The Commission announced today the six finalists of the European Innovation Procurement Awards (EUIPA), supported by the European Innovation Council under Horizon Europe. These awards celebrate public and private organisations that have set an example by investing in highly innovative solutions to tackle urgent societal and industrial challenges.
The winners will be awarded on 2 April 2025 at the EIC Summit, with the top achiever in each category receiving €75,000, second place €50,000, and third place €25,000.
Six finalists leading the change in innovation procurement
An independent jury has identified six pioneering projects that demonstrate leadership in innovation procurement across two distinct categories.
Innovation Procurement Initiative category:
CameraCar: This project procured cutting-edge AI-based technology to enhance monitoring of parking zones in Prague. By integrating traffic sign verification and road surface assessment, it improves urban mobility solutions.
EMS LLS: this initiative is expanding the smart electricity grid in Living Lab Scheveningen to reduce energy congestion. By integrating semi-autonomous control mechanisms, it improves energy forecasting, planning, and fair distribution.
Joint POSIDON PCP: focused on decontaminating polluted land in Europe, specifically in Italy and Spain. It used pre-commercial procurement to develop new, more effective ways to remove petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals contamination from soil. The project set new standards for sustainable land restoration.
Facing Societal Challenges category – “Net Zero Industry Procurement”:
CABRIO-TRIPTYCH: This project provides three key tools to make public construction projects more environmentally friendly and sustainable. They include circular selection criteria, a planning tool for local authorities to set and track sustainability goals, and technical specifications for circular materials.
H2Global: This project boosts the renewable hydrogen market with an innovative double-auction system. It bridges the gap between high production costs and market affordability.
Net Zero Persikan: Showcasing a fully electric machinery pool at a development site in Stockholm, this project exemplifies emission-free groundworks. It provides a scalable model for municipalities to achieve Net Zero emissions.
Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, praised these finalists:
With the European Innovation Procurement Awards, we celebrate visionary efforts that use procurement as a catalyst to address society’s most urgent challenges. These projects demonstrate how smart purchasing is key for propelling groundbreaking innovations from SMEs and start-ups in Europe.
About the European Innovation Procurement Awards
Innovation procurement is a catalyst for turning research and ideas into cutting-edge solutions. This strategy, often overlooked, holds great potential for driving demand for innovation.
Both the public and private sectors can benefit from targeted approaches to elevate the role of innovation procurement. Such strategies not only deliver top-tier services and products to society but also open up avenues for growth and commercialization for suppliers of groundbreaking solutions, particularly among start-ups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The EUIPA is one of the four European Innovation Council Prizes that celebrate leaders shaping the future of innovation across Europe.
For more information, please email EISMEA-EUIPAwards@ec.europa.eu or visit the EUIPA webpage.