Elevating your procurement game: Discover what key players are saying about SPIN4EIC

Powered by the EIC Business Acceleration Services Innovation Procurement programme, SPIN4EIC is an initiative dedicated to delivering unmatched support services to EIC innovators. It amplifies access to procurement markets across Europe and beyond, supporting EIC innovators and providing them with the resources and connections needed to navigate and succeed in the complex landscape of innovation procurement.

But that's not all! As part of the EIC Innovation Procurement Programme, SPIN4EIC extends its dedication to buyers, elevating their procurement game with unparalleled support services tailored for innovation.

The SPIN4EIC initiative is focused on:

• Building and managing a community of public and private buyers interested in the innovative solutions offered by EIC beneficiaries;
• Strengthening the ability of public buyers to procure innovative solutions while opening their markets to SMEs and start-ups;
• Supporting EIC beneficiaries in submitting tenders for procurement opportunities across Europe and globally;
• Enhancing the capacity of EIC beneficiaries to identify business opportunities and participate as potential suppliers in bids (through actions like the Innovation Procurement Academies and the EIC toolkit on Innovation Procurement).

From the public sector perspective, the initiative has already involved public buyers in two SPIN4EIC pitching sessions: the Big Buyers Annual Event in Brussels (24 April 2024) and the European Urban Resilience Forum in Valencia (27 June 2024).

Here’s what key players are saying about our programme:

“These events are a great opportunity for our member cities, as Public Buyers authorities, to come into contact with innovative startups and companies that can help them face their challenges. It also makes sure that they develop a solution that public authorities can really use to address the needs they have”.
Chiara Venturini – Eurocities

The previous quote comes from the Big Buyers Annual Event, where EIC startups supported also by the InnoBuyer initiative (like dotLumen, featured in an article on the EIC platform this week) participated and had the opportunity to meet Eurocities and key European public buyers.

Following this, we have a testimonial from the European Urban Resilience Forum, including feedback from a public authority participant and an EIC beneficiary who presented his innovative solution at the event and had the opportunity to engage directly with the buyers:

“It was important to be here in this session to speak and learn from innovators because we really need to know how we can help innovation to integrate into our daily operations. We need innovation in order to move forward and to bring resilience in our cities”.
Stella Psarropoulou – Municipality of Thessaloniki

“At Hydrovolta we remove nitrate from groundwater and desalinate sea water to make it drinkable with innovative technologies. Thanks to the EIC, we had the opportunity to accelerate our technology’s development. We have completed the piloting phase, and now we are ready to bring it to market. Today is a great opportunity for us to meet the buyers and promote our technology and solutions."
George Brik – CEO, Hydrovolta

Partners from the private sector were also involved in the SPIN4EIC Initiative through the First Movers Coalition (FMC). Launched in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, the FMC aims to leverage the purchasing power of big companies to create an early market for new technologies to decarbonise the world’s most heavy-emitting sectors. Seven leading procurers and investors, members of the Coalition, were invited to the SPIN4EIC pitching event at the EIC Summit (19 March 2024) to pave the way for potential synergies between innovators and industry leaders to shape the future of innovation in decarbonisation. These included Constellium, Salesforce, Boeing, SSAB Swedish Steel, Norsk Hydro and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Here you can find some of their testimonials:

“We would like to collaborate with the EIC in different ways. One of them is that we have a portfolio of 110 companies which are developing disruptive technologies to decarbonise our economy. We have invested in solutions addressing the needs of new markets such as direct air capture also in hard-to-abate industries that are typically highly conservative. By collaborating with EIC we hope that we will able together to de-risk those technologies and see them come to fruition”.
Allegra Kowalewski-Ferreira – Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures

“At Norsk Hydro we have high ambitions on how to reach zero emissions by 2050. We know we have to rely on new and innovative companies to provide the solutions we need. It can be difficult sometimes to get an overview of what is going on in the market, with new companies coming up with new innovative technologies and ideas. This event is very good for us to really understand what is going on and to see if there are things that we can collaborate on. I think we’ll be able to succeed together”.
Trude Sundset – CTO, Norsk Hydro

During the initiative with FMC, groundbreaking solutions were presented to the invited companies. Here's a testimonial from an EIC innovator who had the opportunity to pitch directly to them:

“We are developing a technology that can use any type of water to produce green hydrogen by modifying all the different components. For us it is very important to be part of the EIC programme since it allows us to accelerate the development of this technology at different levels”.
Dr. Pau Farràs Costa – Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at University of Galway & ANEMEL Coordinator

This feedback underscores the importance of an initiative such as SPIN4EIC. This unique opportunity connects innovations by top-notch startups to the needs of public and private procurers, supporting startups and public entities on their path to innovation with dedicated assistance and promoting the adoption of cutting-edge solutions by public and private buyers.

But that's not all: the project is also actively providing assistance to public procurers to launch calls and to detect solutions for their procurement of innovation needs and to EIC beneficiaries to find opportunities that fit with their innovations. Here’s a testimony from an assisted public authority:

“We are a central government department who have been tasked with trialling a type of procurement procedure that is not widely utilised in Ireland. Our central purchasing office directed us to the SPIN4EIC program. The team have been hugely helpful in assisting the Irish project team in understanding the procurement procedures, presenting a clear methodology and pathway to follow. They are highly supportive and responsive to the project team”.
Irish Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform

Are you a buyer looking to enhance innovation procurement in your organisation? Don’t hesitate to visit our Webpage and contact us through the Helpdesk to be part of the SPIN4EIC initiative powered by the EIC Innovation Procurement Programme!