The public demand constitutes, both in Italy and in other major countries, a concrete lever for industrial policy. In the last few years a political awareness is growing that a better qualification of the public demand, innovative and challenging, can stimulate the investments in industrial research and point the market towards a qualitative and competitive development of supply. The pre-commercial procurement procedure (PCP) is the best known legal instruments available to the P.A. for involving the economic sectoral operators, including industry and research.
Italy, in this sector, has introduced a modern and competitive legislation, Use of inno-vative public purchases and of the pre-commer-cial procure-ment (D.L. 5/2012, art. 47) is one of the objectives of the Italian digital agenda, with the explicit ends of maintaining and increasing industrial research and innovation competencies on national territory (D.L. 179/2012, art. 19).
The Agency for Digital Italy (Agid) has been given a significant role for the promotion and implementation: The Ministry of Research with a program of 100 M€, the Ministry of Economic Development with a PC program for the Smart Cities, announced in March 2016, the Regions within the POR are all providing significant financial resources for innovation and research procurement. Now the market has to decide whether to believe and to participate.
