EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities for “Bridges” (Call: EIT-2023-25)

Overview

“Bridges” is an EIT cascade-funding call designed to knit together innovation actors across Europe. Leveraging EIT’s pan-European mandate, the call enables beneficiaries to pilot, validate and scale solutions beyond national borders, tapping into the EU’s single market of 450 + million citizens.

1. Single Market Access

• Seamless deployment of prototypes/services in 27 Member States without customs or tariff barriers, accelerating commercial roll-out.

• Easier customer acquisition: one conformity assessment (e.g., CE-marking) opens doors EU-wide, reducing time-to-market by up to 30 % compared with sequential national launches.

• Opportunity to address EU-level societal challenges (mobility, energy, health) with large, diverse user bases for robust proof-of-concept data.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration

• Consortium requirement incentivises at least two organisations from different Member States/Associated Countries, fostering multicultural R&D teams.

• Access to EIT Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs) networks—over 3 000 partners—enabling matchmaking with corporates, SMEs, universities and cities.

• Shared pilot sites/living labs across borders (e.g., test in Scandinavian climate and Mediterranean climate simultaneously) improve solution robustness.

3. EU Policy Alignment

• Direct contribution to the European Green Deal via decarbonisation pilots, circular-economy demonstrators and sustainable urban logistics.

• Supports Digital Europe priorities: AI, data spaces and advanced connectivity, especially through EIT Digital nodes.

• Reinforces the New European Innovation Agenda’s flagship on “Connecting innovation ecosystems” by bridging regional innovation valleys.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Unified GDPR framework simplifies cross-border data sharing within consortia.

• Leveraging EU standards (eIDAS, ETSI, CEN/CENELEC) reduces legal fragmentation costs.

• Horizon-compliant intellectual-property rules enable joint exploitation plans with predictable freedom-to-operate across the EU.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Entry to >250 EIT Living Labs and FabLabs for rapid prototyping and user-centric design.

• Coaching & mentoring from Europe’s top research institutions (e.g., Fraunhofer, CEA, VTT) already embedded in KIC nodes.

• Visibility at EU-level events (EIT Summit, European Innovation Council showcases) that attract investors, corporates and policy-makers.

6. Funding Synergies

• Cascade funding (typically €60k–€300k per sub-grant) can be blended with:

• Horizon Europe projects (e.g., Cluster 4 Digital, Cluster 5 Climate & Energy) to scale TRL.

• InvestEU debt/equity instruments for commercial up-scaling post-grant.

• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) smart-specialisation vouchers for regional pilots.

• De-risking effect: EIT grant covers early validation, making ventures more bankable for EIC Accelerator or national co-funding.

7. Scale and Impact Potential

• Pan-European demonstrators facilitate replication in multiple regions, fulfilling EU cohesion objectives.

• KPI emphasis on market adoption and job creation encourages beneficiaries to plan for EU-wide go-to-market strategies from day one.

• Aggregated impact reporting through EIT strengthens lobbying power for policy uptake of project results at Commission level.

8. Strategic Value at EU Scale

• Faster technology diffusion owing to EIT’s hub-and-spoke network versus isolated national programmes.

• Ability to influence EU standards and directives through multi-stakeholder pilots, giving first-mover advantage.

• Enhanced resilience: cross-border supply chains and talent pools mitigate regional shocks, aligning with the EU’s open strategic autonomy goals.

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Bottom Line: Participating in “Bridges” enables organisations to unlock the full breadth of the EU single market, leverage harmonised regulations, tap into world-class R&I ecosystems and stack multiple EU funding streams—delivering growth and impact that a purely national grant could not match.