Image: Missy Schmidt [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr
Up to €100,000 offered ‘to accelerate innovation uptake, commercialisation and scale-up of interregional investment’
The European Commission is offering up to €100,000 to set up innovation partnerships that aim to aid the economic recovery of EU regions and industries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.
It wants universities, research centres, innovation clusters and small companies to work together on partnerships that will link regions through their expertise in specific technology areas.
Areas of interest include new technologies that directly address Covid-19, such as medical products and devices. Hydrogen fuel technologies and circular economies for health are also priorities.
Up to four partnerships will be funded through the call, which closes on 7 September. It follows a similar 2017 call that eventually funded nine thematic innovation partnerships between EU regions.
In their 2021-27 EU budget deal, agreed on 21 July, national leaders set aside €500m for more “interregional innovation investments” paid out as part of regional development funds, like this call.