This call is for Strand 2a and focuses on reinforcing the integration of innovation actors from less developed regions in developing EU value chains while creating local opportunities for innovation and smart economic transformation in regions with shared (or complementary) smart specialisation areas.

Applications under this call seek to facilitate:

• the support of innovation actors with investment ideas that are ready to be developed into mature business cases;
• the identification of new regional technological domains and market opportunities with the EU priorities and bridging the gap between the supply and demand sides to help innovation ecosystems overcome market failures;
• the creation of new value chains in less developed regions and the integration into interregional and cross-border value chains with more developed regions;
• the application and the deployment of innovative technologies and solutions in less developed regions;
• the interaction and collaboration of SMEs from less developed regions in interregional/multi-national value chains and with innovation actors form more developed regions.

The focus is on technology transfer and highly specialised advisory support for the implementation of experiments and demonstration cases in companies. The support to be provided shall be (a) financial (through direct funding of consortium’s beneficiaries or through cascade funding/financial support to third parties (FSTP)) or (b) nonfinancial (e.g. coaching, mentoring, matchmaking activities).

I3 Instrument business investment cases start with a minimum TRL 6 and have the ambition to facilitate demonstration and to accelerate market uptake and commercialisation. The development of the business and investment cases is facilitated by the regional innovation ecosystems with companies in the lead.

Proposals must address one of the followingthematic priorities:

• Digital transition
• Green transition
• Smart manufacturing

Each project application under this call must address only one thematic priority and each thematic priority encourages applications in one or more or a combination of investment areas (more details in the call document pages 8-10).

Projects selected under this call for proposals are implemented through an investment portfolio approach, which foresees the identification, within a specific thematic/technological area of cooperation, of a number of investment-ready subprojects that address one or several bottlenecks in a value chain identified in the application. These sub-projects are necessary to accelerate the uptake of innovation, thus increasing the competitiveness of EU value chains.

Target investments can be both tangible and intangible investments in the form of one the following activities:

• Financial support for producing plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or;
• Adaptation of existing prototypes and tailoring them to the companies’ needs for the demonstration in a real environment;
• Development of portfolios of projects for close-to-market investments that deploy new or improved technologies or processes;
• Activities directly aiming at producing plans, arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services;
• Activities connecting or making complementary use of testing and demonstration facilities to accelerate market uptake and scale-up of innovative solutions in shared smart specialisation areas;
• Innovation services for the development of the business investment interconnecting value chains;
• Test beds and complementary activities needed to improve regulations, standards and/or to remove barriers and bottlenecks to innovation;
• Activities bringing innovative ideas and new products to the market;
• Advisory support for investment.