Dr Aris Georgopoulos, is the academic lead of a collaborative project with a pioneering technology start up, Vamstar, which was awarded an Innovate UK (the UK’s innovation agency) grant focusing on sustainable economic recovery from Covid-19.
The aim of the project is the development of a novel assessment framework for procurement incorporating supplier diversity, supply chain security, and sustainability criteria which will improve procurement capabilities in healthcare for the next phases of the pandemic and for the post-Covid 19 recovery.
Dr Georgopoulos commented: “The recent pandemic demonstrated the vulnerabilities of established supply networks and the limits of public procurement regulatory frameworks even when they allow for a significant degree of flexibility, in the sense that regulatory flexibility alone cannot guarantee the desired outcomes, namely the timely delivery of supplies that meet the appropriate standards. Discussions about public procurement legal reform are important but in order to ensure that they do not miss the proverbial ‘forest’ they must be in tune with developments in other disciplines, especially technology. Technology will help us gain a better view of the ‘forest’. I am delighted to collaborate with Vamstar, a pioneering data science start-up with marketplace and procurement capabilities in healthcare,in order to create a novel assessment framework for sustainable procurement in healthcare. The current juncture of post Brexit procurement reform, the introduction of the new social value in procurement model (from 1 January 2021), combined with the lessons from Covid-19 healthcare procurement, underlines the timeliness of this project.”
Dr Richard Freeman, co-founder and CTO of Architecture and Data Science said: “Securing further funding reinforces Vamstar’s commitment to data science and applied research for good causes. Together with the University of Nottingham, and our commercial partners, Vamstar is accelerating sustainability and diversity in healthcare procurement to better prepare the NHS and other EU Healthcare services for the emerging Covid-19 waves and for post-Covid pandemic recovery”.
Read the press relelase
Posted on Thursday 17th December 2020