Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Pre-commercial Procurement: driving innovation to ensure sustainable high quality public services in Europe {SEC(2007) 1668}
Date: 2007-12-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: award of contract, innovation, marketing, public contract, public service, research and development, services contract

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 14.12.2007 
COM(2007) 799 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Pre-commercial Procurement: Driving innovation to ensure  
sustainable high quality public services in Europe 

{SEC(2007) 1668} 

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Pre-commercial Procurement: Driving innovation to ensure  
sustainable high quality public services in Europe 

1. Introduction 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

The  Communication  on  a  "broad  based  innovation  strategy  for  the  EU"1  highlighted  the 
importance  of  public  procurement  in  reinforcing  the  innovation  capabilities  of  the  Union 
whilst improving the quality and efficiency of public services. It also underlined the untapped 
opportunities  in  Europe  for  pre-commercial  procurement.  In  its  conclusions  on  the  above 
Communication2, Council invited the Commission to provide guidance on how EU rules on 
public procurement can be used to stimulate innovation. The European Parliament's resolution 
of  June  2007  on  the  transposition  and  implementation  of  public  procurement  legislation3 
encouraged the wider use of pre-commercial procurement in the EU. 

The recently published guide4 on the uptake of commercially available innovative products, 
works and services in the public sector identifies ten elements of good practice to promote the 
potential of public procurement for stimulating innovation.  

This Communication addresses the concept of "pre-commercial procurement" which concerns 
the  Research  and  Development  (R&D)  phase  before  commercialisation.  For  the  purpose  of 
this  communication "pre-commercial  procurement"  is  intended  to  describe  an  approach  to 
procuring  R&D  services other  than  those  where  "the  benefits  accrue  exclusively  to  the 
contracting authority for its use in the conduct of its own affairs, on condition that the service 
provided  is  wholly  remunerated  by  the  contracting  authority5,6"  and  that  does  not  constitute 
State aid. More specifically in pre-commercial procurement: 

(1) 

The  scope  is  R&D  services  only:  R&D  can  cover  activities  such  as  solution 
exploration  and  design,  prototyping,  up  to  the  original  development  of  a  limited 
volume  of  first  products  or  services  in  the  form  of  a  test  series  (see  Figure  1). 
"Original development of a first product or service may include limited production or 
supply  in  order  to  incorporate  the  results  of  field  testing  and  to  demonstrate  that  the 
product or service is suitable for production or supply in quantity to acceptable quality 
standards"7.  R&D  does  not  include  commercial  development  activities  such  as 
quantity production, supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs, 

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COM(2006) 502 final.  
2769th EU Competitiveness Council conclusions, 4/12/06. 
EP 2006/2084(INI). 
SEC(2007) 280. 
In this case, the public procurement directives do not apply (see Art 16f of 2004/18/EC, Art 24e of 2004/17/EC). 
These exemptions only apply to public contracts for R&D services, not for R&D supplies or works.  
Contracts providing more than only services are still considered a public service contract if the value of the services 
exceeds that of the products covered by the contract. 
WTO Government Procurement Agreement, article XV.  

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integration,  customisation,  incremental  adaptations  and  improvements  to  existing 
products or processes.  

R&D (Product Driven Research + 
Pre-commercial Development)

Uptake /
Commercialisation

Curiosity 
Driven 
Research

Solution 
Exploration

Prototyping

Original development of a 
limited volume of 
first products/services
in the form of a test series

Commercialisation
of products/services
(may include commercial
development activities:
e.g. quantity production,
customisation, 
integration, etc)

Product
Idea

Solution 
Design

Prototype

First
Test
Products 

Commercial

End
Products 

Typical Product Innovation Life Cycle

Figure 1: R&D versus commercialisation phase  

(2) 

(3) 

The application of risk-benefit sharing: In pre-commercial procurement, the public 
purchaser  does  not  reserve  the  R&D  results  exclusively  for  its  own  use:  Public 
authorities  and  industry  share  risks  and  benefits  of  the  R&D  needed  to  develop  new 
innovative solutions that outperform those available on the market.  

A  competitive  procurement  designed  to  exclude  State  aid:  Organising  the  risk-
benefit  sharing  and  the  entire  procurement  process  in  a  way  that  ensures  maximum 
competition, transparency, openness, fairness and pricing at market conditions enables 
the public purchaser to identify the best possible solutions the market can offer. 

