90% innovation – 10% procurement
Demand Acceleration
Demand Acceleration is a framework for how the public sector can drive innovation and transformation using public procurement as a tool, by increasing demand for sustainable solutions.
Public procurement as a tool for innovation and transition
Stimulating innovation and transition requires not only investment in new technologies, i.e. more supply, but also an increase in demand for new sustainable solutions, across society, for new technologies to be used and create value. Innovation is not only limited by supply, but also by demand.
Demand Acceleration is a framework for how the public sector can drive innovation and transformation using public procurement as a tool, by increasing demand for sustainable solutions.
Become part of our community
The Demand Acceleration Community is an open learning network for public demand owners and intermediaries interested in jointly exploring how public business can drive innovation and transformation. We meet every third Friday morning to discuss and exchange experiences, using the Demand Acceleration framework as a starting point.
Our community is characterised by openness, and we believe in a balance between competition and collaboration. We share useful materials, such as presentations, process documents and tender documents, with each other, and materials created by members of the community are generally licensed under Creative Commons.
Untapped potential
Public procurement has an annual turnover of over SEK 900 billion in Sweden alone. If just one per cent could be used to drive innovation and transformation, it would be more than double Vinnova’s entire current budget.
Municipalities
11%
Regions
13%
State authorities
18%
In the 2022 national procurement survey, only 11 per cent of municipalities stated that they work to a great extent to procure innovative solutions.
The framework for
Demand Acceleration
The Demand Acceleration framework contains four core values and four fundamental principles.
Values
- Innovation means embracing complexity and unpredictability.
- Innovation is not limited by supply but by demand.
- Public procurement has the potential to become an important tool to drive the transition towards a sustainable society.
- The five principles of public procurement – non-discrimination, equal treatment, proportionality, transparency and mutual recognition, aim to stimulate competition and should govern all interactions between public buyers and suppliers.
Principles
- Non-predictive governance – Navigating uncertainty requires processes designed for unpredictability.
- Iterative and interactive processes – Needs, requirements and solutions change as users and suppliers interact with innovations in their various forms.
- Integrate procurement into the innovation process, not innovation into the procurement process – When integrating innovation and procurement, the process must follow an innovation logic but also fulfil the basic principles of public procurement.
- Scalability beyond the first customer – Scalability increases the shared value for buyers, suppliers and society and needs to be integrated into every step of the process
Take a look at our manuals
Here you will find our handbooks, which provide a more detailed description of how the framework can be applied in practice. In addition, there is a shorter version, which provides a basis for understanding Demand Acceleration from a policy perspective.
Presentations, videos and seminars
Demand-driven innovation development in partnership
10 October 2025
ETIN Seminar on IEP: New Perspectives on IEP in Complex Adaptive Systems
19 March 2025
Open seminar: Warren Smith on “procurement folklore
14 March 2025
Swedish Agency for Public Procurement: Procurement that drives innovation processes
4 November 2024
Presentation of “Open City” – new service launched in Karlstad
10 October 2024
The public sector as an innovation arena
27 November 2024
The city as an arena for innovation – seminar in Karlstad
12 June 2024
ETIN Seminar on IEP: Case example from Georgia and Norway
6 June 2024
Innovation Circle: Transforming Public Procurement
25 March 2024
ETIN Seminar on IEP: A Dive into Scalability and Impact
10 February 2024
Reports and articles
DRAFT ETIN Innovation-Enhancing Procurement (IEP) Workstream: Outcomes and Way Forward
Lina Svensberg, Jakob Lindvall
Developed within the UNECE Transformative Innovation Network (ETIN), October 2025
This draft policy paper summarises key outcomes from the 2024 ETIN workstream on Innovation-Enhancing Procurement (IEP), exploring how public procurement can act as a strategic lever for transformative innovation. It highlights the importance of leadership, adaptive learning, and intermediary ecosystems in enabling public organisations to use procurement as a mission-oriented tool for societal change, and outlines next steps toward capacity-building and policy development within the ETIN community.
Co-contributors and IEP Task Force members include Bianca Cavicchi (European Commission), Kjell-Håkan Närfelt (Vinnova), Bunyod Rakhmatullaev (National Office for Innovation Implementation and Technology Transfer of Uzbekistan), Anita Skog (Arctic Pioneers), Annie Vashakmadze (GITA), Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia (Deusto University).
