As part of our work to realise the opportunities arising from over £300 billion annual UK public procurement spend, this week we participated in the first IPEC Research Symposium, organised by the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre at the amazing Alliance Manchester Business School. This brought together academics from leading universities across the UK – Manchester, Birmingham, Bath, Cardiff, Stirling, Nottingham, Oxford, Lancaster – and Autonomous University of Madrid. 30 speakers, researchers and policy leads convened to share evidence and ideas to boost the impact of innovation procurement.  

The Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC) is a major initiative of Connected Places Catapult and a key plank of our work is to develop research capacity in this critical area. We have entered a long-term partnership with the Universities of Birmingham City-REDI and the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (University of Manchester), gathering evidence to build the case for doing procurement differently. It will generate tools for policy development and support public and private sectors in implementing innovation through procurement, driving investment and better outcomes.  

The Public Procurement as a Catalyst for Innovation workshop explored the impacts, measurement, and best practices of innovation procurement. Key themes that emerged include:

• The growing importance of evidencing how public procurement can drive innovation and address major challenges, while achieving efficiency and value for money. Academics from the University of Manchester presented research using advanced data analysis techniques like network analysis and AI language models to quantify the impact of innovation procurement on firm productivity and gain insights into complex public sector supply chains.

• The importance of taking a holistic, systems approach to procurement that considers the broader ecosystem of buyers, suppliers, and stakeholders. Research using administrative data from TED and Contract Finder in the UK demonstrated the value of clever data analysis in unlocking insights from existing procurement data sources.

• The potential for innovation procurement to drive positive local economic and social outcomes, such as supporting local businesses, creating jobs, and advancing sustainability goals. Examples included research conducted by researchers at City-REDI (University of Birmingham) on retrofitting social housing and the Catapult’s West Midlands Diatomic project.

• The need for cultural change, capacity building, and sharing of best practices to fully realise the potential of innovation procurement. While the new UK Procurement Act presents opportunities, challenges remain around data quality, skills, and embedding innovation across the commissioning lifecycle.

• The importance of collaborating across academia, government, and industry to build the evidence base for innovation procurement, champion success stories, and co-create practical tools and guidance. IPEC’s “Art of the Possible” report and ongoing research partnerships exemplify this approach.

Participants left energised to build on the momentum and partnerships from the workshop to position public procurement as a key catalyst for innovation and public good. Key next steps include improving data infrastructure, developing case studies and practical guidance, and fostering communities of practice to accelerate learning and adoption of innovation procurement practices.