The aim of this Communication is to draw the attention of Member States to the existing but 
underutilised  opportunity  of  pre-commercial  procurement.  The  Annex8  provides,  by  way  of 
example, one possible implementation9 in line with the existing legal framework. As there is 
still  little  experience  in  the  EU  with  pre-commercial  procurement,  the  Commission  is 
interested  in  exploring  the  extent  to  which  pre-commercial  procurement  could  indeed 
contribute  to  more  R&D  and  innovation  in  the  EU  and,  hence,  bring  tangible  benefits  to 
society and economy. Through this Communication together with the guide4 the Commission 
will have addressed, as requested by the Council, possibilities provided by EU legislation to 

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SEC(2007)… 
Providing one implementation example does not preclude that there may be other possible approaches. 

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stimulate  innovation  through  public  procurement,  in  both  R&D  and  commercialisation 
phases. 

Actions  that  are  taken  in  pre-commercial  procurement  cannot  preclude  competition  in  the 
commercialisation phase as there the Public Procurement Directives and Treaty Principles on 
which they are based fully apply. 

2. Addressing Europe's societal challenges through pre-commercial procurement 

The  public  sector  in  the  EU,  as  elsewhere  in  the  world,  is  faced  with  important  societal 
challenges.  These  include  ensuring  high  quality  affordable  health  care  to  cope  with  the 
impacts  of  an  ageing  population,  the  fight  against  climate  change,  improving  energy 
efficiency, ensuring higher quality and better access to education, and more effective dealing 
with security threats.  

Addressing  such  challenges  can  require  new  and  better  solutions.  New  equipment  will  be 
needed e.g. to perform cutting-edge medical research, undertaking early diagnosis of diseases 
and finding new treatments, to reduce energy consumption in buildings and public transport, 
to  protect  citizens  from  security  threats  without  intruding  on  their  privacy.  Some  of  the 
required improvements are so technologically demanding that either no commercially stable 
solution  exists  yet  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  sector10can 
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.  

Europe  must  also  do  better  in  terms  of  innovation  performance  compared  to  major 
competitors11.  The  aim  of  the  Lisbon  strategy  for  Growth  and  Jobs  is  to  find  solutions  not 
only  for  the  continuing  underinvestment  in  R&D,  but  also  to  improve  Europe's  ability  to 
convert  new  inventions  into  new  products  and  jobs.  The  relatively  slower  uptake  of 
innovations in the public sector in Europe and the fragmentation of public demand have been 
highlighted by industry as important issues to be addressed in order to shorten time to market 
and to improve Europe’s attractiveness to investment in innovation and research.  

Procuring R&D is commonly used by companies to gain a first-mover advantage. It could be 
more widely used in the public sector in Europe to improve efficiency and quality of service. 
This will typically require the public sector to develop strategies for procurement that are not 
only  limited  to  the  purchase  of  commercially  available  products  and  services  but  that  also 
include the procurement of R&D of new solutions that can outperform those available on the 
market.  This  Communication  introduces  and  explains  an  approach  to  procuring  R&D 
services.  

3. Europe can do better: Strategic R&D procurement to stay in the lead 

Public  needs  have  always  been  an  important  driver  of  innovation  in  many  sectors  such  as 
telecom,  energy,  health,  transport,  security  and  defence.  In  a  globalised  competitive 
environment, the role of the public sector in benefiting from and driving forward innovations 

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Public procurement (17 % of EU-25 GDP) represents 35% of EU-25 public expenditure.  
COM (2006) 589final. 

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needs to be revisited. This has been done to a large extent in the EU's major trading partners - 
such as the US and Japan - where the procurement of R&D to address public needs for which 
no solution exists on the market is used as an important mechanism to stimulate innovation.  

Examples  of  life-changing  innovative  solutions  that  emerged  from  R&D  procurements 
include  the  Internet  Protocol  technology,  the  Global  Positioning  System,  high  performance 
computing,  and  key  innovations  in  semiconductor  technology.  More  recently,  R&D 
procurements  related  to  concrete  societal  challenges  -  such  as  soil  pollution  treatment,  or 
Alzheimer disease diagnosis - have enabled US public authorities to create new markets for 
biotechnology and nanotechnology applications15. 

