URBACT Tribune 2
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November 2009 www.urbact.eu Using Public Procurement to Drive Skills and Innovation in Urban Communities. How Cities Can Harness the Capabilities of Universities in a Period of Economic Uncertainty Managing Urban Identities: Aim or Tool of Urban Regeneration? Female Entrepreneurship: Towards an Urban Agenda for the Economic Dowturn Lost Job - Lost Home / Lost Home - Lost Job Can Secured Housing Help Cities Mitigate Effects of the Crisis for their Citizens? Ageing and Employment: Old and New Challenges in a Global Crisis Scenario Dilemmas of Integrated Area-Based Urban Renewal Programmes Methods of Governance across any Framework City-region as “Marble Cake” Design Coding and the Creative, Market and Regulatory Tyrannies of Practice Using Knowledge Economies Affected by the Crisis EDITORIAL November 2009 URBACT Life www.urbact.eu wenty-six URBACT Thematic Networks and Working Groups involving 230 Publication Manager: partners across Europe have been at work communicating, studying, comparing Jean-Loup Drubigny Tand analysing for the past eighteen months. Rooted in these exchanges, each of the partners coproduce a Local Action Plan with their Local Support Group. Editorial Advisory Group : Melody Houk, Shandi Miller, As the projects advance, the Lead Experts accompanying the projects are responsible Peter Ramsden, for highlighting new or tried and tested ways of addressing shared challenges, of linking Paul Soto, them up, and providing analysis that will enable decision-makers in cities to benefit from Philip Stein and integrate this learning into their daily work. Graphic Advisor : Anne-Laure Guignard The global economic and financial crisis has challenged many established certainties and has accelerated changes that were already under way. Heightened challenges have Graphic Design and Artwork: forced city practitioners to adapt their strategies and sometimes even to reverse their Studio PAKENKO / www.pakenko.com priorities. Copy editing: Anna Collins All of these articles have been written by URBACT Lead Experts. At this point, midway Photos: through the life cycle of the projects, they reflect on the state of play in the projects, heavily Cover: impacted by the multiple effects of the crisis. Pascal Bastien / Fedephoto Interior : Page 1: Pascal Bastien / Fedephoto At first reading, there appears to be nothing in common between female entrepreneurship, Page 5: Gilles Coulon / Tendance Floue innovative public procurement, the dilemmas of area-based urban renewal, urban identities Page 8: Olivier Culmann / Tendance Floue and metropolitan governance. Page 14: Jéromine Derigny / Argos / Picturetank Page 23: Hamilton / RÉA But this great variety of themes reflects the diversity of the challenges facing European Page 26: Stephane Audras / RÉA cities, which the URBACT Programme enables them to confront with the support of peer Page 27: Duncan Philips / Reportdigital - RÉA cities. Page 31: Gilles Leimdorfer / RÉA Page 34: Guillaume Murat / Picturetank Page 38 (from left to right): Werner Otto/ agefotostock, Throughout the articles, several ideas return again and again: innovation, creativity, Mario Fourmy / RÉA harnessing capacities, cultural transformation, opportunities, potential, cross-sectoral, Page 39: Thomas Schlijper / HH-RÉA cross-boundaries, etc. This document has been printed on Cyclus, 100% recycled The reason is that these ideas are key components of sustainable integrated urban paper. development. The pressure created by the downturn makes it more necessary than ever before that decision-makers in cities find new reference points, establish new approaches, and imagine new ways of operating. URBACT, the European Commission, Member and Partner States, and all the partners and experts involved in URBACT projects, contribute to European cities’ ability to emerge from the crisis. l www.urbact.eu Josef Postranecky Chair of the URBACT Monitoring Committee URBACT Secretariat 194, avenue du Président Wilson 93217 Saint-Denis La Plaine Tel. : 00(33) 01 49 17 46 02 Fax : 00(33) 01 49 17 45 55 1 TOWARDS INNOVATIVE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT Using Public Procurement to Drive Skills and Innovation in Urban Communities Eurico Neves by Lead Expert of the UNIC Thematic Network Europe has now long recognized that economic growth and competitiveness depends on innovation and that as such promotion of innovation is key for economic development. Still, public authorities, at European, national and local level continue to promote innovation mainly from the supply side, and forgetting about the importance of Market size, rate of growth, users willing to pay premium prices and first-mover advantage as critical factors in the creation of a favourable market for innovation to take-up. To