Biobridges is thrilled to announce its participation at the Planetiers World Gathering from the 23 to 25 of April, 2020 in Lisbon. The Planetiers World Gathering is the world’s biggest event on sustainable innovation, which positions itself to be a new kind of event: one in which speakers do NOT fly in – speak for 30 min – fly out.

This event is for “Planetiers”, in other words, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and citizens that recognize that there is no alternative to a regenerative future and need it for their own success. “Planetiers” know that they can always do better, and they do. Are you a “Planetier”?

Biobridges will participate in this refreshing and disruptive event with our “touch and feel” roadshow of bio-based products, with a display of more than 250 samples, and our Bioart Gallery exhibition, an informative collection of 60 artistic pictures that associate commonly known resources (tomatoes, coffee, apples, oranges, etc.) with their surprising bio-based applications.

“With our presence in Planetiers, we aim to continue our efforts to increase the awareness, and most important the acceptability of bio-based products and contribute to new cooperations between key actors in the bioeconomy landscape“.

Furthermore, with these 2 activities we hope to contribute to the transformative 2020-30 roadmap which is being currently developed and will be soon announced at the Planetiers World Gathering. Entitled Planetiers New Generation, this roadmap will act as a continuum that will use events as enablers and showcasing of the transformation underway towards 2030.

In this event, Biobridges will make part of an ecosystem composed of different type of entities (i.e. top consultants, NGOs, companies…) characterised by being agents of change, supported by advanced academic knowledge.

Get more information about this event HERE.

PEDAL partners in the Biobridges project.

According to the statistical data provided in the report of the Public Procurement Office, total value of concluded contracts in the first half of 2016 was about 1,1 billion EUR or 8,0% of GDP and the number of awarded contracts was 55.823.

As the effect of implementing the new Law on Public Procurement, positive trends can be noted in relation to the use of competitive procedures. Namely, the share of open procedures in the structure of awarded contracts showed a significant upward trend, whereas the share of negotiated procedures without invitation to bid showed a notable downward trend.

In the first half of 2016 when compared to the first half of 2015, the share of open procedures has increased from 89% to 93%. In the same period, the share of low-value public procurement procedures has increased from 10% to 12%.

According to the Law on Public Procurement, there is an advantage of 5% for domestic bidders and goods. It means that:
“Where applying the criterion of economically most advantageous bid, and in situation with bids submitted by domestic and foreign bidders which provide services or perform works, contracting authority must select the bid of most advantageous domestic bidder, provided that the difference in the final sum of weighted points between most advantageous bid of the foreign bidder and most advantageous bid of the domestic bidder is not higher than 5 in favor of the bid of foreign bidder.”

Where applying the criterion of economically most advantageous bid, and in situation with bids of bidders offering goods of domestic origin, and bids of bidders offering goods of foreign origin, as most advantageous bid contracting authority must select the bid of bidder offering goods of domestic origin, provided that the difference in the final sum of weighted points between most advantageous bid of the bidder offering goods of foreign origin and most advantageous bid of the bidder offering goods of domestic origin is not higher than 5 in favor of bid of the bidder offering goods of foreign origin.

Where applying the criterion of lowest offered price, and in situation with bids of bidders providing goods of domestic origin and bids of bidders providing goods of foreign origin, contracting authority must select the bid of bidder providing goods of domestic origin, provided than its price offered is not more than 5% higher compared to the lowest price offered by bidder providing goods of foreign origin.

Definition of domestic bidder, pursuant to the Law on Public Procurement article 86 stipulates that it means:

resident legal person, in terms of the law governing income taxes of legal persons or
resident natural persons, in terms of the law governing income taxes of citizens.

According to the Law on Public Procurement article 86, advantage for domestic bidders and goods, granted in public procurement procedures in which take part bidders from signatory states of the Central Europe Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA 2006) shall be applied in accordance with the provisions of that agreement.

Furthermore, advantage for domestic bidders and goods, granted in public procurement procedures in which take part bidders from signatory states of the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, on one side, and the Republic of Serbia, on the other side, shall be applied in accordance with the provisions of that agreement.

Click here to get in touch with the Tenderio team and find out how we can help your business grow and stay ahead of the tendering game.

If you’d like to start benefitting from the various business services Tenderio has to offer, click here to register free of charge.

PEDAL is the coordinator of the Tenderio project.

