Examples of activities to activate:

• support for public procurement of innovation (pre-commercial procurement, procurement of innovation and innovation partnership) (action by Programme Agreement 1.3.1)

The action aims to use the theme of public procurement and public-private partnership as a tool to stimulate innovation. In these cases, the public entity, in order to solve a specific problem related to its sphere of competence and/or sector of activity, commissions the implementation of a series of research, development and innovation activities, over a predefined period of time and in turn aimed at the design, production and testing of prototypes of products or services (or combinations thereof) not yet existing on the market, able to respond, once perfected and industrialized, to the practical needs that motivated them. This means that the object of the contract may be the release of a prototype not yet suitable for commercial use, which technologically improves a product/service already in use or create a completely new one, accompanied by its detailed technical specifications, with a view to possible series production.

The two connected potentials of stimulation to innovation reside both in the plurality of the successful bidders, which favour the identification of multiple solutions to improve the state of the art and to familiarise oneself with them, both from the point of view of the client, who maintains a quota of the rights of exploitation, generates a considerable demand for new products and services at the early stages of marketing, albeit from The Commission's proposal for a Directive on public procurement should take the form normally provided for in Community legislation on public procurement.

• Support to the generation of innovative solutions to specific problems of social importance (Living labs) (action by Programme Agreement 1.3.2)

The action aims to create an open ecosystem where researchers, businesses and citizens can experiment together with a new approach to research activities where they exchange needs, ideas and knowledge, design together and experiment with innovative technological solutions to solve existing problems. Living Labs stimulate social and organizational innovation, as they transfer research and development from the company's laboratories to real-life contexts, where citizens and users themselves become "capped developers" of innovative solutions. The action also aims to encourage the growth and development of businesses with a high technological content of local supply, in particular SMEs, by acting on the strengthening and raising of the quality of the product/service offered, in order to bring about greater added value and increase their competitive capacity. The action aims to trigger a new path of experimentation of Living Labs involving the three main territorial reference systems of Smart Puglia 2020:

a) the regional system of public administration (Smart Cities & Communities);

b) the regional system of knowledge (Knowledge Communities);

c) the regional system of economic and productive development (Business Communities).
 

• Support to companies operating in the knowledge-intensive services sector (action by Programme Agreement 1.3.3)

The action aims at qualifying and supporting the development of knowledge-intensive services supporting technological and non-technological innovation, i.e. radical technological innovation, product or service innovation, process innovation, integration of a service into a product, design or marketing innovation, organisational or management innovation, innovation system or network, lifestyle innovation, public service innovation, social innovation, etc. The action aims at qualifying and supporting the development of knowledge-intensive services supporting technological and non-technological innovation, i.e. radical technological innovation, product or service innovation, process innovation, design or marketing innovation, organisational or management innovation, innovation system or network, lifestyle innovation, social innovation, etc.

Whatever the type of innovation, the objective of the action is to encourage open innovation processes, allowing Apulian companies to experiment and develop new skills, resources and forms of partnership.

The types of beneficiaries of these actions are: enterprises, research organizations, local authorities and socio-economic associations.