Türkiye, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Portugal, Sweden, Finland – Research and experimental development services – CircularPSP: Pre-commercial procurement (PCP) to buy R&D (research and development) services to develop a Public Service Platforms for Circular, Innovative and Resilient Municipalities.

This PCP procurement is a joint procurement by different procurers across Europe that are all facing the same common challenge and are thus looking for similar solutions (so-called ‘Buyers Group’). The common challenge to be solved by suppliers is Suppliers are to design, develop and test an innovative ‘circular economy solution’ (CE-solution) that enables municipalities and their staff as well as businesses in the local economy to apply circular practice more quickly, frequently, widely and effectively. Individual users at City and Business are empowered through access to information, knowledge, circular wisdom, guidance and training to act more circular more often and increasingly impactful whilst transitioning to a CE mindset. The procurement will take the form of a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) under which R&D service contracts will be awarded to a number of R&D providers in parallel in a phased approach. This will make it possible to compare competing alternative solutions. Each selected operator will be awarded a framework agreement that covers 3 R&D phases. Each selected R&D provider will be awarded a framework agreement that covers the following R&D phases and a specific contract per phase. The 3 phases are: solution design, prototype development, original development and validation and testing of a limited volume of first products or services. After each phase, intermediate evaluations will be carried out to progressively select the best of the competing solutions. The contractors with the best-value-for-money solutions will be offered a specific contract for the next phase. Testing in Phase 3 is expected to take place in Istanbul (Turkey), Berlin (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), Maribor (Slovenia), Guimarães (Portugal), Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland) and London (UK). This testing may also serve as a first customer test reference for the contractors. Phase 3 is expected to start June 2025 and end May 2026. The selected operators will retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) that they generate during the PCP and will be able to use them to exploit the full market potential of the developed solutions, i.e. beyond the procurement.