Earlier this year, the Commission approved the first European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, tackling several topics, such as: Design for recyclability, Boosting demand for recycled plastics, Preventing plastic waste in our environment, Establishing a clear regulatory framework for plastics with biodegradable properties and Driving innovation and investment towards circular solutions.

The main document is available HERE.

The list of measurers and timing is available HERE.

PEDAL is currently partnering in 2 Bioeconomic projects, namely; Bioways and Biovoices.

A Programme for Public Buyers of Central Puchasing Bodies (CPBs)

To support public procurement practitioners in performing their roles and achieving the objectives of public procurement, the European Commission has initiated and is funding a training programme for procurers working for newly or to be established Central Procurement Bodies.

To this end, COSME funded training course PPE – Public Procurement Excellence, offers the programme Public Procurement Excellence (PPE), embracing a unique combination of academic and practical approaches.
The goal is to provide state-of-the art knowledge, tools & methods for modern public procurement, including policy objectives like SME-friendly procurement, environmental sustainability and innovative procurement.

The teaching team will be composed of experienced public procurement experts (management & senior level from longstanding CPBs) and renowned lecturers from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU).
Furthermore, the programme will promote the sharing of professional experience and will initiate a platform to build a network of highly skilled public procurement officials.

For application please send an email to ppe@bbg.gv.at.
For downloading PPE programme folder click HERE.
For downloading PPE programme factsheet click HERE.

HubIT is a Horizon 2020 project running from 2017-2020 led by the motto “Technology with and for Society”. The consortium consists of 14 organizations from 10 countries: Estonia (coordinator), Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia and United Kingdom.

HubIT is a common platform for the whole Horizon 2020 SSH-RRI initiative in ICT. The aim of the project is to build a Hub to activate and improve constructive and co-creative interactions between different stakeholders of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and ICT across H2020 ICT-related projects and beyond. Furthermore, through SSH-ICT interaction the project aims to implement the principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). According to Von Schomberg (2013) “Responsible Research and Innovation is a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products,” (Von Schomberg, 2013, p.19). There are dimensions proposed that emphasise these social needs the best: public engagement, gender equality, science education, open access, ethics, governance and two additional horizontal dimensions, sustainability and social justice.

HubIT consists of the following activities:

1) Mapping of the ICT research and innovation eco-system in gathering and systematizing information on related projects, actors, activities and initiatives and creating of an expert group representing all the project target groups.

2) Developing the European Framework Model for responsible ICT innovation. The Model is a shared vision of a comprehensive set of jointly developed and used definitions, guidelines and tools for enforcing RRI and SSH issues in inclusive ICT research and innovation consisting of:

The concept of RRI;
Matrix of the key challenges;
Tool for assessment of RRI and SSH perspectives in ICT within an organisation;
Guidelines for RRI in ICT informed by SSH;
Best practice repository;
Fact sheets and policy briefs;
Key measurable success indicators;
Policy recommendations;
Virtual matching catalogue;
HubIT exploitation plan.

3) Building a wide scale HubIT community, sharing the knowledge and matchmaking:

Virtual matching catalogue and 3 speed-dating events that will bring together the SSH community, practitioners from ICT projects, users and other stakeholders;
10 national workshops that will bring together the ICT community, SSH researchers, public sector, policy makers, users and other stakeholders in 10 countries;
3 international thematic workshops focusing on selected key challenges;
5 target group specific workshops for policy level stakeholders, SSH researchers, ICT industry;
Annual conferences to share the main findings of the project with a large multidicipilnary audience.

4) Implementing real practical collaborations between ICT developers and SSH researchers leading to inclusive and responsible innovations:

3 inclusive hackathons each reflecting the cutting-edge issues elaborated as the result of the thematic workshops;
Common Ground Camp to develop responsible ICT innovation ideas subject to financing within future H2020 calls, other public or private funding;
3 interactive ICT Maker-Labs for ICT and SSH experts to develop innovative solutions for social problems identified within the mapping of the eco-system. The labs will offer technological and professional assistance to SSH experts or communities to design and create practical outputs which will be further used for their SSH research or praxis.

Based on the project results policy recommendations regarding responsible ICT innovation will be formulated. This ensures that lessons and knowledge drawn from the SSH-RRI Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017 will support projects and programmes targeted to RRI in the future.

As a part of the strategic dissemination and communication plan the HubIT online collaborative Platform will be created where the project information and European Framework Model tools and services can be accessed.

PEDAL Consulting is a partner in the HubIT Project.

