What is Pre-Commercial Public Procurement?

Pre-commercial procurement is an approach for procuring R&D services.

The public sector in the EU, as elsewhere in the world, is faced with important societal challenges, in particular in the transport sector. Addressing such challenges requires new and innovative solutions, such as the development as cooperative mobility systems.

Some of the required improvements are so technologically demanding that either no commercially stable solution yet exists on the market, or existing solutions exhibit shortcomings which require new R&D.

By developing forward looking procurement strategies that include R&D procurement to develop new solutions that address these challenges, the public sector can have a significant impact on the mid- to long-term efficiency and effectiveness of public services as well as on the innovation performance and the competitiveness of European industry.

Thus, by acting as technologically demanding first buyers of new R&D, public procurers can drive innovation from the demand side.

Developing a strong European home market for innovative products and services is key for Europe to create growth and jobs in quickly evolving from R&D to markets in fields like ITS.