Biscay’s GovTech Lab is emerging as a hub for collaboration between the Provincial Council, start-ups, and SMEs, co-creating digital solutions to public sector challenges. Using the OECD GovTech Policy Framework, this chapter assesses the Lab’s maturity across many of the GovTech building blocks and enablers for effective and sustainable GovTech collaborations. As the Provincial Council looks to further expand its use of GovTech to innovate public service delivery and drive economic growth in its start-up ecosystem, the chapter also identifies opportunities to strengthen data use, integrate GovTech into budget planning, expand procurement models, and leverage international networks.
Digital Government Review of Biscay, Spain
Towards a Future-Oriented Public Sector
Abstract
Biscay’s GovTech Lab fosters collaboration between the Provincial Council with start-ups and the wider innovation ecosystem to address public sector challenges. This chapter applies the OECD GovTech Policy Framework as an analytical tool to assess the maturity of Biscay’s GovTech Building Blocks and Enablers – highlighting where progress has been made and where the Provincial Council can focus its efforts as it expands its use of GovTech. Strengthening these foundations will be essential to advancing public service innovation while supporting the growth of Biscay’s start-up ecosystem.
The GovTech Lab in Biscay is an example of how governments can foster collaboration between public and private sectors on digital solutions for administrative challenges. Operating as a laboratory for public administration, it seeks to transform how government delivers services, engages with citizens and businesses, and develops Biscay's GovTech ecosystem (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[1]).
Its team works with representatives across Biscay's public administration to identify and define operational challenges, then guides them through a structured programme to develop, test, and potentially scale digital solutions. Through open innovation processes, the Provincial Council of Biscay aims to identify promising technologies, pilot new approaches, and scale viable solutions by partnering with non-traditional providers - including start-ups and other small-to-medium enterprises globally. This model attempts to establish new forms of public-private collaboration with innovative technology companies (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[1]; Gobe, 2025[2]). The GovTech Lab follows a standard methodology based on 5 phases (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[1]), including the:
Identification of challenges: Relying on design and innovation methodologies, we identify problems on which to define the challenges to be worked on in the program.
Dissemination of challenges: The challenges are communicated and disseminated in the innovation ecosystem, thus calling on startups to present solutions.
Selection of startups: Startups and management learn to work together. In addition, meetings are held with the startups to choose the finalist that the pilot will carry out in each challenge.
Piloting and experimentation: The startups and DFB areas work with the users of the public service or process to design the objectives of the collaboration, and it is implemented with the support of GovTech Lab Bizkaia.
Broadcast and scaling: Learnings from the pilot are extracted to inform future tenders at scale and potential investment logics.
This methodology provides a comprehensive framework for guiding innovation from problem definition through to broader adoption. Comparable approaches can be found elsewhere but with distinct emphases. Lithuania’s GovTech Lab, for instance, also begins with a challenge-driven process, but is strongly oriented toward national co-ordination and matchmaking between ministries and start-ups (GovTech Lab Lithuania, 2024[3]). Luxembourg’s GovTech Lab is embedded within its broader digital innovation unit, offering more centralised capacity to test and diffuse solutions across government (Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 2025[4]). Norway’s StartOff shares the phased approach but has more strictly-defined requirements at each phase (Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management, 2024[5]). Madrid’s Govtechlab has focused on fostering a municipal ecosystem, closer to service delivery and urban innovation needs, while Colombia’s MiLab includes a dedicated ‘strengthening’ phase prior to full implementation, helping to reduce risk and improve technological fit before scaling (Govtechlab Madrid, 2024[6]; OPSI, 2028[7]). Together, these models highlight different pathways – national, regional, local, or sectoral – for embedding structured GovTech methodologies. Biscay’s five-phase approach aligns well with this international practice while maintaining a regional focus that connects closely with local economic development and public service transformation.
The dissemination and management of the chosen GovTech challenges is done through a dedicated space on BEAZ’s ‘BIOK!’ procurement platform (BEAZ, 2025[8]). This ensures transparency, accessibility, and visibility for both start-ups and public bodies. By centralising dissemination and management in a dedicated space, the platform fosters trust, encourages wider participation, and makes it easier to track, share, and scale innovative solutions across the ecosystem.
Since its establishment in 2022, the GovTech Lab has undertaken the process for 14 GovTech challenges that span the themes of improved citizen engagement, process simplification, public management and easier use of public resources (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[9]). These GovTech challenges have sought to:
Redesign the process of registering cattle to improve the experience for farmers.
Promote the use of Basque language in collaboration with agents.
Improve the valuation of immovable cultural heritage with better information management and use.
Improve the visual information of office buildings to improve mobility and livability
Collect and communicate information with young people.
Better understand the use of Biscay’s public transport service.
Support the impact assessment of a subsidy programme for Biscay’s businesses.
Improve communication and information of incidents that might result in insurance claims.
Improve the management of the demand to use public spaces and recreational areas.
Support the creation of a digital space for better citizen participation.
Improve the management of information on the use of sports facilities in open space
Promote the use of Basque in citizen communications from entities, associations and federations.
Collect feedback information from users of Citizen Attention Services to inform decision-making.
Foster a culture of knowledge and collaboration in adopting new technological tools.
To better understand the approach and its outcomes, three of these challenges are described in greater detail in Box 5.1.
