Good practice:

Reducing urban flood risk through innovation procurement (PPI)

The city of Frederiksberg is facing heavy rainfall and an old sewer system that can no longer cope with the amount of water, thus giving rise to urban floods.
In consequence, the municipality decided to launch several projects to successfully solve this problem. The chosen method was the innovation partnership approach that allows combining research and development activities with procurement. This involves three phases:
- a competitive phase, in which appropriate partners are selected;
- a research and development phase, in which solutions are developed in collaboration with the contracting authority;
- a commercial phase, in which the selected partner(s) provides the final product or service.

Applicants were selected based on submitted references that demonstrate the execution of innovative projects (solutions or products) and one reference for construction work.
Focusing more time and resources up-front, Frederiksberg aimed to ensure that the new solutions developed through the innovation partnership could be purchased directly at the end of the process, without having to do a further procurement procedure to upscale their preferred solution. By using an innovation partnership approach, the city acquired a system which was cost effective and implemented in a short amount of time - almost 20 month.

The main stakeholders of this good practice were from both private and public sector: the municipality, SME’s and citizens.

To improve rainwater management, almost €300 million were allocated, 15-20% of which is reserved for developing innovative new future-proof solutions. The funds come from the Municipality’s budget.

The results of the partnership involved:
- Creating an easy-to-build flexible system for storing water in small retention basins
- Creating a system that channels surface water from roads through a cleaning device
Both solutions have been co-developed with the municipality which has the possibility according to the innovative partnership contract to purchase new solutions for its city.
As a result of this approach, Frederiksberg won the Innovation Procurement of the Year prize in 2019.

Choosing from 40 suppliers of innovative solutions, considering the amount of water to be handled, the scalability and modularity and the construction of the final solutions at a low cost.
Co-development was a new way of working for Frederiksberg and required a change of mentality.

An innovation partnership model represents a significant opportunity for the municipality to combine its knowledge and experience with other actors and find innovative solutions which meet the municipality’s specific needs.
Co-development is a new way of working and involves dialogue between private companies and the municipality in advance, and thus throughout the tender made it possible to create much better solutions regarding water management.
Given that already four other municipalities from Denmark and utility companies have signed an option of purchase based on the innovation partnership contract, enabling them to use the same framework agreement to purchase new solutions for their city, this good practice has proven its potential for transfer and can be interesting for other European regions.