Facilitating the access of startups and SMEs to the public procurement market

On 20th March in the context of the conference “Innovation Procurement - Bridging theory and Practice”, three public authorities will showcase how they work with startups and SMEs as a part of their efforts to procure innovative solutions. This session -  Facilitating the access of startups and SMEs to the public procurement market  - will take place that day from 11.30 to 12.30 CET.  

The session tackles overcoming challenges that small companies face trying to access the public procurement market. Hubs like living labs and incubators can serve as laboratories in which public sector needs are challenged with possible innovative solutions from start-ups and entrepreneurs. Examples will focus on facilitating the access of small companies to innovation, green and social procurements. The Session will be moderated by Ivo Locatelli from DG GROW C2 Public Procurement. 

The three public authorities that will showcase their work are: Minouche Cramer Department Manager Innovations, Municipalities of Amsterdam, Thomas Cottinet from the French Ministry of Environment, head of the ECOLAB and Kamila Gasinska from the the Innovation agency of Lithuania. Minouche Cramer will present the programmes the City of Amsterdam undertook to make the city's procurement practice more accessible and attractive to innovative SMEs and startups and why they created InnovatiePartners. Thomas Cottinet will elaborate on ECOLABS’ vision and their approach to GreenTech innovations. Kamila Gasinska will present her experiences in the context of the GovTech4All Incubator as one of the pilots of the GovTech4all Incubator (the ‘Startup challenge for innovative procurement’).