In  the  areas  of  energy  and  the  environment  public  institutions  in  US  and  Japan12  have 
significantly  reduced  the  cost  of  fuel  cell  stations  through  R&D  procurements.  This  has 
facilitated fuel cell powered buses to become a viable energy-efficient public transport option. 
China's  last  year's  national  long-range  science  and  technology  plan  officially  introduced 
public technology procurement in China as a means to encourage innovation13. 

The US public sector is spending $50Bn14 per year in procurement of R&D, an amount which 
is  20  times  higher  than  in  Europe  and  represents  approximately  half  of  the  overall  R&D 
investment  gap  between  the  US  and  Europe.  This  has  often  played  an  important  role  in 
improving  the  quality  of  public  services  and  in  the  emergence  of  globally  competitive 
companies15.  

The difference in R&D procurement expenditure between the US and Europe is mainly due to 
disparities  in  defence/space  budgets.  However,  US  expenditure  of  this  type  is  still  4  times 
higher  in  non-defence/space  public  sectors  such  as  health,  energy,  education,  transport  and 
environment.  This  represents  a  gap  of  $3.4Bn  in  absolute  terms16.  Experts12,17  point  to 
untapped innovation opportunities in these non-defence sectors where Europe could take the 
lead.  

There  are  important  regulatory  and  policy  differences  in  the  procurement  framework  of  the 
EU  and  other  countries.  Therefore  the  above  experiences  should  be  analysed  in  order  to 
identify how lessons learnt could be transferred to the EU context.  

4. Exclusive development 

Exclusive development means that the public purchaser reserves all the results and benefits of 
the development (including Intellectual Property Rights or IPRs) exclusively for its own use. 
The  companies  that  have  developed  the  product/service  then  cannot  reuse  them  for  other 
potential customers. This will normally be reflected in a higher price. 

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"Commercialising University Research", paper for ESRC Sustainable Technologies Programme, Chris Hendry. 
Art 22-26 of the Complementary Policy for the ‘National Mid and LongTerm S&T Development Plan Guideline’, 
Xinhua politics, 2006.  
Figures quoted concern the total volume of R&D public procurements, not only those that could be considered pre-
commercial procurement. 
"US defence R&D spending: an analysis of the impacts", EURAB report, PREST, 2004. 
Figures quoted from 'Pre-commercial Procurement: a missing link in the European Innovation cycle', independent 
expert  report,  March  2006.  In  2004,  15%  of  the  total  federal  procurement  budget  ($49Bn)  was  spent  on  R&D 
procurement: 90,6% by defence/space agencies, 9,4% by non-defence agencies. In 2004, less than 1,5% of the total 
EU wide tendered procurement budget (€2,5Bn) was spent on R&D procurement: 49% was defence/space related. 
'Public Procurement for research and innovation', independent Wilkinson expert group, 2005. 

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There are, however, cases where exclusive development can be justified: e.g. when the public 
purchaser  "needs"  exclusive  rights  over  projects  results  (e.g.  in  defence  or  security  related 
fields which require secrecy of results) or when the public purchaser "is" the only interested 
customer (e.g. development of very special customer specific equipment).  

According to experts17 public purchasers in Europe tend to opt for exclusive development. In 
most  cases  however,  "exclusiveness"  of  project  results  is  not  indispensable  for  public 
purchasers17  as  the  public  purchaser  is  only  one  of  many  potential  users  of  the  developed 
solution. Moreover, public purchasers often overlook the additional costs and efforts18 needed 
to reap the benefits of the results. Unless the public purchasers have a mandate and concrete 
plans  to  commercially  exploit  the  research  results,  there  is  often  no  reason  to  bear  the  high 
costs and risks of exclusive development. 

In  such  cases  exclusive  development  may  hamper  innovation.  The  exclusive  assignment  of 
rights  to  the  public  purchaser  takes  away  the  incentive  for  companies  to  invest  in  further 
commercialisation. The high price for the exclusive ownership of project results reduces the 
incentive  for  the  public  purchaser  to  share  project  results  with  other  potential  public 
purchasers. This can lead to: 

(1)  Market fragmentation: If different public purchasers in the same sector develop their 
own  solutions  to  a  similar  problem  without  sharing  information  with  each  other,  a 
multitude of solutions are developed, which are unlikely to address global markets. 

