The research addresses the issue of outsourcing innovative solutions by public administrations. The idea behind the paper is to demonstrate how the public contract tool can be a valuable tool for all administrations, even smaller ones, in order to acquire technologically advanced tools to support their activities. Therefore, the paper begins with an examination of national and Euro-unitary legislation dedicated to digitalization and automation, and then observes innovation as the object of public contracts. This allows tools and methods typical of public contracts to be used to acquire “innovative” goods and services already available on the market or to be tailored to the needs of administrations. Alongside the individual types of contracts that are preliminary to “innovative” purchases, the profiles relating to the management of intellectual property rights on the software developed and purchased were also analyzed, as well as the related issue of access to source code and its attitude compared to the case of open source or proprietary software. Furthermore, given the specificities of innovative procurement, European legislation on the prohibition of state aid, as generally identified by Article 107 of the TFEU, has been observed to protect competition against the potential distortive effects of Member States' interventions in the form of aid to companies. Finally, the national regulatory framework regarding the cybersecurity of systems acquired and deployed in contexts related to the protection of strategic national interests and national security was observed.
La ricerca affronta il tema dell’outsourcing di soluzioni innovative da parte delle pubbliche amministrazioni. L’idea alla base dell’elaborato è dimostrare come lo strumento del contratto pubblico possa rappresentare un valido ausilio per tutte le amministrazioni, anche più piccole, al fine di acquisire strumenti tecnologicamente avanzati a supporto delle loro attività. Pertanto, l’elaborato prende avvio dalla disamina della normativa nazionale ed eurounitaria dedicata alla digitalizzazione ed automazione, per poi osservare l’innovazione quale oggetto del contratto pubblico in ragione del quale, strumenti e metodi tipici della contrattualistica pubblica, risultano serventi all’acquisizione di beni e servizi “innovativi” già disponibili sul mercato o da progettare su misura alle esigenze delle amministrazioni. Accanto alle singole tipologie contrattuali prodromiche ad acquisti “innovativi”, sono stati analizzati anche i profili relativi alla gestione dei diritti di proprietà intellettuale sui software sviluppati e acquistati, nonché al connesso tema dell’accesso al codice sorgente e del suo atteggiarsi rispetto al caso di software open source o di tipo proprietario. Inoltre, viste le peculiarità degli appalti innovativi, si è osservata la normativa europea sul divieto degli aiuti di Stato, così come individuato in via generale dall’art. 107 del TFUE, al fine di tutelare la concorrenza contro i potenziali effetti distorsivi degli interventi degli Stati membri sotto forma di aiuti alle imprese. Da ultimo, è stato osservato il quadro normativo nazionale relativo alla cybersicurezza dei sistemi acquisiti e impiegati in contesti connessi alla tutela di interessi nazionali strategici e della sicurezza nazionale.
Contratti pubblici e intelligenza artificiale: il ruolo degli appalti innovativi.
SICLARI, MARIA CHIARA
2026
Abstract
The research addresses the issue of outsourcing innovative solutions by public administrations. The idea behind the paper is to demonstrate how the public contract tool can be a valuable tool for all administrations, even smaller ones, in order to acquire technologically advanced tools to support their activities. Therefore, the paper begins with an examination of national and Euro-unitary legislation dedicated to digitalization and automation, and then observes innovation as the object of public contracts. This allows tools and methods typical of public contracts to be used to acquire “innovative” goods and services already available on the market or to be tailored to the needs of administrations. Alongside the individual types of contracts that are preliminary to “innovative” purchases, the profiles relating to the management of intellectual property rights on the software developed and purchased were also analyzed, as well as the related issue of access to source code and its attitude compared to the case of open source or proprietary software. Furthermore, given the specificities of innovative procurement, European legislation on the prohibition of state aid, as generally identified by Article 107 of the TFEU, has been observed to protect competition against the potential distortive effects of Member States' interventions in the form of aid to companies. Finally, the national regulatory framework regarding the cybersecurity of systems acquired and deployed in contexts related to the protection of strategic national interests and national security was observed.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
