INNOWWIDE aims to bring European highly innovative SMEs to the forefront of international markets by prototyping and shaping a new and unique financial scheme (the “INNOWWIDE Call for proposals”) that will allow them to conduct Viability Assessment Projects (VAPs) in cooperation with local stakeholders, creating the conditions to increase the uptake of European innovative solutions in markets outside Europe. Two calls will be implemented with a total budget of 7,2M€, allowing to fund 120 VAPs (60k€/VAP), and targeting markets of developing countries, large emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico) and developed countries with the same allocation for each of these three country categories. The strength of this initiative lies in: (1) the experience of project partners concerning calls for proposals design and management, having 8 European funding agencies among them; (2) a SME-centric approach, to be implemented thanks to the extensive access and links to the European SMEs that project partners have; and (3) an ambitious stakeholder mobilisation plan with a strong focus on third country players thanks to partners international network of delegations (130 offices abroad in 45 countries). Project impact will be evaluated following a holistic, multilevel assessment approach covering European and international dimensions, done at VAP and at call level, and providing information from qualitative and quantitative points of view. This valuable information will be used to draw R&I policy conclusions, that will be shared with relevant policy bodies through the creation and operation of the “INNOWWIDE Policy Working Group”.

The objective of REINFORCING is to become the ORRI (Open and Responsible R&I) central point of knowledge and expertise, easily accessible, up-to-date and tailored to community needs. It will do so by reviewing and exploiting the richness of 10 years of ORRI-related initiatives, including the RRI Tools database. It will make this know-how available in the REINFORCING One-Stop Source platform, together with new community-led resources, and pathways to support navigation through them. REINFORCING is committed to capitalize on EU-funded actions and the proven expertise of its partners in both the theory and the practice of ORRI implementation. REINFORCING will act as catalyzer of quadruple-helix community members, who will co-develop services, including policy recommendations; of ORRI-related initiatives (regional and EU), to support efficient cooperation and adaptation rather than replication; and of ORRI expertise through the creation of a European map of Ambassadors and Facilitators. A key focus is on financial support of institutional and territorial changes towards Fair Transitions governance through cascading grants. REINFORCING will award 96 grants dedicated to boost institutions scaling up their ORRI experience, and to incubate newcomer territories experimenting with ORRI for the first time. Mentoring and matchmaking services and training modules are part of the REINFORCING wide offer. Reducing disparities is also a key focus of REINFORCING. Three key gaps (Balkan territories, Open Innovation and Mission projects) have already been identified and addressed through specific actions, while the overall project contribution to their reduction will be thoroughly assessed. The engagement of the Global ORRI Network will guarantee wide international cooperation. These efforts will result in a number of medium and long-term impacts, such as over 150 sustainable, individual institutional changes and mainstreaming of excellent, open and responsible R&I across the ERA.

By creating a sustainable strategic network of major European ICT hubs, the goal of HubLinked is to strengthen Europe’s software innovation capacity by learning from regions of proven ICT strength and sharing that knowledge will all regions. HubLinked will (i) improve the effectiveness University-Industry (U-I) linkages between computer science faculty and different types of companies (ii) develop global software innovator graduates that can work in any sector and (iii) upskill academic and industry staff to engage in U-I linkages for software innovation. Although the ICT sector is a major economic sector in Europe, HubLinked also includes SMEs in the non-software sector to provide a ‘low-cost low-commitment’ mechanism to prototype software innovations. An established partnership of large, industry-focused computer science faculties have come together with a representative mix of industry partners (large multinationals, SMEs in both the software and other sectors and start-up companies).HubLinked has six deliverables (i) effective U-I linkages (ii) the CSI4 curriculum framework for industry-oriented, internationalised, innovation-focused and interdisciplinary computer science degrees (iii) four Global Labs modules (iv) A portal of study and placement opportunities for students (v) An online professional development for academic and industry staff (vi) Form the HubLinked Association with a long term goal of including a partner from each EU country.We estimate the HubLinked partnership can directly reach over 3,000 companies, 12,000 students and 400 staff during the lifetime of the project. HubLinked will create a network of European ICT professionals that will increase the innovation capacity and competitiveness of European software hubs and help underpin education, research, innovation, trade and economic development for years to come.