While most of these challenges have been successful and are still in use across Biscay, there have also been some implementation issues that help to refine the approach of the GovTech Lab. For example, one of the early challenges was around driving adoption of new technological tools. The intent had been to develop training materials that would help improve awareness of digital tools and uplift general digital literacy so that civil servants would be more comfortable in using them (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[10]). However, generating high-quality materials with the AI solution in both Spanish and Basque language was lengthier and more complex than intended, which meant that the manual intervention from project team was high. The lessons from this pilot were therefore to align internal knowledge on what content has the most impact, limit training on the video tool to a small group, work iteratively when producing videos, and ensure enough resources are available at the same time to deliver the project effectively (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[10]). Going forward, the GovTech Lab team could use this pilot to stress the need for the GovTech actors on all sides to take the time required to refine the requirements of the solution and to incorporate user testing into the design and prototyping of solutions. This would then enable the actors to mitigate any issues earlier in the process, change the design or delivery of solutions if they are not fit-for-purpose, or to decide whether to terminate a project if it becomes clear that a solution is no longer going to be viable.
Overall, Biscay’s GovTech Lab represents a solid model for collaborating on digital solutions that have innovated the way that the Provincial Council interacts with people and businesses. However, there is always room to improve. To understand where the province could focus its efforts, Biscay’s approach to GovTech has been analysed in the following section against the OECD’s GovTech Policy Framework to identify which of the building blocks and enablers could be strengthened.
Using WhatsApp surveys to support the Citizen Advice Service
This was the first challenge undertaken by the GovTech Lab, which sought to improve the collection of feedback on the Citizen Advice Service and incorporate it into decision-making – but to do so in a way that was not intrusive. The winning solution was to develop automated surveys and response analysis by Aunoa, which can be sent automatically and monitored and analysed in real time. The solution was based on collecting user feedback via face-to-face, telephone and web channels, which was first developed and tested in a test environment. The solution integrated APIs to enable the automatic sending of surveys for user feedback, as well as a chatbot to support users through the online survey that they had to complete. The process was closed out with an evaluation that determined that WhatsApp was the most effective channel by reaching over 70% of the users (compared to 50% by telephone and 35% in person) and a user satisfaction rate above 80%. This led to WhatsApp being adopted as the primary channel for user feedback on the service, but also helped the civil service to overcome a historical reluctance to adopt the channel in its communications strategy.
Redesigning the way that farmers register livestock
This challenge looked at how GovTech actors could redesign the process of registering cattle by shifting to a simple digital process instead of relying on unnecessary visits to the office – leveraging technology and automated processes to improve the user experience for farmers. The winning solution by Data-ka proposed to use conversational AI to register animals through a channel similar to WhatsApp, which guides farmers step -by-step through the process, which automates data capture and generation of official documents. Through the development of this solution, the GovTech Lab documented lessons around the need for actors to undertake user engagement to understand their needs and pain points – farmers were ultimately willing to adopt a new digital tool for this process as long as it was simple, user-friendly, and had support from the public administration for its adoption.
Supporting agents
This challenge explored how Biscay could better communicate and collaborate with the ecosystem of actors that were promoting Basque language. The Provincial Council wanted to better co-ordinate these agents, so that there would be no duplication of effort. The winning solution from Osoigo was to develop a digital platform to promote participation and collaboration of these actors in the design and development of activities as part of a common agenda. This required the:
Selection of agents participating in the pilot.
Development of the digital platform with the necessary functionalities.
Face-to-face session to activate agents to initiate collaboration.
Meetings between the agents involved and preparation of files for each collaborative project.
Review and upload of content to the platform, together with the creation of the common agenda.
Through this pilot, the GovTech Lab discovered that a critical factor in the adoption of the digital tool was in maintaining face-to-face engagement early in the project to drive participation.
The OECD defines GovTech as the collaboration between the public sector and start-ups, innovators, government “intrapreneurs”, and academia on innovative digital government solutions. It complements existing public sector capability for agile, user-centric, responsive, and cost-effective processes and services. It aims to contribute to an agile public sector and enhance digital government maturity.
GovTech reflects the need for collaborative governance in digital government. It creates space for strategic partnerships between the public and other sectors to co-create innovative digital solutions. By fostering the participation of start-ups and small-to-medium enterprises, it also helps address the issue of embedded legacy ICT vendors across government.
GovTech collaborations enable digital government by allowing public sectors to explore, experiment, and develop digital solutions that address key challenges that the sector faces. It is used to:
ensure that digital government investments are cost-effective and deliver their intended outcomes.
offer scalable and replicable solutions, expanding options for public sectors with limited resources.
explore digital technologies, especially for the development and deployment of AI-based solutions.
develop solutions that better meet user needs for more people-centred public services.
enhance capability and capacity to address key policy challenges, like the green transition.
However, despite the value that countries see in GovTech, there are varying levels of maturity in its implementation, with fewer countries having dedicated GovTech strategies or programmes, teams to manage projects, or the resources to support them. Many countries do not therefore make sufficient resources available to ensure that their use of GovTech is effective and impactful. Countries require further support in identifying the key enabling conditions to implement GovTech effectively and leverage its full potential. To this end, the OECD’s GovTech Policy Framework was developed to guide governments on how to establish the conditions for successful, sustainable, and effective GovTech. The framework consists of two parts: the GovTech Building Blocks and the GovTech Enablers, as shown in Figure 5.1:
Building Blocks and Enablers for more effective and innovative collaborations between the public and other sectors
Source: (OECD, 2024[14])
The building blocks represent the foundations at the micro-level needed to establish impactful GovTech practices within public sectors by introducing more agile practices, mitigating risks, and building meaningful collaboration with the GovTech ecosystem. These building blocks include:
Mature digital government infrastructure: including the necessary technology, infrastructure, tools, and data governance to enable both GovTech collaborations and the digital solutions they develop.
Capacities for collaboration and experimentation: within the public sector, including the digital skills and multidisciplinary teams; agile processes, tools, and methodologies; and a culture that encourages experimentation and accepts failure.
