In addition to its portfolio of competitive calls, the NRDI Office also offers services to strengthen the cooperation between innovative SMEs and organisations planning the public procurement of new technologies, by for example promoting the exchange of experience. The speakers at the event, which was attended by nearly 100 participants, including local government representatives and construction industry experts, presented how the methodology of the public procurement of innovative solutions can be applied to the innovative reconstruction of public buildings. They also presented practical experiences gained from completed similar projects (such as the ÉMI Construction Knowledge Centre in Szentendre, which hosted the event) and European best practices relating to such public procurements. The forum also provided an opportunity for participants to discuss possible ways to reconcile current Hungarian regulations on public procurement and the proposals of the EU initiative on the public procurement of innovative solutions. 

The audience could learn in detail about the Supporting Public Procurement of Building Innovative Solutions, PROBIS project which aims to create a practical framework that promotes the application and marketing of innovative construction solutions and products, primarily in respect of the modernisation of public buildings. The consortium, comprised of Italian, Hungarian, Swedish and Spanish organisations, is preparing four demonstration projects which focus on the utilisation of innovative solutions relating to environment protection, energy efficiency and renewable energy, with a total budget of EUR 4 million. One of the projects, based in Lombardy, is already in the phase of selecting the winning bidders for the renovation of two public buildings. 

The demonstration project of the Hungarian party concerns an investment relating to the energy-efficient building reconstruction of the central office of Miskolci Vízmű Kft. The preliminary notice about this public procurement was published in August in TED, the EU’s public procurement portal. The aim is the procurement of innovative technical solutions which offer an alternative for better performance, better ROI, lower life cycle cost and up-front costs, and better energy class. 

The National Innovation Office, which was the legal predecessor of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, joined the PROBIS project in 2014 by assuming mainly coordination and information tasks. The institution covers the related costs from a direct funding of HUF 27 million (EUR 90,000) received under the European Union’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) which aims to promote the marketing and spreading of innovative products in public procurements, among others by creating groups comprising institutions and local governments procuring innovative solutions for projects implemented in the form of cooperative cross-border networks in the framework of Public Procurement for Innovation (PPI) procedures.