(2) 

Financial  barriers  to  procuring  competing  developments:  Where  a  number  of 
technologies  and  design  options  could  offer  a  solution,  the  high  cost  of  exclusive 
development  makes  the  procurement  of  competing  developments  from  a  number  of 
companies  hard  to  afford.  This  can  lead  to  locking  the  public  purchasers  to  one 
supplier. 

(3)  Missed opportunities for more innovative solutions: Exclusive development assigns 
not only all R&D benefits but also all R&D risks to the public purchaser. As a result, 
public  purchasers  tend  to  focus  on  near  to  market  developments  and  miss  the 
opportunities  offered  by  the  development  of  more  innovative  solutions  that  could 
potentially bring better value for money for the public sector. 

5. Pre-commercial Procurement: Procuring R&D services involving risk-benefit sharing 
at market conditions  

In pre-commercial procurement the public purchaser chooses not to reserve the R&D results 
exclusively  for  its  own  use5.  As  defined  in  section  1,  pre-commercial  procurement  is  an 
approach  to  procuring  R&D  services  which  involves  risk-benefit  sharing5  and  does  not 
constitute State aid19. More specifically, this approach is based on: 

•  Risk-benefit sharing according to market conditions 

•  Competitive development in phases 

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19 

e.g. costs and liabilities related to securing and preserving IPR rights (e.g. IPR filing / maintenance costs, liability 
as IPR owner in court litigations and disputes with suppliers).  
More implementation details are provided by way of example in Annex (see footnote 8). 

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•  Separation of the R&D phase from deployment of commercial volumes of end-products 

The aim is to facilitate cost-effective development of innovative solutions for public services 
with a broader more global outlook. 

5.1 Risk-benefit sharing according to market conditions 

In this approach, the public purchaser shares the R&D results with other public authorities and 
industry through publication and standardisation, as well as through their commercialisation.  

To  ensure  that  such  an  arrangement  is  beneficial  both  for  the  public  purchaser  and  for  the 
companies  involved  in  pre-commercial  procurement,  R&D  risks  and  benefits  are  shared 
between them such that both parties have an incentive to pursue wide commercialisation and 
take up of the new solutions.  

When benefits shared include IPRs, care must be taken that when IPR ownership rights are 
assigned to companies participating in the pre-commercial procurement, this is done in a way 
that  does  not  give  the  companies  any  form  of  unfair  advantage  in  possible  future 
procurements  and  that  enables  the  public  purchaser  to  access  a  sufficiently  large  and 
competitive  supply  chain.  E.g.  the  public  purchaser  can  require  participating  companies  to 
license  IPRs  to  third  parties  under  fair  and  reasonable  market  conditions.  The  public 
purchaser can also demand a free licence to use the R&D results for internal use.  

Ensuring that all potential bidders have equal chances to bid also implies that the procurement 
process, including the IPR arrangements, does not discriminate against any potential supplier, 
in particular SMEs. 

If the risk benefit sharing does not take place under market conditions, and the price paid for 
the services provided is higher than market price, this will normally be regarded as State aid 
that will have to be notified to and assessed by the Commission according to Articles 87-88 of 
the EC Treaty and the State aid Framework for Research, Development and Innovation20. 

To  ensure  that  the  risk-benefit  sharing  is  done  according  to  market  conditions  any  R&D 
benefit  shared  by  the  public  purchaser  with  a  company  participating  in  the  pre-commercial 
procurement should be compensated by the company to the public purchaser at market price. 
This can be done through, for example, a price reduction compared to exclusive development 
cost  that  reflects  the  market  value  of  the  benefits  received  and  the  risks  assumed  by  the 
company21.  

In the above risk-benefit sharing example both companies and public purchasers benefit from 
wide commercialisation and take up of the developed solutions. This provides an incentive to 
both  parties  to  pursue  standardisation  and  publication  of  R&D  results,  and  can  thus  help  to 
reduce  fragmentation  of  public  demand.  The  financial  compensation  which  the  public 
purchaser gets for not exclusively reserving all R&D benefits for itself can make it, compared 
to  exclusive  development,  more  affordable  to  contract  a  number  of  developments  from 
competing companies and to procure more upstream R&D.  

