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The first I3 calls will be launched at the end of September: stay tuned!

By Antonio di Francesco

 

In the 2021-2027 programming period, the Cohesion Policy will gain a new funding instrument. The I3, “Interregional Innovation Investment” will support interregional partnerships in delivering investments on S3-related priorities and to reinforce globally competitive EU value chains. In fact, triple helix collaborations are powerful and useful instruments in achieving the goal of solving global challenges. By translating common priorities into a concrete pipeline of investments and place-based coordinated activities, interregional partnerships can unlock European Innovation potential. Public authorities, private actors, Research and Technology Organizations and final users will play a key role.

The  I3 initiative is part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and aims at supporting interregional innovation projects in their commercialisation and scale-up phases, giving them the tools to overcome regulatory and other barriers and bring their project to investment level. The ERDF aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union by correcting imbalances between its regions. 

The goals of these instruments are: 

  • to encourage the development of European value chains by mobilising innovation ecosystems to scale up and commercialise interregional innovation projects; 

  • to mobilise additional investments  in the selected priority areas  and enhance cooperation with partners from different Member States  through linkages to mainstream Cohesion policy operational programmes; 

  • to strengthen complementarities between different EU, national, and regional funding instruments. 

These instruments provide funding for mature joint innovation projects and supports stakeholders involved in smart specialisation to develop and set up such projects in value-chain investment portfolios. The I3 instrument is implemented by the European Innovation Council and SMEs executive agency (EISMEA) based on a biannual work programme.  EURADA is glad to remind you that the first calls have been announced after the summer and there will be another call at the beginning of 2022. We have already explained the details of the call to EURADA members courtesy of META Group during AGORADA 2021 on the 27th of May. Many development agencies have been waiting for a programme like this. 

The I3 initiative will support ambitious projects that go beyond mutual learning to firmly establish an agenda of common investments in different territories together with regional authorities and private investors. It will mean using unique facilities by regions together to share both the investments and the practice side.  

EURADA members are already very active in the S3 Thematic Platforms. Those S3P partnerships are composed of regions with the same priorities on their Smart Specialisation Strategies. They will be applicants for these new calls. META Group and the EURADA secretariat have supported these regional S3P partnerships to establish bankable territorial investment projects.  This experience is the closest programme connected with the calls of Interregional Innovation Investment initiative. Before the calls will open this year, META Group and EURADA’s  secretariat are available to  provide  maturity check  to RDAs  as well as support in  the  preparation  of  proposals  for  the  first  call  per agreement. 

If you are interested, please feel free to contact us.  We highly encourage you to take part and to start preparing your proposal: it’s time to get ready! The announcement of the calendar of the calls is not publicly available yet. However, we are giving this heads up to our members since this is such a good opportunity for all development agencies. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our colleague Julia COLOMER.