As a unique smart city initiative from the European Commission, the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) will provide its participants with technical support and knowledge-sharing opportunities to develop and implement smart action plans around 11 thematic areas. The goal is to help ambitious small to medium sized European cities unleash their potential to use advanced technologies to transform themselves, become more sustainable and raise living standards for their communities.

The ICC will build on the success of the Digital Cities Challenge, which helped 41 EU cities develop a strategic vision and a roadmap for digital transformation. ICC cities will receive high quality and tailored guidance and expert support, access to advisory and city peer networks (European and international), and capability building tools, to drive priority policy goals and the uptake of advanced technologies.

ICLEI as ICC partner supports the consortium to assess the applications of cities to the ICC as well as to manage the project, organise events and provide expertise to the 100 participants.

Technology has massive potential to boost learning, teaching and assessment, and since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s never been more important as a tool for maintaining education even at a distance. To help schools buy the technology they need, a series of videos has been produced by LEA – Learning Technology Accelerator, to introduce schools to the powerful tool of innovation procurement. The videos cover:
• Why innovation procurement in education
• Public Procurement of Innovation in 4 steps
• Pre-Commercial Procurement in 5 steps
• LEA School Labs – testing new technologies
• LEA Buyers Network – practical support for buying learntech

EC GPP Case Study - the municipality of Orkdal, Norway wanted to ensure that environmental aspects were considered through the whole procurement process for new public health centre.

EC GPP Case Study - The goal of the procurement was to purchase public street lighting for the entire municipality, that would significantly reduce energy consumption, increase the lifespan of the street lights purchased and reduce the overall maintenance needed to operate the street lighting.

Learning Technology Accelerator Online course is for organisations and people who are interested in buying learning technologies. On this course you will learn:

•Basics of innovation procurement (Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of Innovation)
•5 Steps to PCP and PPI in the field of Education
•How to identify and communicate your needs to other interested procurers
•Where to search for funding and how apply for it
•How to analyze the market and confirm an innovation gap
•How to implement a PCP
•Differences between joined and coordinated PPI legal frameworks
•Bonus chapter on emerging learning technologies between 2020 to 2030

EC GPP Case Study - The City of Helsingborg applied an open procedure for a framework agreement for a wholesaler who could provide €690,000 worth of food for schools and nursing
homes. The City wanted to ensure that the wholesaler was capable of providing sustainably certified food (i.e. organic or responsible produced palm oil), which is nutritious, ethical, and delivered in packaging that would be easy to recycle.

Report providing an overview of lessons learned from the Municipality of Frederiksberg's pilot innovation partnership to procure future rainwater management solutions.

The LEA Project’s (learntechaccelerator.eu) goal is to accelerate knowledge transfer, dialogue and awareness-raising of innovation procurement within the learning technology (learntech) sector. A brochure has been published to selectively showcase reports and guidelines on innovation procurement of learning technology most relevant for universities. The publication covers the state-of-the-art and innovative trends in learntech development and also highlights useful tools for needs assessment and stakeholder dialogue to ensure that solutions developed through innovation procurement are fit for purpose for end users. Guidance from the European Commission on the legal framework and step by step approaches for innovation procurement is also included.

This Catalogue of Good Practices showcases five exemplary cases in Public Procurement of Innovation from the different InnoBrokers pilot projects. The good practice cases presented in the document encompass different stages of the brokerage service and focus in particular on pre-procurement planning and support, exemplary needs assessment process and market engagement methods.