The development and uptake of novel digital technologies in healthcare are associated with several barriers, such as expensive and risky development processes, quality and security requirements, and fragmentation in regulatory and reimbursement schemes. Open innovation is an approach designed to foster innovation processes, increase efficiency, and reduce costs by bringing together various stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem to create a supportive environment for innovation that helps overcome existing barriers. COHES.io intends to create an interregional open innovation environment for digital health by interconnecting the regional ecosystems of Norte from Portugal, Malopolskie from Poland and Attica from Greece. We aim to increase the connectedness of these regions by introducing common tools for collaboration and networking; to improve the efficiency of healthcare innovation by identifying possibilities for joint interventions (e.g. the creation of an interregional virtual living lab), and to support the transfer of best practice innovation support schemes. Via a bottom-up co-creation process involving a diverse mix of innovation stakeholders joint actions will be identified, and their implementation will be secured by the engagement of public authorities (COHES.io’s associated partners), being responsible for relevant innovation strategies and funding programmes. TU Delft, a central actor of a leading and well-interconnected innovation hub, will facilitate the mapping of common challenges, identifying synergies and complementarities in regional capacities and designing joint interventions with a methodology emerging from the EIT Health DRIVE ecosystem development program. Being one of the regional nodes of EIT Health, InnoStars provides the framework for cooperation and ensure the European-level dissemination and exploitation of COHES.io results’ and the extension of the applied methodology to further European ecosystems.

For the EU deep-tech startup scene to grow sustainably and achieve its potential impact, access to real market problems and test beds is required. Driven by real market needs, or as STARTUP3 defines it, Key Performance Areas, the project builds and facilitates an open and collaborative ecosystem for high impact deep-tech innovators and corporates and acts as a cross-border/sectoral market-maker. The project aims to generate, take up, ensure market penetration and further capitalize on the growth and impact potential of profound research by providing access to dynamic and 3-phase across the board growth support framework UPTAKE-UPGRADE-UPSCALE. The catalysation is aimed at creating synergies across the Europe, networking, raising understanding of the benefits of deep-tech technology and stimulating their uptake - Cluster Missions and Clusters-Corporate Assembly. The STARTU3 consortium is a fusion between geographically scattered Clusters (POLE SCS, LITC, ITC) international innovation and Tech-transfer specialists (INO and EKT), SME focused on upscaling research and technology (AGENSO), startup studio (HOLA-UP).

The European RI landscape is diverse (RI operators, managers, users (researchers, industry) decision makers, funders). Past efforts were directed towards gaining insight into available RIs, national RI road mapping practices, and planning of pan-European RIs. A catalogue of services for e-infrastructures is currently under development. A recent report by OECD Global Science Forum highlights that ”open digital platforms…can have substantial value for a wide range of stakeholders”. Responding to the needs of users of physical RIs, CatRIS will make available information about RI services offered in Europe. Such information will improve visibility of services, foster European and international collaborations, and enhance RI accessibility, usage, and impact. Currently, RIs provide information about their services mostly in free formats through websites with varying completeness and details. Existing initiatives will be analysed to identify best practices and to propose a service catalogue structure to respond to users’ needs. A prerequisite for the success of CatRIS is its integration in the European RI landscape and its different systems. Avoiding duplication of efforts and fostering interoperability is also essential. Although challenging, an interoperable system is the only sustainable approach that can be envisaged to keep information alive. In particular, CatRIS will follow closely the development of the EOSC to become an integrated part of it as an indispensable tool connecting RI users and managers. The active engagement of the whole RI community is critical and, being at the centre of the project, will provide specifications and drive for the development. Through the use of a rating system and feedback loops on its contents, CatRIS can also serve as a bottom-up tool to facilitate the identification of potential gaps of European RI services. CatRIS will thus operate as an open “network of networks” branching out to RI communities across borders and beyond.

NUCL-EU 2020 is a 54 months Coordination and Support Action having the specific objectives to Ensuring high quality EURATOM NCP services on Nuclear Fission and Radiation Protection in Horizon 2020 programme to applicants; Lowering entry barriers for EURATOM NCPs approaching EU Framework Programme for R&I for the first time; Consolidating the network of EURATOM NCPs. NUCL-EU 2020 will take into consideration the significant changes that Horizon 2020 has brought about the EURATOM NCP mandate. With its brand new approach to R&I Horizon 2020 demands EURATOM NCPs: a) to address their services to a wider target, b) to have specific multidisciplinary competences. NUCL-EU 2020, whose consortium is composed by experienced and less experienced EURATOM NCPs from 7 countries, will tackle these challenges building up the NCP capacity by organizing benchmarking activities to identifying and sharing good practices, at least 7 interactive and at least 8 virtual training sessions and 7 twinning schemes (supporting at least 20 NCPs). The dialogue with participants will benefit of at least 2 enhanced cross-border brokerage events and 9 training sessions for stakeholders (2 per year). The project will also take special care of outreaching activities by extending the collaboration with other NCP thematic networks, working on partner search and cooperating on international relevant activities. Finally, communication within and outside the network and the dissemination of results will be ensured through the website, the development of promotion/ information materials, the participation at major events and PR activities and an e-mail alert service/newsletter. Throughout the project special attention will be paid to the diversity of stakeholders in the Nuclear Fission and Radiation Protection sectors, the gender dimension, as well as to establish links with other EU relevant initiatives, programmes and policies.

Innovation is key to boost productivity and has a role to play in the economic success of the era of new technologies (The Global Competitiveness Report 2018, WEF), while digitisation offers SMEs new opportunities to take part in the next production revolution (OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook 2019). However, SMEs can lag behind in innovation capacity and innovation management capacity skills compared to large companies. Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas consists of 12 major business support organisations - key innovation players, industrial associations and innovation support organisations, as well as chambers of commerce and industry - creating a country-wide network. This network serves as a key facilitator in enhancing the competitiveness, innovation capacity and growth potential of Greek SMEs. The overall goal of the proposed action is to enhance the innovation capacities of Greek SMEs with international ambitions enabling their business growth and boosting their competitiveness in the Single Market and beyond. More specifically, the proposed action aims to: • Assist SMEs in identifying and addressing innovation management gaps and developing respective strategies; • Support SMEs to utilize the opportunities offered under the EIC Pilot Schemes -SME Instrument(SMEI), Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) and Future and Emerging Technologies (FET Open) programmes- as a tool for bridging the gap between research, innovation and market; • Identify SMEs with the capacity to innovate and internationalise and provide them with tailored services; • Offer targeted assistance on innovation management that, compared to large companies, have limited capacity for R&D activities and consulting services; • Support business innovators to translate their ideas into market success, fostering their innovation potential; • Empower SMEs to unlock their growth potential by better managing more effectively and efficiently their innovation processes.