The LEAP-RE programme aligns with and responds to the AU-EU high-level policies and specific objectives of the CCSE Roadmap. It seeks to create a long-term partnership of African and European stakeholders in a quadruple helix approach: government (programme owners and funding agencies), research and academia, private sector, and civil society. Impact will be sought by creating a framework, methodology, and cooperation model. The aim is to reduce fragmentation by aligning existing bilateral and multilateral frameworks. LEAP-RE establishes and jointly implements research, innovation, and capacity-building activities that respond to the Multi-Annual Roadmaps (MARs) developed in PRE-LEAP-RE. The programme opted for a large-scale, inclusive consortium of 96 partners from 34 countries and 2 international organisations, to ensure a broad thematic, geographical and stakeholder coverage, and to demonstrate the feasibility of the collaboration and build trust in view of a long-term partnership addressing the post-2025 period. LEAP-RE draws on the experience and partnership developed in PRE-LEAP-RE, which conceptualised and developed a framework for long-term, bi-regional cooperation in research, innovation, and capacity building in renewable energies. This partnership is further strengthened by previous collaboration between partners in other projects supporting the EU-Africa HLPD on STI, such as LEAP-Agri, ERAfrica, LEAP4FNSSA, RINEA, and CAAST-Net Plus. Furthermore, the proposal includes a number of R&I partners, 8 individual projects (formalised as Work Packages), which were chosen among expressions of interest received in late 2019.

SCREEN aims at the definition of a replicable systemic approach towards a transition to Circular Economy in EU regions within the context of the Smart Specialization Strategy, through the identification and implementation of operational synergies between R&I investments from H2020 and the European Structural and Investment Funds, thus contributing to novel future eco-innovative and horizontal business models across different value chains. The concept of the action is to develop a EU reference framework for establish operational synergies between Horizon 2020 and the European Structural and Investment Funds related to Circular Economy by: a) Sustaining the regional actors’ participation at H2020 The mechanism of the “vouchers”, already adopted in the past, will be reinforced an harmonized, in order to ensure common rules in EU regions and therefore encouraging to composition of international Consortia applying for circular economy projects related to the regional Smart Specialisation. b) Encouraging the entrepreneurial initiatives based on H2020 project’s results The participating Regions will agree about a specific rule in their Structural Funds giving an advantage for those initiatives targeted to the exploitation of the H2020 project results with a circular economy approach. c) Investigating the possibility of maximizing the H2020 investment through a “recovery”(fully or partial) of well ranked unfinanced proposals dealing with circular economy Even if there is a clear presence of several bureaucratic and operational barriers, a possible solution could have an impressive multiplier effect on the H2020 results. The approach of the action is to leverage on growing industry sectors in EU regions to act as a driver also for the less performing ones, through a circular economy approach, and to support the emergence of new actors in the regional economies leading to new or redesigned value chains.

Building upon the priorities set by Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020, the widerAdvance Facility emerges as our strategic solution to the European Commission’s emphasis on optimizing research outputs, particularly within the Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (WIDERA) sector. This area, marked by significant disparities in innovation across Europe, especially in Widening countries and Outermost Regions, is the focal point of our initiative. Drawing upon our extensive experience garnered through previous Horizon projects, specifically Horizon Results Booster, this initiative is meticulously crafted to support and emphasize the research outcomes from these identified regions, while seamlessly aligning with the existing frameworks and tools laid out by the European Commission. The Facility is not merely a supportive platform but a comprehensive learning environment for researchers, research management entities, and tech transfer specialists. Our tailored approach includes the deployment of 50 individual academies focusing on 750 Key Exploitable Results, complementary webinars, extensive training modules, insightful study visits to renowned research centres, follow-up synergies and fostering collaborative environments through networking events. By enhancing the visibility of these regions and making impactful contributions to policy-making at local/ national and EU level, we aspire to reinforce and enrich the European research and innovation ecosystem, ensuring the equitable dissemination and utilisation of research breakthroughs across Europe. The service part is underpinned by active outreach performed by NCPs and local partners to organisations having direct/ indirect research results from Widening actions, which maximes the pathways towards objectives and ensure the sustainability of the actions.

The project TwInSolar aims at strengthening the research and innovation capacities of the public laboratory PIMENT of the University of La Reunion (UR), which is located in one of outermost regions of Europe. TwInSolar will create new opportunities inside and outside of Europe and more specifically in the zone surrounding Reunion Island and in insular territories that face similar challenges. This capacity building will be done through the establishment of effective partnerships with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer), which are internationally renowned research organizations. The dissemination and outreach of TwInSolar will be achieved with the support of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the regional R&I agency of Reunion Island (Nexa). Particular emphasis will be placed on issues related to the massive integration of solar energy production in insular territories.

The growing innovation divide across the European Union appears particularly detrimental to small and emerging regional research and innovation systems like the Outermost Regions. With limited resources, these regions struggle to reach the critical mass needed to build comparative advantages and become knowledge societies. Though the European Research Area and the Framework programmes could compensate this marginalization through greater knowledge circulation, resources sharing and talents mobilities, the Outermost Regions present a limited participation in FP7 and Horizon 2020. This underutilization notably stems from the competing relations between structural funds (ESIF) and the framework programs or “substitution effect”: many organizations and individuals prioritize easily accessible ESIF, decide not to apply to the FP and end up in “substitution trap” which isolates them from promising collaborations. To move Outermost Regions’ R&I organizations and systems from substitution to synergies, REMORA ambitions to transform 3 Ocean and Marine ESIF-funded institutions in La Réunion, Madeira and the Azores into Horizon Europe champions : CITEB, OKEANOS and OOM. To that end, REMORA will enhance their competitiveness (notably human resources, knowledge transfer and innovation capacities), strategic positioning and connections with major EU networks through a joint internationalization strategy. REMORA will then use the successful transformation of these 3 role models to lead other ESIF-oriented R&I organizations and policy-makers in Outermost and Widening Regions on the path to synergies.