Deadline: 16-Mar-23
The European Commission (EC) has announce a call for proposals for Capacity Building Strand 2b to test new approaches for increasing the capacity of regional innovation ecosystems in less developed regions to collaborate in EU value chains.
Actions under this call shall facilitate therefore the interregional cooperation between regional innovation ecosystem actors which want to develop and increase their capacity to participate in calls under the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument, e.g. for the submission of proposals under the I3 Instrument Strands 1 and 2a.
Objective
- Less developed regions and other categories of regions (such as EU outermost regions or regions with specific challenges) are facing different challenges and obstacles linked to innovation building and diffusion and often experience difficulties in building institutional and legal environments conducive to innovation.
- In this respect, less developed regions need support in building and reinforcing innovative and resilient ecosystems and advice in the identification of investment projects. This includes support in strengthening links and structures among the stakeholders of quadruple-helix ecosystems and the optimisation of the relevant local administrative structures and processes. Accordingly, the core activities under this call shall complement support to the capacity building of less developed regions to enable interregional ecosystems to deliver concrete interregional innovation investments along the S3 priorities within the framework of the EU value chains, as well as the capacity to participate in partnerships with other regions.
- This activity has a strong cohesion dimension creating linkages between all EU regions. The purpose of this activity is hence to build capacities for a successful participation in Strand 1 or Strand 2a calls, enhancing interregional cooperation with a view to identifying and sharing good practices, and experimenting new approaches. This will also help public authorities and agencies to design evidence-based and targeted policy interventions in the long-term.
- Projects can offer an added value when promoting the participation of EU outermost regions. Due consideration will be given to such added value during the evaluation of I3 project proposals. Projects can also offer an added value when supporting regions with specific challenges, such as difficulties in retaining and attracting talents.
Specific objectives
- Proposals shall present projects for the creation of the preconditions for successful interregional cooperation and investments in shared smart specialisation areas and shall aim to facilitate the validation process of investment ideas through improved knowledge of business and investment planning. Actions shall experiment new approaches and deliver validated solutions, good practice examples and increase the capacity to engage in interregional innovation processes, involving actors of the quadruple-helix ecosystem, in particular SMEs.
- Partners can be from all EU Member States. However, the impact of the project should focus on less developed regions.
Themes and Priorities (scope)
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Priorities must be given to actions for capacity building and investment project piloting related to the green and the digital transition and to smart manufacturing including deep tech innovation, such as (not exhaustive list):
- Company engagement and identification of a pipeline of investment projects;
- Increasing investment readiness and capacity to build interregional business and investment plans;
- Exploring the use of technical assistance from the mainstream programmes10 to structure and reinforce the local ecosystems internally (identification of specific challenges to address fragmentation, identification of the innovation potential, ecosystem building and animation, company involvement, putting in place the right framework conditions based on best practices identified) in order to develop the capacities to connect the local ecosystems at interregional level;
- Connecting the less developed regions with other ecosystems (reinforcing connections with relevant platforms and EU networks, mobilising the ecosystem in the framework of S3 partnerships) and integration them in EU value chains;
- Building capacities to understand value chains articulation and implementation.
Funding Information
- The available call budget is EUR 7 155 858.00.
Eligible Activities
- Under this call for proposals eligible actions have to provide coordination and support to regional actors (small and medium-sized enterprises, research infrastructures, clusters, innovation agencies, managing authorities and other organisations operating in fields like business development, territorial cooperation and innovation) in view of reinforcing their regional innovation ecosystems and the ability to apply under the I3 Instrument (strand 1 and 2a calls) or other relevant EU funding schemes.
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Core Actions
- Ecosystem Building and Connection
- Creation and reinforcement of an interregional innovative and resilient ecosystem;
- Development of new cooperation with industry associations and other key players;
- Design of tools and instruments to develop relevant know-how and develop international expert networks;
- Support to alliances for regions to focus on specific innovation topics and to find suitable partners for them;
- Elaboration of a policy mix to support companies, particularly SMEs, in innovation and internationalisation dynamics and to foster their successful participation in the quadruple-helix ecosystems;
- Development of local/regional roadmaps connecting the companies to EU/global value chains.
- Supporting the identification of investment projects
- Reinforce the capacity of the quadruple-helix ecosystem actors to develop business ideas. This might include the assessment of the maturity of the partnerships, the maturity of the business cases and the maturity of the investments (market analysis and feasibility studies as a step towards validating the initial business idea and towards draft business planning);
- Design of industry driven value chain initiatives; − Pre-piloting of the investment ideas under development and validation of the assumptions with the implementing actors and the ecosystem;
- Addressing specific issues related to projects feasibility, market maturity and bankability;
- Improving projects in terms of legal and financial aspects;
- Identification of a possible funding mix.
Expected impact
- The outcome of Strand 2b projects is expected to be reflected in an increase of the capacities of less developed regions. In particular, regional innovation ecosystems are expected to be engaged at European level building on the commitment of regional innovation stakeholders to deliver concrete interregional innovation investments within EU value chains.
Eligibility Criteria
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In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
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Non-EU countries:
- Listed EEA countries and countries associated to the I3 Instrument or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries) Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register
- Before submitting the proposal
- And will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation)1. For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin. Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.
For more information, visit EC.