ON DEMAND ACCELERATION

Our "Why"

Public procurement is worth over SEK 800 billions (approx €80 billions) per year, just in Sweden. If just a small fraction could be used to drive innovation, it could have a huge impact on the transition we are facing, in order to meet our great societal challenges.

In order for the public sector to drive innovation to a higher degree, a shift needs to take place - from a procurement-driven to an innovation-driven approach, and we need to see public procurement as a tool for innovation policy. That analysis is also reflected in sustainability development goal 12.7 – Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities

Main challenges

• How can we formulate needs in a way that allows innovation?
• How can we expose that need to a sufficiently diverse group of innovators, so that we get a variety in the solution proposals?
• How do we know which of the solutions will succeed, based on the uncertainty and risk that is always part of innovation processes?
• How can we ensure that we support the development of a sustainable and scalable business, not just a specific solution that only solves one or a few customers' needs?

Through Demand Acceleration, the public sector can:

• Create markets – initiate commercial interest in areas that have not previously been sufficiently addressed by the market
• Help companies understand, evaluate and act on opportunities for innovation
• Stimulate sustainable and scalable companies
• Helping companies attract customer funding rather than soft funding
• Utilize the innovative power of companies to meet challenges and create value for residents/users