• Energy Research

The aim of this document is to illustrate with four case studies the key steps to design and implement an innovation procurement process. These demonstration sites will exemplify the process to follow and the pitfalls to avoid. Four municipalities involved in PROMINENT-MED launched PPI for the renovation of their public building: The municipality of Alzira in Spain: the pilot project focuses on the refurbishment of an old (1891) orange storage building (“magatzem de cucó”); The municipality of Koprivnica in Croatia: the pilot project involves the energy efficient renovation of a prefabricated kindergarten building. The municipality of Mértola: the pilot project concerns the renovation of the city hall that also hosts the Roman part of Mértola’s museum. The municipality of Narni in Italy: the pilot case is applied for the refurbishment of a kindergarten hosting children from 6 to 36 months. The organisation of each municipality and the continuity of each pilot project, from needs identification to the assessment of the project performance, will be presented to show how small municipalities prepared and implemented PPI. This guidance will present the following steps in the public procurement of innovation process: Needs identification and assessment; Market engagement; The business case PPI broker / external facilitator Open market consultation Prominent MED project (Public Procurement of Innovation Boosting Green Growth in the MED area, 1MED15-1.1-M12-070) Interreg Mediterranean, Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4250528

Prominent MED project (Public Procurement of Innovation Boosting Green Growth in the MED area, 1MED15-1.1-M12-070) Interreg Mediterranean, Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. Report on international technical events

An improved and more sustainable waste management system is required for successful development of technologies based on renewable sources. Rice straw is submitted to controlled combustion reactions and the produced ashes are chemically treated to produce silica. After a chemical activation step, the activated silica shows potential as an adsorbent agent and will be used to remove the excess of nitrates in groundwater and wells in the area of Alginet (Valencia, Spain), selected as a vulnerable zone within the Nitrates Directive. The demonstration activity aims to have a local impact on municipalities of 200 inhabitants or fewer, decreasing from current nitrate concentrations close to 50 mg/L, to a target of 25 mg/L. In a successive step, the methodology will be transferred to other municipalities with similar nitrate problems (Piemonte, Italy) and replicated to remove different pollutants such as manure (the Netherlands) and waste waters from the textile industry (Italy).

The objectives of this guidance developed during PROMINENT MED is not to reinvent the wheel but to offer practical assistance to procurement officers working for small municipalities and dealing with building projects. It is recognised that small authorities frequently lack expertise and experience with complex purchases. There is a gap between the capabilities held by small municipalities and the skills required for procuring innovative solutions. Due to this lack of knowledge, aspects such as delivery period and price becomes priority when awarding contracts for equipment or renovating public buildings. The concept of “the economically most advantageous tender” is seldom at the agenda. The use of external expertise could be one solution to overcome this capability gap. However, small municipalities seldom buy immaterial services. Similarly, private consultants prefer to work with large municipalities that have larger resources. Consequently, their offers are seldom adapted to actors with limited resources. This guidance aims at reducing the capability gap by providing small public authorities guidelines to ease the adoption of innovative procurement practices. The pilot projects will serve as case studies. The presentation of the cases will be instrumental. It will provide insight into PPI and play a supportive role to any future contracting authorities by facilitating their understanding of the process to follow and the pitfalls to avoid. Each case will not be presented in detail. The goal is twofold: to illustrate each step of the PPI by an exemplary approach followed by one of the municipalities involved in Prominent MED; to provide a good framework for public procurers who lack experience and intend to develop decision making skills. Project PROMINENT MED: Public Procurement of Innovation boosting green growth in the MED area (1MED15-1.1-M12-070)

This report is a short presentation on innovative investments carried out in partners' countries under the PROMINENT MED project. All four innovative investments were implemented according to legal framework of each country and according to tender requirements. All were supervised by authorized supervisory engineer and controlled and evaluated by external national technical expert. As such, each investment is documented by a fact sheet, without unnecessary explanations of legal framework or other details, which are already described in most of WP3 deliverables and specific WP4 deliverables 4.1.1 Report on implemented procurement procedure and 4.3.1 Public Procurement Innovation implementation strategy in MED countries. There were four innovative public buildings renovation investments carried out in partners' countries in years 2019 and 2020: The pilot project for extensive energy efficient transformation of a prefabricated kindergarten building "Loptica" (820 m²); carried out for the city of Koprivnica in Croatia under the management of project partners City of Koprivnica (KOP) and Regional Energy Agency North (REAN). The pilot project for the refurbishment of an old (1891) orange storage building (“Magatzem de Cucó” – 992 m²); carried out for the municipality of Alzira in Spain under the management of project partners Consorci de la Ribera (RIBERA) and Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). The pilot project for the refurbishment of a kindergarten "Gianni Rodari" hosting children from 6 to 36 months, parallel with earthquake-proof reinforcement of the building (1248 m²); carried out for the municipality of Narni in Italy under the management of project partners Municipality of Narni (NARNI) and Sviluppumbria (SVIL). The pilot project of the renovation of the city hall that also hosts the Roman part of Mértola’s museum (685 m²); carried out for the municipality of Mértola in Portugal under the management of project partners Baixo Alentejo Intermunicipal Community (CIMBAL) and IrRADIARE (IRR). Each country has established its own steering expert team for investment preparation and coordination in accordance with the requirements of country specific public procurement law, construction law and construction regulations. Each national investment began with a tendering process, supported by external national PPI expert, external national technical expert and implementing partner's public procurement department. Immediately after signing the contract with supplier of works, each implementing partner also cooperated with or contracted the service of a supervisory engineer and the investment works began. Each national steering expert team was regularly supervising and tracking their investment on-site and on a week and monthly basis through management, financial and reporting documentation. Overall, all four teams were part of Prominent MED Joint Evaluation Team (JET) Prominent MED project (Public Procurement of Innovation Boosting Green Growth in the MED area, 1MED15-1.1-M12-070) Interreg Mediterranean, Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

