Six regions across Northern and Eastern Europe are joining forces through the VIVA project to support promising innovations while opening up new pathways for knowledge and expertise exchange and mobility opportunities across regional borders. The four-year Horizon Europe initiative was launched on 15 September, bringing the consortium together in Halden, Norway. A professor representing the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, who is a member of the project team, also attended the meeting, marking the first step towards turning this shared ambition into concrete action.
VIVA – Vertical and Horizontal Integrating Innovation Valley Approach – brings together 15 organisations from six countries, connecting three leading Nordic innovation regions with three emerging innovation regions in Eastern Europe. The project is coordinated by Østfold County Council in Norway.
Europe does not lack promising ideas; the challenge lies in turning more of them into solutions that can be tested, adopted and scaled, while ensuring that regions can benefit from one another’s expertise, infrastructure and opportunities. VIVA addresses both challenges simultaneously.
The project will support innovations in progressing towards the level of maturity required for market uptake, while at the same time strengthening links between regional innovation ecosystems. Rather than treating innovation development and regional cooperation as separate challenges, VIVA integrates them into a single approach: innovation moves vertically, while knowledge flows horizontally.
“VIVA’s success will be measured by the lasting relationships, networks and opportunities we create together,” said Camilla Aas, Project Coordinator from Østfold County Council, who welcomed the consortium to Halden.
Supporting Innovation to Advance and Cross Borders
At the heart of VIVA lies a simple idea: regions do not need to have the same strengths in order to innovate successfully together. Their differences can become an advantage when expertise, infrastructure and opportunities are effectively connected.
The six participating regions bring complementary areas of expertise. Østfold in Norway contributes expertise in human-centred robotics, deep-tech technologies and advanced manufacturing; Västra Götaland in Sweden brings expertise in circular textile flows and human-centred automation; and Ostrobothnia in Finland contributes expertise in renewable energy, sector coupling and industrial symbiosis.
In Eastern Europe, Plovdiv in Bulgaria contributes expertise in the circular bioeconomy and agricultural innovation; Alba Iulia in Romania focuses on digital transformation, artificial intelligence and smart infrastructure, with support from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies; and Central Transdanubia in Hungary contributes expertise in agri-food innovation, digitalisation and sustainability.
VIVA will connect these strengths through cooperation between partner regions and through the Northern and Eastern European Innovation Nexuses, creating structured ways for regions to learn from one another and jointly develop solutions.
Importantly, this collaboration is designed as a two-way process: expertise and innovation can flow in both directions, depending on the strengths and needs of each region.
At the same time, VIVA will support promising innovations in moving closer to real-world application by assessing not only technological maturity but also factors such as circularity, regulation, market readiness and digital readiness.
The result is a dual approach: supporting individual innovations in overcoming barriers to scaling while helping regions overcome barriers to cooperation.
What Comes Next
The project plans to test its approach through flagship regional pilot projects, establish common mechanisms for interregional cooperation and launch its first cascade funding calls during the first year.
Through these activities, VIVA aims to provide innovators with access to funding, expertise, testing facilities, regional networks and potential partners from other regions, helping promising solutions move closer to implementation and market uptake.
Over the course of the project, VIVA aims to support more than 30 interregional innovation projects through cascade funding, with a particular focus on helping innovations progress towards the level of maturity required for market entry.
The experience gained across the six regions will contribute to the development of an open-access Innovation Valley Method Handbook, designed to make the methods and lessons learned through VIVA available to stakeholders beyond the consortium.
Ultimately, the project seeks to demonstrate how regions with different capabilities can combine their strengths, support the advancement of innovations and build lasting connections that contribute to a stronger and more balanced European innovation landscape.
About VIVA
VIVA – Vertical and Horizontal Integrating Innovation Valley Approach – is a four-year Horizon Europe – European Innovation Ecosystems project (September 2026 – August 2030), bringing together 15 partners from six European countries.
The project connects Østfold (Norway), Västra Götaland (Sweden), Ostrobothnia (Finland), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Alba Iulia (Romania), with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies as an institutional educational partner, and Central Transdanubia (Hungary).
