Malcolm Harbour CBE

Associate - Connected Places Catapult

A former MEP and Chairman of Parliament’s Internal Market Committee, he has detailed knowledge of UK and EU legislation in procurement and related standards. Malcolm chaired the LGA Taskforce on Innovation Procurement that produced a widely read report in 2017. He is a regular contributor to conferences and publications on the theme. A Senior Advisor at the European Policy Centre, he chairs the Single Market Round Table, and has written reports on EU Standards and Single Market Policy.

Malcolm joined Connected Places Catapult as an Associate Director in April 2019 to catalyse efforts to dismantle ‘the procurement problem’ as a barrier to market growth. Within the “Place Eco-System” he has an expert steering role in the ‘Challenging Procurement’  leadership team. He chairs the Advisory Board for project CRISPP – the Consortium for Research in Innovative and Strategic Procurement – launched in mid 2021. The partners – Connected Places, and the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester – are building a research base on the impact of innovation in public procurement and developing benchmarks for its deployment in regional regeneration. He recently retired after 8 years on the Governing Council of the University of Birmingham and has a special interest in the role of universities in promoting innovation in the levelling up agenda.