Interregional Innovation Investments Strand 2a (I3-2026-INV2a)

Objectives

This call for proposals Strand 2a focuses on reinforcing the integration of innovation actors from less developed regions and transition 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.

The objective of the present I3 Instrument Strand 2a call for proposals is to support interregional innovation investments by offering consortia of innovation actors from the quadruple helix ecosystems the necessary financial and advisory support to bring their innovations to a mature level, ready for scale-up and commercialisation. This call specifically aims at reducing the innovation divide in Europe, with a strong cohesion policy focus on integrating less developed and transition regions into European value chains.

Projects shall demonstrate how less developed and transition regions will take on concrete and sustainable roles in the targeted value chains, including through business opportunities, capability building and follow-up investment perspectives.

Thereby, proposals under this call for proposals 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 and transition regions and the integration into interregional and cross border value chains with more developed regions;
• the improvement of knowledge and practical skills in business and investment planning, particularly for SMEs, as well as for other consortium partners.
• the application and the deployment of innovative technologies and solutions in less developed and transition regions;
• the interaction and collaboration of SMEs from less developed and transition regions in interregional/multi-national value chains with innovation actors from more developed regions.

The focus is on technology transfer and highly specialised advisory support for the implementation of experiments and demonstration cases in companies. Participation of innovation actors is based on shared or complementary innovation priorities, as defined in their regional and/or national smart specialisation strategies. Projects shall show a balanced participation of regions with varying levels of development and innovation performance.

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. Projects are expected to demonstrate a clear role for enterprises, in particular SMEs, in driving deployment, market uptake and scale-up activities.

The support to be provided shall include one or both of the following forms:

(a) financial support, through direct funding to consortium beneficiaries or through cascade funding/financial support to third parties (FSTP), and/or

(b) non-financial support, such as coaching, mentoring, or matchmaking activities.

This shall include a credible perspective for follow-up investment, wider deployment and long-term integration of project results into European value chains.

At the end of the project implementation, all involved regions and partners shall have a clear perspective on how to exploit and build on the I3 Instrument project results, including through the broad introduction of new products, services, or production processes.

Main novelties

Applicants for the I3 Instrument Investments calls for proposals (I3-2026-INV1 and I3-2026-INV2a) benefit from a lighter budget table to be uploaded by the call deadline. Compared with the previous I3 Instrument calls, the submitted new budget tables will be much shorter. For example, there is no longer any requirement to submit individual sheets in detail per partner and work package. The simplified table will also be used for the projects to be funded during the grant agreement preparation (GAP) phase. However, for the reporting phase at mid-term and at project end, the previous detailed budget tables remain in use.

Revised Award Criteria: a more comprehensive and transparent evaluation framework 

The revised award criteria for the I3 Instrument provide a more comprehensive and transparent evaluation framework, supporting the evaluation of proposals and guiding applicants in understanding what is expected of them. The introduction of sub-criteria enables a more accurate assessment of proposals. Furthermore, a rebalanced scoring system, with a greater emphasis on Impact (now 10 points) and a reduced emphasis on Relevance (now 5 points), reflects the importance of generating substantial and lasting benefits for the regions involved and the value chains.

The other key change for the newly published calls is the increase of the maximum threshold for SMEs to be funded through financial support to third parties (FSTP) from €60 000 to €100 000. EISMEA opted for this derogation due to the large scale nature of the I3 Instrument projects, with total project grants of up to €10 million. The increase of the FSTP threshold will allow a better critical mass for sub-granted projects and therefore better support the main investments in the I3 Instrument projects.

Budget

The estimated total available call budget for 2026 is €30.2 million.

Info session

An information session on the call targeted at eligible applicants took place on 27 May 2026. Did you miss it? Check the recording and presentations here.