EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for “Pilot initiatives on Technology Infrastructures (CSA)”

1. Access to the €16 trn Single Market

• Leverage a harmonised regulatory space to pilot, test and commercialise new technologies simultaneously in 27 Member States + EEA, reaching more than 450 million consumers and 23 million enterprises.

• A CSA can design a pan-European service catalogue and common access/pricing model for Technology Infrastructures (TIs), removing the need for multiple bilateral agreements and accelerating time-to-market for users.

• Opportunity to embed cross-border “test before invest” vouchers that allow SMEs/start-ups from any region to access the mapped facilities, boosting uptake in cohesion regions.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Horizon Europe consortia (min. 3 legal entities from 3 different eligible countries) enable multinational partnerships between TI operators, large industry, SME clusters, DIH/EDIHs, standardisation bodies and public authorities.

• Creates a European TI network that pools scarce, capital-intensive facilities (e.g. pilot lines, nano-fabs, XR testbeds) and specialist skills that no single Member State could maintain alone.

• Facilitates mutual recognition of test results & certifications across borders, shortening industrial qualification cycles by up to 12–18 months.

3. Alignment with Key EU Strategies

| EU Policy Flagship | Concrete Alignment Opportunity |

| --- | --- |

| European Green Deal & Circular Economy | Use TIs for scale-up of clean-tech (electrolysers, circular materials) and for Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) services conforming to EU Taxonomy. |

| Digital Decade & Digital Europe Programme | Connect with EDIHs to deliver AI/GenAI-ready pilot environments; feed results into European data space initiatives. |

| EU Chips Act / IPCEI on Micro-electronics | Map pilot lines that can complement Chips Joint Undertaking investments, filling regional gaps. |

| Industry 5.0 & Pact for Skills | Develop human-centric TI service models, integrate reskilling modules and micro-credentials recognised EU-wide. |

| Open Strategic Autonomy | Evidence base for critical technology dependencies and investment priorities, supporting future EU Industrial Alliance roadmaps. |

4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Standardisation

• CSAs may act as pre-standardisation platforms, aligning test protocols with CEN/CENELEC & ETSI, thereby reducing fragmentation.

• Early engagement with EU AI Act, Cyber-Resilience Act and Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation eases future market entry for users of the pilot TIs.

• Opportunity to propose EU-level conformity labels (e.g. “EU-Validated TI”) that increase trust and visibility.

5. Integration into the Pan-European Innovation Ecosystem

• Direct links to 3,400+ Horizon Europe RIA/IA projects, 110 EIT Digital/EIT Manufacturing nodes, 300+ EDIHs, and 180+ European Partnerships – providing a ready pipeline of technology users and know-how.

• Access to European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and HPC infrastructure (EuroHPC JU) for data-intensive testing.

• Embed social-science partners to ensure human-centric design and societal acceptance, fully in line with Destination 6 narrative.

6. Funding & Investment Synergies

• Combine lump-sum Horizon funding with:

• ERDF & Interreg for regional TI upgrades,

• RRF/REPowerEU for large-scale clean-tech pilots,

• Connecting Europe Facility (CEF-Digital) for cross-border connectivity,

• InvestEU / EIB InnovFin for scale-up loans.

• Clear pathway to follow-up IA proposals or Euroclusters vouchers for SME deployment, maximising leverage and ensuring long-term sustainability.

7. Scale, Replicability & EU-Wide Impact

• CSA results (mapping, gap analysis, roadmap) become a blueprint for replication in other technology domains under future work programmes (2027+).

• Establishes KPIs and monitoring dashboards (e.g. facility utilisation rates, cross-border user mix, TRL increase) that can be adopted EU-wide.

• Supports the Commission in validating a European approach to TIs, informing future policy instruments (e.g. Common Technology Infrastructure Facility Framework 2030).

8. Actionable Opportunities Along the Project Life-Cycle

Proposal Phase

• Select a high-impact pilot domain (e.g. advanced materials, XR hardware, green hydrogen) that maps to Expert Group priority areas and strategic autonomy needs.

• Secure letters of intent from at least 5 multinational industrial users, ensuring demand-driven focus.

• Include partners from cohesion & peripheral regions to strengthen excellence cohesion criterion.

Implementation Phase

• Conduct a Pan-EU TI Mapping Campaign using open metadata standards; interlink with existing JRC TI database.

• Launch an EU TI User Forum (virtual & physical) to capture SMEs’ requirements and co-create service bundles.

• Pilot a Single-Entry Portal leveraging EU Login & Digital Wallet for seamless booking and IP-secure data exchange across facilities.

Exploitation Phase

• Deliver a 10-year investment roadmap feeding into National Recovery & Resilience Plans and Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3).

• Propose a sustainable governance model (e.g. European Economic Interest Grouping or Public-Private Partnership) to manage the TI network post-project.

• Publish open, multilingual knowledge assets (best-practice guides, standard operating procedures) under EU Knowledge Valorisation principles.

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Strategic Value at EU Scale: By operating transnationally, the CSA can unlock economies of scale, reduce duplication of expensive infrastructures, foster a true single market for industrial innovation services, and directly reinforce the EU’s competitiveness and sovereignty in critical technology domains—outcomes unattainable through isolated national initiatives.