Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology to medicine and healthcare. The field takes advantage of the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials at the nanometer scale to be used for a better understanding of the biological mechanisms of diseases at the molecular level, leading to new targets for earlier and more precise diagnostics and therapeutics. Nanomedicine, rated among the six most promising Key Enabling Technologies, is one of the most important emerging areas of health research expected to contribute to one of the strategic challenges that Europe has to face in the future: Provide effective and affordable health care and assure the wellbeing of an increasingly aged population. EuroNanoMed III (ENM III) builds on the foundations of ENM I & II, which launched 7 successful joint calls for proposals since 2009, funded 51 transnational research projects involving 269 partners from 25 countries/regions, and allocated € 45,5 million to research projects from ENM funding agencies. ENM III consortium, reinforced with 12 new partners from Europe, Canada and Taiwan, is committed to fostering the competiveness of European nanomedicine actors taking into account recent changes in the landscape and new stakeholders and challenges, as identified in the SRIA in nanomedicine. The first joint call for proposals will be co-funded by ENM III partners and the EC. After the co-funded call, three additional joint transnational calls will be organized and strategic activities will be accomplished in collaboration with key initiatives in the field. ENM III actions focus on translatability of project results to clinical and industry needs.

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 overall goal of the proposed Cofund is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in maritime and marine technologies and Blue Growth. The realisation of a European research and innovation agenda needs a broad and systematic cooperation in all areas of waterborne transport, offshore activity, marine resources, maritime security, biotechnologies, desalination, offshore oil & gas, fisheries, aquaculture etc. covering all relevant maritime and marine sectors and regions for a sustainable development of the maritime sector. Research and innovation activities in these fields cannot be tackled either at national levels alone, or solely by a single sector. Coordinated actions are required for the maritime industry to strengthen Europe’s position in this important and complex economic field in a global market. The proposing consortium will organise and co-fund, together with the EU, a joint call for trans-national research projects on different thematic areas of Blue Growth. Furthermore, additional joint activities that go beyond this co-funded call are planned, in order to contribute to the national priorities as well as to the Strategic Research Agenda of JPI Oceans and WATERBORNE. With the cooperation of ERA-NET MARTEC and JPI Oceans, a broader variety of topics with a larger amount of funding will be available for the trans-national projects. Moreover, the focus of development in MarTERA is given to technologies (instead of sectors) due to their potentially large impact to a wide range of application fields. The proposal responds to the topic ERA-NET Cofund on marine technologies of the work programme 2016-2017 of the societal challenge 2 (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bio-economy) under Horizon 2020. Thereby it also contributes to the overall EU objective of building the ERA through enhanced cooperation and coordination of national research programmes.

The vision of FutureFoodS is to collectively achieve environmentally-friendly, socially secure, fair and economically viable healthy and safe Food Systems (FS) for Europe. FutureFoodS gather 87 partners from 22 EU Member States, 6 Associated Countries and 1 third country. FutureFoodS includes public and private actors, policy makers, foundations, locally, sub-nationally, nationally, EU-widely. All these FutureFoodS partners are fully aligned on the vision for the Partnership and the methodology for its implementation in line with SDG17 and EU Green Deal components. This vision has been broken down into general (GO), specific (SO) and operational (OO) objectives applying across the 4 R&I areas and 4 transversal activities identified by the FutureFoods consortium in its stable draft Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) which constitutes the strategic backbone of the project. The four GO cover: GO1 - Functioning of FS; GO2 - System approaches; GO3 - Inclusive government; GO4 - Co-creation cases. These GO have then been translated into SO prioritised in line with the timescale and resources of the Partnership: SO1 - Change the way we eat; SO2- Change the way we process and supply food, SO3 - Change the way we connect with FSs and SO4 - Change the way we govern FS. In addition, 6 interconnected OO have been set: OO1- Pooling R&I resources and programming; OO2 - Operational FS Observatory; OO3 - Active FS knowledge Hub of FS Labs; OO4 - Functioning knowledge sharing and scaling mechanisms; OO5- Revisiting the SRIA; OO6 - Promoting, supporting, widening & gathering FS various communities. The objectives implemented in the 8 WPs of FutureFoodS will exert impact directly or indirectly in most of the destinations of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 2023-2024 work programme and particularly for the topic destination ‘Fair, healthy and environment-friendly FS from primary production to consumption’ echoing to the main EU and World FS policies & strategies.

Research infrastructures (RIs) operate in complex innovation ecosystems where industry plays an increasingly important role. Pan-EU initiatives, such as the Innovation Union or the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, revolutionise the way public and private sectors work together, and help to create structural frameworks which are needed to foster such collaborations. While initiatives of this type play a crucial role in enabling industry to become a full partner of research infrastructures whether it is as a user, a supplier, or a co-creator, they do not fully utilise or engage Industrial Liaison and Contact Officers (ILOs/ICOs) which could have a central role in boosting the RI-industry partnerships. To address this gap, ENRIITC will build a permanent pan-European network of ILOs and ICOs. This will be done in a community-driven, cross-functional, cross-sectoral, multiplier-based way which will be inclusive and enable all interested parties to actively participate. By supporting the establishment of strategic, cross-border partnerships between industry and research infrastructures, ENRIITC will enable win-win results for all parties. With a timeline of 36 months, 11 partners from seven countries, and a strong support from 61 Associates from around Europe, ENRIITC will 1) establish a sustainable European network of ILOs and ICOs which enables mutual learning, 2) map collaboration potential between research infrastructures and industry, 3) develop and refine strategies and best practices to foster these collaborations, 4) raise awareness among industry for collaboration opportunities at research infrastructures, and demonstrate impact. The consortium and Associates will jointly balance the need for expertise from diverse scientific areas, combine it with practical insights from establishing relations with various industries operating in different sectors and geographical contexts, and propagate it among their networks.