This article provides a preview of the key preliminary data regarding the IPA ADRION 1^st Call for Proposals, including information on the more represented countries and type of applicants, as well as most popular topics.

The Call was open from 4 April to 30 June 2023 with a budget of around 65 million euros Interreg funds. At first sight, the high interest for the Programme’s funding scheme was confirmed by the large quantity of applications received. Namely, 222 project proposals were submitted, involving almost 2.000 organisations.

The focus was on 3 priorities: Priority 1 Supporting a smarter Adriatic and Ionian region which is suited to increase innovation capacities through the specific objective 1.1 Strengthening innovation capacities in the Adriatic – Ionian region received 88 proposals.

In the frame of Priority 2 Supporting a greener and climate resilient Adriatic and Ionian region, which covered 4 specific objectives spanning from climate change adaptation measures, circular economy, environmental protection, up to sustainable mobility, the Programme received 124 applications.

As for Priority 3 Supporting a carbon neutral and better-connected Adriatic and Ionian region

Specific Objective, targeting only one specific objective dedicated to strengthening a carbon neutral smart mobility, 10 were submitted in total.

Strong participation by many stakeholders based in the Programme area

Preliminary data show the participation of a wide number of organisations, ca 2.000 applicants, proving great interest for the topics covered by the call. In terms of number of applicants, Italy is the most represented country- involving 344 organisations, followed by Greece (292). The highest number of lead partners come from Italy, followed by Greece.

Most of the applications were submitted by high education and research organizations as Lead Partner, followed by public authorities, being public institutions, among which local public authorities and higher education and research institutes the most represented ones. Regional authorities have also applied significantly. On the other hand, approximately 350 applicants comes from the private sector which includes mainly SMEs, enterprises and business support organisations, whereas more than 300 represent interest groups and NGOs.

Available funds for the selected projects

The overall call Interreg budget is of ca. 65 million euros, but the total requests received by the applicants exceeds largely the funds the Programme made available, as the overall financial requests reached 289,3 million euros Interreg funds, more than four times higher the available resources.

The Programme launched the first Call for Proposals in Sarajevo on 19 April 2023, gathering more than 100 participants. Additionally, a total of 11 Info Days took place in each participating countries organized by National Contact Points. Interested parties had also the opportunity to search for partners through dedicated online LinkedIn groups.

The submitted applications will undergo eligibility checks and full quality assessment in the next months, further to that, the best transnational projects will be approved for funding by the Monitoring Committee and start to implement their activities.