"RFPs put people in competition with each other, they do not encourage collaboration"

- panelist at a public health event I am attending

But doesn't any funding mechanism that has a fixed amount of money to give away put people in competition with each other? What are the best ways to minimize this?

RFPs inevitably incentivise targeting of the bid criteria, contract management, and technical cost/scope bombs, rather than genuine alignment between bidder and procurer.

This is counter-productive competition. Incentivise competitor on what you want, not what you don’t.