The present thesis focuses on innovative public procurement. In the project of Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, hackathon was used as a part of a public procurement for the first time in Finland. TekesHack event was held in September 2016. The object of the procurement was a TekesMatch tool which is meant to link together the actors of the innovation field. The purpose of this study was to find out which procurement procedure to use when using a hackathon as a part of the public procurement. In addition, the thesis studied what is needed to make procurement innovative.

The study was made as qualitative action research. The theoretical framework included innovative procurement, procurement procedures, hackathon as a creator of innovation and innovation management. As methods, participative observation, discussions with procurement experts as well as a survey for the participants of the hackathon were used.

As a result it can be said that the design contest that was chosen as a procurement procedure was suitable to be combined with a hackathon as it is administratively light and least regulated, thus possibly promoting participation of the smaller actors to the public tendering. It seems that this new innovative way of procurement would have achieved the given goals. As a conclusion it can be noted that there is not just one suitable procedure to be combined with a hackathon. The model used in TekesMatch project can be adjusted depending on the object of the procurement.