Project Director:
Dr Daniela Staicu – Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages (FABIZ – Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Email: daniela.staicu@fabiz.ase.ro
September 23, 2026
Six regions across Northern and Eastern Europe are joining forces through the VIVA project to support promising innovations while opening up new pathways for knowledge and expertise exchange and mobility opportunities across regional borders. The four-year Horizon Europe initiative was launched on 15 September, bringing the consortium together in Halden, Norway. A professor representing the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, who is a member of the project team, also attended the meeting, marking the first step towards turning this shared ambition into concrete action.
VIVA – Vertical and Horizontal Integrating Innovation Valley Approach – brings together 15 organisations from six countries, connecting three leading Nordic innovation regions with three emerging innovation regions in Eastern Europe. The project is coordinated by Østfold County Council in Norway.
Europe does not lack promising ideas; the challenge lies in turning more of them into solutions that can be tested, adopted and scaled, while ensuring that regions can benefit from one another’s expertise, infrastructure and opportunities. VIVA addresses both challenges simultaneously.
The project will support innovations in progressing towards the level of maturity required for market uptake, while at the same time strengthening links between regional innovation ecosystems. Rather than treating innovation development and regional cooperation as separate challenges, VIVA integrates them into a single approach: innovation moves vertically, while knowledge flows horizontally.
“VIVA’s success will be measured by the lasting relationships, networks and opportunities we create together,” said Camilla Aas, Project Coordinator from Østfold County Council, who welcomed the consortium to Halden.
Supporting Innovation to Advance and Cross Borders
At the heart of VIVA lies a simple idea: regions do not need to have the same strengths in order to innovate successfully together. Their differences can become an advantage when expertise, infrastructure and opportunities are effectively connected.
The six participating regions bring complementary areas of expertise. Østfold in Norway contributes expertise in human-centred robotics, deep-tech technologies and advanced manufacturing; Västra Götaland in Sweden brings expertise in circular textile flows and human-centred automation; and Ostrobothnia in Finland contributes expertise in renewable energy, sector coupling and industrial symbiosis.
In Eastern Europe, Plovdiv in Bulgaria contributes expertise in the circular bioeconomy and agricultural innovation; Alba Iulia in Romania focuses on digital transformation, artificial intelligence and smart infrastructure, with support from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies; and Central Transdanubia in Hungary contributes expertise in agri-food innovation, digitalisation and sustainability.
VIVA will connect these strengths through cooperation between partner regions and through the Northern and Eastern European Innovation Nexuses, creating structured ways for regions to learn from one another and jointly develop solutions.
Importantly, this collaboration is designed as a two-way process: expertise and innovation can flow in both directions, depending on the strengths and needs of each region.
At the same time, VIVA will support promising innovations in moving closer to real-world application by assessing not only technological maturity but also factors such as circularity, regulation, market readiness and digital readiness.
The result is a dual approach: supporting individual innovations in overcoming barriers to scaling while helping regions overcome barriers to cooperation.
What Comes Next
The project plans to test its approach through flagship regional pilot projects, establish common mechanisms for interregional cooperation and launch its first cascade funding calls during the first year.
Through these activities, VIVA aims to provide innovators with access to funding, expertise, testing facilities, regional networks and potential partners from other regions, helping promising solutions move closer to implementation and market uptake.
Over the course of the project, VIVA aims to support more than 30 interregional innovation projects through cascade funding, with a particular focus on helping innovations progress towards the level of maturity required for market entry.
The experience gained across the six regions will contribute to the development of an open-access Innovation Valley Method Handbook, designed to make the methods and lessons learned through VIVA available to stakeholders beyond the consortium.
Ultimately, the project seeks to demonstrate how regions with different capabilities can combine their strengths, support the advancement of innovations and build lasting connections that contribute to a stronger and more balanced European innovation landscape.
About VIVA
VIVA – Vertical and Horizontal Integrating Innovation Valley Approach – is a four-year Horizon Europe – European Innovation Ecosystems project (September 2026 – August 2030), bringing together 15 partners from six European countries.
The project connects Østfold (Norway), Västra Götaland (Sweden), Ostrobothnia (Finland), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Alba Iulia (Romania), with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies as an institutional educational partner, and Central Transdanubia (Hungary).
Project Director:
Dr Daniela Staicu – Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages (FABIZ – Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Email: daniela.staicu@fabiz.ase.ro
