How can the EU Missions – on climate adaptation, climate-neutral cities, healthy soils, and others – be effectively linked with Cohesion Policy and other EU regional policies? This question was at the core of the project “Synergies between the EU Missions and EU Regional Policy in Austria”, carried out by ÖIR on behalf of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
The study shows that there are numerous interfaces between the national Mission Action Plans and EU funding programmes such as ERDF/JTF, ESF+/JTF, EAFRD, EMFAF and Interreg. At the same time, stronger strategic coordination and new governance mechanisms will be needed in the next programming period (from 2028 onwards) to systematically embed mission-oriented approaches.
Arndt Münch presented the key results and recommendations at the 2025 Annual Conference on Mission-Oriented R&I Policy (see event). In his keynote speech, he emphasised that mission-oriented approaches in regional policy “should not be seen as an additional layer, but as an integrative bridge between research, innovation and territorial development.”
You can access the policy brief here (in German): https://www.ffg.at/sites/default/files/2025-08/Policy-brief_EU-Synergien_final.pdf
