Public procurement to address biodiversity loss: a first attempt at European mapping

Mission-oriented research projects have become fashionable, and they are often suggested as an appropriate policy tool to foster scientific and technological activities. But how do they operate? And are they effective? The purpose of this article is not to reintroduce a debate on the importance of demand-side versus supply-side policies. Rather, we simply consider the use of demand-side policies as an additional tool to promote innovative policies that can complement existing supply-side measures, with a particular focus on biodiversity issues. To this aim, the use of a particular tool of demand-side policies, public procurement for innovation, is investigated at the European level. Public procurement at the European level is a large component of GDP, estimated at 15%. But the percentage drops dramatically when identifying the innovation component and even more so when analysing the use of public procurement related to the purchase of R&D services and its use in biodiversity issues. Preliminary findings suggest that this tool is still underutilised in Europe, especially in Italy, and the tenders analysed show a suboptimal use compared to their real potential. Rather than promoting the development of new technological solutions for addressing biodiversity issues, tenders are used by public agencies to procure consulting services as well as support for data acquisition and environmental monitoring. Taking into account certain European experiences, some policy recommendations are proposed, especially for the Italian case, which mainly concern the need to improve the skills of public procurers and to introduce spending targets for innovative tenders.