Published: 21.09.2020.

attels In June 2016, the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia has launched an Interreg Europe project “Fostering the role of public authorities as demanders of innovation through public procurement” (iBuy). The project has combined representatives from seven different countries: Lithuania, Spain, Finland, Romania, Greece, Latvia and Portugal, where Lithuanian representatives from the Lithuanian Innovation centre are the project's leading partner.

The project is intended to achieve the following objectives:

  • to facilitate the wider use of the public procurement of innovation procedures through the exchange of experience and implementation of the new procurement models;
  • to assess the possibility of attracting funding from the EU funding programs for the promotion of public procurement of innovation;
  • as a result of mutual learning, create a framework for raising awareness of policy makers about the public procurement of innovation, its potential and possible  opportunities.
     

As a result of the project, the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia will expand its professional competence and capabilities as well as will have the possibility to facilitate the application of public procurement.
 

In order to facilitate the circulation of information and through the mutual experience develop the action plan for the application of public procurement of innovation in Latvia, Ministry of Economics has established an interinstitutional stakeholder group.
 

iBuy is being implemented as part of the Interreg Europe program with the support from the European Regional Development Fund. The project has a budget of 1,471 million euro, of which 15% is co-financed by the Ministry of Economics with the amount equal to 176,800 thousand euro and the other 85% is financed from the funding of the Interreg Europe program. The duration of the project is 50 months, starting from 1 June 2018.
 

Project activities can be followed on the official website of the project https://www.interregeurope.eu/ibuy/, as well as on the website of the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.