BaWü: possible pilot project for awarding contracts to startups up to EUR 100,000

According to a report in the Südwestpresse, supplies and services up to a contract value of 100,000 euros plus VAT can be awarded to start-ups without a tendering procedure. A date is not yet known.

Stuttgart - In 2022, InnoLab_bw invited startups and the administration to a joint exchange. The participating startups expressed the wish that tendering procedures should be made more innovation-friendly in order to make the process more accessible and effective for innovative companies.

The public sector is Germany's largest procurer. It is time that it filled this role and invested massively in innovative technology by procuring it.

Danilo Jovicic-Albrecht, Vialytics

According to the report at the time, all participants agreed and liked the idea of the French model. They said it is important that young companies can participate in procurement procedures. This allows the state to provide targeted support for innovations. They particularly liked measures like the French model, in which innovative solutions from small and medium-sized enterprises and startups can be awarded directly up to a value of 100,000 euros.

A position paper from the digital association Bitkom contains seven specific points aimed at giving startups greater consideration in public awards. Daniel Breitinger was involved in the exchange for Bitkom and contributed the association's perspective and interests to the discussion.

Here, the introduction of innovation-friendly awarding up to 100,000 euros can help to promote innovative ideas and further digitize the state

Daniel Breitinger, Head of Startups Digital Association Bitkom.

It seems that many of these ideas could now be tested in a pilot project in Baden-Württemberg. This would once again put Baden-Württemberg in a pioneering role among the German states. The pilot project could help validate the proposals in the position paper and pave the way for improved cooperation between startups and the public sector.

An exact date for the change in the award amount and the start of the project was not available to Südwest Presse.