The aim of these guidelines is to lessen these traditional barriers faced by local authorities and to help them in adopting innovation procurement practices. It will present the key steps to design and implement an innovation procurement process. Four municipalities involved in PROMINENT-MED launched PPI for the renovation of their public building: • The municipality of Alzira in Spain: the pilot project focuses on the refurbishment of an old (1891) orange storage building (“magatzem de cucó”); • The municipality of Koprivnica in Croatia: the pilot project involves the energy efficient renovation of a prefabricated kindergarten building. • The municipality of Mértola: the pilot project concerns the renovation of the city hall that also hosts the Roman part of Mértola’s museum. • The municipality of Narni in Italy: the pilot case is applied for the refurbishment of a kindergarten hosting children from 6 to 36 months. The objectives of this guidance which is addressed to public authorities and small municipalities, is to provide a comprehensive overview of the key steps to follow in order to implement an innovation procurement process. The guidelines will not only be a step by step approach to innovation procurement, it will also outline the specificities of small public authorities and the peculiarities of the renovation projects. Prominent MED project (Public Procurement of Innovation Boosting Green Growth in the MED area, 1MED15-1.1-M12-070) Interreg Mediterranean, Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4250528

This report is aimed primarily at municipalities who are responsible for planning and delivering the purchase of public works in an efficient way. The total value of public procurement in the EU represents about 19% of European GDP. However, public procurement is often neglected while it can strongly drive the future growth and stimulate innovation. Public procurement and the way procurement processes are shaped provide local authorities with significant opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of their aging infrastructure. By orienting their procurement strategies toward new solutions that improve the energy efficiency of buildings / public lighting, local and regional authorities can reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to sustainable development. Public Procurement of Innovation is one solution for Mediterranean municipalities to address the challenge of climate change by purchasing products, services, and works with high environmental performance. Prominent MED focused on small municipalities which were considered as buyers and users of existing technology solutions / systems which were not well diffused yet. The four municipalities involved in the project launched PPI for the renovation of their public buildings: The municipality of Alzira in Spain: the pilot project focuses on the refurbishment of an old (1891) orange storage building (“magatzem de cucó” – 992 m²); The municipality of Koprivnica in Croatia: the pilot project involves the energy efficient renovation of a prefabricated kindergarten building (820 m²); The municipality of Mértola: the pilot project concerns the renovation of the city hall that also hosts the Roman part of Mértola’s museum (685 m²); The municipality of Narni in Italy: the pilot case is applied for the refurbishment of a kindergarten hosting children from 6 to 36 months (1 248 m²). The aim of this report is to illustrate with these case studies the proceedings of public procurement of innovation (PPI). Prominent MED project (Public Procurement of Innovation Boosting Green Growth in the MED area, 1MED15-1.1-M12-070) Interreg Mediterranean, Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

Public procurement and the way procurement processes are shaped provide local authorities with significant opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of their aging infrastructure. By orienting their procurement strategies toward new solutions that improve the energy efficiency of buildings / public lighting, local and regional authorities can reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to sustainable development. Public Procurement of Innovation is one solution for Mediterranean municipalities to address the challenge of climate change by purchasing products, services, and works with high environmental performance. One of the obstacles to implementing measures for improving energy consumption in small municipalities is often that there is nobody at municipal level with sufficient knowledge to assess, propose and decide on actions in the energy field. Due to this lack of knowledge on energy issues, aspects such as delivery period and price becomes priority when awarding contracts for equipment or designing new public buildings. This way of operating hinders the diffusion of innovation while selection criteria established in terms of energy efficiency would have promoted innovation. This benchmark aims at contributing to the resolution of this problem It gathers, analyses, and further develops existing know how on PPI and its application to the field of energy efficiency underlining strategy and opportunities both for local authorities and innovative clusters. The analysis includes a literature survey and a review of successful case studies in PPI. For these cases of excellence, fields of application of PPI and related opportunity for public authorities and SMEs are identified. Then these elements will be used for the development of the guidance for innovation procurement selection. Prominent MED project (Public Procurement of Innovation Boosting Green Growth in the MED area, 1MED15-1.1-M12-070) Interreg Mediterranean, Project co-financed by the European Regional Development