Legal aspects of Joint Pre-Commercial Procurements: from modeling to implementation

<!--HTML--><p style="text-align: justify;">The delivery of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services is changing fundamentally. Cloud-based services are replacing traditional local - or on-premises - software and infrastructure installations for many public sector organisations. This applies to government but also to public research organisations, including libraries, which currently deal with the outburst of big data and the need for additional computing capacity. While technology service options continue to evolve, procurement processes and policies have remained firmly rooted in historical practices that are no longer effective. In order for public research organisations of all sizes to take advantage of the best solutions the market has to offer nowadays, a more flexible and agile procurement process must be created and implemented.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The objective of this presentation is to review strategies and tips in order to help procurers implement and publish a Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement tender; including:</p> <ol> <li>General legal framework of PCPs</li> <li>Joint PCPs minimum requirements and constraints</li> <li>Pros and cons of different suitable procurement models</li> <li>Lessons learned from Cloud for Europe and NYMPHA-MD</li> </ol> <h4>About the speaker</h4> <p style="text-align: justify;">Francesca Cinardo holds a Master&rsquo;s Degree in European and Transnational Law obtained at the University of Trento. During 2008/2009, she attended the Lancaster University&rsquo;s Law School (UK). Her experiences include, among others, the collaboration with a Law firm specialized in civil law, and a biannual collaboration with an Associated Notary Public Office, where she increased legal competences in corporate law. Since July 2013, she is working as Legal Advisor at Trento RISE. Her activity focuses on giving horizontal legal support to EU co-funded Joint PCP projects (i.e. Cloud for Europe and NYMPHA-MD). She is involved in drafting agreements regulating the contractual relationship between groups of public purchasers and between public purchasers and contractors. Her activity consists also in drafting contracts for the execution of other European projects addressed South-East Europe.</p> <h4>About Trento RISE</h4> <p style="text-align: justify;">Trento RISE is a new ICT pole of excellence with expertise in Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) procedures, which contributes to the implementation of two Joint PCP projects co-funded by the European Union, <a href="http://www.cloudforeurope.eu" target="_blank">Cloud for Europe</a> and <a href="http://www.nympha-md-project.eu" target="_blank">NYMPHA-MD</a>, respectively in the Cloud Computing and e-health fields. Its contribution concerns the legal coordination of PCPs, which implies drafting Joint Pre-Commercial Procurement processes (e.g. the Tender documentation) and horizontal legal support; from the adoption of a suitable model between the public procurers to the implementation of PCP.</p>