Excerpt from “Public Procurement Awarding Procedures, Incentives and Efficiency in Serbia”, European Procurement and Public Private Partnership Law Review, Berlin, Volume 11 (2016) Issue 4. p. 361-369. DOI https://doi.org/10.21552/epppl/2016/4/14 by Slavica Joković PhD

Under the new EU rules, public procurement procedures are becoming a policy strategy instrument in order to implement environmental, social and innovation measures as well as the better access of small and medium sized enterprises to public procurement markets.

The New Directive stipulates that contracting authorities may exclude from participation in a procurement procedure any economic operator in case of violation of applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour law established by the Union law, national law, collective agreements or by the international environmental, social and labour law provisions.[1]

Furthermore, it notes that contracting authorities shall reject the tender where they have established that the tender is abnormally low because it does not comply with applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour law established by the Union law, national law, and collective agreements or by the international environmental, social and labour law provisions.[2]

According to the provisions on contract award criteria, “the most economically advantageous tender from the point of view of the contracting authority shall be identified on the basis of the price or cost, using a cost-effectiveness approach, such as life-cycle costing in accordance with Article 68 and may include the best price-quality ratio, which shall be assessed on the basis of criteria, including qualitative, environmental and/or social aspects, linked to the subject-matter of the public contract in question. Such criteria may comprise, for instance: quality, including technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, accessibility, design for all users, social, environmental and innovative characteristics”.[3]

Taking into account the fact that overly demanding requirements concerning the financial capacity in practice constitute an unjustified obstacle to the involvement of small and medium sized enterprises in public procurement, pursuant to the new Directive on public procurement, the minimum yearly turnover that economic operators are required to have shall not exceed two times the estimated contract value, except in duly justified cases.[4]

Serbia adopted a new Public Procurement Law (“Official Gazette of RS”, No 124/12) in December 2012 in order to align further with the EU acquis in this field. The existing public procurement legislation provides for the rules governing the procedures in the award of public procurement contracts, including utilities. The Public Procurement Law is largely based on the EU public procurement legislative framework, namely, Directive 2004/18/EC[5] and Directive 2004/17/EC[6].

In the meantime, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have adopted Directive 2014/24/EU of 26 February 2014 on public procurement, repealing Directive 2004/18/EC; Directive 2014/25/EU of 26 February 2014 on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors, repealing Directive 2004/17/EC and Directive 2014/23/EU of 26 February 2014 on the award of concession contracts.

In overall terms, the need emerged for further harmonization of the Public Procurement Law with the new Directive on public procurement, according to the Public Procurement Development Strategy of the Republic of Serbia for the period 2014-2018 and the Action plan. Especially, further progress in harmonisation between the national legislation and EU Directives in the area of public procurement should be made to promote green procurement, social aspects, innovation, as well as the concept of life-cycle costs and to facilitate access of small and medium sized enterprises to public procurement markets.

Author

Slavica Joković PhD, Doctor of Economics,Visiting Lecturer; published 5 books, specialized in the area of public procurement at International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin, Italy, with the internships of 6 months at the EUROPEAN COMMISSION as well as 3 months at the BANQUE INTERNATIONALE A LUXEMBOURG; independent expert in public procurement policy, economic policy senior advisor with more than 10 years of relevant experience; Giveaway Prize Winner on Readers` Favorite 2017 International Book Award Contest, American Writers & Artists Inc. (AWAI) Member, Member of the academic research network “Public Contracts in Legal Globalization”, Associate Member of the Procurement Law Academic Network – The PLAN Network

[1] Directive 2014/24/EU Article 57/ 4(a)
[2] Directive 2014/24/EU Article 69
[3] Directive 2014/24/EU Article 67
[4] Directive 2014/24/EU Article 58
[5] Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts, Official Journal L 134, 30/04/2004
[6] Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors, Official Journal of the European Union L 134, 30.4.2004

Click here to get in touch with the Tenderio team and find out how we can help your business grow and stay ahead of the tendering game.

If you’d like to start benefitting from the various business services Tenderio has to offer, click here to register free of charge.

PEDAL Consulting is the coordinator of the Tenderio Project

ICT is a booming field promising new exciting technologies for societies at large, and it is harder and harder to imagine our life without it. However, the pressure for the IT sector to ensure that societal needs are taken into account both as regards research and innovation aims and the research design, is growing.

What can be the role of social sciences and humanities in this context?

