The need for support of the procurement of innovation by the European Commission is a strongly supported policy option to deliver innovation across the European Union, driven by the demand of public procurement budgets of Member States. The feasibility study shows there is support for such a policy to be launched and that it should have both top-down and bottom-up instruments or modalities to support procurement including actual procurements of innovative goods and services.

The above excerpt from a recent European Union Study is interesting in that it speaks to the importance of leveraging public sector procurement as means of driving innovation.

In December 2010 MP Francis Maude's announced that the government would seek to establish direct relationships with smaller, innovative vendors.  Unfortunately there is a significant difference between the will and the actual ability to use procurement as a means to drive innovation.

In today's program I welcome to the show one of the concepts chief influencers and champion Dr. John Rigby.

A Senior Research Fellow from the University of Manchester, Dr. Rigby will talk about both the benefits and the obstacles of using public sector procurement to stimulate innovation.