End of Year Message from Rikesh Shah

End of Year Message from Rikesh Shah, Head of IPEC

As 2024 draws to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on a very productive year for the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC). It has been a year of significant progress, marked by collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and tangible impact across the public procurement sector.

This year began with the successful launch of the Art of the Possible (AOP) at our IPEC Reception. This pivotal moment set the stage for ongoing conversations about innovative approaches to procurement and inspired organisations to share how they’ve embraced the AOP in their work. Case studies exemplified these efforts and quickly became some of our most engaging stories.

In March, we welcomed our first Cohort Programme participants Westminster City Council, Bristol City Council, London Borough of Newham, and Derry City & Strabane District Council, creating a dedicated space for public sector leaders to develop innovative practices. Alongside this, our Followers Programme brought even more voices into the conversation, while the Academics Symposium and CPC Summit provided opportunities to share insights and tackle key challenges collaboratively.

Throughout the year, we prioritised providing actionable resources for practitioners. These included the launch of the Pre-Market Engagement Guide, the Procurement Toolkit, and updates to our Research Landing Page making it easier for you to access key tools and insights. We also published our first research papers, with our partners, University of Birmingham and University of Manchester, addressing barriers to innovation and offering practical strategies to overcome them.

Our work has been guided by a commitment to collaboration and engagement. The publication of our Sentiment Analysis provided a snapshot of challenges faced by the sector, while events like roundtables, in-conversations, and the introduction of new website features—including “Meet the Team”, “Meet the Advisory Board” and IPEC Research—helped us connect with you more meaningfully.

Reaching 1,000 followers on LinkedIn this year is a testament to the community we are building together. Whether it’s through engaging with our events, sharing your case studies, or exploring our toolkits and research, your participation fuels our mission. We also were involved with a series of events across the country to champion why procurement powered innovation is necessary to solve some of our toughest challenges.

We continue to work on various programmes from Freight, Decarbonisaton, Maritime, Highways and many more to create more value in the transport sector. 

As we look to 2025, IPEC remains focused on empowering the public sector to lead in innovative procurement, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that tools and insights are readily available to drive meaningful change, in particular supporting the government's mission focused approach through using the new procurement act. We are excited to build on the momentum of this year and to continue working with all of you to shape the future of procurement.

Thank you for being part of this journey. On behalf of the IPEC team, I wish you a happy and prosperous new year.