU messaging also links procurement to priorities such as the green transition and digitalisation.

A measured view and outstanding questions

Awards and recognition help to raise visibility. They do not by themselves resolve the structural obstacles that slow the uptake of innovation procurement. Practical barriers remain including procurement law complexity, risk aversion among public buyers, limited in house procurement capacity, unclear evaluation criteria for novel offers, and the challenge of opening procurement to smaller innovative suppliers without falling foul of rules on fairness and transparency. The announced cash prizes are useful as recognition but modest relative to procurement budgets and to the investment needs of scaling deep tech.

Other questions for observers and policy makers are whether there will be sustained follow up from EISMEA and the EIC to translate award visibility into concrete capacity building, whether the programme will capture robust metrics on procurement impact, and whether the initiative can be scaled so that best practices spread beyond a small set of cases.

Practical details and contacts

Next steps are private hearings in October 2021 and the public announcement of winners at the EIC Summit on 24 and 25 November 2021. For enquiries the EISMEA contact provided in the announcement is EISMEA-EUIPAwards@ec.europa.eu. Social media tags used by the organisers include #EUIPAwards and #EUeic.

What to watch for after the awards

Look for practical outputs after the awards such as published case studies, procurement templates, training modules and peer learning events. Those outputs are the elements most likely to change behaviour across procuring organisations. The awards can act as a focal point, but scaling procurement innovation requires dedicated funding for capacity building, legal guidance and long term monitoring by the Commission and agencies.