Europe currently spends less on R&D than the US, Japan and many other countries. Meanwhile, Europe's public authorities are major consumers of goods and services. Public procurement accounts for about 19% of the GDP in the European Union and offers an enormous potential market for innovative products and services [1].The Europe 2020 Strategy sets a target of 3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in R&D by 2020. In this way, innovation has been incorporated into the new European Public Procurement Directives approved on 26th February 2014 [2] as a new public policy, at the same level as the social and environmental one, which should be promoted through contractual instruments.The new directives open up a number of opportunities for Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI), while maintaining the basic requirements of competition, transparency, equal treatment and compliance with EU state aid rules.Likewise, the European Commission establishes, among other strategic priorities, to boost innovation through public procurement, and to improve SMEs access to public tender market.On the other hand, the European habitat sector, dominated by SMEs, provides 1 million direct jobs in 130 thousand companies generating an annual turnover of around EUR 96 billion, and their purchases represent 16% of the GDP.The “Study on the EU furniture market situation” highlights that R&D and innovation are crucial factors to maintain market positions [3]. Nevertheless, only a small number of European companies carry out industrial research activities in order to develop new materials or technology for furniture.At the same time, there is an increasing demand for smart health care services, whose costs are covered by public expenditures in all EU countries. Thus, a high number of habitat companies has appeared in the last few years that implement Ambient Assisted Living technologies to offer new products related to the eHealth sector. These new products benefit patients, in the form of a more efficient treatment, and reduce the treatment costs. Hence, supporting innovative practices in the health care sector is a crucial step towards improving the services.For that reason, the main objective of the HAePPI project is to develop a new learning curriculum on PPI in line with the needs of habitat and eHealth SMEs. An innovative and open resource programme of vocational education and training, which will provide an adapted curriculum to equip professionals with the specific, basic and transversal skills currently required for the public procurement of innovation.To reach the main objective, different activities will be carried out:1. Learning outcomes definition based on a complete analysis of current best practices on PPI and SMEs´ needs2. Joint Curriculum definition3. Development of the training materials with interactive tools4. Complete learning evaluation on a developed online e-learning platformIn order to achieve such purposes, a Strategic Partnership has put 6 entities together from different countries and expertise in the different fields of the proposed project: two Universities with high expertise in public procurement policies (UNIZAR and ULO); two clusters from different sectors, habitat and eHealth (AMUEBLA and iVITA); a Technology Park and a business organisation expert in innovation management (STP); and a macro-regional hotspot for health and innovation (ScanBalt). The consortium will be completed with several associated partners (business associations, universities, development agencies, etc.) that will be involved in different tasks and will ensure wide dissemination for the project results.Although a HAePPI training course will be launched for the habitat and eHealth sectors, the final beneficiaries of the results will be a great number of SMEs and public institutions around Europe. Therefore, the HAePPI project will have a high final impact on thousands of enterprises and therefore in the European economy.The HAePPI project will achieve the following results and benefits:- The outputs obtained will strengthen the education and training paths of SMEs managers and workers, equipping them with the necessary competences and skills to participate in public tenders of innovation.- Development of specific, basic and transversal competences and skills relevant for SMEs, such as management, entrepreneurship, leadership, digital and creativity skills, and language competence in the field of VET.- Promotion of creative and innovative practices in the habitat and eHealth sectors, such as the implementation of electronic devices or internet of things technology.- Foster the PPI as an essential instrument to achieve the Horizon 2020 targets and to improve innovation in Europe.[1] Guidance for public authorities on Public Procurement of Innovation. DG Enterprise & Industry[2] Directives 2014/23/EU; 2014/24/EU, and 2014/25/EU[3] Study on the EU furniture market situation. Csil