The programme creates an environment and opportunity to share solutions to regional development issues. Interreg is utilised in two different ways: interregional cooperation projects (a consortium bringing together a fixed number of partners from different regions who exchange and transfer experience on a shared regional development issue) and policy learning platform (getting access to knowledge from experts and previous projects).
 

The Interreg Europe programme targets public authorities with a specific objective to enable them and other relevant organisations to actively learn from the experience of other regions. The ambition is that by participating in Interreg projects, public authorities will have an opportunity to identify, analyse and transfer good practices with the aim of improving regional development policy instruments, and ultimately deliver solutions that benefit all citizens. Interregional cooperation projects must consist of organisations (including public authorities) from different countries who would like to work together on a shared regional policy issue (this can be related to circular economy following specific objectives of one of the four policy objectives of the programme - Greener Europe).
 

The programme favours participation of multiple actors and stakeholders who together with local public authorities can advance circularity locally/regionally by testing and applying innovative approaches and solutions, developing business cases and integrating them into their regional development policies. Within projects, organisations can learn from each other by working together on developing solutions and approaches that advance circularity locally.
 

Participating cities and regions also gain access to the policy learning platform with knowledge from experts and previous successful projects. With an indicative budget of € 1-2 million per project, the Interreg programme can be a powerful tool to support the development, testing, scalability and replicability of specific elements required to develop and implement a Circular Systemic Solution.

Interreg Europe 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 organisations who can receive funding are national, regional and local public authorities, other relevant bodies responsible for developing and/or implementing regional development policies and other authorities responsible for developing and/or implementing the investment for jobs and growth programmes.
 

In addition, organisations relevant for the development of regional policies are also supported. Examples of such organisations include business support organisations (development agencies, innovation agencies, chambers of commerce, clusters, etc.), environmental organisations (environmental agencies, energy agencies, NGOs, etc.) and education and research institutions (universities, research centres, etc.). Organisations with an industrial or commercial character are not eligible for funding.
 

The organisations can apply from all 27 member states, Norway and Switzerland as full members to participate in projects. Partners from other countries can participate at their own costs.

Interreg Europe focuses on the following topics aligned with European priorities:
 

• smarter Europe (themes: e.g. R&I capacities; digitisation; S3; industry and entrepreneurship)
• greener Europe (themes: e.g. water management; circular economy; nature and biodiversity)
• more connected Europe (themes: sustainable TEN-T; sustainable mobility)
• more social Europe (themes: e.g. education; social inclusion; integration of third-country nationals)
• Europe closer to citizens (themes: integrated urban development; integrated non-urban development) and better regional governance (theme: policy governance).

Each of the above-mentioned policy objectives has specific objectives that elaborate in more detail on the themes that are in focus.

Interreg Europe has a total budget of € 372 million. The average total budget per project is € 1-2 million.

1. Check the relevance of your project using the self-assessment tool.
2. Share your project idea and explain what you want to achieve: This is available on the programme’s website www.interregeurope.eu. Anyone wishing to publish their project idea and pitch it to potential partners is welcome to do so via the website’s dashboard where it will reach every Interreg Europe community member.
3. Find partners or organisations that share your interests.
4. Ask for feedback and guidance before applying: Feedback on project ideas may be requested from the joint secretariat through the online community member ‘dashboard’ once an idea has been submitted. Applicants can receive written or oral feedback on their project idea. Oral feedback will be provided remotely through individual consultations (phone or TEAMS) or in person on information days
5. Apply via the application portal: The application form must be submitted electronically in the online portal.

The application requirements include an application form, partner declaration and letters of support.

Further guidance for the above steps and application portal is included in the following link and in the programme manual.

First call: opens on 4/5/2022, closes on 5/31/2022

Second call: opens in the first semester of 2023, closes at the end of the first semester 2023

Third call: opens in the first semester of 2024, closes at the end of the first semester 2024

Fourth call: opens in the first semester of 2025, closes at the end of the first semester 2025