EMPOWERED by NEIA brings together a team of stakeholders from 7 EU countries (2 Regional Innovation/Development Agencies and 5 Business Support Organizations - incubators and accelerators) with he ambition to engage in a process of peer mutual learning and cooperation and support Clean Tech for Sustainable Development. Based on an in-depth analysis of strengths, weaknesses, challenges and gaps in the ecosystems they represent, the EMPOWERED by NEIA team members strive to bring together the members of the innovation ecosystems they represent as active stakeholders in bottom-up policy-making activities tailored to their needs. Through an Entrepreneurial Discovery process, we aim to stimulate a participative process that will allow to identify the best innovation opportunities in each ecosystem and align them with the ones of the peers. The results of the Entrepreneurial Discovery run locally by each partner will represent the foundation of Action Plans, elaborated according to the European Entrepreneurial Region approach, to strengthen the collaboration between the Regional European Innovation Ecosystems. These plans will be back up with collaboration and project ideas for which public and private funding will be sought. Through the involvement of the EMPOWERED by NEIA consortium partners in landmark initiatives such as the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA), the Vanguard Initiative or the activities of the European Entrepreneurial Region initiative, we will connect with external peers to expand the learning and cooperation process, disseminate our activities and increase their impacts.

INNO-MOB will focus on the opportunities that initiatives & networks offer to innovative and dynamic businesses through an inclusive mobility innovation European ecosystem business support framework. The emerging sustainable mobility market will be used as the vehicle to examine the opportunities provided and develop mechanisms to support the deployment potential of companies in bringing innovations to the market quickly. The project will use the services offered by the seven partner institutions but also through an enlarged network of initiatives and clusters run in the respective countries. The specific objectives include: To define the needs of the innovation’s stakeholders in the mobility sector, to support the mobility networks & initiatives apply an ‘opening up’ strategy, to create interconnected innovation networks on mobility and to implement joint awareness raising and communication campaigns to reach out to more stakeholders in different territories. INNO-MOB will deliver a Mobility Innovation Network ( MIN) platform that will incorporate a Stakeholder Chain Map Intelligent Platform function that will provide a holistic picture of the networks, initiatives and their offer. A search engine, offer-demand /marketplace space and communication exchange forum will be incorporated too. The initiatives and networks will be able to offer their services through the platform with the aim to create more inclusive and diverse mobility ecosystems.

SARA project aims at improving the support provided to female SME innovation processes by testing and developing a new model in the innovation ecosystem. In Europe, there are 23 million SMEs with an average loss of 3.1% in turnover due to low liquidity and a lack of innovative products. Women make up 52 % of the total European population but only 34.4 % of the European Union (EU) self-employed and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs. Innovation Agencies strive at keeping the pace of SME innovation support demand, but their programs are not gender-oriented. Starting from the main idea “It takes a village to raise a child” (African proverb that means that an entire community of people must interact with children to grow in a safe and healthy environment), SARA will develop a new model to support Innovation Agencies in better gender-oriented activities. SARA responds to Europe's indications to develop and test a model for smart villages (accessibility, sustainability, new entrepreneurship), and it supports the co-design of new tools for female entrepreneurship by involving smart villages as an unusual place to create innovative enterprises for a better work-balance. Through this, promoting new forms of innovation and entrepreneurship proactively as suggested by the call “for a better innovation to SMEs”, Work Program 2018-2020. The project will use the peer learning methodology promoted by the INNOSUP-05-2018-2020 (Twinning) involving several regional innovation agencies with complementary skills. The partners will exchange knowledge and experience and develop appropriate local case studies (achieving a "learning by doing" process). The joint work of the project partners together with peer learning will produce a Design Options Paper for the implementation of local initiatives to develop a " Smart Villages an unusual place for women entrepreneurship " and related innovation support services and will promote an improvement in the role of Innovation Agency more gender-oriented.

HARD2SCALE aims to initiate a cross-fertilization process as the foundation of a cross border accelerator leveraging the disruptive potential of digital and deep-tech solutions from promising startups to enable green transformation pathways for Energy Intensive and Hard to Abate Industries (EEIs and HtA). HARD2SCALE is a joint effort of 8 expert organizations (4 from emerging/moderate ecosystems and 4 counterparts from leading/strong innovator ones) offering a complete set of services as a gateway to funding and markets. The HARD2SCALE cross border accelerator integrates the specific needs and challenges of emerging EU ecosystems by engaging local quadruple helix stakeholders in a consultation and co-design process leading to long-term, mutually beneficial collaborations. Building on the expertise, assets and networks of the consortium partners (including the EIC Community & BAS and Startup Europe), the HARD2SCALE support services aim to holistically enable startups align their technology development and IPR roadmap with the market deployment and funding needs. By drawing inspiration from the growth journeys of “hyperscalers” (startups with significant fundraising or commercial achievements in a short time period) from the consortium partners’ portfolios, the HARD2SCALE accelerator aims to enhance the investor and market readiness of 40 digital and deep-tech startups targeting 4 EEIs and HtA sectors before introducing them to relevant contacts. HARD2SCALE offers the 40 startups the possibility to join 2 leading ecosystems – Finland and France – where they will be introduced to relevant corporate business partners and investors. HARD2SCALE initiates an open innovation process where the connection between emerging and leading ecosystems will bring forward collaboration opportunities unleashing access to public and private funding and procurement opportunities, enabling digital and deep-tech startups to increase their footprint on the Single Market.