Preparatory action for setting up joint programmes among innovation ecosystems actors
Quick Facts
Email me updates on this grant
Get notified about:
- Deadline changes
- New FAQs & guidance
- Call reopened
- Q&A webinars
We'll only email you about this specific grant. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam.
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Preparatory action for setting up joint programmes among innovation ecosystems actors offering max €35.0M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Overview: Preparatory Action for Joint Innovation Programmes
This Horizon Europe call, HORIZON-EIE-2025-02-CONNECT-01, is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) designed to lay the groundwork for deeper collaboration between innovation ecosystems across Europe.
Core Objective
The primary purpose is not to fund research or implementation, but to provide resources for national, regional, and local authorities, along with other innovation actors, to prepare and agree on joint multi-annual programmes and action plans. The goal is to strengthen the performance, connectivity, and strategic alignment of innovation ecosystems, in line with the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA).
Key Focus Areas
Proposals are encouraged to build their joint action plans around one or more thematic areas of strategic importance to the EU, including:
* The five "burning challenges" from the NEIA (e.g., fossil fuel reliance, food security, digital transformation, healthcare, circularity).
* Priorities of the European Green Deal and the RePowerEU Plan.
* Circularity (e.g., Hubs for Circularity).
* Digital Transformation (e.g., European Digital Innovation Hubs).
* Emerging technology fields such as biotechnology, biomanufacturing, and advanced materials.
Scope of Funded Activities
This is a preparatory action. The grant will support activities such as:
* Phase 1: Strategy & Mapping: Fostering dialogue among stakeholders, mapping existing innovation strategies in the participating regions/countries, identifying gaps and opportunities, and building a strategic partnership.
* Phase 2: Action Plan Development: Concretising the findings from Phase 1 into a detailed, multi-annual (3+ years) joint action plan, including governance models and a long-term funding strategy.
* Pilot Schemes (Optional): Applicants can design and test specific, small-scale actions using Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP). This allows for practical testing of concepts within the preparatory project.
Financial Details
* Type of Action: HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions (CSA).
* Funding Model: Lump Sum Grant. Funding is disbursed based on the successful completion of work packages outlined in the grant agreement. This requires a detailed and well-justified work plan in the proposal.
* Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP): Beneficiaries may provide grants to third parties to pilot specific actions. The maximum amount for each third party is EUR 60,000.
📊 At a Glance
Get Grant Updates
Get notified about:
- Deadline changes
- New FAQs & guidance
- Call reopened
- Q&A webinars
We'll only email you about this specific grant. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam.
🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
Strategic EU-Wide Advantages of the HORIZON-EIE-2025-02-CONNECT-01 Grant
This preparatory action is fundamentally designed to leverage the unique strengths of the European Union, transforming fragmented local innovation efforts into a cohesive, powerful, and interconnected pan-European force. The grant's primary EU added value lies in its role as a catalyst for strategic, long-term, cross-border integration, directly addressing the core objectives of the European Research Area (ERA) and the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA).
#1: Driving European Integration and Policy Cohesion
This grant acts as a primary instrument for the on-the-ground implementation of high-level EU strategies, ensuring policy translates into coordinated action across the Union.
**Direct Alignment with the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA)**
• Strategic Implementation: The call is not just inspired by the NEIA; it is a direct mechanism to build its foundational pillars. Projects will create the joint programmes and action plans that the NEIA envisions, particularly for tackling the five "burning challenges" (e.g., fossil fuel reliance, food security, digital transformation).
• Fostering Regional Innovation Valleys (RIVs): The grant explicitly encourages linking to RIVs, helping to establish and strengthen these key NEIA flagships. This fosters interregional collaboration on deep tech and other strategic priorities, creating specialized innovation hubs that serve the entire EU.
**Reducing the EU's Innovation Divide**
• Mandated Cohesion: The eligibility criteria requiring consortia to include entities from 'innovation leader'/'strong' regions and 'moderate'/'emerging' innovator regions is a powerful tool for EU cohesion. This is a core EU advantage that national programmes cannot replicate.
• Knowledge and Best Practice Transfer: It facilitates a structured flow of expertise, governance models, and investment strategies from more developed ecosystems to less advanced ones, accelerating their development and integrating them into pan-European value chains.
#2: Unlocking Pan-European Collaboration and Ecosystem Building
The grant's core purpose is to architect the collaborative frameworks necessary for a truly single European innovation ecosystem.
**Building Resilient, Cross-Border Value Chains**
• Strategic Interconnection: By encouraging ecosystems to co-plan around thematic areas like biotechnology, advanced materials, and circularity, the grant enables the creation of new or reinforced European value chains. A consortium could link a region strong in raw materials with another strong in manufacturing and a third with market access, enhancing the EU's open strategic autonomy.
• Quadruple Helix on a European Scale: The grant moves beyond local quadruple helix models by mandating their implementation across borders. This brings together diverse perspectives from industry, academia, government, and civil society from multiple Member States to co-design solutions for shared European challenges.
**Creating a Network of Networks**
• Systemic Impact: This is not about funding individual SMEs but about building the connective tissue between entire ecosystems. The resulting joint action plans will create durable partnerships, shared knowledge assets, and common support infrastructures.
• Leveraging Existing EU Assets: Projects are pushed to connect with and create synergies between established EU networks like the EIT KICs, Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs), and Euroclusters, amplifying their impact and creating a more navigable support system for innovators across the EU.
#3: Paving the Way to the EU Single Market
The preparatory actions directly address market fragmentation by harmonizing the conditions for innovation deployment and scaling across the Union.
**Streamlining Access to a 450M+ Consumer Market**
• Harmonized Support Systems: By developing joint programmes, partnering ecosystems can align their support services for startups and scaleups. This creates a 'soft landing' corridor, making it seamless for a company from one country to access markets, talent, and investors in partner countries within the consortium.
• Scalability by Design: The requirement to demonstrate strong EU added value and scalability forces applicants to think beyond local or national confines from day one. The grant funds the creation of a blueprint for pan-European expansion.
**Developing EU-Wide Lead Markets**
• Coordinated Innovation Procurement: A key focus is on aligning innovation procurement strategies. This allows public authorities from several countries to pool their purchasing power and create a large, unified market for novel solutions, providing a massive incentive for EU innovators and a unique competitive advantage.
#4: Catalyzing Investment and Maximizing Funding Synergies
This grant is designed as a strategic enabler, a relatively small investment to unlock much larger funding streams and ensure greater return on investment for EU and national funds.
**A Blueprint for Blended Finance**
• De-risking Future Investment: The grant funds the crucial, high-risk initial phase of dialogue, mapping, and planning. The resulting validated, multi-stakeholder, cross-border action plan is a highly attractive and de-risked proposition for subsequent funders.
• Engine for Synergies: It explicitly mandates the creation of synergies with other funding sources, including Cohesion Policy funds, national/regional public funds, and private capital. This ensures that Horizon Europe funding is not a standalone subsidy but a catalyst that multiplies its impact by braiding together different financial instruments for a common goal.
**Pathway to Larger-Scale Implementation**
• Preparatory Action Logic: This CSA is the first step. A successful project will produce a shovel-ready action plan perfectly positioned to apply for larger implementation grants under other parts of Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, Interreg, or other major EU programmes. It essentially funds the creation of a high-quality proposal for future, larger-scale EU investment.
🏷️ Keywords
Ready to Apply?
Get a personalized assessment of your eligibility and application strategy
See in 5 min if you're eligible for Preparatory action for setting up joint programmes among innovation ecosystems actors offering max €35.0M funding