Resources and implementation support: considering how to make funding available, how to evolve procurement approaches, and how to scale successful pilots across organisations and internationally.
Availability and maturity of GovTech partners: including acceleration programmes to support start-ups growth by facilitating access to capital, the scaling up of solutions, and minimising barriers to access procurement opportunities.
At the macro-level, the enablers instead create an environment that fosters the development of GovTech and facilitates good practices. This is done at the:
Strategic layer: where governments could use GovTech strategies and champions in senior leadership positions to mobilise support and set a clear direction for GovTech.
Institutional layer: where governments could seek collaboration and knowledge-sharing across institutions at the national, regional, or policy levels.
Network layer: where both governments and GovTech actors should seek to mobilise the network collectively to strengthen the GovTech practice and garner broader support from communities.
However, countries still require guidance on when GovTech collaborations are most useful. The GovTech Decision Tree guides policymakers or practitioners on how to assess when GovTech is most effective and would have the greatest impact; that is, where both the problem and potential solutions are clearly defined, or where the problem is well-defined and the scenario is replicable, but the solutions are unknown.
By using the OECD GovTech Policy Framework as a guide, governments can more confidently use GovTech partnerships as part of their digital government strategies and maximise the impact of their collaborations. However, while not all these components need to be in place immediately, Governments can focus on specific components of the framework in the short term to introduce greater innovation and agility to the public sector, while building a scalable approach to secure sustainable outcomes and greater impact in the longer term.
While Biscay’s GovTech initiative is well aligned with the OECD GovTech Policy Framework and comparable international models, it is valuable to assess the maturity of each of the GovTech Building Blocks and Enablers that exist in the region helps to highlight where the Provincial Council can focus its efforts as it looks to further expand its use of GovTech to innovate public service delivery and drive economic growth in its start-up ecosystem.
Building Blocks: Mature digital government infrastructure
GovTech solutions rely on the strength of public sector data and digital infrastructure. Their success depends on the maturity of a government’s technology environment and governance, which can either constrain or enable innovation. Legacy systems, common tools, service standards, and data governance all shape how digital services are designed and delivered. In practice, three elements of mature digital government are critical to effective GovTech projects: high-quality data, access and sharing, and flexible infrastructure. Biscay’s maturity in each of these sections in explored below.
High quality data
Many GovTech solutions, particularly those involving AI, are highly data-intensive and rely on high-quality data to deliver value. Before engaging with GovTech actors, public sector entities should assess whether sufficient, reliable data exist for the problem at hand. Where gaps are identified, collaboration may need to shift from solution development to improving data quality or identifying new sources. High-quality data are built through a cycle of collection, processing, sharing, and re-use, with each stage shaping their reliability and impact. Strong data practices are essential to ensure GovTech solutions are effective, trusted, and capable of delivering public value. Additionally, because data are the foundation of AI and analytics, their quality directly influences the effectiveness and fairness of GovTech initiatives. GovTech actors therefore need to be conscious not to use poor or biased data that can risk undermining decision-making, amplifying inequalities, and embedding discriminatory practices.
Biscay ensures data readiness for GovTech collaborations by combining clear legal mandates with technical standards. As highlighted in Chapter 3, its legal framework, including Provincial Regulation 1/2016, Decree 106/2020 and Decree 81/2023, obliges institutions to publish data openly under permissive licences while safeguarding security and privacy (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[15]). This guarantees that data shared with GovTech actors are both accessible and trustworthy. On the technical side, Open Data Bizkaia provides datasets in open, non-proprietary formats (such as CSV, XML and ATOM), enabling seamless reuse in AI or analytics applications (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[16]). Further, Biscay aligns with Spain’s National Interoperability Scheme and its Technical Standards for Interoperability, ensuring compatibility of data models, metadata and catalogues across administrations. For GovTech actors, this creates a reliable ecosystem where data are transparent, interoperable and reusable, reducing barriers to innovation while supporting fairness and accountability in digital public services. This alignment with national standards also helps to ensure the scalability of GovTech solutions across Spain, should these opportunities be pursued.
Data access and sharing
High-quality data must be both accessible and secure to support GovTech collaborations. When innovators can reliably access data, they can generate insights, develop algorithms, and create applications that deliver public value. However, fragmented or ad hoc data-sharing arrangements often create delays, raise costs, and introduce uncertainty. The challenge is twofold: enabling data exchange across public entities and facilitating access for external actors. Within government, projects may require data from multiple registers or databases, raising issues of discoverability, interoperability, and availability. Externally, clear legal and technological pathways are needed to share data with GovTech partners while safeguarding privacy and security. Systematic approaches to open data and the use of APIs can also strengthen digital ecosystems and accelerate GovTech innovation.
According to the findings of the survey, GovTech start-ups and entrepreneurs are amongst the stakeholders with which the Provincial Council is actively engaging in the release and re-use of open government data. This is made available to the GovTech ecosystem on a project-basis through individual requests from and between government entities, but also through Open Data Bizkaia – the Council’s open data website on which it published almost 80 datasets across all policy areas (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[17]).
As discussed in Chapter 3, GovTech collaborations could be further enhanced with greater access to government data to help identify possible challenges or to feed into potential solutions, which will likely be supported with the Council’s existing efforts to improve data access and sharing. To build on this, the Council take steps to also undertake training with staff, so that the public sector teams know what data is available and where to access it, and promote the use and sharing of data in GovTech collaborations. Further analysis, including potentially with AI systems, could also help to identify policy challengers that could form the basis for future collaborations. As an example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, private sector actors in Korea were able to use real-time inventory data through open APIs to develop a solution that showed the stock levels for facemasks around the country to help users find masks more easily, but also to ensure fair distribution of masks and prevent hoarding (OECD, 2025[18]).
