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European Regions Research and Innovation Network

ERRIN

ERRIN is a Brussels-based network of regional and local actors promoting research and innovation.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Yvan Verougstraete (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and European Chemical Industry Council and

27 Jan 2026 · European Competitiveness Fund

European regions demand central role in new competitiveness fund

12 Nov 2025
Topic — The consultation gathers views on the post-2027 budget and European Competitiveness Fund.
Message — ERRIN requests that regional authorities are explicitly recognised as key drivers for competitiveness and integrated into governance structures. They advocate for a broader approach prioritising sustainable well-being and a dedicated funding line for place-based innovation ecosystems.12
Why — This would provide regions with direct funding access and a formal seat at the policy table.3
Impact — Industrial players lose their exclusive funding focus as resources shift toward regional ecosystems and well-being.4
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Response to EU’s next long-term budget (MFF) – EU funding for competitiveness

7 Nov 2025

European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) welcomes the European Commissions proposals for the next MFF, which foresees Horizon Europe continuing as a standalone programme in 20282034 with a budget of EUR 175 billion nearly double the amount available in the current framework. Maintaining the overall structure of Framework Programme 10 (FP10) largely in line with the current Horizon Europe is a positive sign of continuity and stability for Europes research and innovation ecosystem. ERRIN is pleased to provide more in-depth reflections on how the proposed Horizon Europe can be further improved to ensure that it creates the right conditions for research and innovation to thrive for a competitive Europe post-2027. Key recommendations for the future Horizon Europe (FP10) Ensure coherence between Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). The articulation between the two programmes should be clearer and more detailed, both on paper and in practice. Maintain strong support for societal transformation, policy innovation and experimentation. Societal transformation should be strongly supported and seen as an integral part of competitiveness. Strengthen support for the EU Missions beyond 2030. It is crucial to sustain the momentum of EU Missions in tackling societal challenges, mobilising local and regional stakeholders and deepening systemic transformation. Strengthen support to territorial R&I ecosystems. A stronger emphasis on connecting territorial R&I ecosystems across Europe is of critical importance. A dedicated long-term investment should be ensured, including a clear framework and portfolio of funding instruments to support ecosystem collaboration across value chains and common challenges. Foster a more inclusive R&I ecosystem to close the innovation gap. Encourage implementing a variety of measures that ensure coordinators from Widening countries across the Horizon Europe programme and support collaboration between less and more innovative ecosystems to tackle fragmentation and tap into capacities across territorial innovation ecosystems. Remove barriers to participation for smaller actors. Further attention should be paid to removing barriers for participation for smaller players such as SMEs and start-ups, as well as knowledge institutions lacking research management capacities such as vocational training schools (VETs) and universities of applied science (UAS) across Horizon Europe, including European Partnerships.
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ERRIN demands mandatory regional role in new EU budget

3 Nov 2025
Topic — The European Commission is consulting on the post-2027 long-term budget framework.
Message — ERRIN demands mandatory regional chapters in funding plans to ensure a local approach and prevent centralisation. They argue that regional authorities must be active partners in designing reforms and maintaining dedicated budgets.123
Why — This would preserve the decision-making power of regional authorities and protect local funding streams.4
Impact — Central governments would lose the ability to unilaterally allocate funds according to national political interests.5
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Response to European Innovation Act

3 Oct 2025

ERRIN welcomes the initiative to strengthen the innovation dimension of the EU research and innovation policy through the Innovation Act. Following the New European Innovation Agenda, to which ERRIN actively contributed to highlighting key areas that the agenda should tackle such as supporting innovation ecosystems, tackling innovation divide, addressing access to finance and enhancing policy innovation. All these areas still need to be addressed further in the European Innovation Act. It is, therefore, not only the regulatory measures that are important to consider, but also how the Innovation Act can strengthen the existing framework and governance system of the EU innovation policy. Therefore, we have structured our inputs under the following key areas, further elaborated in the attached document: - Innovation policy coordination and structures - Follow-up of the Flagship 3 under the New European Innovation Agenda on Innovation Ecosystems - Innovation friendly regulation, regulatory sandboxes and experimentation - Innovation procurement and demand driven innovation The Innovation Act should not operate in a silo. It is important to create a clear and coordinated narrative with the ERA Act, as the European Research Area despite its title also tackles innovation. In addition, it will be important to address actions within the European Innovation Act that should be supported within Horizon Europe or in the European Competitiveness Fund.
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Meeting with Christian Ehler (Member of the European Parliament) and International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers

