Centre for Experience Economy and Cities

Our toolbox of solutions

Leverage our growing library of world-leading practices to accelerate local progress and help drive global impact.

Browse our Centre's solutions and other resources from stakeholders

Pre-commercial procurement (PCP) is an approach to public procurement of research and development services that is outlined in the PCP communication and associated staff working document. It is an important tool to stimulate innovation as it enables the public sector to steer the development of new solutions directly towards its needs.PCP challenges industry from the demand side to develop innovative solutions for public sector needs and provides a first customer reference that enables companies to create competitive advantage on the market. PCP enables public procurers to compare alternative potential solution approaches and filter out the best possible solutions that the market can deliver to address the public need.Public procurers can drive innovation from the demand side by acting as technologically demanding customers that buy the development and testing of new solutions. This enables European public authorities to modernise public services faster and to create opportunities for companies in Europe to take international leadership in new markets.Creating a strong European market for innovative products and services is an important step towards creating growth and jobs in quickly evolving markets such as ICT.
Government, Technology
European Commission – Pre-Commercial Procurement
Small Business Rearch Initiative (SBRI) is a way of acquiring R&D services from providers who develop, in competition, solutions for the public sector – has been a success for a variety of Government departments, agencies and devolved administrations.
Government, Technology
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – Giving the public sector the edge: How the Small Business Research Initiative has driven public sector innovation
Public procurement offers an enormous potential market for innovative products and services. Used strategically, it can help governments boost innovation at both the national and local level and ultimately improve productivity and inclusiveness. Based on good practices in OECD and partner countries, this report analyses the state of play of procurement for innovation and provides a flexible framework focusing on 9 areas to promote it.
Government, Technology
OECD – Guidelines for Innovation Procurement
"This guide is based on recent experiences with the Central Government Real Estate Agency, and the ministeries of Infrastructure and Water Management and Defense for implementing procurement in several integrated DBFM(O) projects. The competitive dialogue procedure differs significantly from the ’ordinary’ public or and restricted procedures. The greatest differences lies in the manner in which the request is made. The competitive dialogue begins with a question for which there is no known (unequivocal). The contracting authority uses the solution submitted by the candidates to conduct a dialogue that results in an optimisation of the request and offer. When the dialogue is conducted in an appropriate manner the contracting authority receives tenders offering an optimum solution at a reasonable price and the part submitting the tender is offered an attractive contract with sufficient economic prospects.Consequently, an optimum solution depends on the quality of the dialogue between the contracting authority and the parties submitting the tenders. However, how should an appropriate dialogue be organised? How do you ensure that all parties – both the tenderers and your internal clients – are heard? This is the subject of this guide, which is based on recent experiences of the Rijksgebouwendienst, Rijkswaterstaat and the Ministry of Defence with the use of competitive dialogue in the tendering of a number of integral DBFM(O) projects. The authors have written this brochure to share the experience they have with all those wishing to make use of this procedure.The layout of this guide follows the phases of the tender process. Chapter 2 reviews the initial design of the project and discusses the most important decisions that need to be made before the competitive dialogue can begin. Chapter 3 examines the steps to be worked through before the announcement of the project, and Chapter 4 the selection of the candidates. The authors then discuss the dialogue phase in detail in Chapter 5, with a review of the determination of the objective, the process and the content. Chapter 6, the last chapter of the guide, concludes with the final phase of the procedure: the assessment of the final tenders, the award of the contract and the rejection of the tenders."By the Dutch Public Procurement Expertize Centre.
Government, Technology
The Netherlands – Market Dialogue in Public Procurement
The incoming Procurement Act 2023 prioritises Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) to simplify processes, boost innovation, and enhance supplier diversity. This guide provides the tools to stay ahead, ensuring your procurement practices align with future-focused policy goals like net-zero transitions and mission-focused outcomes.
Government, Technology
Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (UK) – A practical guide to pre-market engagement