Flexible infrastructure
Flexible digital infrastructure is essential to effective GovTech collaboration. Cloud computing, now widely used by GovTech start-ups, provides the secure and scalable capacity needed to build, test, and deploy solutions. This is particularly important for AI and big data applications, which require computing power beyond what legacy systems can offer. Public sector entities should therefore consider how best to procure or access cloud infrastructure, ensuring that providers are secure, reliable, and aligned with sustainability goals, given the environmental impact of data centres.
As described in Chapter 4, Biscay has shared or common digital infrastructure provided by Lantik, which are leveraged by the departments of the provincial government. While these are not necessarily made available to the GovTech ecosystem to support these collaborations, they do support the civil service actors who co-develop them. If it wanted to explore this further, the Provincial Council could consider a shared cloud or data centre environment, which could facilitate greater access, sharing and interoperability with the private sector (with the right security protocols in place). For example, in Korea, the government has developed shared data centres and a government cloud for use by its different government entities at all levels of government, which also includes a footprint for key private sector partners that work with these government entities and hold sensitive data that needs to be secured (OECD, 2025[18]).
However, Biscay does have an innovative private-public initiative, the ‘Bizkaia Connected Corridor’, which acts as a shared platform service to test, validate and demonstrate smart and digital infrastructures in real-world scenarios (Bizkaia Connected Corridor, 2025[19]).
Finally, open-source policies also shape how GovTech solutions are developed and maintained. Open source can reduce costs, encourage interoperability, and lower the risk of vendor lock-in, while supporting smaller firms to compete. However, it also raises questions about intellectual property and competitive advantage. Governments should weigh these trade-offs carefully and provide clear guidance on open-source use in collaborations.
Building Blocks: Capacities for collaboration and experimentation
Successful GovTech collaboration depends on public sector skills and capabilities. Traditional procurement models emphasise large, tightly specified projects, with limited scope for innovation. GovTech instead requires experimentation, iteration, and co-creation, demanding new ways of working. To balance risk with innovation, governments must strengthen skills, modernise processes and tools, and foster a culture that enables agile and collaborative approaches.
Skills
GovTech complements, rather than replaces, public sector capability. For collaborations to succeed, governments need sufficient skills to partner effectively with external actors and manage resources responsibly. Without this, projects risk poor outcomes or limited impact. Because GovTech is centred on digital innovation, it requires a blend of skills in both public sector innovation and digital government. The OECD highlights six core innovation skills – iteration, data literacy, user centricity, curiosity, storytelling, and insurgency – all of which are highly relevant to GovTech. These should be complemented by digital government skills, such as those defined in the OECD Framework for Digital Talent and Skills, to support data-driven, user-focused collaboration. No single official is expected to master all these capabilities; rather, multidisciplinary teams should be built to ensure balanced expertise, address gaps, and support effective co-creation with GovTech partners.
As highlighted in Chapter 2, the Provincial Council is working across Biscay to equip its civil servants with the digital skills needed for the future of the region, ensuring that they are technologically capable, customer-oriented, innovative, collaborative, and conscious of data governance, social impacts and the ethical use of technology (OECD, 2025[20]). Specifically, on GovTech, the Council complements formal initiatives for teams (e.g. webinars on different topics) by offering practical experience in the laboratory in order to strengthen the knowledge and new methodologies used in the open innovation process. Governmental employees are trained so that they understand how this new use of start-ups works, and start-ups are also trained so that they understand the expectations and requirements of working on GovTech in the public sphere. Civil servants were also offered training opportunities on how to make a pitch, which helps to improve the framing of future GovTech challenges, but also to help shift Biscay’s civil service towards a more innovative and digital-ready mindset.
In complementing these training initiatives, the survey and fact-finding interviews highlighted that the Council also works to ensure a strong foundation by promoting multidisciplinary project teams and by working with users, service designers, startups and external consultancy firms. There are also mobility initiatives in place to employees to spend time with the GovTech Lab and be connected with start-ups in the GovTech ecosystem to learn more about the GovTech ecosystem and potential digital solutions. These initiatives help to ensure that the skills required for GovTech are not just contained within the centralised team, but rather that the upskilling of Biscay’s digital talent is both widespread, sustainable and aligns with the Council’s promotion of GovTech for improved public service delivery.
Processes, tools and methods
For GovTech initiatives to succeed, public sector processes must adapt and employees need access to the right tools and methods to support agile delivery. Traditional project management often relies on rigid “waterfall” approaches, where outcomes are defined in advance, planning is lengthy, and user input is limited. GovTech, by contrast, typically begins in a discovery phase, with outcomes emerging through iteration, prototyping, and continuous feedback. This requires more flexible, user-driven processes and closer collaboration with stakeholders throughout development.
Governments can support this shift by providing clear guidance and policies on agile project management, ensuring risk controls are maintained while enabling innovation. Open innovation processes, structured collaboration with external partners, and tools such as design thinking, co-creation methods, and prototyping templates can all help. Without these supports, GovTech projects risk being forced into traditional frameworks that stifle innovation and limit impact.
In recognition of this, the Provincial Council has ensured that agile methodologies are at the foundation of its GovTech Lab – developing a clear methodology that is repeated consistently for each challenge, based on structured processes with iterative collaboration. The methodology follows five phases: defining clear challenges, engaging the innovation community, exchanging knowledge, piloting, and scaling up successful ideas. Projects are organised into sprints with weekly meetings, ensuring constant interaction between government teams and startups to refine solutions in real time.
