Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SPICE (Support Procurements for Innovative transport and mobility solutions in City Environment)
Reporting period: 2017-09-01 to 2018-08-31
Conventional procurement processes have often aimed to buy off-the-shelf products and services, with the lowest price as the main selection criteria. The conventional procurement processes are not designed to procure innovative and sustainable solutions and services. However, the course of public procurement has been forced to adopt the fast pace of innovation together with increasing concerns on environment and sustainability. Public authorities may look into a wide range of criteria for innovation in any tender publications such as Life Cycle Cost (LCC), Co2 emission reduction etc. Using conventional procurement processes would challenge implementations of innovative solutions and services using public funding. This issue is particularly crucial for the ITS, alternatively fuelled vehicle and mobility services since they are innovation driven sectors.
The main objective of SPICE project has been to provide a platform for facilitating public procurement of innovative sustainable transport and mobility solutions in urban areas. The project aimed to enable uptake of innovative and sustainable mobility solutions and to enhance the competitiveness of European industry in the transport and mobility services through improved public procurement of innovation. SPICE objectives were as follows:
O1: To form a stakeholder group (SPICE Stakeholders)
O2: To collect current practices on using public procurements for innovative solutions, assess and summarise them
O3: To develop a set of recommendations as reference for public procurers and suppliers towards harmonised procurements of sustainable transport and mobility solutions.
O4: To use the stakeholder group to facilitate experience exchange, knowledge transfer, capacity building and raise awareness of procurement of innovative sustainable transport and mobility.
O5: To form a number of Common Buyer Groups to facilitate joint procurements during and after the project timeframe.
The main objective of SPICE project has been to provide a platform for facilitating public procurement of innovative sustainable transport and mobility solutions in urban areas. The project aimed to enable uptake of innovative and sustainable mobility solutions and to enhance the competitiveness of European industry in the transport and mobility services through improved public procurement of innovation. SPICE objectives were as follows:
O1: To form a stakeholder group (SPICE Stakeholders)
O2: To collect current practices on using public procurements for innovative solutions, assess and summarise them
O3: To develop a set of recommendations as reference for public procurers and suppliers towards harmonised procurements of sustainable transport and mobility solutions.
O4: To use the stakeholder group to facilitate experience exchange, knowledge transfer, capacity building and raise awareness of procurement of innovative sustainable transport and mobility.
O5: To form a number of Common Buyer Groups to facilitate joint procurements during and after the project timeframe.
Explanation of the work carried per WP:
WP1: Project management during the period
The tasks conducted under WP1 can be considered as administrating the financial contribution, informing the Commission of the progress, review of reports to verify consistency with the project tasks, monitoring the compliance by beneficiaries with their obligations, maintaining the consortium agreement, etc.
WP2: Inventory of best practices and experiences
• WP2 has developed the methodology and framework to select and collect best practices for various cluster topics.
• In close cooperation with WP5, best practises and experiences we gathered via workshops and webinars.
• D2.1 Specification of Required Input was submitted.
• D2.2 Definition of Clusters and Categories was submitted.
• D2.3 Catalogue of the Best Practices was submitted.
WP3: Analyses and recommendations on legal, policy and technical issues:
• D3 was submitted
WP4: Coordination of Common Buyers Groups:
• The deliverable “D4.1 Best Practices in Common Procurement” written and submitted
• D4.2 - an overview of supported common buyer groups - was submitted.
• D4.3 - an evaluations report on the SPICE project contribution to existing common buyer groups and joint procurements was submitted.
WP5: Engaging Stakeholders and Dissemination
WP5 Deliverables and publications:
• "D5.1 Stakeholder Group Design and Dissemination and Communication Strategy" was submitted
• "D5.2 SPICE Stakeholder Group Launch" were delivered.
• "D5.3 Digital Media and Statistics Usage" was submitted.
• "D5.4 Brochure on Best Practises of Public Procurement in Europe" was submitted, published and distributed.
• "D5.5 Brochure on Capacity Building and Training" was submitted, published and distributed.
• "D5.6 White Paper on the SPICE Recommendations" was submitted, published and distributed.
Status of Project KPIs
1. A minimum of 50 members of the SPICE Stakeholder group, including 20 public procurers: Accomplished
2. A minimum of 3 physical meetings with stakeholders (also used as capacity building events) and 4 webinars for best practice collection and assessment, knowledge transfer and recommendation consultation: Accomplished
3. Case studies of at least 10 procurements of innovative transport and mobility solutions and documented best practices: Accomplished
4. A set of recommendations on legal aspects: Accomplished
5. A set of recommendations on technical aspects: Accomplished
6. A minimum of two common buyer groups are set up during the project. In each group, several buyers actively work together towards a common procurement: This KPI was not accomplished due to timing and demand constraints by public procurers. Instead SPICE worked actively on supporting existing common procurements.
WP1: Project management during the period
The tasks conducted under WP1 can be considered as administrating the financial contribution, informing the Commission of the progress, review of reports to verify consistency with the project tasks, monitoring the compliance by beneficiaries with their obligations, maintaining the consortium agreement, etc.
WP2: Inventory of best practices and experiences
• WP2 has developed the methodology and framework to select and collect best practices for various cluster topics.
• In close cooperation with WP5, best practises and experiences we gathered via workshops and webinars.