2 Oct 2025 · FP10

Meeting with Caroline Vandierendonck (Head of Unit Budget)

25 Sept 2025 · Meeting of ERRIN Smart Specialization Working Group

Meeting with Ekaterina Zaharieva (Commissioner) and

13 Jun 2025 · Regional innovation ecosystems, widening in FP10, EU missions.

Meeting with Agnese Dagile (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto)

3 Jun 2025 · The purpose of the meeting was to provide ERRIN with an opportunity to present its policy recommendations for the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

Response to EU Start-up and Scale-up Strategy

17 Mar 2025

Cities and regions are key for fostering innovation and multi-stakeholder collaboration, as strong place-based ecosystems can mobilise key stakeholders locally public and private sector, academia and civil society as well as strengthen Europes research and innovation ecosystem as a whole. Connecting smaller actors, such as Small and Medium-Sized enterprises (SMEs) and Start-ups, at the European level also requires strong support frameworks at local and regional levels. Without strong local support and a well-functioning innovation ecosystem, fewer companies will be able to engage in innovation processes and international innovation collaboration opportunities. Therefore hurdles experienced by the start-ups and scale-ups cannot only be addressed at EU and national levels. Local and regional level, being closest to the start-ups and scale-ups, has the best view on their needs as well as their challenges. A well-functioning local ecosystem is an essential steppingstone for the start-ups and scale-ups to thrive and therefore support to the place-based R&I ecosystem is essential combined with a framework supporting further connectivity between those ecosystems across Europe. EU level support for these ecosystems is needed to increase their connectivity across borders. Europe still misses a strong framework for further connecting ecosystems. Programmes such as European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) action and Regional Innovation Valleys (RIVs) supported by the EIE, as well as the experiences from the EU Missions and European Partnerships can help to establish a stronger and more systemic support to better connected place-based innovation ecosystems, and thus also creating a stronger European Innovation Ecosystem as a whole. Additionally, the following proposals can help tackling the many challenges faced by start-ups: - Reduce regulatory differences between Member States and establish common standards that allow start-ups to expand more easily throughout the EU - Ensure better access to EU funding through increased targeted support and reduced complexity - Establish an EU-wide start-up tax incentive programme to attract private investment - Launch an EU start-up growth fund to increase venture capital investments - Implement mentorship and training programmes - Implement programmes that support small businesses' access to advanced technologies - Reform research assessment criteria to recognise and reward researchers and their projects that reach the market - Coordinate existing initiatives and bring them under one umbrella
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Meeting with Christophe Clergeau (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Jan 2025 · ITRE

Meeting with Thomas Pellerin-Carlin (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Jan 2025 · Regions & Research and innovation

Response to Communication on the European Research Area Implementation

30 Sept 2024

The main goal of ERA is to establish a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across Europe. Looking forward, Letta report advocates for the fifth freedom to enhance research, innovation and education, and calls for a multifaceted approach encompassing policy initiatives, infrastructure enhancements, collaborative frameworks, and an unwavering commitment to foster innovation, open science and digital literacy, while linking to concepts like freedom to move and freedom to stay. In order to move towards accomplishing the ERA aims, ERRIN proposes the following key recommendations, further elaborated in the attached paper: Introduce an effective multi-level governance framework within the ERA Forum by including the regional level in the discussions. Pay more attention to actions tackling innovation in the ERA Policy Agenda and ERA Forum discussions, and create a narrative between the ERA Policy Agenda and the European Innovation Agenda. Put stronger emphasis on the ecosystem approach and ensure it is enabled in practice. Ensure the engagement of various types of stakeholders in the ERA Forum discussions and in the implementation of individual actions under ERA Policy Agenda. Use insights from the ERA Hubs pilot projects in the ERA Forum discussions, to examine the ways in which their developments and outcomes linked to strengthening multi-level governance and R&I ecosystems could be integrated in the future ERA Policy Agenda. Simplify and rethink the current ERA Forum stakeholder categories. Develop clearer articulation between the ERA Policy Agenda and the Framework Programmes. Foster further communication and engagement of stakeholders at the Member State level. Discuss and clarify the current ERA Forum work formats: sub-groups, workshops, mutual learning, sponsorship while considering also other formats. Continue the ERA Forum sub-group on Access to excellence R&I and Cohesion Managing Authorities Network (RIMA) as a permanent body in the future, while making it more strategic, keeping focus on Access to excellence, and broadening its composition with additional stakeholders. Adopt the next ERA Policy Agenda(s) as a whole and ensure a clear development process for the individual ERA actions.
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Meeting with Christophe Clergeau (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Sept 2024 · Politique de recherche et d'innovation

