The final training session, of a series of four, dedicated to SMEs and startups aiming to demystify the Business-to-Government (B2G) model took place on last Wednesday, 26 of June, under the theme Legal Insights Workshop: Navigating Innovation Procurement Regulations.
The session started with a brief presentation of the PROCEDIN project, by Danijel Pavlica, where the goals and objectives of the initiative were presented, followed by a short mention of the project’s partners.
“We always like to say that we connect key resources and key stakeholders in Innovation procurement and we do that to enhance and mobilise procurement of innovation motivation knowledge and skills” Danijel Pavlica
Danijel also mentioned how PROCEDIN gathered a lot of knowledge and resources, including training and workshops, through the project lifespan, and how it’s possible to access free of charge at the project’s website.
After this introductory moment, the session continued with the invited speaker Todor Popov, Director at the Municipality of Grabovo, who led the workshop.
As a ten-year expert in the field of public procurement, mainly focusing on innovation and sustainable public procurement, Todor provided valuable insights on the regulation side of procurement.
The speaker started by mentioning the barriers SMEs face when they try to secure tenders, not only due to unreachable criteria but also the administrative burden that the process can create and how important it is to solve and clear these barriers for the SMEs because “they are very important from our point of view because in SMEs in startups, very often is the key for developing Innovations”.
However, the barriers are not one-sided, they can also be felt by the governmental organisations that can get overwhelmed by the bureaucracy as well. In Todor’s vision, communication in a clear and transparent way between both parties is the key.
To tackle these challenges, from an SMEs point of view, Todor encourages them to be proactive and to try to collaborate and influence contract authorities.
The session continued with practical examples of tools that are within reach for both sides and ended with the presentation of PROCEDIN’s Resource Bank whose final goal is to “try to connect the stakeholders and encourage and increase their capacity.”
The presentation was followed by the usual Q&A, where attendees were encouraged to raise their questions.
The final workshop, from a series of four, tackled the challenges regulations can bring to SMEs and authorities and brought to the table solutions to overcome them, being the main one active communication between both parties.
You can watch the full training session here: