The topic will allow national, regional and/or local authorities in charge of innovation policies and programmes from Member States, Associated Countries and/or their regions, in cooperation with research and innovation actors, to prepare joint multi-annual programmes of activities and action plans with the aim of strengthening the performance and capacity of their innovation ecosystems, their efficient interconnection and their alignment towards EU-level priorities, in line with the New European Innovation Agenda^[4], to jointly tackle challenges at EU, national, regional, and local level.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Open dialogue, prepare the ground and facilitate the agreement among Member States, Associated Countries, and/or their regions, in cooperation with the private sector and research and innovation actors, towards more dynamic, inclusive, gender diverse, and connected innovation ecosystems, via co-planning, co-implementation, and co-investments around areas outlined in the New European Innovation Agenda^[1];
• Prepare joint long-term programmes and action plans fostering collaboration, common innovation-support activities, and the creation of common knowledge assets among EU, national, regional and/or local level innovation ecosystems, enhancing synergies and complementarities of their programmes and encouraging the alignment of their innovation policies and related policies impacting innovation in line with the new European Innovation Agenda, establishing, if relevant, links to the new Partnerships for Regional Innovation^[2];
• Ensure the inclusion of all key innovation players from across the quadruple helix^[3], and all EU territories, including rural areas;
• Foster synergies with other EU funding programmes, including Cohesion Policy instruments, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and any other funding leverages, including national or regional public funds, and private funds, to complement Horizon Europe support for innovation ecosystems.

Expected impact

Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to strengthening robust interconnected innovation ecosystems and creating a favourable environment to promote the scalability potential of businesses, including in the deep tech sector, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:

• Interconnected, inclusive, and more efficient innovation ecosystems across the EU that draw on the existing strengths of European, national, regional, and local ecosystems and engage new, less well-represented stakeholders and less advanced innovation territories, including rural areas, to set, undertake, and achieve collective ambitions tackling challenges for the benefit of society, including green, digital, and social transitions, and advancing the European Research Area and the New European Innovation Agenda;
• Enhance cross-border network connectivity and inter-regional collaboration of regional innovation valleys by reinforcing their capacity to create, reshore, and renew European value chains towards the sustainable green and digital transition and the EU’s open strategic autonomy in EU countries and/or regions;
• Strengthen and expand cooperation between innovation ecosystems worldwide;
• Foster more inclusive and gender equal innovation ecosystems;
• Reducing territorial inequalities in access to innovation support.

Type of action: HORIZON-CSA HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions

Type of MGA: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]

Deadline model: single-stage

Opening date: 22 December 2022

Deadline date: 23 March 2023 17:00:00 Brussels time