The Vanguard Initiative supports the EU Industrial Strategy, published in March, as a strong basis for future work and paving the way for recovery and resilience of the EU economy while embracing long term challenges and the digital and green transitions. In a new position paper, The Vanguard Initiative calls for a stronger collaborative dimension in the EU Industrial Strategy, to unleash the tremoundous richness and diversity laying in our regional ecosystems.

The COVID-19 crisis has illustrated the strong capacity of our industrial ecosystems in mobilizing and collaborating to develop innovative bottom-up solutions. Collaboration will be key in the recovery and in developing resilient industrial value chains in Europe. In particular, regionally developed innovation ecosystems connected across Europe will be the driver of new European strategic value chains. In the position paper, the Vanguard Initiative identifies a number of EU policy tools and funding instruments which, combined with national and regional ones, are the best placed to foster collaborative projects.

The approach of interregional collaboration, co-creation, and co-investment along value chains, developed by the Vanguard Initiative, has the potential to generate a strong and visible added value at all levels, including for industry and SMEs. We, the Vanguard Initiative member regions, are committed to playing an active role in a joint EU strategy for recovery and industrial competitiveness and further piloting new approaches for joint solutions at the EU level.