Interreg Europe regularly opens calls for projects. To get involved in a project, you will need to define your project topic and join or build a partnership.

To find partners and information on your topic, we invite you to register to our Interreg Europe community. It includes a partner search database to put in contact the members working on the same topic.

You may also contact our national points of contact for additional assistance in this field. In addition, we invite you to read our calls terms of reference and our programme manual where you will find all necessary information to prepare your application.

The following bodies are eligible to receive Interreg Europe funds and can therefore participate as ‘partners’ in Interreg Europe projects:

• Public authorities (generally understood as national, regional, or local authorities)
• Public law bodies (bodies governed by public law)
• Private non-profit bodies.

For more information about the partnership requirements, watch the video start at 4:19.

You can find partners by joining our Interreg Europe community.

It includes a partner search database to put in contact the members working on the same topic.

You can also contact our national points of contact for additional assistance in this field.

A partnership of between 5 to 8 ‘regions’ appears to be the configuration which best ensures a rich and successful interregional learning process.

The recommended number of partners per project (without considering the possible involvement of an advisory partner) is therefore from minimum 5 up to 16 partners when the following points are also considered:

• The participation of the policy responsible authorities as partners is compulsory for at least 50% of the policy instruments addressed in a project application
• The most relevant organisation(s) for the issue addressed by the project are also encouraged to be involved as partners.

However, the complexity of managing a large partnership must not be underestimated. Large partnerships should preferably be proposed by lead partners who have sufficient experience in managing interregional cooperation projects.

This is possible as long as this involvement is clearly justified, complementarities in terms of budget among these partners that address the same policy instrument are foreseen and the overall partnership is geographically balanced and mixes more and less developed regions.

Advisory lead partners do not address a policy instrument, but as lead partners they ensure the formal link between the project and the managing authority/joint secretariat (in accordance with Article 26 of Regulation (EU) No 2021/1059).

The advisory lead partner takes on the responsibility for management, communication, implementation, and coordination of the project activities undertaken by the partners involved.

An advisory partner participates in the project in order to offer a particular capability that can help the project achieve its goals. For example, this may be the case of an academic institution specialised in either the topic tackled by the project or in the exchange of experience process.

Since Interreg Europe projects focus on the exchange of experience among organisations that are responsible for their own policy instruments, the participation of advisory partners should remain limited (most interregional cooperation projects are implemented without advisory partners).

The participation of these partners should therefore be clearly justified in the application form). Interreg Europe recommends that a project does not involve more than one advisory partner.

The geographical coverage takes into consideration all partners, including advisory partners. However, associated policy authorities and stakeholder organisations are not ‘partners’.

In terms of eligibility criteria, the application should involve partners from three, four or five geographical areas defined below by the programme:

• North,
• East,
• South,
• West
• and candidate countries area.

These partners should also represent at least three countries, of which at least two partners must be from EU Member States, with the latter applying for Interreg Europe funding.

This criterion does not apply to applications where more than one outermost region is involved. In such a case, the minimum regulatory requirement applies (projects must involve partners from at least three countries, at least two of which shall be beneficiaries from Member States and financed by the Interreg Europe programme).

In terms of quality assessment criteria, partnerships should go beyond cross-border and transnational cooperation areas and more generally go beyond areas formed by a group of geographically proximate countries.

The balanced geographical coverage should also be reflected in a project’s financial arrangements. The budget allocation should in principle be balanced between countries, including between a group of geographically close countries and the other countries represented.

There is no limit to the number of projects an organisation can be involved in.

Nevertheless, the programme recommends that the number is kept low. Participating in an interregional cooperation project is demanding and the participation of the same organisation in several projects may not always be realistic.

In particular, the participation of small organisations in numerous applications can call into question their seriousness and credibility. Approval in such cases also increases the risk of double funding.

Of course, large public organisations with many departments, or organisations from smaller countries where the number of eligible partners is more limited, may be able to justify their participation in multiple applications.

