Public Procurement of Innovation has a virtue that is sometimes overlooked: it does not only procure what the market already offers; it can also signal to the market where it needs to move next. Against the backdrop of the ongoing review of the European public procurement Directives, the relevant question is no longer whether a PPI procedure incorporates strategic criteria, but whether those criteria – environmental, social or otherwise linked to broader policy objectives - drive innovation while delivering better public services and measurable policy outcomes.