Response to 9th Report on economic, social and territorial cohesion

15 Dec 2023

While the EU as a whole continues to converge, subnational disparities and innovation divide persist. This points to the importance of focusing on regional and local levels and the innovation dimension in the debate about cohesion. Council conclusions on the role of R&I in policymaking from December 2023 recognised the need for a stronger role for local and regional innovation to strengthen competitive R&I ecosystems and contribute to territorial cohesion. New initiatives also emerged at the European level, aiming to connect territories with different performance levels in terms of innovation to tackle the innovation gap, such as Regional Innovation Valleys and Partnerships for Regional Innovation. When discussing the contribution of other EU policies besides cohesion policy to the cohesion, its crucial to look into future potential opportunities in this area too, especially at the moment when the planning of policies and programmes post-2027 has started, to make sure such contributions are optimised in the future. There is a need for increased coherence between cohesion policy and other policies, including exploring and creating closer links with R&I policy. R&I policy can strengthen aspects of cohesion policy beyond its current focus and contribute to further development of smart specialisation strategies framework, by broadening its scope from economic development to also addressing more widely the transformation needs of our societies. Technology-driven S3 can evolve towards challenge-driven S3, with research and innovation contributing to address these challenges. R&I policy and the framework programmes can further support reducing regional disparities by tackling the innovation divide for example through specific widening measures and by integrating demonstration calls that target less developed regions e.g. under Pillar II of the framework programme. Going beyond silos and exploring linkages with other policies at the preparatory design stage of the cohesion policy post-2027 can help mitigate the risk of it being considered as a default resource to be exploited at later stages during the programmes implementation, future excessive bureaucracy, complexity, competition and overlaps, offering instead a more structured approach. In this way, cohesion policy could be enriched with a stronger R&I dimension with respect to its other fundamental objectives, based on local priorities. It could also better tackle bottlenecks related to funding synergies and further increase the innovation potentials across the EU for the benefit of all.
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ERRIN Urges Greater Regional Control over EU Hydrogen Valleys

4 Sept 2023
Topic — Consultation on strategic priorities for doubling European Hydrogen Valleys by 2025.
Message — ERRIN requests that local governments receive more financial and technical support for their roadmaps. They call for regional authorities to be formally included in hydrogen policy decision-making bodies. The network advocates for simplified funding rules to help smaller organizations access project money.123
Why — This would grant regional governments more influence over EU funding while lowering administrative barriers.45
Impact — Large established industry players may lose their exclusive grip on the current funding landscape.6
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Meeting with Marc Lemaitre (Director-General Research and Innovation)

19 Apr 2023 · Missions, partnerships, widening, innovation ecosystems

Meeting with Ville Niinistö (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Jul 2022 · R&I (staff level)

Response to A New European Innovation Agenda

10 May 2022

ERRIN welcomes the initiative to strengthen the innovation dimension of European research and innovation (R&I) policy through the development of a new European Innovation Agenda. ERRIN’s mission is to enhance R&I capacities at local and regional levels, using ecosystem thinking to bring together local and regional governments, research organisations, universities and industry to collaborate on a broad range of topics at a European level. Building an effective European R&I policy relies on strong interconnected research and innovation ecosystems embedded in regions and cities. Innovation happens in places and there are specific local conditions that enable ecosystems to flourish. ERRIN supports enhancing local and regional ecosystems and working towards achieving a less fragmented European innovation ecosystem. The new European Innovation Agenda offers many opportunities to unite these fragments and strengthen place-based innovation. In this evidence, which is further elaborated in the attached document, ERRIN puts forward its messages directly from its Policy Working Group. ERRIN looks forward to an assessment of how the first calls in the current multiannual financial framework to include place-based and ecosystem objectives have been received in practice, and how they can be improved going forward. ERRIN is happy and available to engage in such an assessment. We also note the increased place-based dimension of the EU Missions, as well as the work underway in the frame of the renewed European Research Area (ERA) and ERA Forum for Transition. We would like to see ERA Hubs supporting organisations and individuals that bring together different stakeholders; connecting public and private speres and breaking silos. ERRIN supports further focus being directed to the innovation divide, a key priority for the network as demonstrated through the establishment of a Management Board Task Force on widening and deepening engagement in 2021. We are committed to strengthening the role of Eastern and Central European regions in ERRIN, highlighting the added value of this engagement for all European regions as well as driving forward the development of R&I ecosystems in widening countries. The new Agenda should take into consideration the existing national and regional innovation and smart specialisation strategies and promote synergies between them. Initiatives such as the Partnerships for Regional Innovation Pilot Action should be further used to bridge between research & innovation and the regional policy ‘worlds’. ERRIN is committed to supporting our members in taking an active role in the Pilot as well as engaging the wider ERRIN community to learn from these experiences. A persistent financial barrier for ERRIN members is incoherence and a lack of coordination in terms of public funding. There should also be a priority on more opportunities for multi-actor groups. There is a need to ease administrative burdens related to controls and procedures weighing on local actors who get involved in EU funded programmes. Funding synergies are also a priority for ERRIN members. Using structural funds for European Partnerships and EU Missions is an important area that should be tackled the in upcoming European Commission document on synergies. ERRIN is also committed in supporting the work to operationalising funding synergies between R&I and regional funding. Improvements are also needed to the regulatory environment to better enable a European Experimentation Space for Innovation, with a clear role for Technology Infrastructures. We would also like to highlight the importance of an ecosystem approach for developing and retaining talents and skills in Europe, by reinforcing, for example, the roll-out of the Sector Skills Alliances. Finally, ERRIN wishes to ask about the added value of new initiatives compared to existing ones, and draw attention to issues we believe are missing from the current proposal. Our input paper includes further details.
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Response to Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe

12 May 2021

ERRIN welcomes and recognises the efforts made by the ERA Forum for Transition in developing the “Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe” to reinforce the commitment to shared policies and principles, as well as making the governance process more effective and impactful. ERRIN, representing regional and local stakeholders active in research and innovation, continues to bring forward three key principles for the ERA, which should be reflected in the Pact in order to achieve maximum impact of European research and innovation: • Widening the scope of the ERA to integrate innovation and create further synergies with the European Education Area • Integrating a place-based research and innovation ecosystem approach • Applying a multi-level governance model where the regional and local levels are included For the ERA to make European research and innovation more impactful and to achieve its goal of adding free movement of knowledge to the fundamental freedoms in Europe, the level of ambition in the Pact needs to be raised. The Pact should therefore define concrete objectives and commitments. It should also, in line with the communication “A new ERA for Research and Innovation”, confirm the investment target of 3% of EU GDP dedicated to research and development. The ERA should take a holistic approach that includes the full range of activities related to the knowledge economy – from frontier and challenge-driven research to innovation – which needs be reflected in the values and principles of the Pact as well as in its governance. Synergies and complementarities should be developed with the European Education Area. The role of the European Commission, Member States, the European Parliament, regional authorities, and stakeholder organisations should be clarified. There needs to be a structured, transparent, and inclusive process to involve stakeholder organisations both in the development of the Pact and in the ERA governance. The ERA governance should also reflect its widened scope to integrate innovation engage with different stakeholder organisations representing the full range of research to innovation actors. This would ensure greater ownership of the Pact and raise its visibility across the EU. The Pact provides an excellent opportunity to go beyond facilitating the interaction between the European Commission and Member States and to create further complementarities with the regional and local levels. Regions lead, promote, and financially support research and innovation agendas. Regional and local authorities are also key in implementing research results and in deploying and sustaining innovation. Including references to Smart Specialisation strategies throughout the Pact would provide policy hooks to create synergies and complementarities between policies and programmes at the different levels. The ERA communication introduces the concept of ERA Hubs to recognise the importance of place-based research and innovation ecosystems. To fully bring in the ecosystem approach it needs to be recognised in the values and principles as well as in practice in the joint actions in the Pact. To that end, ERRIN proposes to develop the ERA Hubs concept further in the Pact for example via the creation of a sub-group. We would welcome the opportunity to work on this together with the Committee of the Regions as well as interested Member States and other ERA stakeholder organisations. ERRIN welcomes the idea to set up challenge-based ERA actions that would further coordinate the EU’s actions in response to a particular issue. Challenge-based research and innovation call for extensive cooperation between those who develop solutions, those who test them, and those who produce and manage them, and those who use them. Thus, engaging the full range of actors in the research and innovation ecosystem – public administrations, private sector, knowledge providers, civil society – is necessary to deliver long-lasting and impactful solutions.
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Response to Towards a strong and sustainable EU Algae sector