The involvement of the same organisation in different applications/projects needs to be justified in the dedicated field of the application form (under the section ‘Main policy instruments addressed’)

The participation of the policy responsible authorities as partners is compulsory for at least 50% of the policy instruments addressed in your project application.

For any instruments where this is not the case, the relevant policy responsible authorities must be involved as ‘associated policy authorities’.

Yes. Seven EU candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine) can join, as well as Norway and Switzerland as partners. 

Organisation from outside the programme area (EU27 + 9 countries mentioned above) are welcome to participate in an Interreg Europe project if their participation contributes to its delivery. However, such partners must provide their own funding since they will be ineligible to receive Interreg funds. Like any other partner, their participation and financial contribution must be formalised through a partner declaration.

Please note that travel and accommodation costs incurred by these partners can be covered by the other project partners being funded directly by the programme. In this scenario, these costs should be reported under the cost category ‘travel and accommodation’ of the EU partner concerned.

Partnerships should go beyond cross-border and transnational cooperation areas and more generally go beyond areas formed by a group of geographically proximate countries.

In the same spirit, the added value of involving several regions from the same country in a project should be explained in the application form.

Partnerships in which at least 80% of the partners come from the same cross border or transnational cooperation area, or in which at least 80% of the funding is allocated to the same cross border or transnational cooperation area, will be scored ‘eliminated’ under criterion 5 of the strategic assessment (‘Geographical coverage’).

Private for-profit organisations cannot join an Interreg Europe project as partners and therefore can't receive funding.

However, they can join a stakeholder group if they have a stake in the policy issue addressed by a project. The stakeholder organisations do not receive funding from the programme.

However, the travel and accommodation costs incurred by stakeholder group members for participating in project activities are eligible if they are paid for by the partners who are directly funded by the programme.

As long as they comply with the eligibility criteria, universities and other academic institutions can participate in projects.

In most of the cases, they join as advisory partner to offer a particular capability to the partnership.

In case universities address a policy instrument, they need to demonstrate their policy-relevance, as they are usually not considered as a policy-responsible authority.

The lead partner role can only be endorsed by a public body or body governed by public law from EU or Norway, which has the capacity to assume the lead partner responsibilities as stated in our programme manual. Universities that comply with those requirements can indeed be Lead Partners.

The envisaged stakeholder group members need to be identified at the application stage. Associated policy authorities will automatically be members of the stakeholder groups.

The stakeholder group should be constituted of organisations from the ‘region’ with a stake in the policy issue addressed. The stakeholder group is also an opportunity to involve organisations which, although not eligible for Interreg Europe (e.g., those from the private ‘for profit’ sector), are still important for the development of the policy.

For more information on the stakeholder group, watch the video starting at 3:50.

Each participating region must focus on one main policy instrument even if regional development issues can often be addressed through several policy instruments.

Before developing a project idea, applicants should consult the programme website and browse through the projects already supported by Interreg Europe (in the previous and present programming periods) to check if their topic of interest has already been covered.

As far as possible, applicants should ensure that their own idea offers added value compared to past or current initiatives. Interreg Europe cannot finance the mere continuation of past projects.

The question of innovative character is therefore particularly important for partnerships supported under previous EU programmes and which would like to develop a follow-up proposal.

The role of discovery partner is for organisations coming from the EU candidate countries.

The discovery partner is involved in the project to get acquainted with the interregional exchange of experience process supported within Interreg Europe.

The objective is to increase its capacity on the issue addressed by the project but also on the management of interregional cooperation projects.

The discovery partner’s involvement in the project is lighter than other partners because they do not address any policy instrument.

The programme recommends a maximum of two discovery partners per project.

The discovery partner’s involvement in the project is lighter than other partners because they do not address any policy instrument.

However, they are still expected to participate in all the main activities of the project as much as possible (e.g., in the main interregional policy learning events).