Central to this is user-centred design, with service designers helping to frame “good problems” that inspire creative solutions. Pilots are evidence-driven, using clear indicators to evaluate not only technical feasibility but also impacts on work practices, citizen trust, and sustainability. Regular checkpoints help align expectations, correct deviations, and refocus efforts. When pilots succeed, the Lab supports redesigning services to embed innovations and adapts procurement processes to open opportunities for specialised providers. This agile, open innovation cycle enables more responsive and citizen-focused public services.
Finally, each project ends with a retrospective – or ‘Learning Session’ – that is used to evaluate whether the piloted solution has responded to the challenge, the specifications and technical functionalities of the tool are assessed and how the introduction of this new tool impacts the service or process is analysed. This is based on a central principle that a pilot only fails if he does not generate learning for Biscay, which helps to also create space in the GovTech methodology for pilots to fail or be reconsidered. The lessons from this retrospective are also published online, along with a summary of the GovTech challenge to ensure transparency but also to demonstrate the value that has been delivered – regardless of whether the digital solution has been considered successful.
Culture
The success of GovTech projects relies on an organisational culture that encourages innovation, tolerates risk, and supports collaboration. Without visible backing and incentives, employees may perceive the costs of failure as greater than the rewards of experimentation, discouraging new approaches. GovTech often challenges traditional ways of working, requiring a balance between continuity and risk-taking, specialisation and cross-silo collaboration, and hierarchical control and shared accountability.
To create an enabling culture, leadership should signal permission to test ideas, learn from failure, and work openly with peers and external partners. Safe spaces for experimentation, opportunities for networking, and recognition through awards or knowledge-sharing can build confidence and encourage wider participation. While systemic change takes time, visible support and practical initiatives help public servants feel empowered to collaborate with GovTech actors, explore emerging technologies, and co-create innovative solutions that deliver public value.
In Biscay, the GovTech Lab has been working proactively to promote the use of GovTech collaborations and shift the civil service to adopt a more innovative mindset in their service delivery. However, the fact-finding interviews highlighted that three main points of resistance in this cultural change: a reluctance to engage with the unknown, a perception that it would be overly time-consuming, and the habits of civil servants to default to the suppliers with which they have an existing relationship.
The team found that civil servants were not accustomed to working to the methodology of the GovTech Lab, including to have regular meetings; define tasks, roles and responsibilities; and to monitor the progress or evaluate the success of projects. The team therefore worked proactively with civil servants to help them understand the process and what exactly is involved, to help set indicators to help monitor if projects were delivering the expected outcomes, and provided iterative training and mentoring alongside the GovTech process to minimise the upfront training commitment of the participants and to help them feel more supported throughout the process.
Another key cultural shift has also been to reframe the procurement process for the civil servants to approach it from the perspective of the user need or the outcome being sought, rather than a specific solution in the market. The fact-finding interviews therefore highlighted that the GovTech methodology had also supported a key shift in how civil services thought of the way that the Provincial Council delivers its services of public services to people and businesses.
Finally, as highlighted in the previous section, GovTech challenges do not always go to plan. The GovTech Lab team reported that there have been times when they have had to step in to correct the process where there have been issues or where the provider has proven not to be suitable for the process. Rather than considering these to be failures, a key principle of the approach in Biscay is to approach these as lessons that can be learnt and that still provide value to Biscay – even if it has not resulted in a successful pilot. This represents a shift from a focus on ‘return-on-investment’ to ‘return-on-learning’, which is a critical to fostering a civil service that is innovative, willing to engage with risk and open to experimentation. Without this, it would not be possible for GovTech collaborations to flourish.
Building Blocks: Resources and implementation support
To realise the full value of GovTech, governments need adequate resources and implementation support. GovTech should be embedded within broader digital government investment strategies – both as a method to support procurement and early market engagement, and as an investment in its own right. Applying the OECD Digital Government Investment Framework helps ensure GovTech projects are planned, implemented, and monitored effectively. This requires careful consideration of funding models, procurement approaches, and pathways for scaling solutions to ensure sustainability and impact.
Funding
Dedicated financial resources can significantly increase the impact of GovTech projects. As these initiatives often involve pilots and carry higher risks of failure, budgets need to be flexible and supportive of experimentation. Funding typically comes from two sources: traditional budget processes or innovation funds. The former can be difficult to access, as the scope of GovTech solutions is often uncertain at the outset. As a result, many governments turn to innovation funds, which provide flexibility and cross-cutting support. These may take the form of general funds, such as Ireland’s Public Service Innovation Fund or Canada’s directive to earmark budgets for experimentation, or GovTech-specific funds, such as the UK’s GovTech Catalyst or Lithuania’s procurement sandbox. Well-designed funds - whether general or targeted -signal government commitment, provide predictable resources, and enable public sector entities to collaborate effectively with innovators while investing strategically in digital transformation.
In Biscay, the GovTech programme has been able to secure sustainable funding. Biscay’s Mandate Plan has guaranteed funding for the 4-year legislative term (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2023[21]). Additionally, the GovTech programme has been included in the political agenda of the last two legislatures, which demonstrates the Council’s commitment to the public innovation ecosystem. This means that the GovTech Lab receives funding the Provincial Council – both in a dedicated allocation through the Mandate Plan, as well as part of the budget allocated for the Provincial IT Plans of the Council’s departments. These budget allocations are supported by funding from the European Regional Development Fund and Biscay’s Seed Capital Funds (Seed Capital Bizkaia, 2025[22]; Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[1]).
