Understanding the demand for digital services in research and the role of public procurement

You can't miss it if you are a Research and/or e-Infrastructures’ manager, a policy maker, a funder, a research community manager

Objectives:

• Inform the relevant community about the demand assessment activity to understand current and emerging needs for digital services in research and invite contribution from stakeholders
• Explain the role of public procurement in the EOSC and present possible scenarios
• Report on related experience 

Abstract:

The EOSC is an ambitious initiative aiming at the federation of existing and planned digital infrastructures for research. It seeks to remove barriers among disciplines and countries and make it easier for researchers to share and access the digital resources they need. It will mobilise service providers from both public and private sectors, funders, research communities and other relevant stakeholders. In order to be successful, it needs to meet current and emerging needs of researchers and to rely on sound business models that stimulate service providers to join the ecosystem, users to utilise the services, and funders to support them.

In this area, the EOSC-hub project is seeking to increase the understanding of the demand for digital services and resources for research over the coming years. It also seeks to understand what are the suitable business and procurement models that would allow to reduce the time, effort and risk while increasing cost effectiveness, especially for organisations that lack procurement experience. This session will serve as a way to engage the stakeholders in progressing in the mentioned topics.

Agenda:

09:30 - 09:50 The role of public procurement in the EOSC: previous experience and EOSC-hub project contribution, Sergio Andreozzi (EGI.eu)
Collaborative procurement is emerging as an essential capability of the future EOSC. It has the potential to increasing cost effectiveness, reduce the time/effort/risk in resource acquisition, and creating market opportunities. This presentation will provide an overview of previous experiences and describe the planned activities within the EOSC-hub project.

09:50 - 10:40 Collaborative Procurement of Digital Services, Ohad Graber-Soudry (X-officio)
Centralised and collaborative procurement activity has been growing in popularity over the last years as more public-sector purchasers than ever engage today in joint procurement activity and benefit from economies of scale, lower costs and higher levels of efficiency. The 2014 reform of the EU public procurement rules provide new opportunities for public-sector purchasers to engage in such activity also when it comes to cross-border collaboration between public-sector purchasers.  This presentation will focus on the possibilities available under the EU public procurement rules to establish centralised and collaborative procurement models for the purchase of digital services. 

10:40 - 10:55 Purchasing from the Cloud, Cross Border Procurement and the role of GEANT as a CPB (Central Purchasing Body), Phil Matthews (GEANT)

10:55 - 11:00 Wrap-up and conclusions 5'