CAPACITY BUILDING CAP2B

The CAPACITY BUILDING CAP2B grant aims to increase the innovation capacity of European regional ecosystems, particularly in less developed regions, by supporting interregional cooperation and investment in innovation. The grant targets the development and strengthening of regional innovation ecosystems and value chains through coordinated and interlinked investments across several regions. It seeks to enhance the ability of public authorities and innovation intermediaries to deliver concrete innovation investments, improve knowledge, promote value chain participation, support SMEs, and strengthen institutional capacity to engage in EU and global markets.

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Agency	I3 (EU)
Region	EU
Country	N/A
Legal form	Company, NGO, Government organization, Other
Start date	23 Oct 2025
End date	19 Mar 2026
Budget	9,800,000 EUR

Grant application conditions

Admissibility	Proposal page limit and layout must comply with section 5 of the call document.
Eligible Countries	Eligibility is described in section 6 of the call document and is open to European regions, in particular less developed, transition, more developed, and outermost regions.
Eligible Applicants	Public authorities, innovation intermediaries (including clusters, regional development agencies, industrial associations), and other quadruple-helix stakeholders (e.g., academia, civil society, companies).
Legal and Financial Capacity	Applicants must demonstrate financial and operational capacity as described in section 7 of the call document.
Evaluation and Award	Submission and evaluation processes, including award criteria, scoring, and thresholds, are described in sections 8 and 9 of the call document.
Grant Agreement Requirements	Legal and financial set-up of the grants is described in section 10 of the call document.
Documentation	https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/I3-2026-CAP2B

Eligible expenses

Costs related to developing tailored policy measures to increase innovation capacity.

Cooperation arrangements with industry associations and expert networks.

Agreements and cooperation with partners for interregional innovation topics.

Membership and participation in innovation networks and platforms.

Development, testing, and validation of tools for mapping business opportunities.

Preparation of business cases and investment pipelines.

Dissemination and exploitation activities for project results.

Personnel costs, training, and upskilling/reskilling activities.

Activities supporting SME participation in interregional value chains.

Evaluation criteria

Contribution to building and strengthening regional innovation ecosystems in less developed regions.

Capacity to develop and implement tailored policy measures promoting innovation.

Quality of cooperation and involvement of relevant stakeholders (companies, public authorities, academia, civil society).

Potential impact on capacity to participate in interregional innovation projects and value chains.

Effectiveness of knowledge transfer, replication, and long-term institutional learning.

Quality and feasibility of the dissemination and exploitation plans.

Ability to address and solve institutional, administrative, and policy challenges.

Clear link to smart specialisation strategies and demonstrated added value for outermost and specifically challenged regions.

Business exclusions

Reporting

Projects must deliver tailored policy measures, cooperation agreements, updated innovation roadmaps, membership in relevant networks, and tested tools for mapping business opportunities by project closure.

A dissemination plan must be provided for sharing best practices and promoting uptake and replication of project outcomes.

An exploitation plan for scaling up results and leveraging further ERDF or other funding is required.

Application process

Application requirements