As part of the European policy in favor of research and innovation (Horizon 2020 strategy – the European Union’s research and innovation funding program for the period 2014-2020), the European Commission launches several calls for projects. It follows that some territories did not respond or were not or rarely selected for calls for projects on research and innovation. To try to overcome this handicap, the European Commission launched a European call for projects to improve the capacities of these territories in order to improve the quality of their responses.
The nine ORs have decided to join forces to submit a joint project entitled FORWARD. The Forward project aims to improve research excellence in the ORs and strengthen their innovation potential with a view to better participation in European research and innovation projects. The project engages the regional governments of the nine ORs in charge of regional R&D policies with key R&D actors in each region. FORWARD carried out an initial diagnostic and analysis of the ORs R & I ecosystems. Based on these results, it set up tailor-made actions including the definition of a common strategy, thematic working groups on ORs common interests, training and networking activities.