PEDAL Consulting, together with its partners CIVITTA and City of Turku, had a pleasure today to share their best practise from the implementation of the BUILD project „Building capacities in innovation procurement for cities“ during the workshop organised under the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA).

To participate in the event “Projects under the European Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme in support of the New European Innovation Agenda”, 25 different initiatives under the innovation programme were selected by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency. They demonstrated specific ways of support to help position Europe as a leading player on the global innovation scene. Mainly in three domains: regional innovation ecosystems, innovation procurement and scale-up of startups.

More than 150 participants attended in person and remotely, with many others that followed the event on the web streaming platform. At the close of the workshop, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Ms Mariya Gabriel announced the launch of the European Innovation Ecosystems Datahub.

“We appreciate the opportunity to contribute to such a high-profile event at the European level. Not only with the presentation of the BUILD project, but also with other two initiatives of our Innovation procurement task force, i.e. PROCEDIN and InnoFaciliator. Clearly, the topic of innovation procurement is one of our core activities and we are happy to share our experience with others,” commented Robert Miskuf, the CEO of PEDAL Consulting.

Examples of BUILD project activities, that align greatly with the New European Innovation Agenda’s goals:

• series of 4 workshops in Finland and Estonia for buyers and suppliers to identify what are the challenges in the cities (March-April 2023);
• several trainings for public buyers (November 2023 – March 2024);
• 4 international short-term staff exchanges (involving staff from Valonia, Turku, Tartu City and Rotterdam) between public procurers (March – June 2024);
• PPI “simulations” & consolidated training approach and updated training material for procurers (June – August 2024).

About NEIA

The New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA) was adopted in July 2022 with the goal to help position Europe at the forefront of the new wave of deep tech innovation and start-ups. It will help Europe to develop new technologies to address the most pressing societal challenges, and to bring them on the market.

Building on the substantive work that have been done already to foster innovation in the EU, the NEIA aims to accelerate the development and scaling up of innovation across the Union.

Find out more about the NEIA:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_4273

Interest in the BUILD project?

The BUILD initiative at a glance:
https://pedal-consulting.eu/building-capacities-in-innovation-procurement-for-cities-build/

Complex info:
https://www.build-procurement.eu/