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OJ C 323, 30.12.2006 
More info can be found in section 4.3 of the Annex (see footnote 8). 

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Public purchaser involvement from the early R&D phases is likely to deliver better value for 
money for the following reasons: 

•  Assessing  the  performance  of  working  prototypes  and  test  products  in  a  real  operational 
customer environment enables public purchasers to align product developments according 
to  customer  priorities,  at  a  point  where  it  is  still  possible  to  influence  industry  roadmaps 
and upcoming standards. Enabling better anticipation of demand for new solutions shortens 
time to market for suppliers, and helps public authorities introduce new solutions faster. 

•  Earlier  engagement  in  the  innovation  process  enables  public  authorities  to  detect  at  an 
earlier  stage  potential  policy  and  regulatory  issues  that  need  to  be  addressed  in  order  to 
ensure timely introduction of the new solutions into public services and other markets.  

•  An  earlier  reality  check  of  industry  R&D  against  concrete  public  purchasing  needs 

maximizes the effectiveness of the R&D process and optimizes R&D spending.  

5.2 Competitive development in phases  

Another  element  to  reduce  R&D  risks  and  costs  involves  procuring  the  R&D  in  phases 
stretched over a period of time and ensuring competition between companies to create a range 
of options (Figure 2). 

Pre-commercial 
Procurement

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Company E

Company
A,B,C,D,E
or X

Phase 3
Original development of a 
limited volume of first 
products/services
in the form of a test series

Phase 4
Commercialisation
of products/services
(commercial
Development) 

Company A

Company B

Company C

Company D

Company E

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Research

Product
Idea

Solution 
Design

Prototype

GPA = Government Procurement Agreement

Typical Product Innovation Life Cycle

First
Test-
Products 

Commercial
End-
Products 

Figure 2: Example illustrating a phased pre-commercial procurement process 

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This is based on the following principles: 

•  Challenging  the  market  in  an  open  and  transparent  way  and  inviting  a  number  of 
companies to develop in competition the best possible solutions to address the problem. 

•  Exploring  and  comparing  pros  and  cons  of  alternative  solutions.  This  mutual  learning 
process  for  public  purchasers  and  companies  helps  to  get  firm  confirmation  both  about 
functional  needs  and  performance  requirements  on  the  demand  side,  and  the  capabilities 
and limitations of new technological developments on the supply side. 

•  Organising the procurement as a stepwise process, including evaluations after each R&D 
phase, in order to select progressively the best solutions. This enables public purchasers to 
steer development throughout the process to best fit public sector needs. 

•  Efforts  after  each  R&D  phase  to  achieve  interoperability  and  product  inter-changeability 
between the alternative solutions under development pave the way for open standards and 
avoid the risk that early adopters of innovative solutions are penalised with the additional 
burden of making their solution compliant with standards defined afterwards. 

•  Retaining  at  least  two  participating  companies  until  the  last  phase  to  ensure  a  future 
competitive  market.  Maintaining  a  positive  competitive  pressure  on  suppliers  enables 
public purchasers to extract the best solutions the market can offer while avoiding single 
supplier lock-in. 

A  company  that  has  been  challenged  in  competitive  development  is  also  better  prepared  to 
address global markets and to attract external investment, such as venture capital funding, for 
the exploitation of further market opportunities. This is especially important for SMEs. 

In  the  short  term  a  competitive  development  process  may  involve  a  higher  investment 
compared  to  procuring  a  limited  R&D  test  solution  from  one  supplier.  In  the  long  run,  the 
quality/price  ratio  and  the  success  rate  of  the  development  process  are  likely  to  be  higher. 
Aiming for globally accepted instead of locally tailored solutions, through standardisation and 
publication  of  R&D  results,  is  also  expected  to  result  in  lower  cost  of  commercial  end-
solutions. R&D costs and risks can be further reduced through bundling of demand with other 
public  purchasers  as  well  as  financial  incentives  from  innovation  policy  agencies  to  public 
purchasers. This could comprise funding or risk sharing facilities (see Annex8). 

