Implementing co-funded action plans for connected regional innovation valleys in widening countries

Regions do not need to have the Regional Innovation Valleys label to be eligible for the EIE or WIDERA RIV calls.

There is no fast track mechanism for the regions that had been awarded RIV label.

No. Under EU law (TFEU principles), tenders must ensure:

• Transparency, equal treatment, and non-discrimination.
• You cannot limit participation to SMEs from certain regions or countries.
• Tenderers must be allowed to apply individually (not only in consortia).

Identical (same) proposals are prohibited to be submitted under the mirror regional innovation valleys 2025 calls EIE/WIDERA. In case of identical proposals submissions, the proposal submitted under the EIE WP will be ineligible and only the one submitted to WIDERA call will be evaluated.

Substantially similar proposals may be asked to be withdrawn from one of the mirror calls. “Substantially similar” means proposals that share significant overlaps in content, objectives, methodology, consortium members and/or expected outcomes. This means that 2 or more proposals submitted for funding are not necessarily identical, but they are so similar that they could be considered redundant or overlapping. For example, most of partners are the same, nearly identical expected outcomes and impact for the same challenge. Should applicants not withdraw similar proposals an action may be taken by the Commission to ensure that only 1 same or similar proposal will be funded should it consider funding multiple similar proposals is not in line with its policy objectives. Applicants are requested to declare their status in relation to their participation in the mirror calls in the Letter of Intent.

For information on the compliance with state aid rules, the participating regions in a proposal are advised to contact the national state-aid information points for advice tailored to the requirements of their intended projects.

In addition, the Commission makes available a platform for submitting questions on e-State Aid “Wiki platform”, where additional guidance can be obtained. This platform is however accessible to government experts only. For further information in this regard, the participating regions are invited to consult the dedicated contact points on state aid matters which are available in each Member State.

Yes. The co-funded action will have to ensure compliance with EU’s state aid rules. This means that the public contribution (including possible ERDF contribution) of joint interregional projects co-funded by the partners/regions may by subject to specific conditions and certain limitations, for instance in terms of the amount that can be granted to recipients (third parties).

For a complete determination of the state aid conditions that would apply regions are advised to consult the dedicated contact points on state aid matters which are available in each Member State.

The legal mechanism for this co-fund action integrating ERDF is “Cumulative funding” (Chapter 3), subject to dual compliance and safeguards against duplication. RIVs are not part of a formal category “European Partnership” (Chapter 4) of the EC Synergy Notice.

No. This is not required if the Grant Agreement specifies different conditions for implementing the cascade funding. For example, the agreement might require that each FSTP call includes at least two beneficiaries, one of which must be an SME, from at least two different participating regions.

Yes.

Yes. Regions as well as other legal entities can participate in more than one proposal.

Yes. EIT KICs, as well as any other relevant legal entities that are established in Member States or Associated Countries or other Horizon Europe eligible countries can be beneficiaries, as long as they can provide the 50% co-funding required and the minimum eligibility conditions for the composition of the consortium are met.

Yes, as long as the eligibility conditions are met. However, for the purpose of determining minimum eligibility, cities and municipalities are not considered national or regional authorities.

Any relevant innovation stakeholders that are established in Member States or Associated Countries or other countries eligible to receive HE funding (see HE List of eligible countriesPDF)can apply in the call as beneficiary as long as :

- they can commit to contributing to the 50% co-fund rate or find an agreement with the consortium for their participation

- This action requires the participation, as beneficiaries, of at least three (3) national or regional authorities, from at least three (3) different Member States or Associated Countries, of which at least (2) two from a widening country and one (1) from a non-widening country. The action also requires that among the national or regional authorities participating as beneficiaries, at least one (1) is from a ‘moderate’ or ‘emerging’ innovator region and at least one (1) is from a ‘strong’ or ‘innovation leader’ region.

- The co-ordinator of the project must be established in a widening country and the major share of the budget has to be allocated to participants from widening countries.

Other partners from Third countries not associated to HE (HE non-eligible countries) can participate as associated partners (not eligible for funding, bringing their own financing). See art. 9.1 of Annotated Grant AgreementPDF.

As an eligibility condition, the consortium must provide a single letter of intent at the moment of submission of the proposal, indicating the source of the required 50% of complementary funding (e.g. national and/or regional funding, EU funding, or private investments).

It is not necessary to identify the specific source of co-funding per applicant.

Yes. The co-ordinator of the project must be established in a widening country and the major share of the budget has to be allocated to participants from widening countries.