18 Jan 2021

The European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN), under the lead of its Bioeconomy and Blue Growth Working Groups, welcomes the development of an EU initiative that aims to strengthen the European algae sector. We strongly support policy options 2 and 3 as the way forward to increase the coherence and visibility of the algae sector; to boost knowledge production and sharing; to harmonise EU legislation with the reality on the ground and ensure its compatibility with the needs of the sector; and to strengthen the sector’s competitiveness on the European and global market. We wish to highlight the following key challenges of the European algae sector: • Significant research, innovation, education and skills efforts are needed to advance and grow the sector’s full potential. • Clarity around the definition of algae in policy and funding calls is essential to secure funding for the sector. It is important that the diversity of algae – both in terms of species and application – are reflected when the work programmes and call texts are developed. • EU regulations pose a great hinder for the European algae sector as they are not compatible with the reality on the ground in terms of cultivation methods, permissions and security levels; constrain European algae producers; and hamper the development of the sector. Efforts to diminish discrepancies between EU countries and streamline processes, as a way to ease the regulatory path to the market for a wider selection of algae products, are therefore needed. • More resources and research and innovation efforts should be directed towards increasing consumer awareness and understanding of algae applications, as well as the visibility of algae products, to create a bigger market pull for algae. Algae should become part of a broader prevention, wellbeing and health promotion agenda of the EU, in the framework of the European Health Union. • Algae currently has a weaker competitive position on the market compared to other biomasses due to the feasibility of its economic model. Efforts to reduce production costs, including resource recirculation, along the whole value chain are needed. • More economic investments should be directed towards improving the resilience and automizing the production chain, and towards upscaling opportunities. Resources like large sea areas and non-agricultural land sites, marine structures, excess heat energy and CO2 side streams, and nutrient rich effluents from other sources should be exploited. • The opportunities to benefit from algae for climate change adaptation and ecosystem services have to be explored and utilised to a greater extent. Macroalgae (seaweed) can be cultivated in large amounts at sea, and represents an opportunity for CO2-capture and a base for the development of climate positive products and solutions. Considering the horizontal opportunities algae can bring to our societies, ERRIN considers it even more important to tackle the challenges the sector currently faces and to highlight potential solution pathways at the European level.
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Meeting with Carlos Morais Pires (Cabinet of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel)

15 Dec 2020 · The local and regional dimension of ERA

Meeting with Damyana Stoynova (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans), Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

27 Oct 2020 · Regional dimension of the European Green Deal

Response to Communication on the future of research and innovation and the European Research Area

29 Jul 2020

ERRIN, representing over 120 regional and local stakeholders active in research and innovation from across Europe, strongly supports the renewal of the vision and priorities of the European Research Area (ERA). In view of the upcoming European Commission communication, ERRIN has adopted a policy position paper highlighting the importance of the regional and local dimension in making the ERA successful, which you will find in full in the attachment. Our position covers the following issues: • Embracing an ecosystem approach. Collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders improves the sourcing of new knowledge, allows for the development of more relevant products, services, and solutions with a wide public acceptance, and integrates research and innovation into sectoral policymaking. • Creating a coherent research and innovation system and bringing in the innovation dimension. ERA actions need to ensure that R&I policies and agendas are coherent. This does not mean that programmes should fund the same actions but that they should work towards a common set of goals. The ERA should go beyond national R&I ecosystems to create a wider and more sustainable impact, while further bringing in the innovation perspective and underlining the iterative process between knowledge, research, and innovation. • Integrating education and skills. Education and skills are becoming a more frequent element of RIS3, special emphasis should thus be placed on the coordination between R&I and education policies including concrete links with the European Higher Education Area and the role of regions in creating strong learning environments close to the citizens. • Creating a European policy forum for regional and local innovation ecosystems. ERRIN sees a clear European added value to build on the current WIRE conference and to use the ERA framework to create in-depth dialogue on R&I practices and challenges throughout European regions. ERRIN and its members look forward to continuing the discussion on the future of the ERA and are committed to being an active stakeholder in the process.
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Meeting with Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

14 Jul 2020 · Discussion on innovative regions for a green recovery

Meeting with Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

25 Jun 2020 · Keynote speech on green recovery

Meeting with Jean-Eric Paquet (Director-General Research and Innovation)

28 Jun 2018 · Horizon Europe

Meeting with Robert Schröder (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

7 Mar 2018 · FP9 and regional innovation

Meeting with Robert Schröder (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

7 Dec 2017 · Introduction of ERRIN network

Meeting with Grzegorz Radziejewski (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

23 Oct 2017 · Investment Platform for Cities