Sustainable industry development through innovation promoting procurement
Procurement is a key driver for innovation in the construction sector, but it can also inhibit development as it clearly affects all the components of the innovation system. Within the infrastructure sector, Skellefteå municipality, as the first municipality in Sweden, used an innovation promoting procurement strategy based on competitive dialogue followed by a cooperation agreements for procurement of maintenance work of its road network. The idea with this strategy is to focus less on technical solutions and instead focus more on functionality, competence, collaboration and dialogue to jointly achieve more long-term sustainable solutions. This strategy is unusual in Sweden and this specific case has attracted much attention among Sweden's public and municipal clients. However, despite great interest from clients, this strategy has not been implemented in construction projects to a greater extent, much due to the increased risk and uncertainty that new strategies might imply.