Multi-, cross-, trans- and non-disciplinary collaborations are becoming more and more common in the academia. The EU framework program not only supports the SSH role’s in ICT research aimed at ensuring ethics, but also encourages social scientists to drive societal transformation in times of new technological challenges (issues of privacy, robotics and automation, etc).

The aim of HubIT SSH Workshop is to discuss collaboration between social sciences/humanities and ICT research through success stories and discussions. In particular, the event will address the following questions:
What are the goals and benefits of such cooperation?
How to initiate collaboration with ICT?
What societal challenges need to be solved together by ICT and SSH?
The workshop will showcase examples of successful cooperation, useful HubIT project findings and tools, and will offer a space for discussion between the participants.

The workshop is organized in the framework of the project HubIT – “The HUB for boosting the Responsibility and inclusiveness of ICT enabled Research and Innovation through constructive interactions with SSH research”, funded by the EU Horizon2020 Coordination and Support Action grant.
This event is for you if you are interested in:

Societal and global challenges
Risks and global challenges
Interdisciplinary cooperation between SSH/ICT
Responsible and ethical research
This workshop will take place on the 18th of September, 2018. During the Multi-conference RRI-SIS 2018.

Program:

10:00 – 10:20 – Dr. Rajesh Sharma. H2020 project SoBigData: cross-disciplinary research projects stories
10:20 – 10:55 – World café: Reasons, benefits for cooperating with ICT? Presentation and discussion
10:55 – 11:05 – BREAK
11:05 – 11:20 – Dr. Mihkel Solvak. Centre for IT Impact Studies (CITIS) and its activities
11:20 – 11:50 – World café: How to initiate cooperation with ICT research? How to “market yourself”? How to think about your research work in terms of potential cooperation with ICT? Presentation and discussion
11:50 – 12:00 – BREAK
12:00 – 12:15 – Dr. Emanuele Bardone. When philosophy meets technology. Arc of Inquiry project
12:15 – 12:45 – World café: What challenges in the world need to be solved by cooperation between ICT and SSH?
Presentation and discussion
12:45 – 13:00 – Conclusions
13:00 – 14:00 – Speed Dating session and networking cocktail

REGISTER HERE

PEDAL is a partner in the HubIT project.

As a part of the strategic dissemination and communication plan the HubIT online collaborative Platform will be created where the project information and European Framework Model tools and services can be accessed.
This online collaborative Platform is represented as the HubIT Metropolis! Where all the activities, tools and resources deployed in the project are made available at different locations of the Metropolis. This will facilitate and encourage the constructive interactions between stakeholders leading to a responsible approach to Research and Innovation.

Soon you will be able to visit our Metropolis and to contribute to linking Social Sciences and Humanities and Responsible Research and Innovation practices with key ICT issues.

There will be lots to see and do!

– Meet the heart of our Hub, the “Dawn Square”: where all the ideas and concepts of HubIT are explained;
– Take a walk in the “Policy Recommendations Avenue” to the majestic “Policy District”: learn the trends and contributions to shape the policy blueprint for the SSH-RRI integration into ICT-enabled technologies;
– Have fun solving interesting conundrums at the “Amusement Park of ICT Challenges”: contribute to link SSH and RRI practices with key ICT issues;
– Make valuable connections at the “Get Connected Airport”: engage and network with other peers and stakeholders;
– Check out our prestigious “Assessment Campus”: make a self-assessment, find out if you meet the SSH-RRI requirement for ICT.

Soon you will be able to visit the HubIT Metropolis and get access to useful information to ensure that responsible ICT enabled research and innovation becomes a reality!

PEDAL Consulting is a partner in this project.

Photo by Huma Kabakci on Unsplash

The European Commission is developing a new Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal that will replace the current Participant Portal. The new portal is built upon the concepts, functionalities and approaches of the existing participant portal. It extends its scope by providing a one-stop shop for the participation in all centrally managed EU programmes and also for procurement (calls for tender) by the Commission. The full coverage of all centrally managed funding programmes and of procurement is planned for 2020.

It is possible to test the beta version of the new portal. The testing does not require any specific testing scenario, all you need to do is simply start using the new portal for your usual operations (i.e. for managing proposals, grants, organisations, roles etc.) and send us (The European Commission) your observations and suggestions. It is recommended to use either Firefox or Chrome for the testing. Some functions do not work properly in other browsers yet.

Please be aware that all actions that you execute through the new portal will act on your real data (no test data), as if you made them via the current Participant Portal. You can start using the new portal via the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal

As players in the public procurement space, this is great news for us. We cannot wait to see the entire upgrade up and running.