use the image from the celebrated economist Alfred Marshall, they continue to try to cut a piece of paper oday Europe is clearly under exploiting figures illustrate that there is a clear difference with just one blade of a pair of scissors – and not realising the potential of public in the approach and use of public expenditure procurement to meet its innovation and allocation on the instruments to stimulate inno- and not surprisingly find it inefficient. Tresearch objectives. Experiences from vation (market pull using procurement in the US outside Europe show that progress in this field is vs. technology push using State aids in Europe) possible and the public sector has the potential Indeed, innovative procurement in USA is pro- Europe can drive forward innovation by to positively influence innovation and sustainable moted with explicit policies, which are actively development through public procurement, thus pursued – for example the Small Business Act, harnessing its large expenditure on public leading to economic growth and in addition tack- under which the USA government reserves 2,5% procurement and public agents, including ling one of Europe’s most pressing problems – how of all R&D procurement for small (often innovative) to increase the productivity and effectiveness of businesses (and social activities) in order to give city authorities that can “play this game” our public services. preferential treatment concerning procurement by learning to “spend smart”, promoting of innovation. Although no truly comparable or historical data innovation and defending relevant industrial sets exist various figures suggest that the United A recent inquiry in the UK (CBI, 2006) also showed sectors. States and EU have similar expenditure levels that when asked if public procurement practices regarding public procurement. However, US R&D helped or hindered companies’ own innovation public procurement expenditure is more than 20 activities, over two fifths of the companies cur- times that of Europe and US ICT research is more rently supplying public authorities (46% of supplies than 4 times European levels (EC 2005e). These to central government, 43% of suppliers to local The URBACT Tribune 2 authorities) said that the practices did hinder The facility to specify requirements in terms In the United Kingdom, the DTI’s (Department of them, compared to only 25% of non suppliers. of functional performance or standards, which Trade and Industry) five year program, published Overall only 16% said that current practices allows suppliers to produce any configuration of in 2004, committed the DTI and the OGC (Office helped them. technology they feel can meet the need; of Government Commerce) to establishing an Options to permit variants, thus opening up ideas portal; “a mechanism for firms, inventors Europe should not throw away the benefits bids to alternative ideas; and researchers to submit unsolicited, innova- of the support we give to innovation through Conditions that allow transfer of intellectual tive proposals to the public sector”; and to work grants, incentives and advice, but needs to property to the suppliers, and hence allow them together on a number of specifically identified complement it with efforts to create favourable to exploit their innovations in wider markets. tasks to support the promotion of innovation in markets - including the public sector - who Since 2008, Europe also has its Small Business public sector procurement, including identify- give innovators an early customer base from Act. One of its objectives is to adapt public policy ing significant and high profile projects where which to develop their products or services tools to SME needs, and it proposes a new government is seeking innovative solutions. and diffuse them ahead of global competition. code of best practice for public procurement Indeed good practices in terms of procurement in Thus, finally learning to use both blades of the that should facilitate SMEs’ access to public support of innovation are emerging in several EU scissors to cut paper, and deal away with eco- procurement contracts. member states and this is taking place at national, nomic recession. regional and supranational levels indicating the It offers solutions to difficulties faced by small wide variety of intervention opportunities. Public companies by improving access to information procurement operates indeed at all levels of about public contracts and how to bid on-line, governance and potential drivers for enhancing Europe reducing excessive financial requirements, and innovation through public procurement can be cutting the paperwork. found at these same levels. Regional or city level is Moving towards procurement accounts for approximately half of Innovative Public It is now time to put it into practice through public