White Paper: A new perspective on innovation procurement
Lina Svensberg, Kjell Håkan Närfelt
Published 10 February 2025
How can we unlock the power of public sector demand to drive transformation? Or, in other words, how do we awaken “the sleeping giant of innovation policy”? In this paper, Lina Svensberg and Kjell Håkan Närfelt introduce a new perspective on innovation procurement and share key insights from experimenting with this perspective in practice.
Innovation procurement – reflections on definitions, strategic objectives and approaches
Lina Svensberg
Published 31 January 2025
What would happen if all procurement became innovation-friendly, and all public sector innovation processes procurement-friendly? In this article, Lina Svensberg, Innovation Manager at DigitalWell Arena, explores and analyses the terminology at the intersection of innovation and procurement.
Article: Innovation procurement – reflections on definitions, strategic objectives and approaches
Feasibility study to promote innovation and circularity in Helsingborg
The Vagueguide
Published 18 June 2024
The City of Helsingborg, RecoLab and the Compare Foundation have, with funding from Vinnova, conducted a feasibility study exploring how to stimulate circularity of wastewater as a resource and demand as a driving force in a value network that includes both public and private actors.
Extended abstract – Initiating and Scaling Radical Innovations in Healthcare: Revisiting the Roles of Public Procurement and Transformative Innovation Policy in Sustainable Service Ecosystem Design
Lina Svensberg, Jakob Trischler, Jonas Matthing, Leonard Kelleher, Erik Wästlund, Karin Brodén
Presented at EU-SPRI 7 June 2024
In this paper, we tested the proposition that incorporation of a venture logic into the public procurement process could increase the chances of uptake beyond the initial customer, and thereby increase the potential of IEP for transformative innovation.
News, podcasts and blog posts
The Transformation Podcast
#127 – Procurement + innovation = the solution to our biggest challenges?
With Lina Svensberg
The podcast on welfare technology
#15 – Procurement of innovation
Karlstad municipality starts from the needs and lets the market find the solutions in elderly care
IT talks
Digital innovation
DigitalWell Arena and Compare, with Jonas Matthing and Lina Svensberg from Compare (Swe)
Innovation procurement – promoting development
Health Policy Forum
Published 25 January 2024
A guide to innovation-hostile procurement
Health Policy Forum
Published 14 March 2024
Karlstad drives innovation through collaboration with business
Health Policy Forum
Published 25 January 2024
Endgame and system innovation in Karlstad
Internet of Things Sweden
Published 21 March 2023
Public procurement can drive innovation
Theme Story News
Published 21 March 2023
The paradox of innovation procurement
Forum for Health Policy
Published 26 October 2023
Follow our news feed
Growing international interest in how procurement can drive sustainable innovation
International interest in how public procurement can drive innovation is growing. Lina Svensberg, Innovation Manager at DigitalWell Arena, was recently invited to be a keynote…
Virotea’s virtual care training programme has a national reach
Can public procurement become a greater driver of innovation? With the support of Demand Acceleration, the answer is becoming clear. The first service developed using…
Open City soon ready to launch in Trollhättan
Open City reaches new users! The digital guide for people with cognitive challenges will soon be available in Trollhättan too.
Suppliers
Aldab Innovation
Jakob Lindvall
jakob@aldab.se
+46 (0)70 825 90 10
Services: Process management, training, strategy and business development
Ml Impact Consulting
Marie-Louise Eriksson
hello@mlimpact.se
+46 (0)70 928 20 72
Services: Process management, training
Compare Foundation
Carolin Maule
carolin.maule@compare.se
+46 (0)73 055 57 15.
Services: Process management, training, mentoring, strategy
Quadruple Wermland AB
Per Danielsson
per.danielsson@me.com
+46 (0)70 307 24 18
Services: Legal advice, procurement consultancy
The dialogue makers
Niklas Tideklev
niklas.tideklev@dialogmakarna.se
+46 (0)73 925 49 60
Services: Legal advice, process management, training, procurement consultancy
Maplebloom AB
Katarina Chowra
katarina.chowra@maplebloom.com
+46 (0)70 63 58 680
Services: Process management
Kista Science City
Mikaela Färnqvist, Lucas Uhlén
mikaela.farnqvist@kista.com
+46 (0)731 58 3508lucas.uhlen@kista.com
+46 (0)708- 55 55 62
Services: Process management
Source Innovation
Hanna Wallin
hanna.wallin@broninnovation.se
+46 (0)76 022 41 92
Services: Process management
Leap for Life
Anna-Maria Mårtensson
anna_maria_martensson@hh.se
+46 (0)72 977 37 21
Services: Process management
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