Two Decades of European Partnerships

Over the past twenty years, European Partnerships have evolved into an impactful R&I policy instrument. With over 30,000 participations and over 6,000 projects, they have addressed grand challenges through a broad range of transformation-oriented research and innovation activities. As a tribute to the achievements of this period, the brochure showcases more than twenty impact stories of Partnerships over their 20-year existence.

The cases presented here cover only a very small fraction of the diverse impacts that the Partnerships have achieved over this time. While this selection is by no means exhaustive, it signals the importance of recording impacts and building narratives to grasp the full potential of the Partnerships as a strategic R&I policy instrument that brings multiple countries together to jointly address common challenges.

Across diverse thematic areas, the European Partnerships have mobilized investment and created leverage across the R&I system and beyond. Their activities have ranged from building vibrant innovation hubs and place-based transformations, to expanding international collaborations and strengthening the EU’s position in key enabling technologies.

The cases featured represent a broad thematic palette: from AI-driven decision-making to biodiversity, from energy to urban transitions, and beyond. They highlight a wide range of pathways to impact, such as technological and social innovation, and fostering market and policy uptake, among many others. European Partnerships have also excelled in expanding the R&I system, supporting SMEs and start-ups, creating effective governance frameworks and devising mechanisms to connect actors and accelerate action.

What brings the cases presented here together is the proven capacity of European Partnerships to generate long-term impact and create real world change.

As the R&I and broader EU priorities continue to evolve and new challenges emerge, they require responsiveness, agility, and collaboration. This brochure, therefore, can also serve as a source for reflection on how the Partnerships instrument can be best used to advance action on the Sustainable Development Goals and enable the EU’s resilience and sustainable competitiveness, building on the strengths, achievements and lessons learnt to date.

We encourage interested readers to further explore the diverse pathways that the Partnerships use to achieve their impact, beyond what this short publication could cover.