Enabling the strategic use of data for productive, inclusive and trustworthy governance.Over the last decade the Open Government Data movement has successfully highlighted the value of data and encouraged governments to open up information for reuse both inside, and outside the public sector. This Working Paper argues that governments now need to go further and put the role and value of data at the core of thinking about the digital transformation of government. A data-driven public sector (DDPS) recognises that data are an asset, integral to policy making, service delivery, organisational management and innovation. The strategic approach governments take to building a DDPS can have a positive impact on the results they deliver by promoting evidence-led policy making and data-backed service design as well as embedding good governance values of integrity, openness and fairness in the policy cycle. After framing the concept the paper presents the opportunities offered by embracing the DDPS approach and identifies some of the challenges that governments may face in establishing a DDPS before concluding with the discussion of the need for coherent strategic approaches that reflect the role of data across the entire public sector, not only from a policy point of view but from an operational and practical perspective.
Government, Technology
OECD – A Data-Driven Public Sector
ProcurCompEU is a tool designed by the European Commission to support the professionalisation of public procurement. By defining 30 key competences, it provides a common reference for public procurement professionals in the European Union and beyond. It recognizes and supports public procurement as a strategic function that delivers public investment for sustainable growth.ProcurCompEU helps organisations to build the teams of professionals they need to reach their strategic investment goals and to encourage careers in procurement. It helps individual public procurement professionals valorise their competences, and facilitates training and professional development. It also helps training providers to build the appropriate training programmes.
Government, Technology
ProcurCompEU – the European competency framework for public procurement
European Commission's corporate guidance on citizen engagement. The objective of this “Guidebook” is to establish a reference toolbox that identifies and categorises different formats of citizen engagement, from the fully-fledged citizens’ panels on pan-European level to other co-creation and exploratory formats. This corporate guidance aims at helping services to choose the most relevant methods of citizen engagement for their policy file and to understand better how to implement them and which added value they get from each of the citizen engagement formats described in the guidebook.
Government, Technology
European Commission – Community of Practice of the Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy
Barcelona Open Challenge: an example of Open and Innovative Public Procurement in Barcelona CityCouncil. How the City of Barcelona used an Open Procurement Challenge to solve citywide problems and promote the local economy. 
Government, Technology
Barcelona’s Open Procurement Challenge
Transparent procurement strategies attract quality bids, secure best value prices and deliver better outcomes.The G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance does not endorse any organization.
Government, Technology
Insight Blog: Five Ways to Achieve Transparency in Procurement
Acknowledging that corruption is a threat to markets, trust in government, and the rule of law, and that fighting corruption requires governments and business to work together, the G20 AntiCorruption Action Plan for 2013-2014 states that building “on our commitments made in Seoul and Cannes, we will continue to promote integrity, transparency, accountability and the prevention of corruption in the public sector, including in the management of public finances”, for example by:“ensuring we have in place systems of procurement based on transparency, competition and objective criteria in decision-making to prevent corruption, and by the end of 2014, continuing our analytical work in this area and developing and sharing good practices in the field of public procurement anticorruption policies, measures and legislation including, for example, electronic procurement”In order to pursue this objective, the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) requested the OECD to develop the Compendium of good practices in integrity in public procurement. The proposed outline including the methodology and topics for the compendium were approved in the June 2013 ACWG meeting in Ottawa, and the presentation of country examples was approved during the October 2013 ACWG meeting in Paris.This Compendium of good practices follows the principles agreed upon in the first Monitoring Report, endorsed by the G20 leaders in Cannes in 2011. Country examples present ways to detect and prevent integrity risks, and to promote the application of objective criteria, as well as factors for successful implementation of good practices in a specific country context. in line with the Action Plan, the compendium focusses on two areas: 1) transparency in procurement and fighting red tape; and 2) mechanisms for integrity and accountability.This Compendium supports G20 countries in mapping good practices and sharing lessons learned in order to shape the global debate and set example for fighting corruption and promoting integrity in public procurement while implementing national standards. The Compendium also helps countries address emerging issues such as promoting integrity in the organization of major public events.Sharing lessons learned from good practices also support efforts to foster trust in government and public spending.
Government, Technology
OECD – Compendium of Good Practices for Integrity in Public Procurement
Governments around the world spend an estimated US$13 trillion through contracts every year. Yet, contracting information is often unavailable for public scrutiny.The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) enables disclosure of data and documents at all stages of the contracting process by defining a common data model. It was created to support organizations to increase contracting transparency, and allow deeper analysis of contracting data by a wide range of users.The OCDS documentation is made up of several parts, designed to help you use the OCDS effectively.
Government, Technology
Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)
