Author: Milda Beišytė and Laura Kirchner
In GovTech4All, pilots are not isolated experiments, but part of a continuous learning process. Each pilot is designed to test concrete approaches and methodologies, generate practical insights and identify what really works when public administrations collaborate with innovative companies. These learnings are then used to refine, adapt and scale the model in subsequent phases of the programme. This blogpost looks at how one pilot from the first phase of the incubator directly informed the design of two new pilots in the second phase, building on experience rather than starting from zero.
Testing the open innovation process at a pan-European level
During the first phase of the GovTech4All incubator (SGA1), Pilot 3 “Startup Challenge for Innovative Procurement” was launched to test how public administrations across Europe could better identify, test and adopt innovative digital solutions developed by startups, scale-ups and digital SMEs. The pilot aimed to open public procurement processes to a more diverse ecosystem of providers, improving not only how digital public services are delivered, but also the overall experience for citizens.
To achieve this, Pilot 3 combined three key elements into a single, structured approach: an open innovation process tailored to the public sector, targeted support for startups through a dedicated Bootcamp, and the use of the design contest as a flexible procurement instrument for innovation. These elements were tested through a concrete, shared challenge focused on energy efficiency, implemented in collaboration with six municipalities from Sweden, Lithuania, Greece and Spain. The challenge responded to a particularly urgent context in 2023, marked by the energy crisis, the climate emergency and the EU’s need to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
At the same time, the pilot directly addressed long-standing barriers in public–startup collaboration. Many public administrations still struggle to identify and work with emerging digital providers, while startups often lack the knowledge and tools needed to engage effectively with the public sector. Rigid procurement procedures and risk-averse cultures further limit collaboration. Pilot 3 provided a practical, reusable response to these challenges, generating concrete learnings that would later become the foundation for new and more advanced pilots in SGA2.
Pilot 1 SGA2: Scaling innovation through collaboration with traditional providers
Building directly on the experience of Pilot 3 in SGA1, Pilot 1 of SGA2 focuses on one of the main challenges identified during the first phase: how to scale innovative solutions after a successful pilot. While open innovation processes help public administrations discover new technologies, many solutions struggle to move beyond testing due to procurement barriers, legacy systems and existing relationships with traditional providers. Pilot 1 addresses this gap by exploring new ways for startups and established providers to collaborate more effectively.
The pilot tests an open innovation process with five local and regional governments, bringing together startups, scale-ups, digital SMEs and traditional technology or service providers. Its objective is to demonstrate how collaboration models can support the integration of innovative solutions into real public service delivery systems. To do this, the pilot combines formal procurement instruments, such as design contests and open innovation clauses in large technology contracts, with informal engagement activities like matchmaking sessions, GovTech Days and thematic roundtables. Together, these tools aim to build trust, reduce friction, and create practical opportunities for collaboration.
In parallel, Pilot 1 places strong emphasis on learning and replicability. A targeted research effort maps existing collaboration approaches across EU Member States and analyses the results of the pilots. The outcome will be practical guidelines that help public administrations adopt fair, scalable and interoperable collaboration models. By combining experimentation, ecosystem engagement and evidence-based learning, Pilot 1 sets the foundation for scaling GovTech innovation across Europe.
Pilot 3 SGA2: Experimenting in a structured environment for scaling and regulatory learning
The concept of the “GovTech AI Sandbox” pilot emerged from lessons learnt while implementing Pilot3 of SGA1, as well as from the GovTech Challenge Series programmes at GovTech Lab Lithuania. Anyone who has worked on AI projects in the public sector is likely familiar with this pattern: promising AI solutions are developed, show potential, yet never scale. Fragmented development, ineffective dissemination of GovTech solutions, outdated regulations, unclear guidelines, strict procedures, user-behaviour challenges, and risk-averse institutions often prevent even the best innovations from moving beyond isolated pilots. These challenges inspired the concept of the “GovTech AI Sandbox” – now the new Pilot 3 of SGA2.
By scaling the methodologies used in the “Startup Challenge for Innovative Procurement”, the “GovTech AI Sandbox” pilot combines several methodological approaches: open innovation, public procurement, and experimentation spaces. The goal is to create a safe, structured and supportive experimentation programme that promotes the responsible adoption of GovTech innovations based on emerging technologies. It will be tested by the local-level public institutions in Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, and Sweden.
The programme is built on collaboration and co-creation. Public-sector teams jointly define challenges, procure solutions and validate them in co-development with private-sector innovators. The process is supported by expert guidance on challenge framing, procurement, technology implementation, regulatory adjustments, and procedural changes.
A strong focus on inter-institutional needs ensures that a single GovTech solution - acquired through a design contest as a joint procurement - is scalable-by-design from the outset. Public- and private-sector partners co-develop an experimentation plan that guides solution validation, ensuring that it is reusable across institutions and aligned with user needs. These inter-institutional, collaborative public-private partnerships create for piloting reusable GovTech innovations early in the development process.
Throughout development, monitoring, and testing, programme participants collect evidence on legal, procedural, or behavioural obstacles that might hinder adoption. If the GovTech AI solution proves promising, these insights would help institutions update rules, processes, or internal procedures.
Ultimately - if successfully piloted – the “GovTech AI Sandbox” could become a reusable blueprint for public-sector institutions seeking to responsibly adopt and scale emerging technologies. By combining experimentation with structure and a strong emphasis on scalability and regulatory learning, the programme aims to empower institutions to innovate with confidence and unlock the full potential of AI for public good.
From SGA1 to SGA2: reusing and evolving the GovTech approach
Together, these three pilots show how GovTech4All is moving from testing to scaling. Core building blocks from SGA1, such as the open innovation process, the design contest and structured support for startups, are reused and strengthened in SGA2, while new elements are added to address scalability more directly. Pilot 1 expands the model by actively involving traditional providers and testing new collaboration and procurement formulas, while Pilot 3 takes the methodology one step further by applying it to AI-driven solutions in a multi-institutional sandbox setting. The result is a more mature, evidence-based approach to GovTech innovation, focused not only on experimentation, but on long-term adoption, interoperability and impact across Europe.