Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument, a new initiative to strengthen cooperation in the EU.

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Content produced by the Innovarum Team with inputs from different team members.

The European Union continues supporting collaborative and innovative projects under the European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF), in this case, through a new funding instrument called I3 Instrument or Interregional Innovation Investments. The programme aims at promoting innovation through “Smart Specialisation” and collaboration between EU regions.

If you are looking for funding to move forward a project for the digital transition, the green transition or the smart manufacturing, and your solution is in a commercialisation or scale-up phase; then the I3 Instrument is interesting for you!

Key facts

On 9 December 2021, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) launched the programme in an info day. The first Work Programme, published for 2021 and 2022, includes 2 calls.
General scope: interregional innovation projects in their commercialisation and scale-up phases (TRL 6-9) that look for support to overcome regulatory and other barriers and bring their project to investment level.
Thematic areas: green transition, digital transition, and smart manufacturing.
UPDATED deadlines:
1. 1^st Call: 22 February 2022 (39M euros)
2. 2^nd Call: 18 October 2022 (36M euros)

Which activities can be funded?

There are two strands on each call, one more focused on mature partnerships and the other one looking for impact on less developed regions. These are the official definitions for each strand:

Strand 1 – Financial and advisory support for investments in interregional innovation projects

Strand 1 targets mature partnerships to help them accelerate market uptake and scale-up of innovative solutions in shared smart specialisation priority areas, as well as to develop a portfolio of investment projects.

Strand 2a – Financial and advisory support to the development of value chains in less developed regions

Strand 2a focuses on increasing the capacity of regional innovation ecosystems in less developed regions to participate in global value chains, as well as the capacity to participate in partnerships with other regions.

Both strands include the description of three topics, and the proposal must be aligned with one of them (either digital transition, green transition, or smart manufacturing). All information and detailed descriptions on the topics are available at the official call descriptions:

Eligibility

As a minimum, applicants must:

Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
Be established in one of the eligible countries (EU Member States, at this moment)

Important note: it is expected that at least 70% of the grant is allocated to investments in companies.

More information at:

Budget categories

Personnel costs: employees, natural persons under direct contract, seconded persons, SME owners and natural person beneficiaries.
Subcontracting costs.
Purchase costs: travel and subsistence, equipment, other goods, works and services.
Other cost categories: financial support to third parties.
Indirect costs: 7% of the eligible direct costs.

Open calls – Apply now!

Strand 1

Strand 2

This article has been prepared by Iñigo Rodilla, Innovarum´s Senior Project Manager.

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