There is no requirement for each region to create its own local consortium. It’s up to the applicants to decide how to compose the consortium, on local or interregional level, as long as it includes the relevant innovation actors needed to achieve the project goals.

No. In accordance with the call, FSTP must be used to support interregional projects to be undertaken by research and innovation entities. However, this does not imply that the participation in FSTP calls is limited to entities located in project participants regions/geographic locations. Applicants should provide information on the FSTP implementation modalities including the eligible regions in a FSTP Annex to the proposal.

Recipients must normally be third parties to the agreement. The beneficiaries should specify the implementation modalities (type of recipients) in the FSTP Annex. Beneficiaries are not allowed to provide financial support under the grant agreement to themselves or their affiliated entities. However, certain exceptions may be made if explicitly allowed in the call conditions/Grant Agreement and justified in the Description of Action (DoA) Annex 1.

The beneficiaries should specify the implementation modalities (type of recipients) in FSTP Annex. In accordance with the General Annex B of the HE General Annexes, FSTP must always adhere to, inter alia, EU standards of equal treatment and conflict of interest. Like for beneficiaries, a proposal should also indicate (FSTP Annex) how such potential issues would be avoided if participation of affiliated entities to beneficiaries in FSTP calls is envisioned (e.g. SMEs as affiliated entities to cluster organisations that participate as beneficiaries).

No. In order to preserve fairness and transparency of the selection, eligibility conditions of the topics in the WP text are binding for everyone.

There are two ways for UA partners to participate in the proposal:

- to mobilise available funding through any European, national, regional and private funding that is available at the beneficiary level, or

- to find an agreement between the members of consortium that they will support UA by bearing the costs (in the amount of 50% of total costs).

A general indication in the letter of the source or sources of complementary funding for the consortium is sufficient, i.e., it is not necessary to identify the specific source for each applicant. The condition does not indicate that any particular source of complementary funding is excluded. Therefore, the complementary funding that would be associated with eligible costs of a Ukrainian beneficiary may originate from other external sources of funding or consortium members, i.e. be provided at the level of the consortium and subject to their agreement.

The topic does not define any average or maximum consortium size, only the minimum eligibility criteria.

On the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, a dedicated page brings together all information on personnel unit costs in Horizon Europe, with relevant guidance available online: Personal Unit Costs.

No. The €600,000 limit only applies to grants given through Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP). It does not apply to Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) or Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI), as these are public procurements, not grants.

The participating regions in a proposal will need to decide on the maximum amount to be granted to each third party, considering that the maximum amount allowed by the call is EUR 600.000. As the current ceiling of the de minimis aid is EUR 300 000, per project, per company over a period of three years, an amount that exceeds this ceiling will not be in line with de minimis aid rules. Primary responsibility for ensuring compliance with State aid lies at national level.

This may be the case, provided certain conditions are fulfilled. Regions are advised to consider the options provided by GBER. For example, Article 25 of the GBER concerning aid for research and development projects permits financing from public sources for up to 100% of eligible costs for fundamental research, 50% for industrial research and 25% for experimental development. The aid intensities for industrial research and experimental development may be further increased if certain conditions are met, such as effective collaboration between participants, when, among others, at least one participant is an SME or between companies belonging at least two Member States (or in a Member State and an EEA country) or between companies and one or more “research and knowledge dissemination organisations” i.e. research institutes or universities, or if the results of the project are widely disseminated through conferences, publication, open access repositories, or free or open source software.

Regions could also check, for example with the national state aid information points, whether there are already approved aid schemes at national level whose conditions will permit that aid can be given to support the projects selected in the joint interregional innovation calls.

In principle, yes, the applicants can use the RRF funds for co-funding.

With respect to the prevention of double funding specifically, the Member State is required to clearly separate estimated costs supported by the RRF, to reflect which part of the measure is expected to be covered by the RRF and which is to be covered by the EIE part of Horizon Europe. The Member States can refer to the guidance note “Double funding under the Recovery and Resilience Facility” of February 2023 or also contact EC-RECOVER@ec.europa.eu if they have any specific questions.

Finally, the above is based on the understanding that the RIVs do not have mandatory national co-financing rates the coverage of which is not allowed by the RRF (page 42 of the RRF GuidancePDF).

As rules on cumulative funding may vary from one country to another, if you consider using the “cumulative funding” synergy mechanism to combine ERDF funding and Horizon Europe funding (EIE) please contact the Managing Authority of the respective ERDF programme following Chapter 3 “Cumulative funding” of the Notice on Synergies between Horizon Europe and ERDF programmes (2022/C 421/03).