Procurement
Procurement is often perceived as a barrier to GovTech, but with the right approaches it can be a key enabler of innovation while safeguarding public resources. Traditional, rigid tendering processes risk stifling experimentation and excluding smaller providers, whereas more dynamic methods can create space for agile and collaborative delivery. Challenge-based approaches such as pre-commercial procurement, innovation partnerships, and design contests allow governments to explore multiple ideas, iterate with suppliers, and test prototypes before committing to full-scale solutions. Even standard tenders can support GovTech if adapted through practices like early market engagement, outcome-focused specifications, or simplified participation requirements. Governments can also encourage start-up involvement by designing smaller, milestone-based contracts and sharing intellectual property rights to avoid vendor lock-in. By modernising procurement, the public sector can open the door to more effective GovTech collaborations and maximise value-for-money.
In Biscay, efforts are under way to make procurement more start-up friendly while working within the constraints of Spanish and EU procurement law. Local actors such as BEAZ are acting as a catalyst with the GovTech ecosystem, promoting private-public collaboration, digitalisation, and the generation of opportunities for start-ups and small-to-medium enterprise. It uses tools like accelerators, incubators, and challenge programmes to help young firms access opportunities.
Lantik complements these efforts with the use of framework agreements and pilot projects of up to EUR 15 000, which are already being deployed without requiring a formal tender. Authorities are also exploring legal pathways to increase the ceiling to EUR 30 000-40 000, though the process remains constrained by slow procedures and strict rules on participation in market consultations.
To avoid excluding innovative firms, Biscay is also experimenting with contractual clauses that encourage suppliers to partner with start-ups, as well as with subcontracting models that create space for smaller players in larger projects. These approaches signal an intent to use innovation clauses and GovTech challenges to shift suppliers out of their comfort zone and foster new collaborations. Nonetheless, there is a recognised gap in practical understanding of how to implement GovTech within existing regulations, underlining the importance of testing new legal interpretations and accompanying start-ups to better navigate public purchasing frameworks.
Scaling solutions
A key benefit of GovTech is the potential to scale pilot solutions into full implementation. Scaling can take place internally within an organisation, across different public entities, or even internationally. The first challenge is often internal, where pilots must transition from minimum viable products to fully deployed solutions. This requires both funding and procurement pathways that enable continuity while preserving fairness. Clear goals and measured results can help build the business case for additional investment, while programmes such as Scotland’s CivTech or Norway’s StartOff illustrate how tailored funding and procurement models can support scaling.
Beyond internal adoption, solutions should also be shared across organisations, yet this is often hindered by limited awareness and resources. Demonstration days, solution databases, and open-source tools can help overcome these barriers. At the international level, initiatives such as the GovTech Global Alliance’s Scale-up Programme support providers to expand solutions to new markets.
In Biscay, scaling GovTech solutions is being addressed through a regional project management model that structures the process from challenge identification to piloting, dissemination, and wider adoption where possible. Current practices, such as scouting sessions, information days, and publishing solutions on the GovTech website, help build awareness of GovTech pilots but have not yet ensured that the possibility to reuse or integrate existing GovTech solutions is being considered in the design of new digital projects.
Further, stakeholders highlighted that GovTech could be better embedded into budget planning and procurement processes to encourage the reuse of existing GovTech solutions that could be expanded to duplicated for other use cases more cost-effectively than developing a new solution outright. For example, in Australia, there are checks integrated into the Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework (IOF), which encourages agencies to consider existing solutions to reuse (instead of building new) to minimise duplication, reduce costs, and increase delivery speed (OECD, 2025[23]). The Provincial Council should therefore add this as a checkpoint in the value proposition for digital investments to both support the GovTech ecosystem and ensure the best use of Biscay’s public resources.
Building Blocks: Availability and maturity of GovTech partners
GovTech depends on a mature ecosystem of capable partners. While innovators must bring the skills, resources, and capacity to scale solutions, governments play a key role in fostering this ecosystem. Start-ups and smaller providers often face high failure rates due to barriers such as limited finance, weak entrepreneurship skills, and restricted market access. By supporting acceleration programmes, investment, and fair access to procurement, governments can help strengthen the GovTech market and ensure reliable partners for collaboration.
Acceleration programmes
For GovTech start-ups to succeed and grow, they need access to tailored support, resources, and opportunities to scale. High-quality incubation and acceleration programmes are central to this, offering mentorship, training, and access to networks. Start-ups can benefit from participating in general accelerators, but dedicated GovTech or sector-specific accelerators provide more targeted guidance on navigating the unique challenges of working with government. Examples include GovStart in Europe and the UK, CivStart in the US, and Creative HQ in New Zealand, which equip innovators with the skills and connections to engage effectively with the public sector. Governments have a proactive role to play by funding or establishing accelerators, supporting GovTech-specific tracks, and sharing insights into government processes. Such initiatives not only strengthen the start-up ecosystem but also help build solutions that can scale and deliver impact across the public sector.
In Biscay, acceleration and training programmes are being tailored to address the specific needs of GovTech start-ups, recognising that working with the public sector requires very different skills from engaging with private investors. BEAZ, a provincial development agency, plays a central role by helping entrepreneurs understand the language, processes, and expectations of public administration. This includes training on how to frame pitches for civil servants, navigate procurement portals, and interpret requirements such as technical and economic solvency. Mentoring support is also provided to guide start-ups through bureaucratic steps, including how to draft tenders correctly and avoid common disqualifications due to procedural errors. At the same time, civil servants receive training to better understand start-up culture, product maturity, and the types of solutions emerging from the ecosystem. Dedicated initiatives such as the GovTech Bootcamp and spaces like the B Accelerator Tower (BAT and the EHU Quantum Centre provide intensive learning environments that combine mentorship, expert advice, and opportunities to develop new GovTech talent. These efforts are designed not only to strengthen start-up readiness to engage with government, but also to build a shared culture of innovation between government and entrepreneurs, laying the foundation for more effective GovTech collaboration.
