Global Service Facility "Support to the EU-Eastern Partnership (EaP) research and innovation cooperation" launched

The European Commission has launched a new initiative to facilitate a stronger participation of the five Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in Horizon Europe, the EU’s Framework for Research and Innovation, and in the European Research Area (ERA).

In line with the post-2020 research and innovation priorities for the EU cooperation with the EaP Partner countries as endorsed at the 6^th EaP Summit in Brussels on 15 December 2021, the initiative aims to contribute to a stronger investment in research and innovation capacity, effective reforms of the  national research and innovation systems, and support to the green and digital transitions.

The initiative will monitor and contribute to the implementation of those Top 10 targets and specific  post-2020 priorities that are relevant for the R&I cooperation with the EaP Partner countries. The key indicators to be assessed include increasing the national gross R&I expenditure by at least 50% and achieving at least 700 participations from all EaP countries in the Horizon Europe and EU4Innovation programmes. The state of play of the smart specialization strategies and technology transfer roadmaps will also be analysed.

In practical terms, the team of experts will prepare three annual status reports for each of the EaP countries (for years 2023, 2024 and 2025). They will also provide hands-on assistance to the research and innovation stakeholders in the EaP Partner countries in the preparation of competitive proposals for the Horizon Europe calls.  To this end, Proposal Writing Camps will be organised in each of the EaP Partner countries and experts will be available to provide individual consultations to prospective applicants.  

The initiative was launched in December 2022 and will be implemented over a 40 months period by the consortium that brings together eight institutions from the EU Member States and their local branches in the EaP Partner countries. The consortium is led by the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) and has proven networks with the relevant authorities and R&I stakeholders in the EaP Partner countries.

More information

For more information, please contact silvia [dot] bojinovaec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Silvia Bojinova), ENP Team Leader, European Commission and matthias [dot] wurchdlr [dot] de (Matthias Wurch).