The Resilient Innovation Ecosystems for EU Value Chains (RISE) project has successfully concluded its two-year mission to accelerate collaboration, capacity-building, and investment readiness across Europe’s innovation ecosystems.
Funded under the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument, RISE brought together partners from eight EU countries — Bulgaria, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and France — and supported 97 companies across 20 countries through dedicated coaching.
Over the course of the project, RISE partners implemented a structured innovation funnel, helping SMEs transform early ideas into mature, investment-ready cases:
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1,000+ stakeholders mapped across Europe
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41 project ideas collected through matchmaking events
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30 project fiches developed across three thematic domains
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50 coaching sessions delivered to SMEs
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15 mature investment cases consolidated, including 7 top-performing projects ready for funding
Among the most successful examples are:
Fravizel (Portugal), Parawaste (Bulgaria), Pohjois-Suomen Biokaasu Oy (Finland), OmniOpti (Slovenia), GEOSENSE (Portugal), EcoMineral (Spain/Finland/Italy), and SoluStone (Portugal).
Two of these — Parawaste and Pohjois-Suomen Biokaasu Oy — became funding-mix pilot cases, combining EU and national support with private co-investment.
Fravizel (Portugal), Parawaste (Bulgaria), Pohjois-Suomen Biokaasu Oy (Finland), OmniOpti (Slovenia), GEOSENSE (Portugal), EcoMineral (Spain/Finland/Italy), and SoluStone (Portugal).
Two of these — Parawaste and Pohjois-Suomen Biokaasu Oy — became funding-mix pilot cases, combining EU and national support with private co-investment.
RISE partners also published several policy recommendations to improve future interregional innovation investment programmes — including longer funding durations, stronger SME support mechanisms, and dedicated seed funds for interregional collaboration.
Partners now invite all stakeholders, clusters, and SMEs to explore the project’s public deliverables and results, including the Public Synthetic Note on RISE Investment Cases (D4.4), Sustainable Continuation Plan (D5.3), and Policy Brief (D5.4).