Pre-Commercial Procurement
Description of PCP Phases in SPACE4Cities
The PCP process in SPACE4Cities consists of three clearly defined main Phases: Solution Design, Prototype Development and Pilot Preparation & Execution. Significant budgets are available for Suppliers to support their work in each of these Phases.
Phase 0 – Open Market Consultation
During Phase 0 the Buyers’ Group defined the needs and requirements for solutions on the public space management and satellite data use that they would like to see developed. Then, an Open Market Consultation took place in July–December 2024, which refined the scope of the SPACE4Cities Call for Tenders.
Call for Tenders
The SPACE4Cities Call for Tenders opened on January 15th and closed on April 9th 2025. During the Call for Tenders the Buyers’ Group challenged startups, SMEs, bigger companies and other relevant stakeholders to design innovative solutions applying the use of satellite data and enabling technologies for dynamic management of public spaces. Suppliers that join SPACE4Cities PCP are chosen from Tenderers that submitted their tenders during Call for Tenders. Suppliers were able to submit their tenders independently as a part of Supplier consortium.
Phase 1 – Solution Design
During Phase 1 – the Solution Design phase – up to 20 selected Suppliers develop the solution architecture and specifications based on the SPACE4Cities requirements, foreseen use-cases and service process models during June–October 2025.
Phase 2 – Prototype Development
Starting from November 2025, up to 10 Suppliers with best-fitting solutions move to Phase 2, in which the most promising concepts will be developed into working prototypes by June 2026.
Phase 3 – Piloting
Lastly, up to 5 Suppliers move to Phase 3, where each Supplier has a chance to field-test their prototype in one of the Buyers’ Group cities and two Replicator Cities, during July 2026–April 2027.
Phase 3B – Scaling
At the end of SPACE4Cities PCP process, in March–July 2027, Suppliers are expected to continue the refinement of the tested prototypes to make them into market-ready solutions that can be procured by additional public procurers.
Additional Information
Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) presents a huge potential as an innovation instrument to modernize public sector services by challenging industries to develop innovative solutions for the public procurers’ needs. It enables public procurers to compare alternative approaches and filter out the best possible solutions that can be delivered to address the public needs. The end result, including the intellectual property rights (IPR), remain with Suppliers.
Participating in a PCP can pave the way for traditional public procurement for Suppliers. Participation provides valuable customer references that enables Suppliers to gain competitive advantage on the market. PCP can be valuable opportunity for Suppliers of all sizes – such as startups and SMEs – to develop new solutions with a support from the public sector.