Expanding Academia-Enterprise Collaborations

The Expanding Academia-Enterprise Collaboration call, funded by the Horizon Europe Programme, aims to strengthen the connections between educational institutions and innovation ecosystems across Europe. This initiative seeks to enhance collaboration between universities, vocational schools, research institutions, and businesses to drive innovation, support skill development, and foster competitive and sustainable regional economies. Proposals should focus on promoting entrepreneurship, enhancing skills, and ensuring the integration of academic and enterprise activities aligned with regional innovation strategies.

Expected Outcomes

Projects funded under this call are expected to deliver significant contributions in at least four of the following areas:

Integration into innovation ecosystems: improved links between educational institutions and Europe's innovation ecosystems, including start-ups and investor communities
Improved knowledge and talent flows: enhanced exchange of knowledge, skills, and talents, particularly in deep tech fields
Enhanced skills development: improved innovation potential and market uptake of new technologies through targeted skill development
Connection to high-quality testing and validation: better access to remote testing, validation, and upscaling of innovations
Entrepreneurial competence: increased capability to launch and lead successful start-ups
Local talent and business acceleration: greater availability of local talent to support business acceleration and digitalisation
Entrepreneurial activity and innovation ecosystems: enhanced entrepreneurial activities and interconnected innovation ecosystems
Engagement and connectedness: increased collaboration among educational institutions, research organizations, and enterprises.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible countries are EU Member States, Horizon Europe associated countries and select low-income and middle income countries. The full list can be found in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
The proposal must be submitted by a consortium of at least 3 independent entities from 3 different countries. Moreover, at least one is established in a 'moderate' or 'emerging' innovator region and at least one in a 'strong' or 'innovation leader' innovator region. The Regional Innovation Scoreboard is taken as a reference, and in the case of entities representing national authorities, the European Innovation Scoreboard.