Venture capital and other investments
Access to capital is critical for the growth of GovTech start-ups and scale-ups, enabling them to develop solutions and expand beyond pilot projects. While investment in GovTech is rising, it still lags behind other technology sectors such as fintech. Investors often hesitate due to perceptions of long sales cycles and regulatory complexity, meaning GovTech companies often require more patient capital. A range of funding mechanisms can support this gap, including venture capital, government-led investment funds, philanthropic finance, and targeted grants. Dedicated GovTech funds demonstrate how tailored investment vehicles can help overcome market hesitancy. Governments can further encourage private investment by signalling demand, supporting early-stage financing, and creating platforms that connect innovators with investors. Strengthening access to capital is essential to scale GovTech solutions and maximise their public value.
Biscay is strengthening access to finance for GovTech through a fund that provides coverage for GovTech start-ups. Managed by Seed Capital Bizkaia, the provincial government’s investment agency, this initiative builds on a portfolio that already includes seed funds, impact investment funds, and funds of funds. The GovTech fund will provide ‘patient capital’, recognising that start-ups working with government face longer timelines to generate returns compared with other sectors (Seed Capital Bizkaia, 2025[24]). By committing public investment, Biscay aims to send a strong market signal that can crowd in additional private and public investors, enabling GovTech companies to move beyond pilots and achieve sustainable growth. Importantly, this approach is designed not only to finance individual firms but also to reshape the way services are delivered, by creating a co-ordinated platform where government and innovators can jointly redesign public services. The fund therefore represents both a financial mechanism and a strategic lever, helping to de-risk early-stage ventures while embedding innovation into the structure of government itself. If successful, it could serve as a model for other regions seeking to mobilise capital and accelerate the development of the GovTech ecosystem.
Access to procurement opportunities for greater market participation
Ensuring equitable access to procurement opportunities is key to strengthening the GovTech ecosystem, fostering competition, and enabling start-ups to scale their solutions with new clients. Governments can reduce barriers by making procurement processes more open, streamlined, and accessible, supported by clear eligibility and qualification guidelines. Smaller providers can also benefit from subcontracting or consortia arrangements that leverage the resources of larger firms. Pre-vetting mechanisms offer another way to build trust in new suppliers. For example, Korea’s Venture Nara platform helps start-ups showcase products to government buyers, while Singapore’s IMDA Accreditation programme accelerates procurement from accredited firms. Similarly, BrazilLab awards a certification seal to GovTech companies in Brazil, signalling their maturity without bypassing procurement rules. By broadening access and building confidence in new providers, governments can create a more dynamic procurement environment that supports innovation and strengthens GovTech markets.
Biscay is actively advancing new models of entrepreneurial public procurement to make opportunities more accessible to start-ups and digital SMEs, while ensuring compliance with Spain’s Public Sector Contracts Law. A working group within the Provincial Council has been set up to pilot the use of “Project Competitions” (Art. 183 of the Public Sector Contracts Law), which allow innovative solutions to be trialled and, if successful, scaled with the same supplier (Gobe, 2025[2]). The intent for this is to provide a vital pathway for start-ups to access government business without being closed out of the market by larger, more embedded providers.
At the same time, efforts are under way to rethink how smaller firms can engage in larger contracts, including through subcontracting and collaboration with established corporations. While initial experiments with thematic panels on areas such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity proved difficult to sustain, the experience has informed new approaches to fostering partnerships between start-ups, corporates, and public teams. Looking ahead, Biscay is exploring contractual innovations such as framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems, and even subscription-based procurement models that are designed to reduce administrative burden and streamline access for new suppliers. These initiatives are intended not only to widen competition and diversify the supplier base but also to embed entrepreneurial solutions into government operations in a sustainable and scalable way. The Provincial Council should continue to pursue these opportunities to ensure a healthy GovTech ecosystem that support the delivery of public services as well as economic growth within the region.
Enabling more effective uses of GovTech inside and beyond Biscay
GovTech enablers provide the structures that align and strengthen the ecosystem as a whole. While building blocks support individual projects, enablers ensure coherence and co-ordination across initiatives. They operate at three levels – strategic, institutional, and network – creating the conditions for effective collaboration, shared practices, and a more dynamic GovTech ecosystem.
Strategic layer: GovTech strategies and leadership
The strategic layer highlights the importance of strategy and leadership in embedding GovTech within the wider digital government agenda. Strong strategies can mobilise support, integrate initiatives, and provide clear goals, milestones, and resources. They help sustain momentum through political transitions, align GovTech with broader digital priorities, and address systemic gaps in infrastructure, skills, or funding. Some countries incorporate GovTech into national digital strategies, such as Estonia, France, and Brazil, while others develop dedicated strategies, like Ireland’s Cruinniú GovTech Report. Even bottom-up initiatives, such as CivTech Scotland or GovTech Polska, show how intrapreneurship can drive success in the absence of formal strategies.
In Biscay, GovTech is embedded directly into both the:
Mandate Plan 2023-2027 (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2023[21]), where it establishes public innovation and digital transformation as key aspects of the strategy.
Agenda Digital Bizkaia 2027 (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[25]), where it is identified as a core initiative under the wider digital strategy.