Yes, provided it complies with the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR).

This is covered by the new legislation 2021-2027, CPR and Horizon Europe (HE).

The relevant articles are CPR Article 73(2)(4), HE Article 15, also General Block Exception Regulation (GBER) Article 25c.

Applicants are advised to consult the Notice on Synergies between Horizon Europe and ERDF programmes (2022/C 421/03).

The PCP (Pre-Commercial Procurement) or PPI (Public Procurement of Innovative solutions) obligation should be mainly included under the ‘subcontracting costs’ category.

This is because the actual PCP/PPI contracts, awarded to third-party companies through a procurement process, are considered subcontracts.

However, personnel costs can also be used to cover the effort of consortium partners (like public buyers or the lead procurer) in preparing and managing the PCP or PPI process. These are internal tasks and must be budgeted as ‘personnel costs’, not subcontracting, since beneficiaries cannot subcontract work to themselves. The consortium has to declare the PCP/PPI option in their Letter of Intent submitted as part of the proposal. If affiliated entities (e.g. a hospital linked to a regional authority) are involved in carrying out tasks, this must be clearly stated in the proposal, which will then serve as a basis for the grant agreement.

For costs eligibility under HE projects, applicants are advised to see: Annotated Model Grant Agreement (AGA) Art.6.2.D.1 & Art 9.4 that refer to financial support to third parties ARTICLE 6 — ELIGIBLE AND INELIGIBLE COSTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS < 6.2 Specific eligibility conditions for each budget category< D. Other cost categories

No. The FSTP own contribution cannot be considered as part of the project eligible costs as the Commission reimburses the costs of beneficiaries. Only the costs actually incurred by the beneficiaries can be reimbursed.

Yes. Operationally, FSTP is an integral part of the call and the proposals:

• should include provisions and modalities for the competitive selection and funding (joint open calls implemented via FSTP) of at least 3 interregional innovation projects (point of proposal evaluation);

2.must allocate at least 50% of their total eligible costs to FSTP and/or to the implementation of the PCP or PPI procurements (eligibility criterion of the call).

As long as this call requirements are met (i.e. “must allocate at least 50% of their total eligible costs to FSTP and/or PCP/PPI”), there is no restriction on whether this should be applied per beneficiary (e.g. partner region).

Therefore, depending on the proposal’s objectives in line with the call, there may be beneficiaries/regions that are participating only to the collaborative activities (CSA-type of actions) or only to the FSTP/PCP-PPI part.

Before the submission of the proposal, the applicants that wish to use ERDF to co-fund their participation, should ensure the proper coordination regarding the project’s implementation with the relevant ERDF programme Managing Authorities. Relevant information on the source of the funding (ERDF) should be included in the Letter of Intent as part of the proposal.

It is a decision to be agreed between the consortium and the EISMEA Project Advisor managing the project in line with the grant agreement signed.

Grant Agreement amendment is possible with a potential new consortium member or task reshuffling.

Yes. Based on the Annotated Grant AgreementPDF (General > Article 5.3 Funding rate 3.): “EU grants are normally subject to ‘co-financing’ or ‘co-funding’, meaning that the EU granting authority does only provide a part of the funding of the action and the remaining parts must be financed from the beneficiary’s own resources, income generated by the action (e.g. by selling results), or financial or in-kind contributions from third parties (e.g. grants from national or private funding programmes).”

Therefore, a beneficiary can cover its complementary 50% co-funding obligation also through third parties to the grant agreement who make available some of their resources – against payment or for free - to the beneficiary without this being part of their normal economic activity (i.e., seconding personnel, contributing equipment, infrastructure or other assets, or other goods and services). Please note that third parties giving in-kind contributions do not implement any action tasks. They may not charge costs or contributions to the action, but the costs for the in-kind contributions are eligible and may be charged by the beneficiaries which use them, under the conditions set out in Article 6 and 9.2 of Model Grant Agreement.

Yes. External sources of funding outside the consortium (e.g., private funding, sponsors, foundations) may be indicated in the Letter of intent as complementary 50% co-funding without the requirement that the entities providing this funding participate in the project as beneficiaries (as they do not implement the project actions and do not declare eligible costs). However, the costs from “external funding” must nevertheless be incurred by a beneficiary in order to be eligible, i.e. must be channeled through a beneficiary and not directly to the recipients of the FSTP.

There are no formal requirements to provide information in relation to potential state aid issues under the rules of the call at hand. However, consortia are advised to do an evaluation of whether the proposal is in line with state aid rules, and whether potential state aid issues may emerge.

