Cooperating for a smarter central Europe
Turning innovative ideas into smart solutions for stronger regions
Central Europe has historically a strong industrial base and close economic ties across borders. Today, its regions now face the same pressure: to stay competitive while becoming greener, more digital and more resilient. Projects funded under this priority help businesses test and implement new technologies. They support regions in turning ideas into practical results, and strengthen the skills and capacities needed for digital change.
Across both specific objectives, the focus is on what cooperation can deliver when regions learn from one another instead of working in isolation: smarter production, stronger innovation systems, better use of regional strengths, and a transition that reaches more people and places.
45
Projects strengthening innovation and skills
352
Partners cooperating across central Europe
377
Outputs helping regions become more innovative
59
M € invested in a smarter central Europe
Strengthening innovation capacities
Cooperation is central for helping businesses and public authorities turn ideas into practical solutions
Central Europe has a strong research base, with promising ideas emerging in laboratories, workshops and companies across the region. The harder part is turning them into products, services and solutions that businesses, public services and communities can actually use.
This transition does not work equally well everywhere. Smaller companies may lack the expertise, testing facilities or investment needed to explore new technologies. Researchers can struggle to find partners who can apply their work, while organisations facing similar challenges may never connect. As a result, useful knowledge and promising solutions often remain confined to the places where they were developed.
The challenge is not a lack of ideas. It is closing the distance between those who develop them and those who can put them to use.
Projects supported under this objective bring businesses, researchers and public authorities together to close that gap. They help companies test technologies before investing, turn research into usable products and services, and develop cleaner production methods and better digital solutions. They also support public services and regional organisations in trying new approaches and improving how they respond to people’s needs.
Working across borders gives partners a chance to test promising approaches in different economic, institutional and market conditions. This shows what works, where changes are needed and how a solution developed in one region could be useful elsewhere.
The results are practical:
- smaller companies gain access to technologies, expertise and testing
- research and knowledge are turned into usable products and services
- businesses introduce cleaner production methods and new digital solutions
- public services test new ways of responding to people’s needs
- regional organisations improve how they support innovation
- solutions become more robust through testing in different places
Strengthening skills for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship
Cooperation is central for turning regional strengths into skills, jobs and business opportunities
New technologies can change workplaces quickly. Building the skills to use them, adapting business models and ensuring that entire regions benefit takes much longer.
Across central Europe, companies are under pressure to modernise, but investment in new equipment alone is not enough. Workers need opportunities to develop relevant skills, smaller businesses need support to innovate and grow, and training providers need a clearer understanding of how local economies are changing. These connections are often weakest in rural, industrial and less accessible regions.
The challenge is not simply to prepare people for future jobs. It is to make sure that skills, training and business support keep pace with changes already happening today.
Projects supported under this objective are testing new ways to connect training with the realities of the workplace. They help workers gain skills for greener and more digital industries, support SMEs and entrepreneurs in developing new products and business models, and improve how regions identify emerging labour-market needs.
This cooperation is particularly valuable in places where businesses struggle to find skilled workers or where training does not match local opportunities. It can also help rural and less connected regions develop better ways to retain and attract talent.
The results are practical:
- SMEs gain the skills and support to innovate and adapt
- workers are better prepared for digital and green change
- training responds more closely to regional labour-market needs
- regions improve how they anticipate skills gaps and industrial change
- entrepreneurship and innovation are strengthened
- rural and less connected regions find better ways to retain and attract talent
Together, these results help regions turn industrial and technological change into lasting opportunities for businesses, workers and communities.
