The European Procurement Reform, implemented through Directive 2014/24/EU, transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree no. 50 of 18 April 2016, as amended and supplemented, has made available for the first time some tools to encourage the development of innovative solutions. The main purpose of these instruments is to use public demand as a strategic leverage according to a bottom-up approach, guiding companies towards public administration needs not yet satisfied by the market also through market analysis and feasibility studies.
The instruments made available by European and national legislation are:
- pre-commercial procurement (PCP)
- the Innovation Partnership (IP)
- the procurement of innovative solutions (Public Procurement of Innovation, PPI)
The pre-commercial procurement, regulated by art. 158 of the Procurement Code, refers exclusively to research and technological development (R&D) services, i.e. research aimed at the development of new technologies not available on the market: R&D can cover activities ranging from research, development of solutions, design and development of prototypes to the initial development and testing of limited quantities of first products or services in the form of experimental series.
According to the provisions of Article 65 of the Procurement Code, contracting authorities and contracting entities may use innovation partnerships where the need to develop innovative products, services or works cannot, on the basis of a reasoned determination, be satisfied by using solutions already available on the market, provided that the resulting supplies, services or works correspond to the performance levels and maximum costs agreed between the contracting authorities and the participants. The main difference with pre-commercial procurement is that in this case the authorities undertake from the outset to also purchase supplies, services or works resulting from research and development.
The public procurement of innovation, or procurement of innovative solutions, may be launched when the technological solution needed to meet public needs is already ready for market introduction or close to market introduction, but requires incremental development and improvement of the existing products or processes concerned. In this case, the purchasing public administration represents the early adopter (first customer) of the existing but not yet widely marketed innovative solution. The contract and its terms and conditions will take account of the fact that through this contractual formula the contracting station contributes to a stabilisation of the quality standards of the innovative solution and, in relation to this, can enjoy advantageous conditions on the price offered.
In addition to what has just been described, it should be noted that the term "innovative procurement" also includes activities that are new at a procedural level, such as, for example, the execution of joint or cross-border procurements.