Public-private partnerships involve collaboration between the public sector and a private company. These partnerships can be built for several purposes and have different kinds of partnership collaborations. Several examples from the Nordic Region show how these partnerships may help increase the share of innovation in public procurement.

During 2015-2016, Sitra hosted an “impact accelerator”, the goal of which was to build an ecosystem for impact investing in Finland. The 28 companies that took part in the acceleration programme developed solutions for problems like increasing the welfare of children and their families, preventing youth isolation, and improving the agency and functionality of the elderly. The impact accelerator programme strengthened the start-ups’ abilities to attract funding, know-how, and growth. Through such programmes, companies such as Merikratos Oy found several public partners to help fund further development of healthcare technologies (such as heart rate monitoring and video observation for protecting children from abuse). Klinik Finland is another company that benefitted from the accelerator programme by establishing a cooperation with the regional healthcare provider Saarikka in Central Finland. This partnership enabled the impact start-up to help clients identify their health symptoms and gain clarity on which healthcare service provider is most suitable to meet those needs (Sitra 2016). According to a City of Vantaa representative, cooperation between cities and national actors is often a key feature for achieving innovative and sustainable public procurement. To generate similar results on a larger scale, however, more concrete policy goals would be needed (Anon 2022).  

Public-private partnerships can also emerge as part of a solution to rural service provision. The following two examples from Sweden are from a rural context where centralisation along with regional and municipal mergers can lead to a lack of services to the local population. In these examples public and private partnerships have been established to ensure a continuation of healthcare, citizen service, and public meal procurement.  

Offerdal Healthcare Centre: In Northern Sweden, Jämtland County Council developed its own model for healthcare provision. The council based its public procurement principles on qualitative values, such as working methods, rather than only using the healthcare providers offering the lowest costs. Due to these public procurement rules, Offerdal Healthcare Centre was able to obtain a public procurement contract in 2012 (Berlina 2016a). The healthcare centre was established as a cooperative that was owned and self-managed by the employees, and it serves as an example where local people take initiative to continue a healthcare centre which otherwise would have closed (Berlina 2016a). 

Service Centre in Kalix Övre bygden: In Kalix Municipality in Northern Sweden, residents initiated a centre that provides various public services, including a home care service and school taxi service, in addition to acting as a local store. Kalix Municipality supports the project by acting as a main cooperation partner of the service centre. Additionally, the service centre cooperates with different regional authorities, including the County Council of Norbotten, as well as small business owners who can buy services from the centre. Moreover, the service centre has been engaged in cross-border cooperation with the municipalities of Övertorneå and Haparanda (Berlina 2016b). In line with the previous example, this project shows how a group of locally engaged people are preventing the loss of services in their rural area through establishing a public-private partnership. 

In Denmark, rural areas also struggled with closing down basic community facilities. Jammerbugt Municipality in Northern Jutland addressed the concern by establishing partnerships between the public and private sectors. This took place through the Skovgård model, consisting of three social enterprises—Købmandsgården, Skovsgård Hotel, and Råd&Dåd—all of which are located in former merchant houses in rural areas in Denmark. The establishment of these three social enterprises would not have been possible without a public partnership. During the initiation and development of the Skovgård model, the enterprises collaborated closely with the municipality. The main driver of these projects has been the residents of Skovgård with their visionary ideas about how a more inclusive labour market can support local community development. The purpose of the model is to provide opportunities for people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups and provide useful products and services for the communities in the area. The model demonstrates how the local community can collectively take over private institutions and establish enterprises where disabled people can contribute to local rural development (Jungsberg 2016).

To establish public-private partnerships, it can be helpful to organise workshops to define local needs and have an open dialogue about possible societal solutions, for example, for young people at risk of social exclusion, integration of immigrants, citizen services, and public participation. In Norway, several interest organisations (Kommun Sektorensorganisation, Innovation Norway, SoCentral, and Ferd Social entrepreneur) have co-created workshops together with the municipal and regional authorities.  The meetings have been organised on the topic of how local actors can contribute to a society that fosters increased participation by young people, where exclusion and dropout rates are reduced, and where new communal values are established in the municipality (Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation 2020).  

Public-private partnerships in Norway have also been used to respond to needs of elderly people in care facilities. Innovation Norway and the City of Stavanger started collaborating with Innocom AS, an impact start-up established in 2017 that develops welfare technology to improve independency among those with particular needs. A result from this public- private partnership is a robot that makes it easier to follow-up and motivate patients to be active. This solution was tailored to the needs of the municipality by specifically finding ways to support patients in respite care. The City of Stavanger has since purchased several activity robots that are now introduced in local nursing homes (Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation 2020).