• D2.1 Specification of Required Input was submitted.
• D2.2 Definition of Clusters and Categories was submitted.
• D2.3 Catalogue of the Best Practices was submitted.
WP3: Analyses and recommendations on legal, policy and technical issues:
• D3 was submitted
WP4: Coordination of Common Buyers Groups:
• The deliverable “D4.1 Best Practices in Common Procurement” written and submitted
• D4.2 - an overview of supported common buyer groups - was submitted.
• D4.3 - an evaluations report on the SPICE project contribution to existing common buyer groups and joint procurements was submitted.
WP5: Engaging Stakeholders and Dissemination
WP5 Deliverables and publications:
• "D5.1 Stakeholder Group Design and Dissemination and Communication Strategy" was submitted
• "D5.2 SPICE Stakeholder Group Launch" were delivered.
• "D5.3 Digital Media and Statistics Usage" was submitted.
• "D5.4 Brochure on Best Practises of Public Procurement in Europe" was submitted, published and distributed.
• "D5.5 Brochure on Capacity Building and Training" was submitted, published and distributed.
• "D5.6 White Paper on the SPICE Recommendations" was submitted, published and distributed.
Status of Project KPIs
1. A minimum of 50 members of the SPICE Stakeholder group, including 20 public procurers: Accomplished
2. A minimum of 3 physical meetings with stakeholders (also used as capacity building events) and 4 webinars for best practice collection and assessment, knowledge transfer and recommendation consultation: Accomplished
3. Case studies of at least 10 procurements of innovative transport and mobility solutions and documented best practices: Accomplished
4. A set of recommendations on legal aspects: Accomplished
5. A set of recommendations on technical aspects: Accomplished
6. A minimum of two common buyer groups are set up during the project. In each group, several buyers actively work together towards a common procurement: This KPI was not accomplished due to timing and demand constraints by public procurers. Instead SPICE worked actively on supporting existing common procurements.
Procurement of innovative transport and mobility solutions will contribute to reduced negative impacts by transport on the environment, improve congestion and other unwanted traffic events, contribute to the economic growth and European industry’s competitiveness, as well as - not least - the quality of life of European citizens.
The SPICE project has aimed at improving capabilities among public authorities and procurers in the field of procurement of innovative, sustainable transport and mobility solutions in Europe. With this aim, SPICE has collected, analysed and disseminated best practises from across Europe thereby facilitating adoption of novel procurement practises subject to the new European procurement directives from 2014.
The impact of the SPICE findings has already become apparent by the interest the findings seems to have gathered among procurers and policy makers on the regional, national and EU level. Among other things, the legal findings of the SPICE project will be incorporated into larger projects with longer durability, including the “Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement” under the Urban Agenda for the EU (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/urban-agenda). In this way, both the SPICE publications themselves and their contribution to larger bodies of work will bring about more awareness of the large variety of tools, templates, strategies and methods available for procurers. The general problem seems to be that, among other things, procurers do not usually adapt their procurement methods to the differing circumstances of the challenges faced and solutions wanted. Rather, procurers generally tend to use the same or similar procurement template for each procurement disregarding the differences in scale and form of the procurement and solution wanted. For this reason, making procurers aware of the multitude of tools available under the framework of the procurement directives and how these can be combined to accommodate different solutions wanted, will be of great benefit.
The SPICE project also aims to have direct benefit for procurers themselves by publishing the "D5.6 White Paper on SPICE Recommendations" in a PowerPoint format that can be easily browsed and used for in-house peer-to-peer dissemination of the SPICE findings after the project lifetime. Additionally, the SPICE team has cooperated with the CAPITAL capacity building platform to create e-learning tool (videos & syllabuses) for current and future procurers to learn about the SPICE project findings.
The SPICE project has aimed at improving capabilities among public authorities and procurers in the field of procurement of innovative, sustainable transport and mobility solutions in Europe. With this aim, SPICE has collected, analysed and disseminated best practises from across Europe thereby facilitating adoption of novel procurement practises subject to the new European procurement directives from 2014.
The impact of the SPICE findings has already become apparent by the interest the findings seems to have gathered among procurers and policy makers on the regional, national and EU level. Among other things, the legal findings of the SPICE project will be incorporated into larger projects with longer durability, including the “Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement” under the Urban Agenda for the EU (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/urban-agenda). In this way, both the SPICE publications themselves and their contribution to larger bodies of work will bring about more awareness of the large variety of tools, templates, strategies and methods available for procurers. The general problem seems to be that, among other things, procurers do not usually adapt their procurement methods to the differing circumstances of the challenges faced and solutions wanted. Rather, procurers generally tend to use the same or similar procurement template for each procurement disregarding the differences in scale and form of the procurement and solution wanted. For this reason, making procurers aware of the multitude of tools available under the framework of the procurement directives and how these can be combined to accommodate different solutions wanted, will be of great benefit.
The SPICE project also aims to have direct benefit for procurers themselves by publishing the "D5.6 White Paper on SPICE Recommendations" in a PowerPoint format that can be easily browsed and used for in-house peer-to-peer dissemination of the SPICE findings after the project lifetime. Additionally, the SPICE team has cooperated with the CAPITAL capacity building platform to create e-learning tool (videos & syllabuses) for current and future procurers to learn about the SPICE project findings.