5.3 Separation between R&D phase and deployment of commercial volumes of end-products 

Due to the inherent risk of failure in R&D, technological success may not always be the case. 
It  is  only  at  the  end  of  the  pre-commercial  procurement  that  the  public  purchaser  has 
comparative test evidence that proves whether the developed solutions truly outperform other 
solutions available at the same time on the market or not. The fact that a company has done 
the R&D and developed a working test series can in itself be no guarantee to win a follow-up 
contract for mass delivery. 

Pre-commercial  procurement  is  a  preparation  exercise  which  enables  public  purchasers  to 
filter  out  technological  R&D  risks  of  potential  alternative  solutions  before  committing  to 
procuring a large scale commercial roll-out. 

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Separation  from  public  procurement  for  commercial  roll-out  enables  pre-commercial 
procurement  to  focus  on  acquiring  the  knowledge  needed  to  identify  the  "best"  possible 
solution the market can offer at the time of commercial roll-out, without leading to unilateral 
State aid to industry. 

Separating pre-commercial procurement from the public procurement for commercial roll-out 
is also compliant with the provisions of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and 
applicable  bilateral  agreements.  Except  for  the  EEA  and  Stabilisation  and  Association 
agreements  with  partner  countries  of  the  European  Neighbourhood  Policy,  the  EU  has  no 
national  treatment22  and  non-discrimination  obligations  to  other  parts  of  the  world  for  the 
procurement of R&D services6, but it does for supplies23. 

As  pre-commercial  procurement  concerns  R&D  services,  public  purchasers  can  decide  case 
by  case  on  the  openness  to  worldwide  offers  and  on  the  relevant  conditions,  taking  into 
account the full potential of the European Research Area24. 

6. Conclusions 

This Communication addresses the need for more innovation in the public sector and provides 
an approach to procure R&D services (pre-commercial procurement). It launches a debate on 
which  areas  could  lend  themselves  to  the  approach  presented  for  pre-commercial 
procurement. This debate should be seen in the wider context of the policy debate on supply 
and demand driven innovation and lead markets25. Pre-commercial procurement differs from 
and  complements  other  innovation  instruments  such  as  grants,  tax  incentives,  access  to 
finance, joint technology initiatives etc. It could shorten time to market and encourage market 
acceptance  of  new  technologies  when  seen  as  part  of  a  coordinated  policy  framework 
including standardisation, regulation and procurement of other innovative goods and services. 

Because public spending often operates on a shorter time scale than technological innovation, 
the debate could first address concrete mid-to-long term public needs that would require the 
development  of  new  technology  solutions.  The  relevant  public  authorities  and  the 
Commission could then evaluate the potential role of pre-commercial procurement strategies 
in meeting the relevant policy objectives. 

On  the  basis  of  this  debate,  the  Commission  will  consider,  in  the  second  half  of  2008,  to 
propose a set of actions in relation to pre-commercial procurement in areas of policy priority 
based on relevant impact assessments. In particular, it will explore the possible need of new 
platforms for cooperation on pre-commercial procurement. 

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25 

The national treatment obligation implies that Members do not operate discriminatory measures between domestic 
services or service suppliers and foreign ones. 
This obligation does not only concern commercial end-products. R&D supply contracts are also not exempted from 
the non-discrimination obligation.  
COM(2007)161, Green paper on ERA. 
COM(2007)…, A lead markets initiative for Europe. 

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As a step in this direction, the Commission could also support networking on pre-commercial 
procurement at European level. It can envisage determining areas of public interest to network 
on,  such  as  energy  efficiency,  environmental  protection26,  health  services,  security,  etc27. 
These  areas  could  then  serve  to  provide  examples  of  pre-commercial  procurement  cases  in 
such application areas to raise awareness of the approach and exchange experiences between 
stakeholders. 

26 
27 

For info on Green procurement : http://ec.europa.eu/environment/etap/index_en.htm 
E.g. ministries and agencies in ten Member States have already joined in a European Coordination Action to share 
experiences on how to best procure development of technologically demanding solutions addressing public needs 
(www.omc-ptp.eu).  The  DK  and  SE  initiative  to  explore  joint  R&D  procurement  in  e-health  (http://www.si-
oresund.org/in_english.6) is another example.  

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