4.11.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 421/9
This approach creates new opportunities to help foster innovation in all regions and to better integrate less-developed and peripheral regions into the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Innovation Ecosystem (EIE).
The Commission’s Communication on a new ERA for R&I (3) marked an important step in the ERA’s creation.
The aim of the ERA is to build excellence, cross-border cooperation between researchers, critical mass in key strategic areas, and opportunities for researchers to relocate and ultimately create an open single market for R&I. The new forward-looking plan set out in the Communication has ambitious set of four policy objectives – prioritise investment and reform; improve access to excellence and strengthen R&I systems across the whole of the EU; improve the transfer of new R&I to business; and deepen the integration of national policies.
In addition, the Commission adopted a proposal on 16 July 2021 for a Council Recommendation on a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe (4).
The Recommendation sets out a number of priority areas for joint action in support of the ERA.
This includes working together to respond to the challenges of the digital and green transition (for example, in the implementation of missions and European Partnerships under HE).
Synergies are based on the MAs of R&I-relevant programmes knowing each other and their programmes.
They are also based on national R&I representatives knowing the HE priorities and actions (such as new missions and partnerships) and regional smart specialisation priorities.
These priorities and actions are an excellent reference point for developing complementarities.
Synergies between the R&I framework and cohesion programmes can maximise the amount, quality and impact of investment in R&I, by designing strategic plans that complement each other and using different funding streams (in line with the specific objectives of each programme/fund).
Smart specialisation strategies (S3) are crucial for synergies with smart growth-related instruments at EU level (especially with HE).
Bottom-up S3 priority-setting should make it easier to find partners in other Member States with a view to cooperating on related topics and value chains.
With respect to the ERDF, Article 11(1)(b)(iii) of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) (5) requires Member States to specify in their strategic partnership agreements: ‘complementarities and synergies between the funds covered by the Partnership Agreement [...] and other Union instruments [...] and, where appropriate, projects funded under Horizon Europe’.
Similarly, for each cohesion policy programme, Article 22(3)(a)(iii) CPR requires a summary of the main challenges, considering ‘investment needs and complementarity and synergies with other forms of support’.
In all cases, it is for the MAs to decide whether or not to use synergy mechanisms.
TYPES OF SYNERGIES
1.
Seal of Excellence
The Seal of Excellence is a quality label awarded by the Commission to a proposal which has been submitted to a competitive call for proposals under an EU instrument and judged to comply with the minimum quality requirements of that EU instrument, but which could not be funded due to budgetary constraints.
The Seal of Excellence indicates that a project might be a good candidate for receiving support from other EU or national sources of funding.
A Seal of Excellence under HE recognises the value of the proposal and helps other funding bodies take advantage of the HE evaluation process.
It can for example be awarded to proposals submitted under HE’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator (a former SME Instrument), EIC Transition, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA), Teaming and European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept.
(3) COM(2020) 628 final, 30 September 2020.
(4) COM(2021) 407 final.
(5) Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the Instrument for Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy (OJ L 231, 30.6.2021, p 159).