WHO: The proposal involves 40 National Funding Authorities and/or Agencies under the Umbrella of Eureka and is coordinated by the Eureka Secretariat in Brussels. Founded in 1985, Eureka is a global network, with 48 Member States plus the European Commission. It includes nearly all countries of the European continent as well as international members like Israel, Turkey, Korea, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, Argentina and Chile. The Consortium also benefits from the fact that is has successfully run the Eurostars 1 and 2 programs. WHAT: The proposed European Partnership on Innovative SMEs will comprise two main instruments (Eurostars 3 and Innowwide) as well as measures to connect to existing EU programs, initiatives and other European partnerships. EUROSTARS 3 (E*3) is an instrument that supports the international cooperation of SMEs in the field of non-military collaborative innovation projects. An E*3 project consortium must be composed of at least 2 independent entities from at least two participating countries and must be led by an innovative SME. The E*3 instrument benefits from accompanying measures that strengthen SMEs’ ability to access foreign markets like the INNOWWIDE instrument, which has already been piloted with the support of some Eureka network members in recent years. WHY: The biggest challenges for innovative SMEs are the access to international cooperation and to enter international markets as well the ability to receive funding. E*3 through its coordination of national innovation programs will in addition support the further development of a European Research Area. HOW: The Eureka Secretariat will organize two joint transnational calls per year for E*3 and one call per year for Innowwide. National Innovation Agencies actively support the implementation of E*3 via national funding and support measures as well as services to applicants and promotion of the program.

ETNA2020 is a 60-month Coordination and Support Action with the overall aim of facilitating trans-national co-operation among NCPs for ‘Smart, Green and Integrated Transport’, identifying and sharing good practices, and raising the general standard of the support to programme applicants across the EU and globally. To reach the objective above, the project will develop five main activity axes, corresponding to the projects’ specific objectives: 1)raise understanding of EU Transport R&I landscape; 2)capacity building of NCPs; 3)upgrade the set of tools for NCP assistance; 4)strengthen the participation of relevant stakeholders to Horizon 2020 funding opportunities; 5)support networking opportunities within the ‘Smart, Green and Integrated Transport’ constituency. Cross-cutting activities of dissemination and communication will addup to this main set of activities, helping to enhance their impact. ETNA2020 is the continuation and evolution of the precedent network, ETNA Plus, whose results and lessons learnt have been taken into consideration with the logic of improving the future network and in order to valorize the network’s strengths. ETNA2020 will also take into account the paradigmatic change brought by Horizon 2020. This will be reflected in ETNA2020 activities, and, in particular, in a stronger attention of the network in terms of multidisciplinary competences, consideration of related societal challenges, and linkage with other EU relevant initiatives, funding programmes and policies. Finally, the network will seek further opening to a wider target of stakeholders and businesses in the Transport field. ETNA2020 consortium comprises 16 beneficiaries, with a good mix of well-experienced and less experienced NCPs coming from Member States and Associated Countries. Besides beneficiaries, the project services will be offered to all officially appointed H2020 Transport NCPs, who will be involved as “Associated partners”.

The NCP Academy is a continuation and expansion of the former NCP Academy support action (2014-June 2018) covering the period September 2018 to August 2020. The project brings together Horizon 2020 NCP Coordinators and Legal and Financial NCPs to implement training on cross-cutting issues for National Contact Points and address quality standards and good practice. It aims to build capacity measures tailor-made for the needs of the NCP community by implementation of a high-quality training programme and provision of opportunities for the exchange of experiences and of good practices. It maps NCP clients` needs and their satisfaction levels and provides central services to the stakeholders/users of the Legal and Financial NCP services. The NCP Academy consortium will cooperate closely with other NCP Networks to implement procedures that ensure a timely flow of information allowing collaboration. It will focus on removal of any duplication between networks and new routes to efficiencies of implementation. It supports the European Commission in providing feedback and analysis. Thus, this project serves as vehicle for building up and mobilising expertise, contributing to future developments. The project addresses the continuous concerns that the programme evolves during its lifetime (2018-2020), that lessons are learned, and that newcomers join the NCP network. It goes some way towards ensuring that adequately trained NCPs will be in place upfront for the next Framework Programme, Horizon Europe. The NCP Academy includes activities aimed at helping NCPs in those countries that have been participating at lower levels in the programme up to now, for example, training, mentoring, twinning and awareness raising actions aimed at increasing visibility of well-qualified potential applicant organisations in those countries.

Building on the ERA-LEARN, NETWATCH & JPIs To Co Work predecessor projects ERA-LEARN 2020 will provide an integrated framework to make P2P more efficient and effective and support national and regional funding organisations in the preparation, implementation and monitoring of joint actions. ERA-LEARN 2020 will increase mutual learning within the P2P community and will thereby support the implementation of streamlined mechanisms. Useful input will be provided towards the analysis and possible future development of P2P formats. ERA-LEARN 2020 will highlight synergies between different forms of national/regional programme coordination and facilitate high-level analysis of P2P policy-related issues. It will provide tools for analysis and communication formats for supporting future developments of transnational programme coordination. The ERA-LEARN 2020 team is highly qualified & complementary with national authorities and experts for analysis with many years experience of P2P at both the operational and policy levels. ERA-LEARN 2020 will: 1. provide a web-based information, learning and support platform for P2P to avoid duplication of efforts; 2. support the ongoing optimisation of P2P networks by providing a toolbox for the wider activities of joint programming, particularly the JPIs, Art.185 and ERA-NET Cofund instrument, as well as their associated impacts; 3. implement a systematic process for monitoring & impact assessment of P2P networks, including their impacts at both the policy, programme and co-funded RTD project-level; 4. assess and benchmark current approaches to alignment and explore options for new modalities to better align national and/or regional activities under common research agendas; 5. implement an annual cycle of knowledge exchange aimed at increasing the impact of investment in P2P activities and exploring options to support less research intensive countries.