In any case, consortia should ensure that the proposal includes information on implementation conditions, in particular that the proposal comply with the 6 mandatory elements of the Horizon Europe Model grant agreement (art 6.2.D.1)PDF(this information should be included in the separate FSTP Annex of PART B of the proposal).

Finally, it is to be noted that specific information can be required on national level if this is necessary to ensure State aid compliance.

The call is not providing information/restriction on how detailed this information should be. Applicants should provide information on the FSTP implementation modalities via a specific Annex to the proposal. Applicants should clearly detail the objectives and the results to be obtained via the FSTP and contain some specifications (including max amount, criteria for calculating the amount, types of activities, persons/type of persons, criteria for FSTP, measures to avoid potential conflicts of interest or unequal treatment of applicants, and other info requested as per template). Information should allow evaluators to have a clear understanding on the requirements and implementation conditions of FSTP. Applicants are advised to check: Horizon Europe Model Grand AgreementPDF (Art.6.2.D.1 & Art 9.4 and General Annexes to the Horizon Europe WP 2025PDF.

No, the call does not aim to extend the duration of existing RIV projects funded under the 2023 call.

However, previously successful RIVs and their participants can still apply. Proposals must clearly show added EU value, have a different focus from current RIV projects or build new milestones and specific objectives from the previous ones.

The templates required for an application can be downloaded once you prepare your application in the Funding and Tenders portal.

The submission system will provide prompts if you forget to upload a required template. The following templates need to be completed:

• Application Form (Part B)

• Additional information on beneficiaries

• Letter of Intent

• Annual work programme

• FSTP Annex (only if the project include FSTP)

These are “mirror” calls, so the conditions are identical with the exception of WIDERA-specific eligibility conditions:

-the coordinator must be established in a widening country

-at least 2 regional/national authorities from a widening country and at least 1 from a non-widening country

-the major share of the budget has to be allocated to participants from widening countries

This initiative is a unique opportunity for widening countries to accelerate their innovation potential, attract investment, and create new jobs through collaboration, smart specialisation, and cutting-edge solutions.

The regional/national authorities from Widening countries can consider applying to access EU funding and gain visibility; build strategic partnerships with strong innovators or innovation leader regions; strengthen their local innovation ecosystem; and tackle regional challenges with European support.

There is full flexibility.

• At least 50% of total eligible costs must go to FSTP and/or PCP/PPI combined.
• There is no fixed ratio between the two.
• The consortium can allocate the entire 50% to one type or split it between both.
• The chosen approach should be justified by the project’s objectives and expected impact.

For FSTP grants, regions must launch joint calls, and beneficiaries must apply in consortia from at least two regions.

For PCP/PPI tenders, collaboration happens through joint or coordinated procurement among the participating regions.

• PCPs are not subject to EU procurement directives.
• PPIs are governed by EU procurement directives (2014/24/EU, 2014/25/EU, 2014/23/EU).
• Suppliers don’t have to form interregional consortia to participate.

Regions may collaborate by:

• Defining common needs together,
• Conducting joint market consultations,
• Evaluating suppliers jointly, or
• Testing and deploying solutions across multiple regions.

The aim of this topic is to foster the creation of efficient, open, inclusive and interconnected European innovation ecosystems in line with the New European Innovation Agenda, notably in thematic/technological areas (including deep tech) that will be critical for EU value chains. The project is expected to contribute to the twin green and digital transition and a resilient society. It is also expected to contribute to the net-zero objective, particularly in the areas of reducing reliance on the fossil fuels, increasing global food security, mastering the digital transformation (including cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence), improving healthcare, and achieving circularity.

Own contributions of (FSTP) recipients coming from private sources are not considered as state aid. It is actually a good practice that the participating partners/regions in a proposal seek the possibility of attracting private financial contributions, to complement the awarded public funding.

Characteristics of recipients of FSTP are:

• They do not sign the Grant Agreement (and are therefore not beneficiaries).
• They do not perform action tasks, but the financial support given to them is part of an action task specified in the description of the action.
• They receive financial support from the grant (sub-grant), to be declared as FSTP cost, by a beneficiary.

The beneficiary remains responsible for the granting authority for the proper use of the funding by the recipients. They must, moreover, ensure that they comply with certain obligations specified in the grant agreement.

The call text indicates the following:

1.The consortium must allocate at least 50% of their total eligible costs to FSTP and/or to the implementation of the PCP or PPI procurements.

• The maximum amount of FSTP to be granted to an individual third party is EUR 600.000. This refers to the total participation of the individual third party in all interregional innovation projects of a proposal (grant).

