The key goal of this call for proposals is to support innovation and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies for strategic autonomy, to build capacity in the most critical areas of the relevant ecosystem(s) and to reinforce transformation into a greener, more digital, and resilient economy.

The Euroclusters will contribute to the implementation of the European Commission’s New Industrial Strategy for Europe, as well as its updated Strategy that was published in May 2021 and the SME Strategy for a sustainable and digital Europe adopted in March 2020, by building resilience and accelerating the transition to green and digital economy. Euroclusters will also support the implementation of the Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age and its initiatives (Critical Raw Materials and Net-Zero Industry Acts), and the European Economic Security Strategy to ensure the security of the EU value chains.

This call is expected to contribute to the following other supporting objectives:

• to establish networks and strategic partnerships to improve the resilience of the EU industrial ecosystems by developing and strengthening value chains in the EU Single Market;

• to provide training to foster upskilling and reskilling of the workforce and attract talents;

• to go international to boost access to global supply and value chains.

The call is divided into two strands:

-      Strand 1 focuses on net-zero technologies and critical raw materials: this strand covers value chains within or across industrial ecosystems aiming at ensuring access to a secure and sustainable supply of net-zero technologies, including by scaling up the manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies and safeguarding supply chain resilience or/and at starting or expanding the extraction, processing or recycling of strategic raw materials, or the production and scale-up of materials that can substitute strategic raw materials in strategic technologies;

-      Strand 2 covers value chains not covered in Strand 1

Each project application must address only one of these two strands.

Eligible applicants

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme (list of participating countries)
• be or represent a cluster organisation (see definition in the call documents), a Single Market Programme (SMP) cluster network, or other types of organisations supporting green and digital transitions and building EU resilience.

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least three applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:

• minimum three cluster organisations (as defined above) or cluster networks from at least three different EU Member States;
• at least half of the partners in each consortium (Eurocluster) must be cluster organisations or cluster networks registered or having submitted a registration on the ECCP by the submission deadline of this call for proposals;
• the applicant consortium must include at least one partner established in a less advanced region of an EU Member State (as defined and applied in the Cohesion policy regulation 2021-2027: GDP per capita <75%).

Available budget: EUR 42 000 000

Number of projects to be funded: 16 (with at least 8 projects for Strand 1).

Maximum project duration: 36 months

Deadline to apply: 5 February 2025, 17:00 CET

Contact details: For any enquiries, applicants are invited to contact the following email address: EISMEA-SMP-COSME-ENQUIRIES@ec.europa.eu

More information can be found here