World Café (IO2) | Project results | Project Precius with multiple universities

Requirements for covering sustainability issues in engineer-buyer-supplier relationships: World Cafés Insights

Individuals who operate in a wide array of areas need complete competencies in today's integrated and complex world to achieve success and make an impact that matters. This is also true for the SME sector, environmental engineering, and government institutions' procurement. Professionals must acquire various social, meta, functional, and cognitive competencies to succeed in their fields. Following the white paper developed on the results from the project PRECIUS IO1 and in the series of World Cafés and expert interview sessions gain insight into the competencies necessary for individuals engaged in public procurement, environmental engineering, and the SME sector.

INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT 2: QUALITATIVE PRE-STUDY BY CONDUCTING WORLD CAFÉ SESSIONS AND EXPERT INTERVIEWS AS A STARTING POINT FOR THE SURVEY

The following document provides essential knowledge on the green levers regarding SMEs and public procurement. Conducted World Café sessions and expert interviews complement the results from mapping the landscape (IO1), where broad sources of literature - EU projects – consultancy reports, and training at higher education were analysed. A total of 106 professionals took part in the World Café sessions. A series of twenty-five semi-structured theme interviews were conducted to supplement, where needed, the skills deemed most significant by the World Café vote, the associated competence development opportunities, and other themes pertinent to the project PRECIUS team. The key topics that have been highlighted are the requirement for cooperation, innovative partnerships, and context-specific knowledge for solution specifications and process optimisation. Other skills that are also necessary include product and process optimisation. This new functional competency is required in addition to general requirements like creativity and taking risks to develop sustainable solutions. As confirmed at the World Café and in interviews, managers may enhance sustainable innovations through formal training, seminars, and mentorship by targeting and developing specific competencies. Professionals in this field can be trained by exchanging best practices. The green lever findings will inform the IO3 survey of the IO2 results and investigate how the identified skills enable activities across the three communities, which will test specific aspects. Future work on the subject can involve bringing creative results into recommendations for more study.

White Paper IO2