Open Market Consultation in Greece

P5 Innobroker partners gathered in Thessaloniki on 5&6 March 2024 for a project meeting and contributed to workshop and training event "How to procure innovation" - Practical Pathways to Innovation Procurement and Market Dialogue organized by CERTH

The aim of the workshop and training event is to bring together key actors, project managers, policy makers, and researchers to explore the opportunities, challenges, and best practices associated with the procurement of innovative goods, services, and works in the public sector.

First training session “How to set up and scale up Spent Coffee Grounds valorization paths” Open Market Consultation was organized for solution providers.  It was occasion for discussion the importance of innovation in utilizing spent coffee grounds, definition the specific innovation or solutions needed for spent coffee grounds utilization, desired outcomes, performance criteria, and any regulatory requirements and potential environmental and sustainability factors.

Mr. C. Ketikidis and Mrs. Eleni Lianou, from CERTH led two panels Strategic Procurement of Innovation and Public Procurement of Innovation for Utilization of Spent Coffee Grounds.

Prospect public procurer DIADYMA SA with the technical assistance of Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) and the P5 INNOBROKER project was interested in candidate solution provider’s experiences in the different tools that make up the innovative and sustainable solution for the utilization of coffee residues to create bioproducts. During Open Market Consultation Dr. Kyriaki Sakellariou from DIADYMA SA explained what the needs for the specific procurement are, why is a new solution required, How urgent is the needed solution or how long is it expected to take until a new solution is available and What results and outcomes are expected from the market dialogue process.

Presentation of proposed solution

“Recovery of bioactive compounds from spent coffee grounds in pilot scale extractions: Challenges and opportunities”, Dr. Eleni Gogou, Scientific Consultant, Natural Food Additives (NFA)

“Valorization of spent coffee grounds for the production of novel raw materials for food and cosmetic matrices”, Dr. Ioannis Mourtzinos, Anastasios Vetsos, Anastasia Loukri, AgrofoodRnD

“Isolation and utilization of phenolic substances from spent coffee grounds for use in food and cosmetics”, Dr. Ioannis Giavasis, University of Thessaly

Second training session “State of play of innovation needs identification of public authorities” was organized for Public Buyers and Session “How to support, start up and accelerate businesses?” for regional Innovation Ecosystem.

Training session gives insight  of Public Procurement of Innovation, the benefits it brings, implementation rules and steps as well as lessons learned from like-minded projects. Provide a practical set of tips which may be useful for future followers. Also panel discussion give practical insight on how the landscape of technology transfer has changed in recent years and what factors have contributed to these changes, the role of technology transfer & assistance, SMEs/start-ups fundraising & VC support and social economy business cases.

Inspiring speakers for accelerating business in regional Innovation ecosystem were SPEIRA (Technology Transfer Office), Dr. Katerina Papadopoulou, CERTH, i4g (Incubator), Dr. Theologos Prokopiou, Loggerhead ventures (Venture Capital), Dr. Evangelos Kosmidis and  Incommon (Civil Society Non-Profit Organization), Mrs. Mara Angelidou.