Sapiens Network Lead Researchers, Martin Trybus and Marta Andhov, together with the Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), Xinyue Xue and Natalia Spataru attended the 10th Public Procurement Research Students Conference in Nottingham. 

In December 2023, together with the Sapiens lead researchers Professor Martin Trybus (Sapiens Network Director of Training) and Associate Professor Marta Andhov (Sapiens Network Dissemination and Communication Lead), Early Stage Researchers Xinyue Xue (ESR 11) and Natalia Spataru (ESR 01) attended the 10th Public Procurement Research Students Conference in Nottingham.

(From left to right: ESR Natalia Spataru, Professor Martin Trybus, Associate Professor Marta Andhov, ESR Xinyue Xue).

This in person conference was organised by the Public Procurement Research Group (PPRG) and aimed at research students in law but also other disciplines investigating procurement regulation and policy. Ph.D. candidates had the opportunity to present their research and receive feedback from the academic staff of the PPRG as well as other invited academics.

Discussants included Professor Martin Trybus, Albert Sanchéz Graells (University of Bristol), Penny Giosa (University of Portsmouth), Kirsi-Maria Halonen (University of Lapland, Finland), Willem Janssen (Utrecht University/Groningen University, The Netherlands), Marta Andhov (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), and the academic staff members of the PPRG: Professors Anna Maria La Chimia and Luke Butler, Peter Trepte, Paula Faustino, and Aris Georgopoulos.

Associate Professor Andhov opened the conference with a keynote speech touching upon such aspects as gender equality in a conference panel and the methods and instruments for a well-structured conference presentation.

Sapiens ESRs contributions

Xinyue presented a chapter from her Ph.D. research titled ‘An Analysis of Barriers Confronting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Public Procurement’. SMEs, comprising around 90% of businesses globally, play a pivotal role in economies, yet their participation in public procurement is often hindered by multifaceted barriers. Her research provides a taxonomy to categorise barriers and problems that SMEs encounter, from regulatory constraints and financial burdens to limited access to information and bureaucratic complexities. The levels of difficulty exhibit significant diversity. This taxonomy aims to facilitate a more detailed understanding of the hurdles confronting SMEs, enabling policymakers, businesses, and stakeholders to tailor interventions according to the specific nature and intensity of these challenges. The feedback offered by Professor Luke Butler to Xinyue’s presentation opened the ground for a dynamic exchange of ideas on the presented topic.

Natalia delivered a presentation on ‘Sustainability and national public procurement objectives: the case of Italy’ – a chapter of her Ph.D. thesis. The main objectives of her research on the Italian PP system and sustainability aspects were to determine the ‘purely national’ PP goals and investigate whether the Italian PP system incorporated sustainability considerations. This served as a reference point against which to evaluate the impact of EU law domestically and provided a framework for understanding the modifications brought by the EU law to the Italian PP system. This research set the foundation for the analysis (in the following chapters of Natalia’s Ph.D.) of FTA PP chapters’ impact on national legislation. Natalia’s presentation underlined that the focus of the Italian PP system since the unification of Italy has been twofold: 1) to promote ‘traditional’ PP objectives similar to many national systems – value for money and probity 2) to harness the PP power to promote sustainability considerations nationally. As a consequence of the transposition of the EU PP the Italian PP system has aimed to open up its procurement market to tenderers from other Member States. The feedback received from Professor Peter Trepte had a positive transformative impact on the quality of both the substantive arguments and the methodology of her presentation.

This Conference provided a valuable platform for networking within the wider academic community and offered the Sapiens ESRs the opportunities to connect with other Ph.D. candidates who hailed from China, Israel, Finland, Belgium, Estonia, Norway, and Denmark.