The European Commission has officially adopted the Implementing Decision and the new (Interregional Innovation Investments) I3 Instrument Work Programme for 2025–2027.

The I3 Instrument’s new three-year long Work Programme will focus on scaling innovation, strengthening regional innovation ecosystems and supporting interregional collaboration. With a budget of over €176 million, it aims to help innovation actors turn ideas into investment-ready projects. The goal of the I3 Instrument is to strengthen the EU’s innovation ecosystems and promote smart specialisation by helping regions develop innovation capacity and better integrate less developed regions into European value chains. It supports consortia of researchers, businesses, public administrations and civil society, with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as key beneficiaries.

53 projects are in now in implementation, with more to be contracted in the coming months from the 2024 calls. Lessons learnt will be shared through the I3 Support Facility, which provides guidance and networking opportunities to stakeholders developing joint interregional investments.

 New I3 Calls in May & October 2025 

The next I3 calls are planned for May 2025 and will focus on investment projects, closing in November 2025. These will be followed by a capacity-building call planned for October 2025 and closing in March 2026. Further details on upcoming calls will be available on the EISMEA website.

Learn more about the new Work Programme and the upcoming calls here.

Members and observers of the I3 Expert Group are invited to the 8th expert group meeting on 15 May 2025.

Interregional Innovation Investments Instrument

The Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument, under the European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF), supports interregional innovation projects in their scale-up and commercialisation phases. Through Smart Specialisation and interregional collaboration, I3 Instrument aims to strengthen regional ecosystems, foster sustainable investment connections and accelerate market uptake of research results.