PROCEDIN had the opportunity to be in the spotlight during the Urban Agenda Partnership meeting held by the Municipality of Haarlem in their hometown on the 10th and 11th of April.
The Urban Agenda is focused on the development of innovative and collaborative solutions to address urban challenges. Under this scope, and the goal to connect interested parties, the organisation held the event that counted with the presence of Louise Knight and Esmee Peters, both from the University of Twente, Valentina Schippers-Opejko, from the Municipality of Harleem, and Todor Popov, from the Municipality of Gabrovo, all members of PROCEDIN’s consortium.
The University of Twente organised a workshop under the theme Capacity Building for Responsible and Innovative Procurement: Engagement Routes between Universities and Municipalities, which led to an additional debate on the current challenge on how to get young (business) recruits to work in the public sector.
During the workshop, PROCEDIN’s progress was showcased, giving an updated status of the project as well as achievements so far. PROCEDIN caught the eye of practitioners, they were taken by the results and initiates, such as the stakeholder map and course offering database, and are looking forward to the next developments.
The meeting also held two training sessions prepared by the PROCEDIN project, aiming to share knowledge and the necessary tools with SMEs and startups that are looking to upgrade their knowledge regarding innovation procurement. Valentina Schippers-Opejko was the lecturer for these two trainings. One focused on Award Below Threshold and Total Cost of Ownership, and the other on Functional Specification and Human Centred Design. To enhance the training, alongside the practical application of these topics, real case scenarios were presented as well as interactive exercises.