Innovation Procurement: Unlocking Best Practice for the UK
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Pioneering partnership to boost regional innovation
The project partners - University of Birmingham, the University of Manchester and Connected Places Catapult – have named their venture
The project partners - University of Birmingham, the University of Manchester and Connected Places Catapult – have named their venture. The Consortium for Research in Innovative and Strategic Public Procurement (CRISPP) which aims to gather evidence and develop best practice guidance for public sector bodies seeking new ways of delivering public services. It will also assess the impact of different approaches to innovation procurement – an area in which there are sizeable data and knowledge gaps, looking across the world for best practice solutions.
A pioneering partnership between Connected Places Catapult and leading researchers in Birmingham and Manchester will boost regional innovation and jobs. The team will work with local authorities to engage inventive companies in developing and deploying innovative new services, with the shared goal: to invest public procurement funds in better, greener solutions.
Innovation is central to the Government’s growth strategy and its desire to use procurement to invest in innovation was highlighted in the Green Paper on procurement reform ‘Transforming Public Procurement’, published in Dec 2020, and the 2021 Queen’s Speech announcing the upcoming Procurement Bill. Innovation procurement will also play an essential role in delivering net zero carbon goals.
CRISPP’s work will help maximise the effectiveness of this approach to drive growth in innovative products and services across the UK.
“Public procurement is worth £270bn a year of goods, works and services in the UK, and is a major influence on private sector innovation, having played key roles in the emergence of sectors such as IT and semiconductors,” says Nicola Yates OBE, Chief Executive of Connected Places Catapult. “Yet there are significant gaps in our knowledge of why innovation procurement is successful and how best to use it, with evidence typically reliant on case studies. This consortium is looking to address this data gap and thereby improve the impact of public spending on innovation.”
“Our research focuses on insights and policy recommendations to improve the innovation outcomes of public procurement and maximise its benefits for regions and communities in the UK. We will develop analytical methods to understand the impact of innovation procurement in the productivity and growth of UK regions and cities. We are also interested in understanding how procurement can be leveraged to support inclusive innovation to ensure that all communities and places around the UK can benefit equally.” Professor Raquel Ortega-Argilés, Chair Regional Economic Development, City-Region Economic Development Institute (City-REDI), University of Birmingham.
Dr. Elvira Uyarra, Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research states, “Public procurement is a key, yet under-exploited, industrial policy tool with the potential to stimulate private sector innovation and productivity, foster industrial renewal and the development and diffusion of technologies that address societal challenges. This partnership reflects the strengths of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR) at the University of Manchester in the area of innovation and public procurement and has the potential to significantly contribute to closing the evidence gap around this important agenda.”
CRISPP is encouraging engagement and collaboration with its research. It is keen for any interested parties to get in touch, whether they have relevant data, are interested in the consortium’s findings, are running a related project or considering such a project.
reports
Sparking innovation through the market: a review of pioneering practice
Public procurement in the UK is failing to reach its potential as a driver of innovation and growth.
Public procurement in the UK is failing to reach its potential as a driver of innovation and growth. When Government spending accounts for roughly 39% (2018-19 figures) of the UK’s GDP, it is clear how large that potential is. In 2019, the figure was more than £292 billion and the value grows almost every year.
While complex factors contribute to this failure – such as a lack of clear and coordinated government policy, difficulty in getting stakeholders to buy into an idea, and capacity and capability bottlenecks – existing tools for the better use of public spending are being woefully underused.
Along with other European nations, the UK has strived to improve public procurement so that it goes beyond simply buying products and services. It wants public spending to stimulate new markets, achieve better value for money, meet citizens’ expectations and expand market opportunities for businesses of all sizes – goals that can fuel longer-term economic growth and increased public value. Indeed, the UK recently mandated that all public procurement activities should be developed with innovation outcomes in mind.
There are many ways of promoting ‘innovation procurement’: innovation partnerships, pre-commercial procurement and accelerators to name just three. These and other methods have been promoted by the European Union, while the UK government outlined its approach in the Transforming Public Procurement innovation procurement green paper published in December 2020.
Several programmes and platforms have also been established to encourage innovation procurement. Among these are GOVTECH Catalyst, the Mayor of London Innovation Challenges, Innovate UK, CIVTECH and ARIA. However, each of these operates in its own way and with slightly different objectives, causing difficulty for both suppliers and buyers.
This issue is compounded by the lack of a national competence centre in the UK – a notable absence because such bodies currently provide great value and coordination in five EU nations, with efforts underway to establish them in at least five more.
Responses to the green paper suggest it has its flaws (including insufficient consideration of SMEs and the need to confront lacklustre uptake by local authorities), but these should not trigger a ‘baby and bath water’ reaction. Within it are the foundations of a sound approach to promoting innovation procurement and untapping the UK’s latent potential.
This latest report from our work on innovation-friendly procurement looks at the benefits of treating public procurement as a strategic tool, available procedures and pioneering practice.
