Cross-border and cross-sectoral collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship across different regions and value chains shall be promoted. The coordination and facilitation shall be led by cluster organisations and other intermediary organisations, by following a systemic approach that combines different resources, tools and instruments. Innovation actors, especially SMEs with mutually reinforcing competences, shall be supported in view of creating new industrial value chains that foster the development of emerging industries in Europe.
To this end, proposals shall outline a strategic vision for building new industrial value chains across the EU Member States and Associated Countries. They shall specifically focus on integrating and supporting groups of SMEs in collaboration with other innovation actors in addressing specific problems and challenges. Cluster organisations or other SME intermediaries shall be invited to set up collaboration and networking activities for SMEs and create a favourable "open space" for cross-sectoral fertilisation and value chain innovation to take place. Each proposal should demonstrate the capacity to:
Background information and guidance on the systemic approach and strategic focus to be envisaged is provided to applicants at the EU Cluster Portal[1] and in the background note[2] being part of this call. Synergies will be sought with other measures that are supporting such large-scale demonstration projects, in particular under the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) and COSME. This includes the thematic Smart Specialisation Platforms[3]- notably the one on Industrial Modernisation, European Strategic Cluster Partnerships[4], the European Cluster Collaboration Platform[5] and the European Observatory for Clusters and Industrial Change[6] as well as partnerships under the pilot action for interregional partnerships for innovative projects[7]. These synergies will be actively encouraged in the applicants' project partnership building and project implementation, notably through the engaged SME intermediaries. “Large-scale” does not necessarily refer to the amount of financial support provided for a particular project but to the extent of the roll-out of a staged process of experimentation and implementation with accompanying support that reaches out to groups of mutually reinforcing SMEs. This approach aims at “demonstrating at large scale” the potential impact of innovative solutions to specific challenges, rather than supporting isolated projects or SMEs.
For the first stage of the submission procedure, applicants should provide a concept note (of max. 10 pages), which should include a clear description of the ideas and objectives for an innovation action towards the development of new industrial value chains as well as an explanation of the main activities, implementation modalities (including for financial support to third parties, if applicable, and how to achieve the target of allocating at least 75% of the total proposed budget to support innovation in SMEs directly) and expected results foreseen (please refer to the grant conditions for this topic).
The concept note should further describe how the proposed systemic approach and strategic focus promises significant impact on economic growth and job; demonstrates a European dimension and added value; and has the potential to act as a catalyst by contributing to and/or leveraging other activities supported, for instance, under the European Structural and Investment Funds, e.g. in the context of smart specialisation strategies.
An estimate of the total costs of the proposed action and contribution to be requested from the Commission shall also be provided. Only proposals that pass the evaluation threshold for the first stage will be invited to a second stage of submission for a full proposal with a detailed description of the budget and activities planned to be undertaken.