A key feature of the I3 Instrument Support Facility is the Policy Lab, where Policy discussion groups focus on nine critical topics such as interregional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and funding instruments.
Between 2025 and 2027, three new discussion groups will be launched each year, bringing together experts for two online meetings and one in-person meeting per year.
The Policy discussion groups will be established to focus on specific themes organised in three blocks:
Engaging managing authorities in inter-regional collaboration.
Developing regional and global value chains, especially in less developed areas.
Managing innovation ecosystems (e.g., entrepreneurial discovery, cluster policies, open innovation platforms).
Supporting SMEs in identification of inter-regional investment and scaling up ideas.
Enhancing investment readiness and capacity for building business and investment plans.
Enhancing innovation policies and regulations in less developed regions through experimentation, public procurement and pilot cases.
Facilitating cross-border collaboration, infrastructure access, staff exchange, training, and regulatory sandboxes.
In 2026, three policy discussion groups have been kicked off.
Discussion Group on making better use of policy recommendations from projects to close the project-policy loop
Discussion Group on facilitating access to cross-border research and innovation capacities for better I3 projects implementation
Discussion Group on strengthening SME investment readiness in interregional setting (focus on the less developed areas)
Discussion Group on how to engage Managing Authorities (MAs) in interregional collaboration
Discussion Group on innovation ecosystem management for a better I3 Instrument implementation
