Across the Baltic Sea Region, cities are striving to make their public services smarter, more sustainable, and better aligned with citizens’ needs. Yet, many face a common challenge: how to turn innovation ambitions into reality within the framework of public procurement. Traditional procurement processes often leave little room for experimentation, limiting the potential for transformative solutions.

The PPI4Cities project, co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, set out to change that. Bringing together municipalities, innovation agencies, and research institutions from across the region, the project aimed to make Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) an accessible and practical tool for urban development. Its mission was to empower cities to use procurement not only to buy goods and services, but to drive innovation, improve quality of life, and achieve environmental and social goals.

To achieve this, PPI4Cities created the digital platform PPI4cities.eu – a one-stop resource for cities eager to start or strengthen their innovation procurement journey. The platform hosts an expanding suite of assessment tools, best practices, AI-based support, and learning materials, all designed to guide city stakeholders through the PPI process step by step. Tested and refined through real-world piloting in 2024, the platform now serves as a robust knowledge base and community hub for innovation-driven cities across the Baltic Sea Region.

Another key achievement is the development and piloting of CityLab – a practical co-creation framework that helps cities identify needs, engage with markets, and design innovative procurement approaches in collaboration with stakeholders. CityLabs were piloted in several urban contexts, allowing participating cities to test the methodology, exchange experiences, and collectively refine the process. The lessons learned now form the basis for recommendations and guidelines that will help future CityLabs thrive beyond the project’s lifetime.

Together, the PPI4Cities platform and the CityLab methodology have established a strong foundation for smarter, more resilient, and innovation-oriented cities in the Baltic Sea Region. By connecting knowledge, tools, and people, PPI4Cities has turned the concept of innovation procurement into an actionable reality.