Preparing for pre-commercial procurement for end-user services based on environmental observation in the area of climate change adaptation and mitigation (PROTECT)

PROTECT aims at levering innovation procurement to unlock the climate services market’s potential to support urgent climate adaptation and mitigation actions. It relies upon information and data provided within the Copernicus programme, as well as within other relevant initiatives.

PROTECT supports urgent action for climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience. It enables public authorities to use state-of-the-art public procurement approaches in order to identify solutions (in terms of Climate Services based on Earth Observation) that best fit the specific and systemic needs of the public demand notably enabling public authorities to shift to a proactive governance model, using innovative public procurement approaches to increase value and climate impact for the money. It shall also increase access by SMEs that provide Climate Services across Europe, to public procurement markets; and shape solutions that best address public demand, both specific and systemic.

The focus is on five application domains: Utilities, Green communities, Circular and Bioeconomy, Land use and Marine environment and Civil Security and Protection and their contributions to the areas of sustainability in Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6.

The project sources and assesses existing and high-potential Climate Services solutions and technologies that use Earth Observation data. It engages with an extensive community of procurers, informs the definition and aggregation of their needs and functional requirements for Climate Services and provides insights and support for a 'buying with impact' approach.

PROTECT will prepare the operational ground for one or more joint, cross-border or coordinated pre-commercial procurement (PCP) processes and identify short-term actions so that Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI) can be activated towards or right after the project’s end. At the policy level, it will provide decision-makers engaged in procurement, climate and policy, at the EU, national, regional and local levels, with practical recommendations and guidelines to boost the use of innovation procurement for climate action.