Scotland has a vision of becoming one of the most innovative small nations in the world over the next decade. This is key to our efforts to transform the economy and drive lasting improvement in Scotland’s economic performance. The Scottish Governments Innovation Strategy, sets out how Scotland aims to maximise the impact of procurement to boost a green, inclusive and wellbeing economy.
The Scottish Governments Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act places a duty on public bodies to consider how, through their procurement activities, they can promote and support innovation in the way in which public sector services are provided in Scotland.
Use these tools to share your innovative proposals with the public sector and find opportunities to collaborate with other suppliers.
Scotland Innovates is a new portal which allows suppliers and citizens to submit innovative proposals to the Scottish Public Sector.
Scotland Innovates is supplier led innovation. You can now submit an idea or solution to improve public services in Scotland. All proposals submitted will receive a response and feedback from a range of public sector experts.
Register for an account and submit proposals to Scotland Innovates.
The Supplier Collaboration Tool is a tool in PCS which allows you to connect with other suppliers and collaborate on a response to a Preliminary Market Consultation (PMC) notice.
When innovating sometimes you cannot meet all the core competencies to meet supply chain requirements. To solve this, the supplier collaboration tool gives you the opportunity to find partners to collaborate with.
The Supplier Collaboration Tool is part of the Preliminary Market Consultation (PMC) Notice on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS).
If you want to respond to a PMC Notice on PCS but do not meet all the core competencies, you may want to find another supplier to collaborate with on a response. The Supplier Collaboration Tool gives you the opportunity to match with another supplier who is also looking for a supply chain partner.
The Buyer is not involved in this process. It is the responsibility of the suppliers to contact and respond to each other. PCS just gives you the ability to find other suppliers that you may not already be aware of.
The Supplier Collaboration tool is individual to each PMC notice. This means that you will only be visible to other suppliers who have used the collaboration tool within the PMC notice. Once the notice closes your details will be removed from the collaboration tool. If another notice is published, you will need to add your details again for the new notice.
To use the tool suppliers must sign a disclaimer and a non-collusion agreement before their details can be added to the PMC notice.
Supplier details are copied from your PCS profile. It is important to keep your details on PCS up to date so you can be contacted by other suppliers when using the tool. It is your responsibility to keep your contact details up to date on PCS.
Scotland has a vision of becoming one of the most innovative small nations in the world over the next decade. This is key to our efforts to transform the economy and drive lasting improvement in Scotland’s economic performance. The Scottish Governments Innovation Strategy, sets out how Scotland aims to maximise the impact of procurement to boost a green, inclusive and wellbeing economy.
The Scottish Governments Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act places a duty on public bodies to consider how, through their procurement activities, they can promote and support innovation in the way in which public sector services are provided in Scotland.
Research and development is a key activity in creating innovative public services. Before these changes there was no single standard way of buyers conveying their requirements to suppliers in a consistent transparent manner. The Pre-Commercial Procurement Notice and Award Notice allows this to take place with no extra requirements to suppliers.
Feedback received via the supplier survey showed that considering innovation in procurement exercises could be improved. To support this need, there are now specific notices on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) that can be used by buyers to investigate the market before they undertake a formal procurement exercise. They are used if:
Sustainable Procurement requires consideration across all procurement activities and for many different drivers and outcomes. In the context of Innovation, it is a duty of public sector organisations to promote innovation when carrying out a regulated procurement.
Organisations need, “before carrying out a regulated procurement, to consider how in conducting the procurement process it can, among other things, promote innovation.”
Scottish Procurement Policy Note on Public procurement - supporting innovation through procurement: SPPN 3/2023