This is a call for proposals for interregional cooperation projects. These projects gather policy-relevant organisations from different countries in Europe working together on a common regional development issue. The first three years of the projects (‘core phase’) are dedicated to exchange and transfer of experience among the participating partners in order to improve the policy instruments addressed by the project. In the fourth and last year (‘follow-up phase’), the regions mainly focus on monitoring the results and impact of the cooperation.

The programme is structured around one single cross-cutting priority, the Interreg-specific objective “a better cooperation governance”. This means that beneficiaries can cooperate on any topics of shared relevance in line with their regional needs, as long as this falls within the scope of cohesion policy and that projects need to select a specific objective in their application form.

The programme recognises the need to concentrate resources on those policy areas that are most relevant and urgent for regions in Europe. For this reason, the programme plans to indicatively concentrate the largest share of its budget (80%) on the following thematic areas covered by specific objectives:

• Smarter Europe
  • Research and Innovation capacities, uptake of advanced technologies
  • Digitisation for citizens, companies, research organisations and public authorities
  • Sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs and job creation in SMEs, including by productive investments
  • Skills for smart specialisation, industrial transition & entrepreneurship
  • Digital connectivity
• Greener Europe
  • Energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse emissions
  • Renewable energy
  • Smart energy systems, grids and storage
  • Climate change adaptation, disaster risk prevention, resilience
  • Access to water and sustainable water management
  • Circular and resource efficient economy
  • Protection and preservation of nature and biodiversity, green infrastructures, pollution reduction
  • Sustainable urban mobility for zero carbon economy

• More social Europe
  • Effectiveness and inclusiveness of labour market, access to quality employment, social economy
  • Equal access to health care, health systems resilience, family-based and community-based care
  • Culture and tourism for economic development, social inclusion and social innovation

The programme plans to indicatively concentrate 20% of its budget on the following thematic areas covered by specific objectives:

• More connected Europe
  • Climate resilient, intelligent, secure, sustainable and intermodal TEN-T
  • Sustainable, climate resilient, intelligent and intermodal national, regional and local mobility
• More social Europe
  • Accesses to education, training and lifelong learning, distance and on-line education and training
  • Inclusion of marginalised communities, low-income households and disadvantaged groups
  • Socio-economic integration of third country nationals, including migrants
• Europe closer to Citizens
  • Sustainable integrated territorial development, culture, natural heritage, sustainable tourism and security (urban areas)
  • Sustainable integrated territorial development, culture, natural heritage, sustainable tourism and security (other than urban)

In addition, in the context of the Interreg-specific objective “a better cooperation governance”, Interreg Europe can support “non-thematic” cooperation on issues dealing with pure implementation related challenges of regional development policies (e.g., state aid, public procurement, territorial tools, financial instruments, evaluation and monitoring). These governance related issues are also important when working on more efficient regional development policies.

If you are interested in the call, you can join a series of online Q&A sessions to find answers to your questions. The recordings, questions and answers will be available afterwards. The dates for the Q&A sessions are:

• 05 April 2024, 10h00 -11h00 (Brussels time). Registration here
• 26 April 2024, 10h00 -11h00 (Brussels time). Registration here
• 17 May 2024, 10h00 -11h00 (Brussels time). Registration here
• 31 May 2024, 10h00 -11h00 (Brussels time). Registration here

Also 4 webinars will be held to help you prepare your project application. The dates for the forthcoming webinars are:

• Building a successful partnership – 15 April 2024, 10h00 -11h30 (Brussels time).
• Designing a project methodology – 16 April 2024, 10h00 -11h30 (Brussels time).
• Management, budget and finances – 17 April 2024, 10h00 -11h30 (Brussels time).
• Project communication – 18 April 2024, 10h00 -11h30 (Brussels time).

The recordings will be available afterwards.