The closing event of the BRINC project shed lights on the lessons learnt and benefits brought to the public organisations involved in the project. BRINC's sister-project P5Innobroker also shared insight on its developments and outputs. To facilitate procurement of innovative goods and services, both projects have used the Innobroker (Innovation procurement brokerage) method to facilitate communication and strengthen the links between public buyers on the demand side and innovative companies on the supply side. Project partners have assisted in public authorities’ innovation needs assessments and choice of procurement strategy, helped to locate innovative suppliers and aided both parties in pre-tender market dialogues, helped formulate functional demands including legal advice, and seen to that Request For Information and tender material reaches the right target groups.

In particular, the BRINC project worked to get municipalities to identify their needs for innovation procurement for circular solutions. Project partners have connected public buyers with companies, to help the procurers to gain knowledge about which products and solutions the companies can offer and that their needs sometimes can be met in ways that they were not previously unaware of.

In addition to discovering an open access toolkit presented by the BRINC consortium, the participants received six tips for greater success with innovation procurement:

1. Consider that it is a new method of procurement: PPI is not only about the tender phase, but about planning throughout the entire procurement process. PPI starts already in the tender preparation phase, e.g. with early-stage market dialogue as it informs you about the solutions available on the market.
2. Create an inclusive process: involve actors in the value chain and include civil society as much as possible in the process.
3. Foster an innovation mindset within the organization: change the mindset to encourage people to get started. Education and training are key to achieving this.
4. Collaborate: join networks to stay up to date, discover what has already been done, learn from others and share experiences.
5. Think strategically and long-term: PPI is not suitable for emergencies. Strategic and long-term thinking (3-5 years ahead) and planning is required to achieve its full potential.
6. Get help finding a solution: the solution you're looking for may already exist, and an intermediary agent can help you find it. Regional programs and compentence centers can also help you overcome challenges, such as the capacity to try something new or to find solutions to funding aspects.