Article 61 · Techniques to pursue innovation objectives in public procurement

1.In order to pursue innovation objectives, public buyers may prepare and design any procurement procedure using one or more of the following techniques:

(a)seek, analyse and implement advice aimed at identifying the availability of innovative solutions in the market consultations;

(b)consider the purchase of open-source solutions or solutions with open-source elements;

(c)use only functional requirements and or, where that is not feasible, allow explicitly for variants;

(d)limit the selection criteria to what is strictly necessary and proportionate to the risks of the public contract and the capacities needed to perform it, and, where appropriate, without requirements on turnover and past performance;

(e)require a concept for innovation of the supplies, works or services as a qualitative award criterion, including the feasibility and scalability of that concept or its impact on the green, social or digital objectives set for the procurement;

(f)designate one or more specific lots for innovation and provide clear, precise and unambiguous conditions for any additional purchases based on the contract awarded in that lot, if the solution proves successful;

(g)combine multiple phases of a public works contract such as design, construction, operation, and maintenance into a single integrated contract;

(h)aggregate demand of innovative solutions and to allow for task distribution of testing and validation among public buyers;

(i)allow for experimentation, testing, validation, development, enhancement and reinvestment in the procurement procedure or contract implementation.

2.The techniques referred to in paragraph 1 may, as appropriate to the technique and the type of solution concerned, take the form of specifications, selection criteria, quality considerations when applying the best price-quality ratio method, or conditions for the performance of contracts.