Three Western Balkans Regions are part of the Regional Innovation Valleys Receiving Support from the European Commission

The European Commission (EC) has identified 151 regions in the EU as Regional Innovation Valleys (RIVs) through a competitive proceedure, as part of the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA. The EC supports them with €116 million to strengthen competitiveness and promote innovation. The initiative builds on the European Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme under Horizon Europe and Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument under European Regional Development Fund. It focuses on connecting regions across the EU and beyond that are committed to strengthening their innovation ecosystem and creating new EU value chains to contribute to key EU priorities. The resulting connected RIVs systematically involve regions with a lower innovation performance in order to further reduce the innovation gap.

In the list are also three regions from the Western Balkans, namely:

• BA Tuzlanski kanton
• ME Црна Гора (Crna Gora)
• MK Северна Македонија (Severna Makedonija)

The full list is avaiable here: https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/12476e45-0413-4487-bdd6-668d7457f1cc_en