PEDAL Consulting is partnering in an over €270,000 worth Erasmus Plus (KA2) project proposal, which was recently selected for funding by the National Agency in the UK.

Coordinated by NGi (UK), the “Young Goes Further” project will:

Promote entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people; and
Develop VET business partnerships aimed at promoting work-based learning in all its forms.
The other project partners are:

Zespol Szkol Lacznosci, Poland
Malta College of Arts Science and Technology, Malta
Junior Achievement Bulgaria Foundation, Bulgaria
YouNG is an initiative run by Rushcliffe Borough Council that works with youth; it allows them to set up their own business and trade on a real life market and the Internet. It develops those soft skills that employers throughout the European Union look for in new recruits.

This new project builds upon a previous successful 2015 application, the resultant project finishes in August 2018 and is called: ‘YouNG Goes Euro’ 2015-1-UK01-KA202-013774. This project, where PEDAL is also a partner, has added international trade as a vital component of the programme and young people are now engaged in trade with their European counterparts. In short, we facilitate experiential enterprise education by supporting young people to create a business that trades at a real life market alongside professional stall holders.

Among others, we intend to engage more stakeholders in the implementation of the project, namely disadvantaged or disengaged students but also curriculum teacher/trainers and employers. Their participation in project delivery would add value for the students, this will focus on training for both target groups to enable them to take part in YouNG Market delivery.

For more information, please contact r.miskuf@pedal-consulting.eu

As Partners in the HubIT Project, we are proud to announce the issuance of the First Issue of the HubIT Newsletter, it details what the project is about, what to expect in the coming months, available resources and reports from the previous event among others.

The strategic objective of HubIT (Horizon 2020) project is to contribute to the high level of European research and innovation and ensure that H2020 funded and further ICT related innovation is responsible, inclusive and aimed at reversing inequalities. The direct objective of HubIT is to build a hub that will activate and improve constructive and co-creating interactions between SSH and ICT disciplines in developing and implementing a shared vision of inclusive HubIT will activate constructive interactions between the stakeholders forming the RRI-SSH eco-system via various network and engagement activities.

Please click here to view your copy!

On the 11th of June 2018, Tenderio organised the workshop “Tenderio Training, Matching & Business-to-Procurers Day“, in Lisbon!
The location was provided by IAPMEI, in the wonderful technologic park “Campus do Lumiar”.

The event was focused on both promoting Tenderio free services and on informing participants on the ways they can succeed in bidding abroad.
Indeed, the Agenda of the event tackled progressively the greatest initial barriers SMEs encounter when bidding abroad, from channels to find local partners to translation services, from the explanantion of standard award criteria to hints on how to effectvely draft the bid.

Personal consultations were organised at the end of the event.
The engagement and interest of participants in the matter, showcased by their proactive questioning, led to an informal and fruitful environment during the event and especially during personal consultations.

Here was the Agenda:
09:30 – Registration
10:00 – Welcome – Enterprise Europe Network
10:15 – Developing International Business with the support of the EEN-PORTUGAL – POD
10:45 – How did we win our first foreign tender and the birth of Tenderio
11:00 – Coffee Break
11:30 – Life Demo: How Tenderio will help you win your foreign tender
– How to submit your first bid abroad
– How to find the right tender
– Finding a suitable partner abroad
12:30 – Lunch, Networking
14:00 – Presentation of the IPPON Project (Q&A)
14:20 – Matching & Consultations
– How to list the offer
– How to set a bid
– How to properly send your offer
– Evaluation process
– Contracting
15:15 – Success stories
15:30 – Personal Tender Consultations (via registration form)
16:00 – Close event

We received excellent feedback from participants via feedback questionnaires distributed on site.
Almost all of them stated they will benefit from Tenderio services and, most importantly, most of the participants stated they had the possibility of fruitfully networking for submitting joint tenders in the future!
For us this is the greatest success.
SMEs must start to realize awarding public contracts abroad is possible, as there is a veiled world of business opportunities in the entire EU!

Até a próxima Lisboa!

Click here to get in touch with the Tenderio team and find out how we can help your business grow and stay ahead of the tendering game.

If you’d like to start benefitting from the various business services Tenderio has to offer, click here to register free of charge.

PEDAL Consulting s.r.o is the Coordinator for the Tenderio Project.

www.tenderio.com