Interregional Innovation Investments Strand 1 (I3-2026-INV1)

To enhance the EU’s competitive edge by strategically addressing the current challenges, proposals submitted under this call for proposals must tackle one or more of the designated thematic priorities:

1. Digital transition.
2. Green transition.
3. Smart manufacturing.

Across these thematic priorities, projects are expected to contribute to the strengthening of resilient and competitive European value chains through concrete interregional investment cases with clear deployment and scale-up potential.

Objective:

The Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument is a funding instrument under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, article 13).

Implemented under Cohesion Policy, the I3 Instrument supports interregional cooperation in innovation by using Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) as a guiding framework to connect regional strengths, align complementary capabilities and strengthen EU value chains.

The I3 Instrument supports the scaling-up and commercialisation of interregional innovation projects in shared or complementary S3 areas. It promotes innovation diffusion and industrial deployment by mobilising coordinated investments across regions and enables innovation actors to move from validated solutions and investment ideas towards market uptake and economic impact.

This direction aligns with the Union’s broader policy agenda on competitiveness, industrial transformation, innovation, security and resilience as reflected in the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal, the Single Market Strategy, the proposed European Competitiveness Fund, the Start-up and Scale-up Strategy, and the forthcoming European Innovation Act. A core objective of the I3 Instrument is to strengthen EU and regional value chains and Europe’s competitiveness through interregional cooperation that brings together less developed, transition and more developed regions.

In practice, the I3 Instrument focuses on bringing mature innovations into deployment across regions (move from TRL 6 to TRL 9. Projects are therefore expected to use I3 Instrument for validation, demonstration, adaptation, replication, scale-up and market uptake.

This approach helps connect companies, intermediaries and public authorities across regional ecosystems, with the aim of accelerating market uptake and strengthening European value chains. Over time, this should contribute to more diversified industrial activity and new business opportunities across EU regions.

Scope:

Strand 1 of the I3 instrument seeks to increase the competitiveness and the resilience of EU value chains on the basis of interregional cooperation and shared smart specialisation areas.

The objective of the I3 Instrument Strand 1 call for proposals is to support interregional innovation investments by offering consortia of innovation actors from the quadruple helix ecosystems the necessary financial and advisory support to bring their innovations to a mature level, ready for scale-up and commercialisation, while bridging and reducing the innovation divide in Europe with a strong cohesion policy focus of integrating all regions and in particular the less developed regions into European value chains.

Projects shall also strengthen the investment readiness of participating innovation actors and create credible pathways for follow-up investment beyond the project lifetime.

Thereby, proposals under this call for proposals seek to facilitate:

• the development and expansion of already existing interregional and cross border value chains and stronger connection between regional innovation ecosystems;
• the collaboration between innovation actors, especially SMEs, from less developed regions and innovation actors, especially SMEs, from more developed regions, contributing to cohesion policy objectives;
• the support of innovation actors with investment ideas that are ready to be evolve into mature business cases;
• the identification of new regional technological domains and market opportunities aligned with the EU priorities and bridging the gap between the supply and demand sides to help innovation ecosystems overcome market failures.

I3 Instrument business investment cases start with a minimum TRL 6 and have the ambition to facilitate demonstration and to accelerate market uptake and commercialisation. The development of the business and investment cases is facilitated by the regional innovation ecosystems with companies in the lead. Projects are expected to demonstrate a clear role for enterprises, in particular SMEs, in driving deployment, market uptake and scale-up activities.

The support to be provided shall include one or both of the following forms:

(a) financial support, through direct funding to consortium beneficiaries or through cascade funding/financial support to third parties (FSTP); and/or

(b) non-financial support, such as business and investment planning, protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), certification, commercialisation, standardisation, tailored support for the integration of key enabling technologies (KETs)/deep tech in production processes, and support for testing, demonstration and piloting of new solutions.

At the end of the project implementation, all involved regions and partners shall have a clear perspective on how to exploit and build on the I3 project results, including through the broad introduction of new products, services, or production processes. This shall include a credible perspective for follow-up investment, wider deployment and long-term integration of project results into European value chains.

Projects are expected to deliver action-oriented policy recommendations addressed to policymakers at regional, national and European levels. Recommendations shall be clear, practical and evidence-based, drawing on the project’s implementation and deployment experience (including barriers, enabling conditions and market uptake constraints). They shall explain how each recommended action addresses the identified need and indicate where uncertainty remains. Recommendations shall link to relevant policy initiatives and strategic frameworks at regional, national and European levels, as appropriate, and connect project results to the proposed actions. A manageable number of recommendations shall be provided, prioritised by impact or urgency, and shall clarify who shall act, at which level (regional, national or European), and through which instruments, including, where relevant, an indication of practical conditions for implementation and potential resource needs.

Recommendations shall, where relevant, also identify conditions needed to support follow-up investment, wider replication and stronger participation of less developed and transition regions in European value chains

At the end of this call document summarises the different objectives, dimensions, leverage effects and expected impact of the Strand 1 and 2a of the present I3 calls for proposals.

Expected Impact:

FOR ALL THREE THEMATIC PRIORITIES:

Expected impact at the closure of the project (non-exhaustive list):

• Innovative technologies tested and adopted by the market;
• Innovative solutions deployed improving businesses confidence, competences and means to digitalise and grow;
• Contribution to digitisation and health systems transformation, through various types of innovation and the supply of IT services;
• Uptake of technologically/economically reliable and viable solutions on the market;
• Deployment of new technologies fostering the growth of Europe’s manufacturing sector;
• Innovative technologies adopted by SMEs;
• Identification of possible sources of funding/funding mix, to cover the residual investment needs (public-private partnerships for the deployment of innovation, the collaboration with venture capitals, EIB group loans etc);
• Strengthening innovation diffusion channels;
• Reinforcing the capacity of regions to co-invest together, joining forces on common S3 investment priorities (interregional investments).

Long-term impact (non-exhaustive list):

• Increased companies’ productivity and efficiency;
• Improved user-friendly, accessible and interoperable public services;
• Improved level of digital skills;
• Improved EU innovation capacity and competitiveness;
• Creating new market opportunities for EU companies;
• Making the EU industry more efficient and sustainable;
• Improved way of living and of doing business;
• Increased social and territorial cohesion as well as personal well-being;
• Improved education and vocational training systems (indirectly);
• Reinforcing/reshaping EU value chains whilst increasing EU competitiveness in global markets;
• Unlocking the innovation potential of EU regions/countries;
• Contributing to the European Green Deal objectives;
• Positive impact on environment, health, climate, social and economy;
• Economic growth and job creation;
• Reinforcing/reshaping EU value chains whilst increasing the competitiveness of the EU in global markets.