GSA’s Center of Excellence (CoE) Acquisitions practice created this guide to help prepare organizations across government develop and improve Industry Engagement (IE) in relation to IT modernization.Although the guide doesn't represent or constitute official guidance, by using the assessment, solutions and methods within, organizations at starter levels of IE can use the resources in the guide to identify core challenges, and start to develop strategies for continual industry engagement and successful acquisitions. Tailor them to meet your agency’s specific needs. 
Government, Technology
U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) – Building Effective Industry Engagement Guide
This case study was commissioned by the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI). The principle objective of this case study is to take a look at the (organisational) set-up and role of the competence centre PIANOo within the context of the Dutch Innovation Procurement Policy. The case study aims at (1) summarizing the Dutch policy framework for IPP, (2) mapping the IPP results in the Netherlands, and (3) describing how PIANOo features as a competence centre. The structure of the case study is related to these three topics, each topic is outlined in a chapter. Every chapter starts with the ‘reasons behind’ the topic, in other words: (1) why did the Netherlands start with Innovation Procurement Policy, (2) what is the purpose – and difficulty – of looking at IPP results, and (3) why did the Netherlands start with PIANOo as a competence centre. After outlining each of these ways of thinking, each respective chapter pays attention to the questions ‘how’ this is done and ‘what’ has been done. 
Government, Technology
Innovation Procurement Policy: Case Study of The Netherlands
Public procurement is increasingly recognised as a strategic instrument for achieving government policy goals aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), including promoting a circular and green economy, stimulating innovation, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and promoting ethical behaviour and responsible business conduct. Indeed, public procurement can be linked to over 80% of the total SDG indicator matrix. Public procurement was at the forefront of delivering essential public services during the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis by ensuring the functioning of key supply chains, and will play a key role during the post COVID-19 recovery phase.These dynamic global trends make public procurement a more complex function than ever, requiring a more complex skillset for public procurement officials that implement public procurement procedures. The capacity of the public procurement workforce is a crucial element of a sound procurement system that delivers efficiency and value for money in the use of public funds. Therefore, professionalising the public procurement workforce has become a priority in countries’ public procurement reforms. While major improvements have been witnessed in recent years, further actions are required. This policy paper seeks to help procurement policymakers professionalise the public procurement workforce by providing good practices from OECD countries.The paper discusses the three main stages of professionalisation initiatives: i) assessing the current level of professionalisation, (ii) developing a professionalisation strategy, and (iii) implementing a professionalisation strategy. Implementing a professionalisation strategy can include various actions, such as developing a competency model and a certification framework, developing capacity-building systems, setting up incentive mechanisms, and/or promoting collaborative approaches with knowledge centres
Government, Technology
OECD – Professionalising the public procurement workforce
Watch as a city representative from Bogota walks through the challenges the city faced when trying to implement a successful Cyber Accountability Model and how they plan to address those challenges.
Colombia | Government, Technology
Bogotá's Cyber Security Governance
Michael Mattmiller, Senior Director, State Government Affairs at Microsoft and Ginger Armbruster, Chief Privacy Officer for the City of Seattle discuss key learnings from Seattle's Privacy Policy.
USA | Government, Technology
Seattle Privacy Policy - Learning Session
City of Seattle, Microsoft
This spreadsheet is an updated version of the Red flags to OCDS mapping published in 2016 with the Red Flags to Integrity guide.
Government, Technology
Red Flags to OCDS Mapping
Open Contracting Partnership
The TfL lane rental scheme (TLRS) applies to the most traffic-sensitive locations and times of day across 69% of the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN). The scheme encourages behaviour change and reduces highway occupation by applying a daily charge.
United Kingdom | Government, Technology
Transport for London: Lane Rental Scheme
Transport for London
The year 2020 brought the convergence of multiple crises – public health, social, economic and planetary – to a crescendo and, with it, a reckoning for the real estate industry. There is an unique opportunity and a clear mandate for the industry to transition to a future where buildings are sustainable, resilient, liveable and affordable. The Framework for the Future of Real Estate provides a pathway to this transition, with a clear set of enablers and case study examples to help realize this vision.
A Framework for the Future of Real Estate

Access our benchmarking tools

Smart Cities Benchmark

Compare your city practices with expert recommendations to make progress. 

Net Zero Carbon Cities Toolbox

An open online database containing best practices and case studies for urban decarbonization. 

Have a solution you would like for us to feature?

Email us with information about your suggested solution.

Centre for Experience Economy and Cities

© 2026 All rights reserved
Privacy Policy & Terms of Service