Today’s urgent challenges are inherently complex and systemic and will not be solved by individual actors or territories in isolation. To foster enabling innovation ecosystems across the EU, a systemic approach that is inclusive and collaborative is required. Diverse actors from separate regions ensure an equitable diffusion of benefits and maximise the value of innovation for all. This project aligns with EIE’s aims to create more connected, inclusive and efficient innovation ecosystems that support the scaling of companies and spur innovation to address important challenges in a responsible way. Previous projects and collaboration (i.e. WST, S3P) are used as the foundation for this further development. Proposal topics The project will focus on digitalisation within water-heavy sectors as an enabler to create a water smart society. Concept The project will take a threefold approach to driving cross-regional innovation with the water-smart focus area. These are: 1) Prioritisation of key innovation areas Regionally, the project will generate a base of qualitative and quantitative data on existing capacities, gained from partners' experience and knowledge, and through engagement of quadruple-helix stakeholders. This process will drive the identification of innovation priority areas regionally. 2) Cross-regional actions Through cross-regional workshops, key innovation areas and gaps will be identified with a focus on formulating cross-regional action plans that generate a pipeline of specific ideas / concepts for future projects. The workshops will analyse gaps in the competences of each of the regions to foster cross-regional collaboration. 3) Idea generation and partner matching Based on the cross-regional workshops, the partners will select / match key innovation ideas and stakeholders through workshops, webinars, and digital co-creation. The focus will be to develop a pipeline of concepts for future collaboration ( E.g. EUREKA, Water4All, Horizon Europe)

Value-added Innovation in fooD chAins (VIDA) will nurture and harness the growth and innovation potential of SMEs working across European food c hains, bringing together four complementary and mutually dependant sectors; food, energy, water and key enabling technologies (KET). VIDA will strengthen current and develop new cross-sectoral industrial value chains within the food production and processing industries through a combination of direct and indirect innovation actions, as well as support and capacity building measures. These will include open-innovation and virtual collaboration tools, mentoring and knowledge-sharing activities and a 'twin-track' innovation voucher scheme which will support the realisation of high-TRL, large-scale, demonstration and commercialisation projects across Europe. We will effect change among more than 6200 organisations, primarily SMEs. VIDA combines expertise from four complementary European Strategic Cluster Partnerships (ESCPs): FoodPackLab, EU4Food, Energy in Water and AdPack, with a direct reach of over 700 SMEs across the partner clusters (and 2100 SMEs across the collaborating ESCPs). The collaborating partners have been carefully selected to ensure a complementary balance of geographies, knowledge, experience and expertise within VIDA's four sectors, and maximise the potential for cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary exchanges to create new industrial value chains. VIDA will operate for 3.5 years with a total budget of €5,031,141.25. VIDA will allocate more that 81% of the total project budget for innovation in SMEs. €3,355,000 of the budget will be used to provide specialist innovation vouchers, and catalyse large-scale demonstrations with commercialisation innovation projects, involving >100 beneficiaries.

UPSTREAM addresses the targets of the Mission by overcoming challenges related to the monitoring, prevention, elimination, and valorisation of litter (L), plastics (P), and microplastics (MP). Demonstrating a suite of 14 solutions addressing pollution at every step in the water system, connected to 7 rivers in 5 countries, will enable the co-creation of an extensive database of knowledge and sustainable business models with a focus on making information as widely accessible as possible. The involvement of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) owners, industrial partners with existing supply chains, innovative SMEs, and a water cluster association will ensure exploitation of the project solutions, while €500k in cascade funding will enhance replication across Europe. The UPSTREAM consortium will thus establish circular value chains with the potential to decrease plastic litter by 50% and MP pollution by 30%. The advances in UPSTREAM are based on best-in-world innovations, including: • Standardised, rapid monitoring techniques able to detect MP down to sizes >25 μm • Bio-based, biodegradable plastics the stop the formation of MP in consumer products and WWTPs themselves • Elimination of more than 90% MP within WWTPs from both sludge and effluent streams • Innovative floating platforms capable of removing >83% of L, P, and MP directly from rivers at both the surface and riverbed, without creating noise pollution or harming ecosystems • Production of relevant monomers from recovered plastics through both advanced fractionation and depolymerisation and biotransformation UPSTREAM represents a pan-European consortium with 5 demo sites across Europe, including 4 WWTPs (UK, ES, DE, IT), plus a testing area on the Danube in Serbia. The consortium is strengthened by top European RTOs, the world leader in sustainable bioplastics development, Novamont, and completed by partners dedicated to creating a digital knowledge sharing platform and engaging with citizens and stakeholders.

Water is central to all human activities, to all components of the EU Green Deal and to several UN SDGs. The Water4All Partnership aims at enabling water security for all on the long term through boosting systemic transformations and changes across the entire research – water innovation pipeline, fostering the matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers. It gathers more than 70 partners, R&I funders, environment ministries, local authorities, European, national and regional-scale networks, research performing organisations. It will collaborate with other relevant R&I initiatives. Water4All proposes a portfolio of multi-national, cross-sectoral activities, targeting a variety of actors, intending to generate the following outputs: - Strengthen the water R&I collaboration at European and international levels, across at least 31 countries, notably through Joint Transnational Calls - Coordinate and leverage the activities of the Water R&I community - Support and promote the demonstration and access to market of innovative solutions - Produce, share and better communicate water-related knowledge & data, from local to global scales - Enhance talent development of water R&I professionals - Foster capacity development and life-long training of water policy-makers, stakeholders and civil society - Design & implement approaches for participatory development of innovation Water4All will run its activities across 7 themes of its strategic agenda: water for circular economy; water for ecosystems and biodiversity; sustainable water management; water and health; water infrastructure; international cooperation; water governance. Water4All’s outputs will contribute to: - Deliver sound knowledge, tools and evidence basis on water for policy- & decision-making - Improve consideration of water impacts in all relevant policies - Enhance the field/market use of innovative solutions to water challenges - Increase citizens’ awareness and engagement for an inclusive water