The consortium has the full responsibility for the preparation and publication of joint FSTP calls , including their implementation modalities and provisions, in line with the legal requirements, i.e.:

• Financial Regulation Art.217 (2024/2509 23 September 2024)
• General Annexes to the Horizon Europe WP 2025PDF (B. Eligibility)
• Horizon Europe Model Grand AgreementPDF (Art.6.2.D.1 & Art 9.4 )

No. Getting funds for preparation of joint action plans via “preparatory CSA” topics (HE-EIE-2021-CONNECT-01-01, HORIZON-EIE-2023-CONNECT-01-02 and HORIZON-EIE-2025-02-CONNECT-01) does not automatically imply getting financing for their implementation via a COFUND topic.

Due to the launch of the topics under the same call in 2025, it is not possible for the applicants of the 2025 preparatory CSA call to submit proposals for the 2025 COFUND call. However, successful projects of past topics, e.g. 2021 and 2023 preparatory CSA calls, can be the basis for the participation in the current COFUND call in line with the call requirements and objectives.

Partner regions (beneficiaries) may decide, for example, to:

• Mobilise further public funding by launching open calls targeting additional regions (not only those participating in the proposal);
• Mobilise further private funding by lowering the funding rate of financial support to third parties (FSTP) calls in line with the EU state-aid rules (e.g. to 70%, therefore ensuring 30% private funding e.g. from companies participating as third parties and 70% funding from the project - including EU funding and/or other funding eligible for the project)

No. Consortia are free to decide how they implement and/or interconnect their project.

For Cofund calls, an Annual Work Programme (AWP) document is mandatory, together with the application (as annex to Part B) to be uploaded in the Submission System. The 1st work programme is a key part of the proposal; the work programmes for subsequent years are regular deliverables for the implementation of the project.

The AWPs provide a detailed description of activities for the initial and each successive twelve-month period of the project, as the action develops in line with the objectives and description of work provided in part B of the proposal. It must include both activities that are planned to be carried out and completed along with activities that are simply initiated during the relevant twelve-month period.

Depending on the detail of part B of the proposal, it is not excluded that AWP may overlap with part B.

The call is challenge-based and indicates five (5) thematic areas, focusing on reducing reliance on the fossil fuels, increasing global food security, mastering the digital transformation (including cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence), improving healthcare, and achieving circularity.

Applicants are encouraged to develop proposals that are focused and clearly targeted toward one main thematic area, as proposals will be evaluated based on their coherence, structure, and well-defined objectives. However, depending on the nature of the challenge being addressed, proposals may span multiple thematic areas if relevant.

These are “mirror” calls, so the conditions are identical with the exception of WIDERA-specific eligibility conditions:

-the coordinator must be established in a widening country

-at least 2 regional/national authorities from a widening country and at least 1 from a non-widening country

-the major share of the budget has to be allocated to participants from widening countries

This initiative is a unique opportunity for widening countries to accelerate their innovation potential, attract investment, and create new jobs through collaboration, smart specialization, and cutting-edge solutions.

The regional/national authorities from Widening countries can consider applying to access EU funding and gain visibility; build strategic partnerships with strong innovators or innovation leader regions; strengthen their local innovation ecosystem; and tackle regional challenges with European support.

Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPIs) aim to the procurement of products, services or processes that have already been (partially) demonstrated on a small scale, and may be nearly or already available in small quantities on the market, but which have not been widely adopted yet. Therefore, it allows the procurement of innovative solutions that are not yet widespread but are close to market entry, aiming at a high TRL. The work programme mentions the minimum requirements that projects are expected to achieve given the context of the available budget for the action, allowing them to be more ambitious. TRL 8, as mentioned in the work programme, will be the expected minimum TRL that beneficiaries should aim to achieve when implementing a PPI.

Contrary to Horizon Europe, which is managed by the Commission itself, ERDF programmes are implemented in the shared management mode by the Managing Authorities in the Member States or regions. The latter are responsible for selection of projects based on the priorities established in their ERDF programmes. Managing Authorities may launch calls for support of the EIE Regional Innovation Valleys call and provide funding from the ERDF programme following the selection in the call, if they are in line with the programme priorities and the rules for cumulative funding stipulated in the CPR Art. 63(9) and HE Regulation Article 15. Applicants are advised to consult the Notice on synergies between Horizon Europe and ERDF programmes (OJ C 421/7 of 4.11.2022) (EC Notice on synergies) chapter 3 on “Cumulative funding” and, particularly, p.18 that sets out the details of implementation and reporting.