Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Program Slides – Chat – Transcript
George Washington University Law School’s Government Procurement Law Program hosted a one-hour special webinar on procurement-for-innovation, focusing on the NATO DIANA (North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA)) initiative as a case study in effective use of public procurement to generate innovation. NATO DIANA was established by NATO to find and accelerate dual-use (commercial and military) innovation capacity across the Alliance. Procurement-for-innovation is a key emerging issue in global procurement policy, in both the European Union and the United States, and the NATO DIANA initiative provides an excellent case study.
Panel
Tom McSorley, General Counsel, NATO DIANA – DIANA’s Procurement Strategy
Maj. Gen. Jorge Côrte-Real Andrade (Portugal), PhD, NATO DIANA Military Deputy Director for Europe – DIANA’s goals and a user’s perspectives
Lucian Cernat, Head of Global Regulatory Cooperation and International Procurement Negotiations at the European Commission – Procurement-for-Innovation in the EU
Sonia Tabriz, Arnold & Porter – U.S. solutions for innovation, including “Other Transactions” and “Commercial Solutions Opening”
Moderators – Profs. Christopher Yukins (GW Law), Gabriella Racca (U. Turin) & Daniel Schoeni (GW Law – U. Dayton/Aug. 2025)
Common Points: Procurement for Innovation
The goal of the webinar is not just to show parallel developments in the United States and Europe regarding procurement for innovation, but to identify common elements in public procurement to advance innovation.
In a speech he presented at George Washington University, NATO-DIANA’s Paul Peyton, a retired Canadian officer, identified those common elements for success:
- Operational Impact – Successfully integrating innovative technologies into day-to-day government operations and capabilities.
- Rapid Prototyping – Becoming faster and more efficient at accelerating and adopting new solutions.
- A Cultural Shift that moves toward new ways of doing business that reflect best industry practices, to move at “commercial speed.”
- Normalized collaboration that shifts to a constant dialogue between government and industry, not just a push and pull transactional relationship.
- The availability of a Trusted Capital Community that aligns with governments’ mission, is committed to human rights and the rule of law, and is ready to invest in deep-tech companies.
As the webinar panelists will discuss, the NATO DIANA initiative thus provides an excellent case study on what works in procurement for innovation — around the world.
Resources
- Roberto Cavallo Perin & Gabriella Racca (2019), “European Joint Cross-border Procurement and Innovation,” in Joint Public Procurement and Innovation: Lessons Across Borders (G.M. Racca and C.R. Yukins eds) (Bruylant 2019).
- Lucian Cernat, The Participation of Foreign Bidders in EU Public Procurement: Too Much or Too Little?, European Centre for International Political Economy, Policy Brief No. 05/2025 (May 2025)
- Mario Draghi & Enrico Letta (2024). The future of European competitiveness. Retrieved from The Draghi report on EU competitiveness.
- Defense Acquisition University, Commercial Solutions Opening (DFARS 212.70)
- European Commission, Enrico Letta’s Report on the Future of the Single Market (2024)
- European Commission, European Assistance For Innovation Procurement (EAFIP) (resources on procurement for innovation)
- European Commission, The future of European competitiveness: Report by Mario Draghi (2024)
- European Commission. (n.d.). Innovation Procurement. Retrieved from Innovation procurement – European Commission.
- European Commission. (2007). ‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – Pre-commercial Procurement: driving innovation to ensure sustainable high quality public services in Europe SEC(2007) 1668’. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0799:FIN:EN:PDF.
- European Commission. (2025). White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030. Retrieved from Future of European defence – European Commission.
- European Council. (2000). Lisbon European Council 23 and 24 March 2000: Conclusions of the Presidency. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/lis1_en.htm.
- European Court of Auditors. (2023). Public procurement in the EU. Retrieved from Special report 28/2023: Public procurement in the EU.
- Thomas McSorley, Maciej Macenowicz, Matthew Maddison & Christopher Yukins, Allies Bridging The Valley Of Death: How NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator For The North Atlantic Will Help Maintain NATO’s Technological Edge, 67 Government Contractor ¶ 1 (Thomson Reuters, Jan. 8, 2025)
- OECD, Public procurement for public sector innovation: Facilitating innovators’ access to innovation procurement (2024)
- Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Other Transactions Guide (July 2023, v. 2.0)
- Sonia Tabriz, Stuart Turner, Ronald Lee & Kyung Liu-Katz, Trump Administration Issues Executive Orders Directing Major Changes to Defense Acquisition and Federal Procurement More Broadly (Arnold & Porter, Apr. 21, 2025)
- Senator Roger Wicker, Restoring Freedom’s Forge: American Innovation Unleashed (Defense Management Institute, Dec. 2024) (FoRGED Act)