Did you know that on average, innovation procurement is used well below 1% of all public buying cases in the EU? One of the project’s most significant outcomes was its contribution to Latvia’s wider work on strengthening innovation procurement capacity, including the future development of a national Innovation Procurement Competency Center under Latvia’s State Chancellery, linked to the P2I initiative. In Malta, the project created a direct bridge to GovTech4All, where the insights contributed to training local partners on how to design innovation procurement processes. This knowledge was later reflected in the Malta Local Councils AI Pilot, where local councils were invited to participate in a design-contest-based innovation procurement process to source, pilot and scale an AI solution. Together, these examples show how IPROMO helped move innovation procurement from methodology into practical public-sector use cases across different national contexts.
From real-world procurement to practical learning
A key feature of IPROMO was its focus on practical application. The project used the Riga Municipality’s 5G4Lives drone procurement initiative as a live case study, demonstrating how innovation procurement can be applied in practice to address complex urban challenges. This real-world example helped translate methodology into actionable insights for public authorities. Beyond its national impact, IPROMO also contributed to EIT Urban Mobility’s wider objective of helping cities adopt innovative solutions through stronger public sector capabilities. To ensure the project’s results remain accessible beyond its duration, an eleven-episode podcast series featuring procurement specialists from across Europe was also produced and published.
The project revealed the need for continued capacity building among the public and private sectors alike. During regional visits, 78% of participants reported having no prior knowledge of innovation procurement, highlighting the importance of targeted training and practical support for public authorities.
The relevance of IPROMO was also recognised beyond the project itself. In 2025, Riga Municipality received the State Chancellery’s public administration innovation award “Celmlauzis” in the “Practice” category for achievements in innovation procurement through IPROMO.
“Procurement will never be the most headline-grabbing word in urban innovation, but it is where real change either happens or gets stuck. IPROMO helped us work with municipalities, public institutions and innovation partners from Latvia, Malta and across Europe to make innovation procurement more understandable, more practical and less abstract. With the support of EIT Urban Mobility, we were able to show that better public services do not start only with big ideas. They start with better questions, better procedures and the confidence to try something new”, explained a representative from VEFRESH.
Overall, IPROMO demonstrated how structured collaboration and practical tools can help public authorities move from traditional procurement models towards more adaptive and iterative approaches to procure better services for their citizens. As the European network of innovation procurement competence centres continues to grow, the next four years will provide further opportunities to support cities and private companies alike.
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