On 16 January 2019, the Permanent Representation of Sweden to the EU and the Vanguard Initiative organised an informal information and discussion session about the topic How to stimulate interregional innovation investments – what would the proposed Interreg “component 5” bring us? The session gathered 60 regional representatives and 20 representatives from Member States’ Permanent Representations to the EU. The event was a follow-up of the meeting hosted by the Dutch Permanent Representation on the 25th of May 2018.

On the 14th of December the Pilot Project on High Performance Production through 3D-Printing will organise a Plenary meeting, The event will aim at reinforcing progress made (e.g. the implementation and targeted replication of a cross regional demonstration project), embracing promising opportunities (e.g. the expected launch of the ‘3DP Pan EU Platform for demonstration services’) and addressing main bottlenecks (sessions dedicated to ‘cross regional funding’, ‘certification’, etc.).

The project application of the 3D-printing Pilot Project to create a pan-European digital platform connecting all 3D-printing (3dP) demonstration facilities in the EU was approved last week by DG Grow. The project aims to foster awareness, knowledge and uptake of 3DP technologies by facilitating and promoting SMEs´ access to high quality services related to testing, validating and certifying 3DP solutions.

On the 6th of November, the Vanguard Initiative organised, jointly with the European Parliament SME Intergroup a breakfast session dedicated to the new Interreg Component 5 ‘Interregional Innovation Investment’. After a presentation by the Commission, the EP rapporteur, Mr Pascal Arimont, explained the state of play of discussions within the EP about this proposal. On behalf of the Vanguard Initiative,  Wim de Kinderen showcased examples of interregional collaboration and expected benefits from this new tool for European Regions.