I3-2026-INV1 - Interregional Innovation Investments Strand 1

The Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument, under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), supports interregional cooperation in innovation by connecting regional strengths, aligning complementary capabilities, and strengthening EU value chains. Strand 1 aims to increase competitiveness and resilience of EU value chains through interregional cooperation, facilitating the scaling-up and commercialisation of mature innovations in shared or complementary smart specialisation areas (S3). The objective is to provide financial and advisory support to consortia of innovation actors from the quadruple helix ecosystems to accelerate market uptake, scale-up, and commercialisation while integrating less developed regions into European value chains. Projects are expected to deliver concrete interregional investment cases in digital transition, green transition, or smart manufacturing, contributing to the strengthening of competitive and resilient European value chains.

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Agency	I3 (EU)
Region	EU
Country	N/A
Legal form	Company, NGO, Government organization, Other
Start date	13 May 2026
End date	12 Nov 2026
Budget	28,200,000 EUR planned for 2026

Grant application conditions

Admissibility conditions	Proposal page limits and layout as described in section 5 of the call document and Part B of the Application Form.
Eligible countries	Described in section 6 of the call document; applies to EU Member States and eligible associated countries.
Other eligibility conditions	Consortia from the quadruple helix innovation ecosystem including companies, NGOs, public bodies, and other relevant organizations; see section 6 of the call document.
Financial and operational capacity	Described in section 7 of the call document; all applicants must demonstrate financial and operational capacity.
Evaluation and award	Proposals evaluation process described in section 8 (submission & evaluation), section 9 (award criteria, scoring, thresholds), and section 4 (indicative evaluation and grant agreement timeline) of the call document.
Legal and financial set-up	Legal and financial set-up of the grants described in section 10 of the call document.
Project maturity	Business investment cases must start at minimum TRL 6 and target demonstration, accelerated market uptake, and commercialisation.
Eligible activities	Financial support (direct funding to consortium beneficiaries or cascade funding/financial support to third parties) Non-financial support (business and investment planning, IPR protection, certification, commercialisation, standardisation, support for integration of KETs/deep tech, and support for testing, demonstration, and piloting new solutions).
Thematic priorities	Digital transition Green transition Smart manufacturing
Consortium composition	Projects must include innovation actors from at least three different eligible regions from three different EU Member States or associated countries.
Documentation	https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/I3-2026-INV1

Eligible expenses

Evaluation criteria

Reporting

Application process

Application requirements