This positioning ensures that GovTech is not treated as an isolated experiment but as part of a broader agenda to strengthen competitiveness and territorial progress through disruptive technologies. The strategy emphasises collaboration with innovation ecosystems, encouraging co-creation and talent attraction to drive digital transformation. By embedding GovTech and Bizkaia Lab into the strategic framework, Biscay creates the conditions for sustainable innovation that is anchored in user needs, supported by collaborative methodologies, and aligned with long-term development goals. This integration signals a commitment to using strategy as a tool to mobilise resources, connect actors, and institutionalise innovation across the provincial government.
Leadership is equally crucial. GovTech is new, higher-risk, and cross-sectoral, requiring leaders to champion its value, secure resources, and co-ordinate diverse stakeholders. Whether political, non-political, formal, or informal, effective leadership ensures sustained attention and coherence, making GovTech a catalyst for broader digital transformation.
In Biscay, the regional government anchors its commitment within the Congress of Deputies, with the Provincial Deputy for Public Administration and Institutional Relations acting as the ‘GovTech Champion’ in the region. With leadership at the political level, the champion is able to actively promote GovTech by integrating the topic into their political priorities and ensuring the allocation of staff and financial resources. Through this leadership model, the GovTech Lab benefits from clear direction, legitimacy, and sustained institutional backing, enabling effective implementation across the administration.
Institutional layer: national, regional or policy-specific GovTech teams
The institutional layer is made up of GovTech teams established within governments at national, regional, or local levels, or in specific policy domains. These teams provide practical support to design and deliver GovTech programmes, bridge gaps in skills and processes, and create environments that encourage experimentation and innovation. They also help overcome barriers such as procurement complexity, cultural differences between start-ups and government, and limited resources within agencies.
Institutional models vary from national teams with a broad mandate (e.g. GovTech Lab Lithuania, GovTech Polska, DINUM in France) to regional or local initiatives closer to citizens (e.g. CivTech Scotland, Creative HQ in New Zealand) and sector-specific teams focusing on policy areas such as justice or education. Regardless of structure, GovTech teams play a vital role in building capacity, strengthening collaboration, and ensuring coherence across projects, thereby embedding GovTech more firmly into the public sector ecosystem.
In Biscay, a dedicated function has been established to guide and support the GovTech Lab’s projects throughout their lifecycle, ensuring that both public servants and start-ups feel accompanied in navigating new ways of working. At the time of writing, the composition of this dedicated GovTech function includes 4 components:
Digital Strategy: to help with traction and co-ordination across the regional government. This is staffed by one manager and two technicians.
Lantik: to provide consulting and technological support. This is staffed by a core team of 3 people with an additional 3 participants for each GovTech challenge.
BEAZ: to provide consulting and support for companies, which is a team of two people.
Technical Office: to provide technical and administrative support to the Digital Strategy team.
From this composition, it is clear that the function goes beyond technical expertise – the teams also provide ongoing assistance that combines training with responsive follow-up, recognising that questions and uncertainties often emerge once projects are underway. This approach has proven valuable not only in building skills but also in offering reassurance so that participating teams remain engaged and confident.
In addition, the work of BEAZ, the provincial development agency, complements this role by helping start-ups understand the language, culture, and procedures of public administration. Through mentoring and practical exercises, entrepreneurs learn how to adapt their pitches for civil servants, interpret procurement plans, and navigate the annual hiring process. In this way, the institutional layer in Biscay serves as both a technical and relational bridge: translating between government and innovators, fostering mutual understanding, and embedding GovTech as a collaborative practice within the Provincial Council’s broader development agenda.
Network layer: intergovernmental and international engagement
The network layer of GovTech enablers strengthens the ecosystem by connecting actors across borders, within government, and outside the public sector. Strong networks build support, enable knowledge-sharing, and accelerate the growth of GovTech.
At the international level, communities-of-practice provide platforms for exchanging lessons, showcasing successful initiatives, and attracting collaboration, helping countries align with global best practices. Within government, intragovernmental networks of civil servants play a crucial role in disseminating GovTech, sharing practical insights from implementation, and championing innovation. Initiatives such as Luxembourg’s Innovation Club or Chile’s Network of Innovators demonstrate how peer networks can inspire creativity and reduce duplication.
Non-governmental leadership is equally important. Universities, associations, private GovTech labs, and intergovernmental bodies can all contribute by providing expertise, building capacity, and representing the perspectives of innovators and investors. Together, these networks ensure GovTech ecosystems are dynamic, resilient, and able to deliver shared value.
Biscay is steadily building its role within intergovernmental and international GovTech networks, using collaboration and knowledge-sharing as key levers to strengthen its ecosystem. Through the GovTech Hub, the Provincial Council has created platforms such as bootcamps, mentoring, and pitch events that bring together local start-ups, universities, investors, and international actors to explore opportunities in the public market. These initiatives provide practical training while also opening channels for dialogue with external stakeholders.
Biscay’s participation in the Red Iberoamericana GovTech has further allowed it to exchange lessons with peers across the region, moving from an initial phase of learning from other labs to now contributing its own experiences for mutual benefit (GovTech LATAM, 2022[26]). A significant milestone also came in 2025, when Bilbao hosted the European Summit of the GovTech4All Consortium. This event brought together more than 50 organisations from 20 countries to discuss digital innovation in the public sector, including quantum technologies, cross-border data exchange, and AI-enabled service delivery (Provincial Council of Bilbao, 2025[27]). By convening such exchanges and contributing to European pilots, Biscay is embedding its activities in wider networks and helping ensure that its GovTech initiatives develop in step with broader regional and international trends. As it looks to grow its use of GovTech, the Provincial Council could explore how to leverage these networks to scale its GovTech solutions to create opportunities for trade and economic growth.
References
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