RInnoValleys is a project that aims to address the challenges and disparities faced by EU regions in accessing the European Innovation Council (EIC) and fully leveraging its benefits for their innovation ecosystems. The project focuses on creating a transnational joint action plan to enhance the capabilities of these regions to connect with the EIC ecosystem and foster inclusive, gender-diverse, and connected innovation ecosystems in line with the New European Innovation Agenda. The project adopts the Quadruple Helix Model, the participatory approach, peer learning and best practice sharing, joint transnational action plan development, capacity building, and implementation support, communication, and dissemination to achieve its objectives. The project will engage stakeholders from government, academia, industry, and civil society in each region and cover 5 EU countries, including rural areas, ensuring gender equality objectives. The project's methodology aims to ensure that the solutions developed are relevant, inclusive, and responsive to the unique needs and priorities of the participating regions. By combining these concepts, models, and assumptions, the RInnoValleys project methodology aims to address the challenges faced by EU regions in accessing the EIC, foster collaboration and knowledge exchange, and enhance the innovation capabilities of the regions. Ultimately, the project seeks to create a more cohesive, connected, and balanced innovation ecosystem within the European Union, ensuring that all regions can more equally thrive and prosper in the global innovation landscape.

NATI00NS will assist the EU Mission 'A Soil Deal for Europe’ during most of its first "induction and pilot" phase (2021 – 2025), acting as a messenger and conveying awareness-raising messages to national and regional stakeholders, providing access to capacity building materials and information, spurring the discussions on the best Living-Lab (LL) setups to address regional soil needs, and fostering early matchmaking for cross-regional LL clusters. Eventually, the smooth execution of the project will be reflected in the number of high-quality applications received in the first open calls and the funding of the first two waves of LL projects, which can lead the way for the systemic change boosted by the Soil Mission. The takeaways will be also useful for upcoming activities in the Soil Mission's second "expansion and innovation" phase (2025 – 2030) when the rest of the waves of LLs will be selected. NATI00NS' consortium has been carefully selected and formed with the intention of gathering and covering all the necessary expertise needed to ensure the successful execution of the work plan and achievement of the project's objectives. This will, in turn, allow the partners to contribute to the Soil Mission’s expected impact on society, following the achievement of its objectives and goal. On the one hand, the project is counting on top experts on soil science and the co-participatory place-based innovation approaches to be put in place in the Living Labs. On the other hand, NATI00NS is granting adequate national outreach in all EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries through its 14 partners, its Key network group representatives and all their networks (i.e., BIOEAST, European Network of Living Labs, Soil Health National Hubs, ERIAFF, etc.).

In the Danube River Basin lives 79 million inhabitants. As the Danube River Management Plan indicates the majority (52%) of all rivers do not meet the criteria of good chemical status, moreover all monitored indicators deteriorated. The Danube River is an artery of the ecosystems of the whole DRB and the region with significant environmental impact. The river also has an important economic utilization supporting SMEs, and creating jobs for locals as well as having a cultural importance. To properly manage this complex and fragile ecosystem we must think of a river basin and harmonize our actions from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. DALIA (Danube Region Water Lighthouse Action) is comprised of 22 expert organizations – including universities, authorities, SMEs and NGOs – from 8 different Danube EU and Associated countries accumulating an outstanding set of knowledge, covering not only the basin geographically but all different fields of expertise necessary to deal with the multidisciplinary issues from source to sea. The project brings to DRB integrated DALIA tool, which will be integrate into DAnube Mission Hub for better decision making to improve DRB restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems; it provides options for strategies and policies that concern freshwater ecosystem protection and ecosystem connectivity in DRB and improved protection of local communities and ecosystems from extreme events and pollution threats. The DALIA project will contribute directly to the establishment of EU and UN initiatives, related to the further execution on the Water Framework Directive by the execution of innovative actions across a variety of geographies, their scaling and the multiplication of outcomes with a wider network of ecosystems and related EU Missions and project actions throughout framework .

ClimaPannonia is the coordinated effort of key stakeholders of the Pannonian Biogeographical Area (PBS) towards strengthening the resilience of the agricultural sector and the region’s community against climate change disastrous effects. This will be achieved by enabling the widest possible uptake of tested and validated climate neutral solutions for four agriculture subsectors: (i) water-food nexus, (ii) agroforestry, (iii) organic crop production, (iv) cattle production. ClimaPannonia aims to support PBA agriculture sector in drastically improving its climate resilience. By implementing innovative systemic solutions and fostering collaboration among the six countries within the PBA – Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Czechia, and Slovakia – ClimaPannonia will pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient agriculture. By harnessing the knowledge and expertise of leading experts in PBA and leverage the knowledge of partners from countries such as Germany, Italy, and France, ClimaPannonia seeks to ensure that the solutions implemented are innovative not only at PBA level, but also at European scale.

BEAMING aims to raise excellence by enhancing innovation and knowledge valorisation within the bioeconomy domain through cooperation between higher education institutions, with a particular focus on Widening countries in Central-Eastern (CEE) and South-Eastern European (SEE) EU Member States and the Western Balkans. Improved global competitiveness and visibility of higher education institutions (HEI) will be achieved through establishing effective technology and know-how transfer between Widening countries and EU14 member states with more developed bioeconomies and R&I ecosystems, exploring and adopting structural reforms, educational priorities, and a culture of excellence. The BEAMING Alliance works towards 7 Specific Objectives: 1) Build the capacity of early-career researchers in all aspects of bioeconomy research; 2) Facilitate the reform of institutional practices and policy frameworks towards excellence; 3) Foster networking, knowledge exchange, and cross-disciplinary collaboration by establishing sustainable Communities of Practice; 4) Design joint research and innovation strategies and launch joint research projects; 5) Design a complex portfolio of activities for adopting Open Science practices; 6) Strengthen the valorisation of research results by increasing tech transfer capacity; 7) Support the participating institutions to move towards inclusive institutional culture, including gender equality. We aim to foster the uptake of the Quadruple Helix innovation ecosystem approach to provide a framework for higher education institutions to work collaboratively with industry, government, and civil society. Thereby, we aim to enhance their innovation capacity and the applicability of research results. Local and regional implementation strategies and roadmaps will be developed regarding the relevant ERA Policy Agenda actions in the higher education sector, particularly in the domains of bioeconomy and circular economy.