Driving Interregional Innovation: The I3 Support Facility and Its Policy Lab

The Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Support Facility is an initiative of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). It supports regional and national innovation stakeholders and public authorities by fostering strong interregional innovation ecosystems and reinforcing the objectives of the I3 Instrument.

A central component of the I3 Support Facility is the Policy Lab, within which policy discussion groups address key topics, including interregional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and funding instruments.

The policy discussion groups focus on specific themes organised under three main blocks: 

Ecosystem

• Engaging managing authorities in inter-regional collaboration.
• Developing regional and global value chains, especially in less developed areas.
• Managing innovation ecosystems (e.g. entrepreneurial discovery, cluster policies, open innovation platforms).

Investment

• Supporting SMEs in identification of inter-regional investment and scaling up ideas.
• Enhancing investment readiness and capacity for building business and investment plans.

Framework Conditions and Regulatory Environment

• Enhancing innovation policies and regulations in less developed regions through experimentation, public procurement and pilot cases.
• Facilitating cross-border collaboration, infrastructure access, staff exchange, training, and regulatory sandboxes.

In 2025, three Policy discussion groups have been kicked off: 

• How to engage Managing Authorities (MAs) in interregional collaboration
• Innovation ecosystem management for a better I3 Instrument implementation
• Regional, national, European, and global value chain creation, and challenges for EU regions (focus on the less developed areas)