European Innovation Procurement Awards 2025

Innovation procurement boosts the process of transforming research results and ideas into innovative solutions. It represents an untapped potential to stimulate the demand for innovation. Moreover, it appears to have a positive impact on private spending on research and innovation activities and innovation commercialisation success.

By putting in place dedicated strategies aimed to lift and enhance the use of innovation procurement, the public and private sectors can provide state-of-the-art services and goods to the society and, at the same time, offer new growth and commercialisation opportunities for suppliers of disruptive solutions, particularly start-ups and SMEs.

The European Union has recognized the importance of innovation procurement as a tool for modernizing the public sector, strengthening Europe’s industrial competitiveness, and addressing key societal challenges such as climate change and the transition to a sustainable, net-zero economy. The New European Innovation Agenda4 sets out a vision for harnessing the power of innovation to drive economic growth, social progress, and environmental sustainability in Europe. The Agenda emphasizes the need for strategic investments in key technologies, including deep tech, and for stronger collaboration between public and private sector actors to foster innovation and promote the uptake of new solutions.

Objectives

• The European Innovation Procurement Awards 2025 aim to recognise public and private buyers, natural persons and those legal entities supporting these practices across Europe in their efforts to promote and stimulate both procurement of innovative solutions and the innovative ways the solutions are procured.
• These Awards complement and encourage synergies with other EIC initiatives aiming to support and foster innovation procurement in the European Union (i.e EIC Business Acceleration Services Innovation Procurement Program). The Awards also aim to demonstrate how innovation procurement positively transforms society and the economy by not only creating new and sustainable markets, but also by tackling societal challenges such as green energy transition.

Categories

• In this edition, the European Innovation Procurement Awards will feature the following two categories:
  • Innovation procurement initiative (including implementation) category: to reward actions, and completed work from mid/long-term strategies and action plans that trigger different innovation procurements as well as to reward procurements of R&D services and/or procurements to buy and deploy innovative solutions. Special focus will be placed on the facilitation of the access to procurement markets to innovative SMEs and start-ups including EIC beneficiaries.
  • Facing societal challenges category: – “Net Zero Industry Procurement” to reward procurement practises and/or the procurement of R&D services and/or the procurement and deployment of innovative solutions that contribute to achieving the goals set out in the Net Zero Industry Act. This may include solutions that promote circularity, energy efficiency, and the use of renewable energy in industry, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote sustainable and responsible production and consumption. Special focus will be placed also on the facilitation of the access to procurement markets to innovative SMEs and start-ups including EIC beneficiaries.

Funding Information

• Each category will reward the winner with EUR 75 000 (1st ranked) and one runner-up (ranked 2nd) with EUR 50 000, and one runner-up (ranked 3rd) with EUR 25 000.

Expected Results

• The awards aim to:
  • Stimulate the innovation procurement uptake;
  • Acknowledge and support the efforts done by public and private procurers, and legal entities supporting them, to deliver better services and/or to bring products to the market in an innovative way, while facilitating the access to procurement markets to innovative SMEs and start-ups including EIC beneficiaries8 and;
  • Build a diverse European community of public and private buyers to share, work together and inspire each other in the design of innovative procurement processes, and particularly in the delivery of public services.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants must comply with the following eligibility criteria:
  • Eligible applicants are any public and/or private procurer, individuals/natural persons and/or legal entities supporting the use of innovation procurement established in one of the Member States including overseas countries and territories (OCTs) or Associated Countries to Horizon Europe.
  • Winners of all former European Innovation Procurement Awards editions, as well as runners-up of the previous edition 2023-2024, are not eligible;
  • Applicants that have already received an EU or Euratom prize cannot receive a second prize for the same activities.

For more information, visit European Innovation Council.